392 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS iv.dt.ccxl.

number of people to death with the cannon, and ordered el Sa3ryid

Ahmad el Baghli, the Mufti of the Shafa'ite Sayyids, to depart to el Mahrusa.

These evil acts excited great discontent among all the people, and their hearts were alienated from him, and they loathed this occupation of the country.

CCXLI Then he ordered the payment of the taxes . . .

(The author describes the distress that followed: soldiers were sent out to collect the taxes, and in consequence most of the people fled far afield. Some fled to el Kedaref, and the officer who was sent after them overtook them there and shot them down in heaps. A drought and an epidemic of small-pox then both occurred and the people v/ere reduced to eating dogs and donkeys, and corn rose to a piastre for a rotl. Thus

"half the population perished by the sword and sickness and famine."

'Othman Bey is described as quite pitiless, and curses are hurled at him by the author.). . .

CCXLII And el Khurbatli 'Othman remained acting as vice- governor, but his rank was that of a lieutenant whereas in the army were Kdimakdms [Colonels] and Beykhdshis [Majors] and Yuzbdshis

[Captains], and these paid no attention to his orders or prohibitions, and each man acted as he pleased. Thus the people were ruined, for they had no ruler to care for them,

CCXLIII However this state of affairs did not last long, for God in

his goodness relieved the people by the destruction of 'Othman Bey and the advent of Mahhi Bey. 'Othman Bey died in the middle of

Ramaddii 1240^, and his Heutenant [el Khurbatli] hid the fact of his death until he sent for His Excellence Mahhi Bey from Berber; and the latter came secretly, and camped on the east of the river near the village of Hammad for a few days, and then returned to Berber, and, after a short stay there, came back with all his troops and took up his residence at el Khartoum and stationed his men at el Kubba.

This was in 1241^.

CCXLIV Mahhi Bey cancelled the taxation and prohibited the Gehadia troops from the aggression they had practised in the time of

'Othman Bey, and then he sent for the 'omdas and notables and such religious leaders as were left in the Gezira, and, when they arrived, he consulted them as to how best to serve the interests of the people and secure their means of livelihood and persuade them back to their lands. And each of those present gave his views, but he agreed only \Nith the opinion of Sheikh el Zayn, who was at the time Sheikh of a kliut {i.e. district); and him he honoured before all of them and gave a splendid robe, and bestowed on him the sheikhship of the

^ 1825 A.D. 2 1826 A.D.