THE DUAL CONTROL. 247 not by a Board, still less by a body of independent Boards. The leading members of these Boards were Christians. The native Egyptians are by no means fanatical Mahometans. But they have at heart a conviction, shared more or less by all the followers of the Prophet in every part of the globe, that the creed of Islam is the one God-given faith. To their minds, the idea of a true believer in Allah and his Prophet, being subject to Christian rule, seems, if not a scandal and a shame, a flagrant anomaly. Thus, during the two first years of Tewfik's reign, the seed was being sown for the impending mutiny.

Meanwhile troubles were brewing in another quarter. General Gordon had at last succeeded in arranging terms of peace between Egypt and Abyssinia ; and having, as he supposed, suppressed the slave trade in the Soudan, he resigned his governorship. He had not long quitted the country before the fruits of his administration began to make themselves manifest. The snake was scotched, but not killed. I should be sorry to seem to say a word in disparagement of a man of whom I, in common with all Englishmen, am justly proud. But the plain truth is, that " Chinese Gordon," though a hero and almost a genius, was not a great administrator. The slave trade was the one industry of the Soudan, much as cotton spinning is the one industry of Lancashire.

The Dervishes earned their livelihood by obtaining ivory from Central Africa, sometimes by barter, more often by violence. When they had secured their