OSMAN DIGMAS ANTECEDENTS. 23!

the Erkowit tribes, and Said Ahmcd-el-Shingcty, the mufti of the council at Suakim.

At the beginning of August news was received of his being at Erkowit, and an attempt was made to arrest him. Later in the month he collected a force for the purpose of attacking Sinkat. He was, however, repulsed M'ith a loss of eighty men, including Ahmed Digma and his son, who were nis brother and nephew, and he himself was wounded in two places.

After this defeat most of the tribes left him, and he could only muster about one hundred and fifty men in all. In September his iollowers were reduced to about seventy-five, and he then went from place to place trying to obtain the confidence of the tribes a second time.

In October Major Mohammed Khilil, in command of two companies of infantry, was defeated in a mountain pass on the Abeint road to Sinkat, about 30 miles from Suakim, and only twenty-five men escaped. After that time Osman Digma's prestige continued to increase.

The slave-trade was his chief source of wealth; and he had such great influence with many of the native chiefs, that in spite of his subsequent reverses they remained for a long time faithful to him. He represented their commercial interests—or they thought so; and he, like his relation the Mahdi, and, indeed, like most of the Soudanese chiefs, was an accomplished liar, in fact he was said to have attained the very highest distinction in an art which elicits the admiration of the Oriental races.

Osman Digma maintained a defiant attitude although he had been badly beaten by the garrison at Kassala, who had sent out a force in scarcii of provisions, the men intrenching themselves, covering the trenches with long grass. The rebels attacked them without knowing of the intrenchment, and were defeated, a large number of them being killed—report said three thousand,—a result which so enraged Osman Digma that he was reported to have killed the messenger who carried the tidings. Kassala had a garrison of three thousand men, including a battalion which had seen much service, but their position was growing almost desperate, so closely was the place invested by the rebels, and though Colonel Chermside endeavoured to pass a supply of cartridge-fillers and other things into the place, the people who were shut up there were in hourly apprehension after having held out for more than a year. But the tribes in that district continued to be loyal, owing, it was said, to the action of Said Morghani, and as it was rumoured that Osman Digma intended to make a sudden assault on Suakim itself before the arrival of the additional forces from England, it was believed that, at anyrate, the active operations that were on foot there would draw the rebels away from the neighbourhood of Kassala and from Massowa, where the Italian and Egyptian flags were afterwards hoisted at the citadel, the Italian commander taking entire charge of the administration of the place.