GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 20

favoured the passageof the slave caravans. Havingput matters straight at Khartoum, he rode away through

the desert intoDarfour, whereHaroun, a survivor of the late Sultan's family, had raisedthe country against the Egyptians. ElFashar,thecapital,andtheotherbeleaguered

towns, werespeedily relieved. Meanwhile Suleiman and his horde of allies wereravagingthe countryabout Dara. Gordon dashedoff oncamel-backinthat direction,leaving his escortfar behind,and enteredthe town alone. The

CHAPTER IV.

Gordon returns to the Soudan with enlarged authority.—

Revolt in Darfour.— He visits the slave raiders' camp unaccompanied, and

secures their submission.— Slavery in the Soudan.— Difficulties attending its suppression.— Gordon summoned to Cairo on a financial commission.— Is an incarnate terror to evildoers in the Soudan.— Hisofficial work atKhartoum.— Zebehr'sson, Suleiman, proclaims himself lord of Bahr Ghazal.— Gordon breaks up the slavers' den at Shakka.— Suleiman captured and shot.— Zebehr tried and sentenced to death.— Khedive Ismail's abdication.—

Gordon goestoIndia, the Mauritius, the Cape,and theHolyLand. next day he boldly rode out unarmed, unattended,but resplendent in the superb uniform given him by the Khedive,into Suleiman's camp.

Here three thousand slavers were in arms. Passing through their midst he entered the principal tent, and seatinghimself amongst the chiefs told them that they

were meditating revolt, that he knew it, and that he meant to disarm them and break them up. They listened dumb-founded, and then drew off in groups, debating whether toyield or to fight. "On the oneside" as he puts it, " was a bad fort, a cowed garrison,not a man w*ho did not tremble, save himself:on the other a strong, determined set of men, accustomedto war,good shots, and with twofield-pieces." But Gordon's daring had quelled their spirits, and they shortly sent him a letter announcing their submission, and swore fealty to

the Government, Zebehr's son being amongst the fore- most. At Suleiman'sinvitation he visited the latter at Shakka, which he found swarming withslaves,and finally7 appointedhim,onhis promise of fidelity,to the governor- ship of theBahr Ghazalprovinces. Perhapsin this matter Gordon acted in accordance with the notionthat an old poacher makes the best gamekeeper.

" The egg of the present rebellion was laid in the three years during which Iwas allowedto govern the Soudan on other than Turkish principles." So spoke Gordon to a newspaper correspondent who interviewed him shortlybefore he set out onhislastuntimely mission. The story of his administration is a sufficient exposition

of the truth of his assertion. He felt that whileruler of the Equatorial Provinces he had been hindered in his workby Ismail Yacoub Pasha, Governor-General of the Soudan. He had checked slave-driving in his own province,butKhartoumwas stillone of thehead-quarters of the system. The Khedive, to secure his return, removedthis obnoxious official, and offered the English- man the combinedgovernorship of the Soudan, Darfour, and theEquatorial Provinces. Gordon accepted, andin February,1879,set off to Massowah to unravel a tangled

skein of frontier disputes with Abyssinia, and proceeded thence to Keren or Sanheit, the chief town of Bogos. After pacifying Walad-el-Michael,the hereditary prince whomKing Johannes of Abyssinia had conquered and dethroned,Gordonhastenedonaswiftcamelto Khartoum,

the seat ofhis newgovernment. It was time. The Soudanhadbeen drained of Egyp- tian troops for the support of the Sultaninhis war with Bussia. Darfour was in revolt, and its garrisons were beleaguered. Zebehr,stillapowerinhis quasicaptivity, and realizing that Gordon's success w7ould be his ruin, and, by dryingup the sources of his revenue, destroy all chance ofhiseverreturning tothe Soudan, had sent word fromCairo to the men who had met beneath the road- side tree, that the time for action had come. Under his sonthe "Cub" Suleiman, they werealready buzzinglike angry hornets in the south. Their head-quarters were at Shakka, " the Cave of Adullam" as Gordonstyled it,the haunt of robbers and murderers, who could put 10,000 meninto the field, either for hunting slaves or opposing

any one rash enough to interfere with that practice. Larger than ElObeid, andstrongly fortified, Shakka was crammed with three or four thousand poor wretches captured fromnegro tribes, and garrisonedby an army of slaves trainedas warriorsby Zebehr from theiryouth upwards. Toface these.Gordon hadnothing but a hand- ful of chicken-hearted Egyptians. He was hampered, too, by the conflicting laws regarding slavery. But setting aside the question of domestic slaveryentirely, he declared, as Governor-General, that slave raids were unlawful and slave raiders criminals, and that he was prepared totreat them as such.

There were, however, other slave raiders to be dealt with,and the necessity of their suppression was still a paramount one. The entire question of the slave trade

was a difficult one to grapple with. There were three distinct phases in the careers of the slaves after their capture. At Shakka, whither they were first of all brought,they were fairly welltreated, for like cattle, the bettertheir condition, thehigher the price they fetched. After they were sold, there came a timeof hardship and suffering at the hands of the slave dealers who purchased them. Loaded with chains, and with heavy wooden "sheybas" or yokes, they started on the long caravan journeyacross thedesert. Weakened by semi-starvation, exhaustedby themarch, consumedby fever and parched by thirst, they dropped by hundreds on the way, when the onlymercy accordedthem was abullet through their brains before they were left to the jackals and vultures.

The third and last period of their career was one of comparativeease,for they weresoldto privateindividuals, and employed in domestic servitude, which in the Egyptian provinees is attended with no particular hardship.

As notmerely the possessionbutthe purchaseandsale of slaves in Egypt were perfectly legal proceedings, Gordonsaw thatit wasimpossible to strike any effectual blow,saveon the frontier, wherethe slave-raids could be met and checkedby an armedforce. Striveas he would he wasintheend forcedto admitthat, evenwithabsolute powerof life and death overeveryone in the Soudan,he could scarcely see any hope of arresting the evil. The largercaravanshesucceededinchecking, butDarfour and KordofanwerepeopledbyBedouin tribes more than semi- independent,whoraidedonthe negrotribes of the south or exchangedclothfor slaves withkindred Bedouintribes beyond thepretended boundaries of Egypt. The slaves thusenteredtheEgyptian territory four or five at a time, and weresold to the little merchants flocking into these

Arriving at Khartoum, Gordon was invested with Oriental pomp, and at once set to work to overthrow every tradition of Orientalrule. "With the help ofGod Iwill hold the balance level," was his speech from the

throne. In less than a month he revolutionised the whole administration,abolishedthe kourbash(the hippo- potamus'-hide whip), checked bribery, fitted up a box

witha slitin the lidto receive the daily petitions of all classes, arranged for a water supply for the city, and commenced the disbandment of the 6000 Turks and Bashi-Bazouks, who,insteadof acting as a frontier guard,