GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 42

self, who receivedfive severeblows from the sharp stakes of the insurgents. Just after the rebels had recoiled fromtheassault,areinforcementof800menreached them, but they showed no desire to renew the attack. Had they done so, Tewfik's fate wouldhave been sealed, as he hadonly twelverounds ofammunitionremaining foreach

man of his reduced garrison. Assistance subsequently arrived, and in October Tewfik had several hundred men withhiminSinkat.

the thenGovernor of Suakim,heard for the first time of disloyal meetings being held in the neighbourhood of Sinkat, a desert stronghold,garrisoned at that timeby only sixty men, andnot more than forty miles distant

from Suakim. Tewfik at once proceeded thither, and ordered OsmanDigna, a bankrupt slave-dealerand chief

of the revoltedtribes, and whom wenow first hear ofin connection withtherebellion,to reporthimselfat Sinkat.*

Osman flatly refused to come. Two days later,however, he not only arrivedhimself,butbrought3,000armedmen

with him,haltingabouta mile fromthe barracks. Hence he sent messengers with two letters from theMahdi to Tewfik Bey, stating that since theEgyptians were worse than Christians,Jews, or even Kaffirs, debasingas they did the Koran, all arms, ammunition,and government propertymust be surrenderedto Osman Digna,the vizier of the Mahdi. The messengers added that if these demands were not complied with every man wouldbe put to the sword.

Tewfik's positionwasa serious one* he had only sixty men,inamud-built barracklargeenoughto accommodate severalhundred, whilehe was exposed to the immediate attack of 3,000 fierce tribesmen. To gain time he told the messengers thathe had two superiors, without whose ordershe could not comply with their demands. When theyhadleft hecommencedto loopholethe barracks and pile up sand-bags at the gates. For four hours,during which the messengers kept coming and going, Tewfik and his men were strengthening their position;but at last OsmanDignalostpatience,and swore thathe would assail them before the shadows were six feet longer. Tewfik bade him come on and dohis worst. The insur- gent army swarmed up to the attack. Fortunately Tewfik's men were almost all blacks, who fought with unflinching bravery. The garrison, however, was too small to hold the whole of the position, and at least twenty Arabs penetrated inside the barracks. These intruders were killed to a man, and inhalf an hour the

assailants were beaten off with a loss of one hundred slain. Of Tewfik's force seven soldiers were killed, and one officerand ten men wounded— includingTewfik him-

Therevolt had,in the meantime spread,and Tokar, a town forty-five miles to the south of Suakim was be- leaguered, and Suakim itself threatened, when, almost

simultaneously with the destruction of Hicks Pasha's army alike disaster, though on asmaller scale,befel an expeditiondespatched from Suakim for the relief of the Tokar garrison. On November 3, three hundred and fifty men with a field gun under the command of Mahmoud Tahir, and accompanied by Commander Mon-

crieff, R.N., the British consul at Suakim, proceeded by sea to Trinkitat, and were advancing to Tokar, when thejT were attacked by a far inferior force of Arabs, scarcely acouple of hundred innumber. The Egyptian square wasbrokenand a shameful panic ensued, themen throwing away their arms, accoutrements, and clothing,

andabandoningtheir officers to theirfate. Consul Mon- crieff waslast seen fighting desperatelyin company with four Greeks, againstoverwhelming odds,but wasdragged fromhis horse and slain, afate that befel nearly half of the detachment, the remainder managing to escape by flight. OnNovember12 Suakimitself wasattacked, but the rebels were repulsed. The Governor, however,on applying for reinforcements, declared thatit was useless to send him Egyptian troops, as they couldnot be pre- vailedupon to fight.

CHAPTER VIII.

New expedition against the rebels organised under Baker Pasha.—

Unwillingness of officers and men to join it.— Defeatof a force sentto dispersethe tribes threateningSuakim.- BakerPasha and his troops arrive at Suakim.— Visit to Massowah.— Bad news

from Sinkat.— The Holy Sheikh.— The chiefs of neighbouring tribes dohimreverence, and offer to assist against the Mahdi.— They are received on board the Eiiryalus.— Tokar in great peril.— Itsrelief determined on.— The Soudanese Blacks.—

Baker Pasha lands at Trinkitat with nearly 4000 men.—The troops crass thelagoon and commence their advance against the enemy. —Desperate charge of Arabs.— The Egyptian square broken.— A savage massacreensues.— Gallant deathstruggleof Englishofficers. — Flight of the remnant of the army, and its return to Suakim. Panic at Suakim.— Landing of blue jacketsandmarines.— Admiral Hewitt appointed to the supreme command.— Forlorn sortie of the Sinkatgarrison. —Massacre of Tewfik Bey and several hundred men.— Generally precarious condition of the garrisons in the Soudan.

* Osman Digna, the Mahdi's ameer, or lieutenant, in the Eastern Soudan, is the grandson of a Turkish merchant and slave-dealer, who settled at Suakim sometime in the beginning of the century. Ahmed Aga-el-Digna, as the Turk was named, married a woman of the Hadendowa tribe. Inaccordance with the tribal custom the children bornof this marriage assumed their mother's nationality, and Ahmed

Aga'seldest son,Abubekr, the present ameer's father, was regarded as a Hadendowapure and simple. Abubekr bequeathed to his two sons, Osman and Ahmed, a thriving tradein European cottons andcutlery, as also in"hubba soda"— "blackivory grain"— the slangterm which the slave-dealers apply to their human chattels. The Suakim branch of thebusiness wasmanagedbyAhmed. His brotherOsman, of amore restless and adventurous disposition, was travelling partner, and his long journeys over the Soudanenabledhim to become acquaintedwith

the leaders of the anti-Egyptian movement, which, though not culmin- ating inrebellionuntil the year 1881-2, was distinctly recognisable at least as early as1869-70. In those years Osman made the acquaint- ance of Zebehr Pasha. About the year 1870, the prosperity of the Digna family began to decline, and seven years afterwards it fell. The firm sustained serious losses through the capture, bya British cruiser, of one or two cargoes of slaves on their way toJeddah from a creek near Suakim. Then came the Anglo-EgyptianSlaveConvention, when Osman Digna, reduced to despair by the commercial ruin of his house, formed his first schemes of rebellion, which however came to nothing, owing to his friends refusinghim their support. Happening to be in the Central Soudan when Mahomed Ahmed, from his retreat in the little island of Aba in the White Nile, proclaimedhimself to be the true Mahdi,helost no time, when once the insurrection was fairly started, in throwingin his lot with the newProphet. He was joined by his brother Ahmed from Suakim, who,before leaving forthe in- terior, sold all the Digna property in the place. In the month of August, 1883, Osman Digna appeared in the Erkowithills, and in the Mahdi's name issued his proclamations and warnings to the tribal sheikhs and the officials of the EgyptianGovernment.

The Egyptian authoritiesat Cairo, were crestfallen on receiving intelligence of the total destruction of Hicks Pasha's army, and for the first timerealized thopotency of the antagonists they had to deal with. A new ex- pedition was organisedinall haste, andplacedunder the command of Baker Pasha, formerly Colonel Valentine Baker ofunpleasantnotoriety, who was invested by the Khedive with full military and civil powers inall parts of the Soudan, that might be reached by his forces. The Khediverecommended conciliatory measures in the first instance, and informed General Baker that he "relied upon his great prudence only to engage the enemyunder the mostfavourable circumstances "—a con- fidence that the sequelscarcely justified.

As the Egyptian troops proper were not allowed to proceedto the Soudan, the contingent at the disposition of General Baker was composed of very mixed and in-