434 THE SUDAN AND EQUATORIAL PROVINCE.

which Rauf Pasha had demanded were said to be quite unnecessary; the Government in Kharttim was quite able to crush the rebels with the resources at its own command.

Whilst this expedition was still on its way, and amusing itself with drinking mrisa—for an irregular never travels without a pot of beer, a rosary for prayer, and one or two concubines—the smouldering fires of rebellion broke out in Kordofan and in Sennar, and the Government of Khartum was hardly able to supply half the aid in men and ammunition demanded from it on all sides. In Sennar especially things came to such a pass that the town of Sennar was set on fire, the Governor and his few soldiers were driven into the fortified barracks and there besieged, and the whole land was filled with murder and the most shocking anarchy.

Although Giegler Pasha himself went with a small steamer to Sennar, the Government would have lost the whole district, had it not been for the united exertions of Salih-Aga, a very brave leader of some irregular troops, and Awad-el-Kerim, the ereat Shukurie chief, who personally led two thousand horsemen into the fight, and so saved Khartum from a like fate. In Kordofan, too, villages were burned and the people murdered. Communications in all directions were discontinued, and if the situation improved a little after the victory in Sennar, whereby the Government regained to some extent its — former prestige, yet the new Governor-General and Minister of the Sudan, Abd-el-Kader Pasha, who arrived about this time, found plenty to do.

As the official duties connected with my province fully occupy my time, I am not able to write much more concerning the last few days of my stay in Khartim. ‘The situation in Kordofan appeared to be very critical, and we all waited anxiously for news of Yussuf Pasha’s great army. The news, too, which came from Hgypt gave us enough to think about. Notwithstanding the extreme kindness of both Europeans and Arabs, I was, as I have already said, heartily glad when the steamer Jsmailia, which had been placed at my disposal by Abd-el-Kader Pasha, steamed into the White Nile, and I had once more the pleasure of ascending its majestic waters. Descriptions of this district have been too often given for me