72 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

to be urgently opposed, he came to think was the only man who could give him effectual aid. He had distinctly said that it would be unnecessary to send either British or Indian troops to his aid ; but when the British government could not consent to be responsible for the appointment of Zebehr, he sent word that either a British or an Indian force should be despatched. It was not till he had realized the actual condition of affairs that General Gordon saw grounds for an entire change in his plans, the reasons for which could not be estimated by the government in England, unacquainted with the country and with the serious growth of the rebellion. They were unprepared to abandon the policy which they had distinctly declared. Though events were even then forcing them to consider the necessity for sending a British force to Suakim, they hesitated to send troops for the relief of Sinkat and Tokar, because they were uncertain whether the safety of Gordon and the plan for evacuating Khartum might thereby be endangered, or as Mr. Gladstone asked on the 12th of February, " would an attempt of relief have the effect of endangering the measures for the extrication of the 29,000 men who after all must be regarded as of more weight than the 500 in Sinkat?" Such a question showed a want of definite information which prevented any action being taken for fear of doing the wrong thing first; but it was not unreasonable in view of the fact that there was a vast horde of Soudanese between Suakim and Kassala, extending very near to the route between Suakim and Berber, and that another great body of rebels occupied the country between the White. and Blue Nile, threatening Sennar, and extending towards Khartum.

The tribes under Osman Digma who occupied this territory, threatened Suakim, and eventually closed the route to Berber, were the Hadendowas, who proved to be even more formidable foes than the Baggaras, led by the fierce dervishes who were under the immediate command of the Mahdi. The Hadendowas were, in fact, the people who provided camels for the Suakim-Berber routes before the rebellion. They are Soudanese, but with little Arab blood, as, like their neighbours the Bishareen, they sprang from an African (Hamitic) race, as their dark-brown skin