— 90 — Everyone who is familiar with this period of our national history will know that, once having reached Khartoum, Gordon felt it inconsistent with his honour, and that of the British nation, to abandon the Sudanese that he loved without taking some measures for their future protection.

To effect the evacuation of the Sudan and, at the same time, to provide some sort of permanent Government, Gordon, the arch-enemy of slavery, proposed to appoint Zubeir, the most notorious slave dealer that ever lived, as Governor-General with an annual subsidy from Egypt.

This proposal the British Government declined to entertain: Gordon refused to leave Khartoum, until the interests of those whom he would be abandoning were adequately safeguarded. Khartoum, after an historic siege that lasted 317 days, was captured by the Dervishes on the twenty sixth of January, 1885.

A few remarks on the situation created by the refusal of the British Government to comply with the request of General Gordon, their officially appointed delegate, are unavoidable when attempting to deal with the life and history of Zubeir. At the time in question Zubeir had been nine years in semi-captivity, a prisoner at large. In Egypt he had few friends, but in the Sudan he could command an enormous body of supporters that, led by him in a hundred successful fights, were prepared to follow him to death. He had been long enough in