280 



EGYPT. 



marching upon Dara, which is situated from 

 four to five days' journey northwest of Shegga. 

 The Governor-General of Soudan left El Obeid 

 on August 17th, and expected to establish his 

 headquarters in the beginning of September at 

 Omshanga, the chief place of the extreme east 

 of Darfour, situated about six days' journey 

 north-northeast of Shegga, and about seven 

 days east of Fasher. The accounts of the 

 progress of the expedition given in the Egyp- 

 tian papers slightly differ from the above re- 

 port, and supplement it in some details. The 

 Egyptian reports state that the hostile attitude 

 assumed by the Darfourians toward the Gov- 

 ernment of the Khedive, the exactions prac- 

 tised by the Sultan of Darfour on Egyptian sub- 

 jects, and also his tyranny over his own sub- 

 jects, had long been a subject of annoyance to 

 the Egyptians. Moreover, Zabir Beg, the mu- 

 dir over the whole district of the Bahr-el-Gha- 

 sal, wrote a letter to Ba-Bakr, his brother-in- 

 law, informing him that the Sultan Ibrahim 

 of Darfour, having collected together an army 

 of 12,000, with horses, fire-arms, and all appli- 

 ances of war, had placed it under the command 

 of a sultan named Abuna, who had marched 

 to a spot called El Kalaka, the principal station 

 of the Egyptian troops, with the design of at- 

 tacking them. The threatened attack was 

 made on July 2d by a fierce onset on the part 

 of the Darfourians, the Egyptians standing fast 

 to receive them. The battle soon waxed hot; 

 but the order, discipline, and steadiness of the 

 latter soon told to their advantage, for in less 

 than an hour their antagonists were vanquished 

 and put to flight. The Sultan Abuna was slain, 

 and his sons and a number of his nobles were 

 taken prisoners. One hundred and ten other 

 prisoners were made, some of whom are offi- 

 cers. Among the spoil captured was the horse 

 on which the Sultan rode, his arms and dress, 

 which were forwarded to Egypt. "When the 

 Sultan Ibrahim, the sovereign of Darfour, 

 heard of this defeat, and the death of his com- 

 mander, Abuna, he was greatly chagrined, and 

 went about calling together his nobles, and 

 collecting another army of 50,000 me.n and 

 horse, which he divided into 50 troops of 

 1,000 each, and placed it under the command 

 of a renowned general. After supplying them 

 with 65 banners, and distributing muskets and 

 ammunition among them, he ordered that they 

 should fall upon the Egyptian troops in a body. 

 They did so, but were doomed to a disastrous 

 defeat, for the Egyptians again routed the 

 wretched Berbers, capturing 25 flags, 500 mus- 

 kets, GOO Arab slaves, besides horses and war- 

 material. On hearing of this second repulse, 

 the Sultan of Darfour began levying the re- 

 mainder of the troops, intending to take the 

 command in person. A telegram, dated Cairo, 

 December llth, from the Governor-General of 

 the Soudan, announced that the entire king- 

 dom of Darfour accepted annexation to Egypt. 

 The only dissentients were the family of the 

 ex-Sultaa, who had fled to the mountains and 



proclaimed the Emir Hassaballah as Sultan. 

 The Egyptian troops were pursuing the fugi- 

 tives. The annexation of Darfour to Egypt 

 will cut off one main source of the slave-trade ; 

 for, Darfour being close to Wadai, which is 

 one great slave-preserve, its people are the 

 greatest slave-dealers in Central Africa, many 

 of their caravans even making their way across 

 the Sahara, through Fezzan to Tripoli, Ben- 

 gazi, and the ports on the Mediterranean, and 

 so via Malta it is said or along the Afri- 

 can coast to the different slave-markets. The 

 routes followed by the caravans pass through 

 the oases of the Libyan Desert. Many routes 

 are known only to the Bedouins, but every 

 now and then a party falls into the hands of 

 the Egyptian authorities. It is, however, al- 

 most impossible thoroughly to watch the long 

 Nile frontier and prevent slaves from being 

 smuggled into the country. On this subject 

 an Egyptian journal says: "It is indisputa- 

 ble that, if annexed to Egypt, Darfour will 

 become one of the most prosperous and flour- 

 ishing of countries, for the Khedive will intro- 

 duce into it colleges and schools, and railroads 

 and telegraphs, arts, science, and commerce, 

 and will rule over it with kindliness, justice, 

 and good-will, so that in the course of a few 

 years it will acquire a high name among states, 

 and become a great field 'for European com- 

 mercial enterprise." 



The extraordinary rising of the Nile in 1874 

 created a profound sensation and panic in Egypt, 

 but owing to the personal energy and persever- 

 ance of, and the wise precautions taken by, his 

 Highness the Khedive, a great national calami- 

 ty was averted. Though the commencement 

 of the rising of the Nile is anxiously looked 

 forward to by the Egyptians, as begetting hope 

 of good crops and abundance, yet it is not by 

 any means a criterion of a good Nile, which 

 alone can realize that hope. Thus the Nile 

 of 1873 commenced to rise as early as the 17th 

 of June, and rose fairly well for about twenty 

 days, and then stopped for fifteen days, and 

 ultimately finished off at a rise of 19f feet only 

 on. the llth of September, and made a bad 

 Nile. Again, the Nile is subject to make false 

 starts the Nile of 1869 made five such false 

 starts, and that of 1872 three, both commen- 

 cing their serious rise on the 1st of July re- 

 spectively. To show the uncertain and ca- 

 pricious nature of the Nile at the commence- 

 ment of the rise, that of 1868 commenced on 

 the 1st of July; 1869, on the 10th of June; 

 1870, on the 30th of June; 1871, on the 7th 

 of July ; 1872, on the 15th of June ; 1873, on 

 the 17th of June; 1874, on the 15th of June; 

 or between the earliest and latest days a period 

 of twenty-seven days. On the 27th of July, 

 1874, a very high Nile was foreshadowed ; at 

 that date the rise was double that of 1868, 

 nearly one-third more than that of 1873, and 

 in excess of that of 1869, when the Nile rose 

 29 feet 2 inches in the Rosetta branch of the 

 Nile, in about the middle of the Delta. It 



