EGYPT. 



297 



organize an expedition from this material for 

 the relief of Gen. Gordon. Jt soon became 

 apparent that the only use of paying heavy 

 subsidies to these people was to deter them 

 from open hostilities and depredations. A 

 force of Turks and Albanians was recruited in 

 Levantine ports to supply their place. They 

 proved as useless, and were immediately sent 

 back. Major Stuart Wortley recruited 500 Bed- 

 ouins from t'he Tunisian tribe of the Gowast. 

 As soon as English troops began to move up 

 the Nile, they also were disbanded. About 

 1,000 Egyptian soldiers were posted at As- 

 s >uan and 300 at Wady Haifa in the summer. 

 The English posted 700 men of the army of 

 occupation above Assiout in the spring, but 

 their presence was resented by the people, and 

 proved rather a source of danger than of pro- 

 tection. English engineer officers were sent to 

 Wady Haifa, who made some progress in the 

 defensive works before the arrival of Lord 

 Wolseley's relief expedition. The English Gov- 

 ernment, in defining the " natural frontier " 

 at Wady Haifa, assumed that an invading army 

 from the Soudan is restricted to the river route. 



Mutiny of Turkish Volnuteers. When the folly 

 of paying money for military service to Bed- 

 ouins, who would go over to the enemy in 

 the first engagement, became apparent, a force 

 of Turks was hastily recruited in the ports 

 of the Archipelago. When they arrived in 

 Upper Egypt, they told the inhabitants that 

 they would not fight the Arabs, as they were 

 recruited for internal police service. A troop 

 of 200, organized under English officers at As- 

 siout, when ordered to embark for Assouan, 

 mutinied, maltreated Turkish officers who were 

 sent to restore discipline, and attempted to 

 seize the store of arms and ammunition. Forty 

 of them escaped, but were taken after a des- 

 perate fight by English soldiers. Tha whole 

 force was finally sent back to Cairo. 



The Fall of Berber. In April came an appeal 

 from the sheiks, ulemas, and notables of 

 Berber to the central Government at Cairo, 

 begging for immediate relief, and commenting 

 in bitter language on the course of England in 

 encouraging the people to resistance and then 

 leaving them to certain destruction. Soon 

 afrer came a dispatch from the rnudir, Hus- 

 sein Pasha Khalifa, saying that if the troops 

 in Assouan were ordered to Berber he could 

 hold out until relief could be sent. It was one 

 of a long series of dispatches in which he de- 

 scribed the precarious condition of the town, 

 and begged for re-enforcements. At this time 

 the nomad tribes had already declared for the 

 Mahdi, and his emissaries were rapidly win- 

 ning over the rest of the population. The gar- 

 rison of the town was not trustworthy. It 

 numbered 2,300, of whom 1,300 were Egyp- 

 tian soldiers, with two steamers and one gun. 

 The Khedive called a council of statesmen, in 

 .ind out of service, but they declined to offer 

 advice, because troops and money were both 

 wanting, and, if a plan were resolved upon, it 



would be altered in character by the English 

 mentors of the Khedive, and its execution in- 

 trusted to English hands, with a certainty of 

 failure. The feeling of the people of the prov- 

 ince of Said in Upper Egypt, above Assiout, 

 was also discussed. They are a vigorous branch 

 of the fellah race who had refused submission 

 to Arabi, and who would have risen in insur- 

 rection against the English, but were dissuaded 

 on the ground that it would prolong the occu- 

 pation. They were now thrown into a state 

 of excitement by the presence of two British 

 battalions. Shortly afterward, Nubar Pasha 

 sent an answer to the mudir's repeated cries 

 for help, to the effect that if he could not hold 

 the town he should retire with his forces to 

 Dongola. The expectation of relief from Sua- 

 kin by a column of English troops had already 

 been denied, and the refusal published to the 

 rebels in an unciphered dispatch. The instruc- 

 tions from Cairo were calculated to drive into 

 the arms of the Mahdi the commandant of the 

 town, wjio belonged to an influential family of 

 Arab chiefs of a tribe that had already de- 

 clared for the Mahdi. Nevertheless, he held 

 the place until the beginning of June, when 

 an army of 50,000 Arabs surrounded the town 

 and threw up earthworks. After five days of 

 skirmishing, the Arabs, on June 2, stormed the 

 town from the south under cover of a heavy 

 fire from the opposite side. The mudir, who 

 had been prevented from surrendering by his 

 officers, deserted to the enemy with a part of 

 the garrison. The rest of the troops fought 

 bravely, and were massacred after the surren- 

 der, with most of the Christian inhabitants. 



The Capture of Shendy by the Arabs. About 

 two months before the reduction of Berber 

 the garrison of Shendy, being short of provis- 

 ions, was obliged to give in. Some 300 per- 

 sons attempted to escape by way of the Nile, 

 but fell into the hands of the enemy and were 

 all killed. 



The Defense of Dongola. After the capture of 

 Berber by the rebels, the advance upon Don- 

 gola was easy. The governor was suspected 

 of holding a treasonable correspondence with 

 the Mahdi through the family of the latter, 

 which lived in the neighborhood. He resorted 

 to the ruse of pretending to embrace the cause 

 of the False Prophet, and induced the Chris- 

 tians to go through the form of adopting Mo- 

 hammedanism. He sent dispatch after dis- 

 patch, begging for re-enforcements, and par- 

 ticularly for arms and ammunition. In May 

 he was instructed to evacuate the town, but 

 refused to obey orders. The Egyptian Gov- 

 ernment at length sent him rifles and cannon. 

 In the latter part of May and in June he gained 

 various victories over the revolted tribes of the 

 district. His force consisted of 900 infantry 

 and 600 Bashi-Bazouks. When the popula- 

 tion south of Debbeh rose they invested that 

 town. The mudir went with a part of his 

 forces to defend the fortress and pacify that 

 part of his district. On June 29 the Arabs, 



