The British Campaign in the Soudan. 159 ter, but saving the town. On the 11th and the 14th the Mahdi’s troops again stormed the works with desperate valor, opposing only swords and spears to the.terrible fire of breech-loaders and artillery, until fifteen thousand men (one fourth of his army) lay dead or dying before the walls of El Obeid. After this enormous loss, the Mahdi sullenly retired to re-organize his shattered forces. It is a noteworthy coincidence that at the very same time (September 12, 1882) Arabi-Pasha was defeated with very feeble resistance at Tel-el-Kebir.

The terrible reverse at E] Obeid would probably have ended the career of a leader of ordinary capacity. Not so with the Mahdi; it only proved his formidable power and tenacity of purpose. Allowing his followers only time enough to go home and secure their crop of dourah, he returned in December with one hundred thousand men, captured Bara, and then laid siege to El Obeid, which surrendered on the 17th of January, 1883, after an heroic resistance. Every article of food had been consumed, including even dogs. The soldiers had eaten their leather-straps, and the starving population rose in desperation to demand submission to the Mahdi. AI] the inhabitants, not excepting the Christian Syrian and Greek merchants, acknowledged him as a prophet, and the garrison with the gallant Iskander-Bey joimed his ranks, professing conversion to full belief in his divine mission as proved by his astonishing success. The greatest wonder is that they should have resisted so long a prophet who appealed so strongly to their religious traditions and sympathies. Among the captives were the members of the Catholic mission. The Mahdi treated them well in spite of the failure of his arguments to convert them, and