THE MUDIR OF DONGOLA. 1 89 letter from the Mahdi, saying that he would appoint him as his mudir, but that all the people must become Moslems, abstain from tobacco, and wear the uniform of the Mahdi, which consisted ot a dress resembling- an assemblage of parti-coloured rags sewn together. The mudir's own account was that having no news whether any aid was coming to him from the government at Cairo or from the British officers, he telegraphed for assistance, at the same time pretending to accept the terms offered by the Mahdi's envoys, to satisfy whom he had the doors of the Coptic church closed, and sending for the Christians told them of the Mahdi's orders. In the evening he sent for twro or three Europeans, among them (as was alleged) a newspaper correspondent, and privately telling them of the dangerous position in which he was placed, advised them for their own safety to go through the form of becoming Mahometans, at the same time telling them, " Of course you can keep your own religion in your hearts." They accepted his advice, and the next morning, being taken before the Deputy-Governor and the Cadi, and declaring that they were prepared to become Mussulmans, repeated three times the phrase, "God is God and Mahomet is the prophet of God," with three or four similar phrases, when they were dismissed and wrere not afterwards molested. The mudir added to this story that all the Copts had followed this example. Whether this was true or not, or whether the mudir ever told it or not, he certainly showed some loyalty to us in the; subsequent campaign, and when the expedition was being completed in the autumn, collected a number of boats, 500 camels, and 1200 or 1500 men to assist the government steamers up the cataracts.

But in May nobody knew what would be done. There was a good deal of exploration. Captain Marriott, afterwards in command of the Egyptian camel corps, went up the river, Major Kitchener to Korosko, Colonel Stuart Wortley to Assiout, and thence through the desert to El Khorgeh, to Makio, and to Sheb, opposite Korosko, where it was said he was to form a permanent outpost of Bedouins, with an advanced post at Selimah. It was soon known that these were only preliminaries, and that active operations were likely to follow.