144 The British Campaign in the Soudan.

Zobehr with money, arms, and ammunition. This rebellion was not suppressed until twelve battles had been fought by Romulo Gessi, Gordon’s valiant lieutenant,— killed some years later fighting another rebellion of slave-hunters. Suleiman himself was captured and Gessi had him tried and shot for treason, with Gordon’s approval, and among his papers were found Zobehr’s letters inciting the rebellion. The latter was imprisoned for some months, then released, though still forbidden to leave Cairo, but not deprived of his honors and pension. When Gordon, in 1884, found his position at Khartoum untenable, he urged the British authorities to send Zobehr to succeed him, as being the only man able to organize a government and prevent utter anarchy, but his record was too black, and the authorities wisely refused to trust him.

Zobehr was only one of many powerful slave-hunting warrior-chiefs. Another was Abou-Saoud who also raised a rebellion, and after causing much trouble, made terms and was received back into favor. Yusuf who did the same, was made a pasha and was exterminated with six thousand men by the Mahdi, in Sennaar. Another was Osman-Digma who has done such splendid fighting near the Red Sea, and is still continuing the war against the British. In fact, slavehunting is war on a barbarous and often extensive scale, and its leaders have to possess no inconsiderable military capacity.

The slave-trade was the only one that flourished before Mehemet-Ali’s conquest, and it continued to flourish unhindered until General Gordon’s appointment as Govyernor-General of the Soudan (1874-1879). From the de-