G0111)0N AND TEI MAHDI. 10

Zebehr'sindustry wassuchthatShakka becamethehead- quarters of the wholesale slave trade. The small dealers who purchased these human wares, and dragged them along the Nile to Egypt, flocked to him annually in thousands. His name was a terror throughout the Soudan, andhis influence waxeddaily. In1869 Ismail, alive to this growing power, despatched Bellali, an Egyptian general, at the headof abody of troops to the Soudan nominally to act against Darfour, then an independent state, but in reality to check Zebehr. Zebehr, guessingthis,collectedhis forces,took advantage of adispute to engage the Government troops,and ended by slaying almost the whole of them including their

commander. His excuses for this proceeding were accepted, and he became virtually sovereign of the Soudan. In 1875 he quarrelled with the Sultan of Darfour and invaded that province. The Egyptian Government, unable to hinder him, made a virtue of necessity and invitedhis co-operationin an enterprisehe

people;slavery is the A. B. C. of life inthe Soudan

to rich and poor," was a sentence penned by General Gordon three years ago. "No one," continued he, "is uninterested in the matter, and there is no one who

wishes foremancipation or wouldaid it evenby advice." Seven-eighths of the population of the towns of the Soudan are slaves, but their condition is incomparably better than was that of the negroin the West Indies.

They are kept either for slave servants or slave soldiers, and one never hears ofgangs of them being employed merely in field labour. Compulsory and immediate emancipation Gordon denounced as being unjust and out of the question, andhe stated that more than once the slaves refusedto be freedwhenhe offered them their liberty. It was against the cruel slave raidsbeyond the

frontierthat his energetic efforts weremainlydirected.

There weretwo authoritiesinthe Soudan,the first that of the Egyptian Government, the second that of the

slave dealers. The former had the monopoly of ivory, the latterthe still more important one of human flesh. The whole country bristled with their forti- fied camps, w7hich were far more formidable and imposing than the stations of the Government. Ever since 1860, they had beengrowing in power, until they seriously threatenedthe connection between Egypt and its Central African provinces. It is in the territory that belongsto no one,wherethere is no constittttedauthorityandno organizationto defend the popula- tion,that theslave traderreapshis harvest. When acountryhasbeen conquered,no matter how roughly, intheseregions, eachman finds an ownerwdioseinterestit is to defend hisproperty. The slave traderhad therefore to go beyondthe confines of an organized Government in ordertofindunappropriated human chattels. ItwasaroundKhartoum that this work began,but it soon spreadalongthe route to Darfour.

had himself originated. They en- tered Darfour from the north, and Zebehr from the south, but the brunt of the fighting and themerit of success were his. With grim superstition, he had melted down 250,000 dollarsinto bullets for the campaign, since no charmcan stay a silver bullet. Struck by one of these throughhis helmet the Sul- tan fell and his two sons were slaughteredbeside his deadbody. Inreturn for hisservices,Zebehr askedto be made Governor-General

of Darfour. The Khedive refused him this post, but bestowTed upon him the title of Pasha. Zebehr thereuponassembledhis numerous allies at atree onthe roadside be- tween Shakka and El Obeid, and made one and all swear upon the Koran to dohis bidding whenever

called upon. He then collected something like £100,000, and started with it for Cairo, hoping to convince the Khedive by his

ZEBEHR PASHA.

-Its greatest centre in1869 was at Shakka in the Bahr Ghazal, where Zebehr-Rahama-Gyimme-Abel, chiefofthe great bandof armedslave hunters, who,spreading south-

ward from Khartoum, established their zerebas or forti- fied stations far down in the heart of the Niam-Niam country, hadhis head-quarters. Zebehr, who possessed some thirty of these stations, dwelt in almost princely state at Shakka,witharmedsentries at hisdoors, chained lions inhis halls ofaudience,and a host of richly dressed slaves and praying fakirs in attendance. He had an organizedarmy of slavehunters,whomhe furnished with arms and despatched on raiding expeditions. They attackedvillages, plunderedpeacefultribes,and brought in convoys of slaves. Tracts of country, that had been thickly populatedandwell cultivated, were turned into barren uninhabited wildernesses by the capture, the slaughter, and the flight of thepeople. All the roads to Shakka were marked by the bones and skulls of the captives whohadperished ontheir way. One-half never reachedtheir destination. Of those who did,some were enrolled by Zebehr for use in future raids amongst the " smart dapper-looking fellows like antelopes, fierce, unsparing, the terror of Central Africa," who thronged his courts. The rest weredestined for the market.

eloquence, and the Council of State by bribery,if not of the justice,at anyrate of the policy of acceding to his demands. He wasreceived with everyhonour, but soon found that allhopes of a returnto the Soudan had to be abandoned. Nemesis had overtaken him, and the en- slaver of countless thousands was himself virtually a captive, though living in the apparent enjoyment of liberty at Cairo, wherehe receivedhis Pasha's allowance

of £100 a month, and continued at a distance to pull the wiresof everyrebellion that has since brokenout in the Soudan. It wasplain to the Khedive that Zebehr andhis allies, aware of their strength, had conceived the idea of establishing theirindependence. Ismail found it neces- sary vigorously tosuppress the slave tradein the Soudan and at the same time to crush in the bud an incipient revolt. An effective instrument was needed for this double purpose, and wasfoundin the personof General at that time Colonel, Gordon. Before, however, werefer moreparticularly to the brave soldier and able adminis- tratoron whom the Khedive's choice had fallen, we have somethingto sayaboutthe Soudan itself andthe different races by whichit is peopled.