C)8 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

weapons but justice. There shall be no more Bashi-Bazouks," said Gordon. His speeches were brief, but they were to the purpose, and there were no more attempts at disturbance in the town when he arrived there — no more fears either for the people or the garrison. He had proclaimed the Mahdi Sultan of Kordofan.

It was one of his bold rapid strokes, and might have been successful. It was said that the false prophet was amazingly delighted when the formal appointment reached him, but this was doubtful, as he would have been more likely to look upon such a message from a Christian governor appointed by Egypt as an insult. Possibly, however, he took the view of it that any such acknowledgement of his authority was an endorsement which could be made to serve his purpose. It is quite likely that Achmed Ahmet was very much of a puppet in the hands of men like Raouf Pasha and other treacherous governors of provinces, but he was a fanatic and pretender who maintained an authority of his own, and, ignorant as he was, his ambition appears to have been almost boundless. Gordon said that it was Raouf Pasha who had first called him the Mahdi. It was a name to conjure with amidst an oppressed and discontented people, who yet were the victims of those who led them into rebellion for the purpose, not of diminishing their burdens or of increasing their liberties, but of diverting the taxation that might be wrung from them into other channels, and of becoming masters of the country without being answerable to the Egyptian eovernment. " Gordon Pasha will be received as a friend of the Arabs and blacks. His coming means no more Turks, with their backsheesh and kourbash. But he should have come a year ago; it is now too late," said an Arab who stood reading the proclamations.

At first this was not so apparent. Gordon appeared to be able to grasp the situation, and his former vigorous and prompt reforms were not forgotten, for he at once began to resume the policy which he had carried out at Khartum in the former time of his authority, when peace and security were restored to that riotous, corrupt, and pestilent centre of the Soudan government.

Immediately on his arrival he summoned the officials. Hussein