270 1899. Ahymnia.

his pceition ; in this he had a good deal of difficulty, owing to the tribes in the west and south refusing to recognise his authority.

EXPEDITIONS FROM UGANDA.

Meanwhile Lieut.-Colonels Macdonald and Martyr, having quelled the mutiny of Sudanese troops in Uganda, pushed forward from that region in two small columns during the summer and autumn of 1898. Macdonald, starting from Mount Elgon, and marching across country, reached Latuka in September, and having made friends with the chiefs in this district, returned to Uganda in November. Martyr, proceeding down the Nile, reached Bedden and Rejaf in November, and, assisted by the Congo Free State troops, pushed on to Bor, where a Dervish garrison had been posted since March, 1897. On hearing of the advance of white troops, the Dervishes under Arabi Wad Dafaalla fled in a northwest direction. Martyr, hearing that the sudd extended trom Shambe to Lake No, and recognising that no gunboat from down stream could join hands with him for many months to come, whilst the country around had been desolated by the enemy, retired again to Bedden, and formed posts at Fort Berkeley, Afuddo, and Wadelai (spring of 1899).

ANGLO-FRENCH AGREEMENT.* The Marchand column had, on its way to Kodok, proceeded down the Sueh river to Meshra el Rek, and had left small posts along its route at Tembura and many other places, even in the Rumbek country. f After the evacuation of Kodok, however, negotiations were entered into by the British and French Governments, and in consequence of an Agreement dated 21st March, 1899, all French territorial clainx to the Bahr el Ghazal was relinquished, and the line separating the spheres of influence was drawn northwards along the Congo-Nile watershed, thence between the territories of Darfur and Wadai, and thence in a north-west direction up to the frontier of Tripoli.

AFFAIRS IN ABYSSINIA.

Reference must here be made to affairs in Abyssinia, which have some bearing on Sudan matters. After the Abyssinian victory over the Italians at Adua (1st March, 1896), the importance of the country began to attract much attention in Europe. Missions were sent from France and Russia to enter into friendly relations with the new Power, and in 1897, a British Mission under Mr. Rodd was despatched for the same purpose. A friendly treaty was concluded on the 14th May, but little progress in the way of commerce was made for some time. The French, whose merchants had been for many years established at the capital, Addis Abbaba, fitted out an expedition under Captain Clochette (late Marine Artillery) in the spring of 1897, which proceeded in the direction of the White Nile. Clochette died, and De Bonchamps, who succeeded him in the command, after many difficulties reached the Baro river, and eventually marched down it to the Sobat. It is difficult to say how far he penetrated, but the want of a boat and of supplies, the vast marshes, fever, and desertions of his followers, formed together such insurmountable obstacles that he was, after a gallant struggle, obliged to turn back (.'ilst December, 1897) without reaching the Nile. During 1897 an Abyssinian expedition was organised under Ras Makunnen, of Harrar, to subdue a rising in Beni Shangul. Without coming to a pitched battle. Wad Tur el Guri was defeated in detail, and most of this country was occupied in the spring of 1898.

In the early summer of 1898 another Abyssinian Expedition came down from the hills towards the Sobat and Nile. It was composed of .3,000 to 4,000 men, mostly armed with rifles, under Dejaj Tesemma. About half the men were mounted, and it is believed that some guns accompanied them. With the expedition were three Europeans — M. Faivre (French), Col. Artomonoff (Russian), and M. Potter (Swiss — subsequently killed).

Part of this force arrived at Waratong, on the Pibor, about June, and pushed on to the White Nile, via Nasser, and the left bank of the Sobat. It arrived at Sobat mouth at the end of June, only a few days before Marchand and his companions passed that point in their boats Owing, it is reported, to the death of Tesemma, J the expedition returned almost immediately, apparently by the same way it had come, to the south of Waratong and the Kum Kum (or Kung Kung) country.

The victory of Omdurman and our subsequent successes appear to have impressed the Abyssinians, and a revolt by Mangasha, of Tigre, coupled perhaps with some uneasiness as to his possessions in the north-west of his kingdom, induced the Emperor Menelik to lead a large army into Tigre in the late autumn of 1898.

Mangasha was, however, quickly suppressed ; the relations of the Negus with England and Egypt continued to be of the most friendly character, and these were further accentuated by the news of the death of the Khalifa in November, 1899.

• Vide p. 285. t See beluw (next page). % False leport.