2 INTRODUCTORY —a condition of harmony and peace has been evolved which promises well for the future of a confederation which has already given evidences that it is proud of its loyalty to the Empire of which it now forms no mean a portion.

At the time when gloom and uncertainty reigned in South Africa, the intermediate regions were peopled by hordes but incompletely brought under the influence of civilization, while chaos and barbarism were supreme in the far north beyond the Great Lakes.

The " Ta-Nehesu," the " Sudan," the " Country of the Blacks," as it has been known from time immemorial, was, for not by any means the first time in its history, in the throes of a desperate revolt against advancing civilization, decimating and almost destroying itself in the process.

When that civilization is in itself half barbaric, when religious sentiment comes to the aid of resentment, and the crude, selfish instincts of primitive man are let loose, then are developed the moral conditions essential as a foundation for reactionary success.

All these conditions existed when the Mahdi arose and headed the Arab revolt. The civilization of the Egyptian Government was for the most part veneer and covered the vilest abuses ; men's minds became receptive of extraordinary ideas and beliefs, to a great extent adapted to their political aims, and the ferocity of unhampered savagedom supplied the last factor.