44 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

comparatively well. A deep river and a considerable tract of desert separated the liberated territory from the Mahdi's headquarters, and breathing time had been gained for effecting the defensive operations suggested by Colonel Stewart, and for the establishment of a just and decent administration at Khartum and Sennar, as well as for negotiations with some of the disaffected tribes.

On the 29m of December a "black nun," a lay sister of an Austrian convent at Obeid, arrived at Khartum after twenty-one days' journey. She stated that there was no army or body of soldiers existing in Kordofan, and that the Mahdi was mustering his forces for an advance on Khartum. She also declared that not one Egyptian soldier escaped massacre, and that the only European prisoner brought in was a Pomeranian Uhlan servant of Major Seckendorf, and that he was well treated by the Mahdi, as also were all the missionaries at Obeid; but that though the Mahdi personally treated the whites well, the tribes generally were bent on their massacre.

The position at Khartum was evidently dangerous, and it had there been heard that Berber had already been attacked by a body of Bishareen Arabs, who, though they had been repulsed by the Bashi-Bazouks, had probably not retreated to any great distance. As early as December 18th Admiral Sir William Hewett had reported that the road from Suakim to Berber was closed, and that it was probable that an organized army other than Egyptian, to the number of 15,000 men, would be necessary to re-open the country. This was the intelligence conveyed to him by Suleiman Pasha, the governor-general and commander-in-chief of the army at Suakim, who also stated that all supplies would have to be imported for such an army as would be required to fight its way and keep the route open to Berber.

It may be mentioned here that in the first days of December the Egyptian government had proposed to send, and afterwards did send, Zebehr Pasha to Suez. He had raised some black troops, who were sent to Suez, where they wrere made somewhat reluctantly to embark for service at Suakim. They having shown