WARS OF THE NINETIES. 62 They were attacked on the way,and though defeated, broke up into a number of bands thai kept up a guerilla warfare for along time after.

Their revolt had not only cost many valuablelives but had also completely disorganised the plan forraisingthe- British flag in theNileregion south of Khartoum. It was,however, the onlypiece of bad luck that had so far marred the policy of the British Government in North-Eastern Africa.

"His escort consisted partly of Sikh police, recruited from India and thoroughly trustworthy, partly ofnativesof Uganda,underBritish officers, andpartlyof Soudanese troops. These so-called Soudanese were partly Egyptians, partly men of the Soudan, and the story of how they came to be serving under a British commissioner in Uganda is a curious episode in African history, of which only an outline can be given here.

They originally formed the garrison of the Equatorial Province underEminPasha. When the Mahdist revolt cut Equatoria off fromEgypt they for some time stoodby Emin against the rebels who entered the district. The}" had several successful fights with the Dervishe-, but they showed a disposition to disregard Emin's authority ;and whenMr.HenryM.Stanley's expedition penetratedinto the district,Emin Pasha was practically a prisoner in their hands, and SelimBey, oneof the officers of the Soudanese, had therealcommandof the blacktroops,though he still affected to treat the German professor as Governor. After Emin Pasha's departure with Stanley, Selim and his followers established themselves at Kavallion the bordersof Uganda. He had about athousandfighting men with him, and some thousands ofcamp followers andslaves. When Colonel Lugard went up to take charge ofUganda for the British East Africa Company in i8qi he succeeded in persuading Selim and his soldiers to enter the Company's service,but thev had been their own masters so long that they were always somewhat restive under British control. Major Macdonald, as Commissioner of LTganda,had had to deal with more than one disturbance caused by these turbulent Soudanese, and he had sent their chief, Selim, out of the country on the charge of having intrigued with the local Mohammedans against the British. His expedition had reached Unyoro, when the Soudanese mutinied,and in the fight that followed one officer, Major Thruston, was killed and two others wounded. The mutineers were beaten off by the Sikhs andUganda men. Then, whilea reinforcement of Indian troops was being hurried up from Mombasa,there were weeksofdesultoryfighting.

The mutineers made themselves a stronghold in a fort at Lubwas,and not only defied attack but made some dangerous sorties against the faithful troops. Kampala, the capital of T'gamla, was saved by disarming the Soudanese in the garrison before they got news of the mutiny. At last the rebelsabandoned their fort and tried to reach Uganda by a forced march.

The French expeditions that were trying to reach the Upper Nile from east and west were, however, for the most part as unsuccessful. A number of French officers and travellers— the -Marquis deBonchamps,Prince HenryofOrleans, Captain Clochette, and the Russian, Colonel Leontieff— had made their way to Addis Abeba, Menelek's capital, early in 1897, and were reported to be organising twoseparateexpeditions into the country between Abyssinia, theUpper Nile, and the Great Lakes. Leontieff, with an Abyssinian army to aid him, was to annex a wide extent of territory in this direction. Bonchampsi and Clochette, with a few French followersandan Abyssinian escort, were to reach the Upper Nile at Fashoda,and therejoinhanc with a French force coming from the Cong. through the Bahr-el-Ghazal country. Up to the Nile the country wasto be annexedtoMenelek's dominions. On the west side of the river the French flag was to be hoisted. But Leontieff and Prince Henrv appear to have found the Abyssinians more difficult people to deal with than they anticipated. Menelek's chiefs were busy raiding the Galla country towardsLake Rudolf,but did not care to work under foreign leaders in any organised scheme of conquest. So the Russian colonel and the French prince returned to Europe without havingaccomplished anything. Clochettewaskilledby theaccidental discharge of a machine gun, and Bonchamps failed to reach the Nile through a breakdown of his transport and supply arrangements.

The French expeditions from the westward had a little more success, though up to the end of 1897 they had not accomplished their mail object. A column of Senegalese sharpsh. with French officers, under Captain Liotard,had enteredthe Bahr-el-Ghazal in thespringof1896. On June ist they occupied Dem Zebehr, where years before Zebehr Pasha, the great slavehunter of the Soudan,had held a kind of court before Gordon broke his power. For twelve years n. 1Europeans hadbeen in thecountry,and its general desolation showed how utterly the