274 



EGYPT. 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 



stubborn battle lasting an hour and a half, they 

 were completely defeated and put to flight. The 

 dervishes had been disposed so as to give battle 

 from the cover of a thick wood, but the Egyp- 

 tians flanked them by the quick march on the 

 buildings, and thus spoiled Osman Digma's plan 

 of battle. In the repeated assaults on the Egyp- 

 tian position 700 dervishes were killed, and many 

 more were shot during the retreat. Nearly 

 every emir fell on the field of battle. The Egyp- 

 tians took the rebel camp, with tents, stores, 

 arms, and banners, 4 guns and much ammunition 

 in the arsenal at Tokar, and 2 more guns, with 

 supplies of various kinds, at Afafit, a large town 

 4 miles beyond Tokar, which was deserted at the 

 approach of the troops. The Egyptians, who were 

 commanded by Col. Holled Smith, lost an Eng- 

 lish officer, Capt. H. L. Barrow, and 12 soldiers 

 killed, and another Englishman, Capt. J. E. 

 Beech, and 4 Egyptian officers wounded, with 42 

 Egyptian soldiers. The dervishes were all mem 

 bers of distant tribes, Bagguras or Djaalin. In 

 the district were found abundant growing crops, 

 dhurra or sorghum and cotton. The conquered 

 district of Tokar was placed under an Egyptian 

 civil governor and under the military command 

 of Capt. Hackett Pain, who had a garrison of 

 1.500 men at Afafit, with detachments at El 

 Teb, Fort Dolphin, and Trinkitat. The hostile 

 tribes on the coast took advantage of a general 

 amnesty proclaimed by Gen. Grenfell before 

 leaving Suakin on March 8, except 300 persons 

 who were arrested and kept as prisoners or de- 

 ported to Lower Egypt. The Soudan contains 

 14,125.000 feddans of cultivable land, of which 

 only 212,418 feddans were cultivated in 1887. The 

 most fertile part is the region of the Atbara and 

 the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia and the afflu- 

 ents of the Blue Nile, whei'e there are three 

 months of rainfall, a soil containing the same 

 constituents that enrich the delta, and a climate 

 extremely favorable to the ripening of wheat 

 and other cereals and of cotton, which is indige- 

 nous to the country and comes to maturity when 

 there is no rain nor dew. The recapture of 

 Tokar is supposed to be intended as a counter- 

 stroke to an Italian occupation of Kassala, con- 

 firming the Egyptian claim and the English re- 

 version of the whole of the eastern Soudan, 

 The power of the Khalifa or Mahdi, who has his 

 seat, at Omdurman, the political and spiritual chief 

 of Osman Digma and his hordes in the western 

 Soudan and the equatorial regions, is declining 

 before the purely religious influence of the son 

 or sons of Sidi Mohammed ben Ali el Snussi, 

 whose residence is in the convent of Djarabub, 

 in the western part of the oasis of Jupiter Am- 

 mon. The heir or heirs to the older Mahdi or 

 final Mohammedan prophet can not come into 

 actual conflict with the successor of the Don- 

 gola Mahdi, because the Snussi are a religious 

 order possessing small material means and no 

 armed forces. Their teachings had penetrated 

 all the oases west of Egypt, the whole region 

 south of Tripoli, and the kingdoms of northern 

 Central Africa as far as the Senegal some years 

 before Abdallah ben Mohammed ben Achmed 

 proclaimed himself Mahdi at Dongola in 1883, 

 and in Wadai, Darfur, and Kordofan the follow- 

 ers of Sidi Mohammed Snussi have counteracted 

 and effectually excluded the power of the Don- 



gola Mahdi. In Algeria and Morocco the Snussi 

 have not been able to gain a firm foothold, be- 

 cause in those countries the powerful order of 

 Muley Thaib is established, the chief of which, 

 Sidi el Sladj Abd es Ssalm, pretends to be the 

 most direct descendant of the Prophet. When 

 the Mahdists were driven out of Tokar the Ital- 

 ians were notified at Massowah, because Osman 

 Digma was reported to have retired to Kassala. 

 Afterward he was heard from in Omdurman, 

 where he took counsel with the Mahdi. 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church as they were published in September, 

 1891: Number of itinerant preachers, 1,227; of 

 local preachers, 619 ; of members, 150,234 ; of 

 Sunday schools, 2,535, with 28,613 officers and 

 teachers and 177,639 pupils ; of catechumen 

 classes, 761, with 9,514 pupils; baptized during 

 the year, 2,390 adults and 9,833 children ; 2,062^ 

 churches, having a probable value of $5,168.- 

 210; and 699 parsonages, valued at $873,058. 

 Amounts of benevolent contributions : For con- 

 ference claimants, $8,825 ; for the Missionary 

 Society, $134,443 : for the Sunday-school and 

 Tract Union, $2,445 : for the Orphan Home, $533. 

 The controversy in this association, of which 

 an account was given in the " Annual Cyclopae- 

 dia" for 1890, has continued, and has resulted 

 in the meeting of two bodies, each claiming to 

 be the General Conference, and in the division of 

 the Church. A General Conference representing 

 the majority party (recognizing Bishops Esher 

 and Bowman) met at Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 1. 

 It was supported by a large majority of the an- 

 nual conferences as well as of the church mem- 

 bers, and was recognized by all the boards and 

 officers of the Church. The place of meeting 

 was designated by a committee which the pre- 

 vious General Conference, failing to name the 

 place, although it appointed the time for the 

 meeting, had authorized to select the place. All 

 the general officers of the Church but one (Bishop 

 Dubs) and representatives of all the annual con- 

 ferences but two were present. The conference 

 was opened with an address in German by Bishop 

 Esher. A temporary chairman was appointed 

 preliminary to making the usual inquiry into 

 the character of the bishops. The trial and sus- 

 pension of Bishop Dubs were reported. Bishops 

 Bowman and Esher made statements respecting 

 certain disorders that had occurred at conference 

 meetings growing out of the divisions in the 

 Church and the charges against them, and their 

 cases were referred to a committee for exami- 

 nation. This committee reported that the pre- 

 liminary examination by three elders, on which 

 they had been acquitted, and which they held, 

 rendered nugatory their subsequent trial and 

 condemnation, constituted a legal bar to fur- 

 ther proceedings ; and therefore, that the sub- 

 sequent trial and suspension of those bishops 

 were invalid. The report was unanimously 

 adopted. The trial of Bishop Dubs was found 

 by the committee appointed to examine the rec- 

 ord to have been regular and the charges to have 

 been sustained ; and the conference, iipon its 

 recommendation, declared him deposed from his 

 office as bishop and preacher and expelled from 

 the Church. Bishops Esher and Bowman were 

 re-elected bishops for another term of four years, 



