CHAPTER II.

THE DISASTER OF ADOWA WHEN

the scramble for African terri tory began, the new Italian kingdorr had marked Tunis as its probable share of the spoil. Forestalled in this direc- tion by France, it had to look farther afield; and while British troops were fighting Osman Digna and his '"Fuzzy-Wuzzies " round about Suakin, an Italian expedition came through

the Suez Canal and occupied the old Turkish port of Massowah, farther south than Suakin on the same coast. It was the port for Northern Abyssinia and the Soudan country round Kassala,and it was used by Italy as a starting- point for progress and annexation in both these directions.

Fortified posts were established one by one along the old caravan track to Kassala. Keren and Agordat were the chief garrisons on this line,and in December, 1893, an attempt of the Dervishes to surprise Agordat led to a brilliant victory for the Europeans and their native alliesunder the command of General Arimondi. Baratieri, the governor of the Red Sea colony,

followed up this success by advancing upon Kassala, which he occupied andstrongly fortified in the summer of 1894. Slatin Pasha, in his narrative ofhis captivity, givesa striking account ot the reception of the newsat Omdurman. "A few months," he says,"had elapsed since the catastrophe of Agordat, when one day just after morning prayers three men presented themselves at the door of the Khalifa's house

and urgently demanded to be takenbefore him. Iat once recognised them as Baggara Emirs, who had been stationed at Kassala, and from the expressionof their faces Icould see that the news they brought wouldnot be welcome to the Khalifa. In a few minutes they were admitted and soon afterwards a considerable disturbance took place round the Khalifa's door. Ali Wad Helu, Yakub, as well as all the Kadis, re- ceived a sudden summons to attend at a council. The Khalifa's suspicions had been verified,and Kassala, after a short fight, had surrendered to

the Italians. "It wasimpossible to withhold this news from the public. The trumpet was sounded, the great war-drums were beaten, the horses were saddled, and the Khalifa, accompanied by all his bodyguard and an immense number of horse and spearmen, solemnly rode down to the banks of the Nile. Arrived here,he forced his horse into the river till the water reached its knees, and,drawing out his swordandpointing towards

the East,he shouted out in a loud voice, Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!'['God is most great.'] Each time the cry was taken up by the immense crowd; but the majority were inwardly re- joicing at the Khalifa's discomfiture. They longed for him to receive fresh humiliations,

thinking thereby to lighten the terrible yoke they bore. After this display the Khalifa turned his horse about, came back to the river bank, dismounted, and sat down on his sheep-skin.