94 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

as a once powerful native chieftain, would consolidate such a government and hold the otherwise refractory mudirs in check.

He afterwards had to discover that the extent of the rebellion was greater than he had anticipated; that it was beyond the power of Egypt to wrestle with, and this made him the more urgently anxious for the appointment of the still influential chief to gather the tribes around him and restore a regular government under the moral control of that at Cairo. There came the chief point where he and the British government were entirely at variance. He thought that Zebehr, appointed to succeed him as governor of the Soudan and assisted by him to pacificate the country, would " smash the Mahdi," and rule the Soudan with as much equity as could be reasonably expected. The cabinet in England believed, judging from Zebehr's character and antecedents, that he would be more likely to join the Mahdi for the achievement of his own ends, keep the government in his own hands, and restore the worst features of the slave-trade, and take the country out of all hope of restoration.

The proclamations issued by Gordon were addressed to different classes of people, the first being a general declaration that he had come to extricate the Soudan from difficulties and complications, to establish tranquillity and prevent the shedding of Moslem blood, to secure to the inhabitants their property, children, and wives, and to put a stop to injustice and oppression, which had been the cause of the rebellion. He therefore wiped off all arrears due from the people to the end of 1883; reduced to onehalf the taxes of 1884, as well as all taxes introduced by Raoul Pasha. He gave them the right to keep the slaves in their service without any interference from the government or anybody else. He ended by saying, "You should live in peace; do not expose yourselves to perdition; and avoid following the devil's path. Warn the inhabitants, and reveal to them the good news, in order that they may walk in the path of righteousness, and turn away from the evil one. Whoever wishes to see me, let him come and dread nothing."

In subsequent declarations he confirmed his references to slaveholding and to the remission of taxation, and added : " The taxes