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EGYPT. 



warlike action since peaceful means had failed. 

 The defeat of Osman Digma, and the expecta- 

 tion that an English army was coming, damped 

 the aggressive spirit of the tribes in this part 

 of the Soudan. British inaction now embold- 

 ened them. Early in March Gordon was ef- 

 fectually besieged and driven to defensive 

 operations. The rebels prevented any of the 

 dispatches of the Government from reaching 

 him, though he was able to send messages. 

 These bore mostly a complaining and indig- 

 nant tone. He urged that a simple military 

 demonstration, a cavalry troop rushed through 

 to Berber, or the advance of two hundred 

 English soldiers to Wady Haifa, would suffice 

 to establish his authority and enable him to 

 extricate the garrisons and leave a settled gov- 

 ernment at Khartoum. When, after slighting 

 all his suggestions with reference to a peaceful 

 solution, the Government then desisted from 

 its own aggressive policy, he concluded that he 

 was deserted, and that the plan of evacuation 

 and the establishment of a settled order in the 

 Soudan, which he was commissioned to carry 

 out, was given up. He wrote on the 16th of 

 April that he would henceforth act for himself, 

 leaving to the Government " the indelible dis- 

 grace of sacrificing the garrisons, with the cer- 

 tainty that you will eventually be forced to 

 smash up the Mahdi under greater difficulties." 

 He proposed at one time that, since he could 

 accomplish nothing in the Soudan, he should 

 make his way to the equatorial provinces, and 

 organize governments there. Yet he felt bound 

 to the soldiers and the people, whose loyalty 

 he had called out, and whose security he had 

 undertaken. In a dispatch of March 3, he 

 said: "It may have been a mistake to send 

 me, but, that having been done, I have no op- 

 tion but to see the evacuation through " ; in 

 another, "Even if I were mean enough to 

 escape, I have no power to do so," declaring in 

 the same that he would never be taken alive. 

 In one of his telegrams he appealed to the 

 millionaires of America and England to sub- 

 scribe 200,000 to pay for a force of 2,000 or 

 3,000 men, which the Sultan would lend, with 

 which, he said, " we could not only settle our 

 affairs here, but also smash the Mahdi." He 

 was confident of being able to hold Khartoum, 

 which was provisioned for six months, and of 

 strengthening his military position with his 

 steamers when the Nile rose, if only the troops 

 and the town-folk remained loyal. He de- 

 clared that the people would call in the Mahdi 

 if he had not the Egyptian troops. An action 

 of the 16th of March failed on account of the 

 perfidy of two black officers, and the treacherous 

 pashas were executed. They were the officers 

 in command. Cutting down their own gun- 

 ners, and opening a passage through the ranks, 

 they enabled 60 Arab horsemen to put to rout 

 2,000 Bashi-Bazouks. The day before, the re- 

 lief of Halifa was effected by a steamer and 

 1,200 men. He repeatedly urged the British 

 authorities to send Zebehr, and to make a mili- 



tary diversion to Berber, or to send Turkish 

 troops. After the 9th of April the town was 

 so closely invested that no more dispatches 

 could be sent out. On the 10th of May the 

 Governor of Dongola reported that the defend- 

 ers sallied out on the White Nile in a steamer, 

 and that, when they landed to attack the 

 rebels in the wooden sheds they had erected, 

 the Litter fled out of gunshot range. A letter 

 dated June 11 came through from Gordon, in 

 which he reported that rebels surrounded him, 

 but said that he could destroy them on the ris- 

 ing of the Nile. A few days later the Mudir 

 of Dongola received from him a letter saying 

 that Khartoum and Sennaar were in a good 

 state of defense, and asking what re-enforce- 

 ments were coming. 



For seven months the town was closely be- 

 sieged. At the beginning of the siege 8,000 to 

 10,000 of the inhabitants left the town. Gen- 

 eral Gordon surrounded his lines with all kinds 

 of obstacles, the most effective of which were 

 three lines of land torpedoes, which inflicted 

 terrible losses on the Soudanese in attacks made 

 on the 16th of April and four succeeding days, 

 and the 6th and 7th of May. On May 7th 

 they were shelled out of their principal posi- 

 tion, in a village opposite, but captured some 

 of the outworks in the night, and held them 

 three days. During May and June Saati Bey 

 made expeditions in the armor-plated steamers 

 on the White and Blue Niles, capturing cattle 

 and grain. On the 10th of July that officer 

 was killed in an attack on the village of Gatar- 

 neb, when his 200 Egyptian soldiers fled be- 

 fore five Arab spearmen! On July 29th the 

 steamers captured forts on the Blue Nile. 

 Gordon's loss in killed during five months was 

 near 700. From March 17 to the end of July 

 there was fighting every day. The fellahs 

 were worthless, except on the steamers or be- 

 hind ramparts. The black soldiers were val- 

 iant fighters. On the 28th of July Mehemet 

 Ali Pasha led them against the rebel force 

 established on the Blue Nile and put it to 

 flight, killing a large number and capturing 

 arms and ammunition. Besides the armored 

 steamers, barges with turrets were used in the 

 excursions. One of the steamers was captured 

 from Sal eh Bey by the Soudanese. General 

 Gordon issued rations to the poor in Khartoum. 

 He emitted paper money for purchases of sup- 

 plies and the pay of the soldiers, and it passed 

 current among the merchants. By the end of 

 July prices had advanced 3,000 per cent. 



The next dispatch received from General 

 Gordon was dated August 26. He declared 

 that he would not leave Khartoum until he 

 achieved the extrication of all the garrisons, 

 but would try and persuade all Europeans to 

 leave, laid the blood of Egyptians who might 

 be slain to the charge of the English Govern- 

 ment, and announced that he would surrender 

 the Soudan to the Sultan as soon as a Turkish 

 army arrived. In the same dispatch he an- 

 nounced the departure of an expedition to 



