PREFACE

von Slatin's Fire and Sword in the Sudan, and Father Ohrwalder's

Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp. For the history of the

reconquest of the Sudan, Mr. Charles Royle's Egyptian Campaigns,

the Sudan Campaign by " An Officer," and the Government

Reports are invaluable.

In compiling the section of this book which deals with the work

of the English in the Sudan, I have drawn frequently from the

annual Reports of Lord Cromer, from Sir William Garstin's Report

on the Basin of the Upper Nile, from Captain Lyons' Physiography

of the River Nile and its Basin, and from the Sudan Gazette. I

have also made great use of the second edition of Count Gleichen's

The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which appeared at the end of 1905, and the History of the Sudan (in Arabic) by Naum Shoucair Bey,

B.A., the Chef-du- Bureau in the Agent-General's Office of the Sudan Government in Cairo. Count Gleichen's work is tightly

packed with facts of all kinds about the Sudan, and contains

in a very condensed form a full account of the recent history

of the countr}', and valuable Appendices. Many of his facts are drawn from official Reports, many are the result of personal

experience and travel in the Sudan, and some are derived from

the published narratives of the early travellers ; and all are

classified and marshalled with the precision and accuracy which

are demanded by military requirement. Shoucair Bey's History

contains a great deal of information about the Sudan Campaigns

which will be familiar to most readers, but he has also collected

in it a number of facts about the Sudan peoples and their country

which are extremely valuable, and which will be new to many.

Portions of his work ought to be translated into English or

French, and it is to be hoped that this may be done. The Index

to the work is, unfortunately, wholly inadequate. The making of

indexes is, as every one knows who has done it, a wearisome task,

but if Shoucair Bey will add to future editions of his work an

index which shall contain all proper names, he will find that his

book will be used by hundreds, instead of by the few who are now

obliged to read through many pages of matter before they can

find what they want.

For the presence of the chapters on the work of the British in

the Sudan in a book of this kind little apology is necessary. It

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