320 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

and began to enter into communications with the Dervishes, who, as I have explained, were bitterly disaffected towards the Egyptian Government as being hostile to their interests as slave-traders.

Raouf Pasha, who had succeeded Gordon as Governor-General of the Soudan, summoned the Mahdi to Khartoum, and, on his refusing to do so, sent several expeditions to effect his capture. All these expeditions were defeated, and the Mahdi's repute spread far and wide. Probably, if Egypt had been in a position to send a large force to Khartoum, the rising might have been crushed before it had assumed formidable proportions. The Khedive, however, at this period, was in far too critical a position to pay much attention to the affairs of the Soudan, while Arabi had every motive not to send troops to a remote distance. Indeed, there is strong reason to believe that he sympathized with the insurrection in the Soudan, if he did not actually enter into relations with the Mahdi. After all, the Mahdi was fighting in the same cause as he was himself, and he had no reason, but the contrary, to desire his defeat.

During the period which ended in the deposition of Arabi, the Egyptian Government in the Soudan failed to do more than hold its ground. A number of engagements were fought between the Dervishes, led by the Mahdi, and the Egyptian troops, commanded by Giegler Pasha, a German who had entered the Khedivial service. In as far as can be