EGYPT. 



EXPLOSIVES. 



195 



except on the condition that they would confine 

 their religious ministrations to persons of their 

 own faith and to the conversion of pagans, and 

 undertake no propaganda among Mohammedans. 

 Gen Kitchener proposed to send them on to 

 Fashoda, where they could proselyte the pagan 

 negroes of the equatorial provinces freely, but 

 they declined to go. In Omdurman and Khar- 

 toum they were allowed to establish schools and 

 hospitals, and the Roman Catholics to minister 

 to the native Christians converted before the 

 Mahdist conquest, and to found an establishment 

 for missionary expeditions to the negro countries 

 of the south. 



Kl Obeid was occupied by an Anglo-Egyptian 

 force under Col. Mahon on Dec. 17, 1899, the town 

 having been deserted and left in ruins by the 

 dervishes. The reoccupation of Kordofan by the 

 Egyptians gave general satisfaction to the people. 

 The Government of the Soudan established 

 friendly relations with the Sheikh Ali Dinar, 

 grandson of the Sultan Hussein, who was left to 

 rule Darfour. From the moment of the Khalifa's 

 crushing defeat at Omdurman the desert and Kor- 

 dofan tribes, with the exception of the section of 

 the Baggaras, who still adhered to the cause of 

 their chief, threw in their lot with the Govern- 

 ment, though they rendered no assistance to the 

 Government forces in the subsequent operations 

 against the Khalifa. Omdurman and the Ghezireh 

 were found to be full of Arabs belonging to Kor- 

 dofan and to far western tribes who had been 

 brought away from their homes by the Khalifa 

 and were left without any regular means of sub- 

 sistence. It was impossible in the existing state 

 of insecurity for them to return to their homes, 

 and their numbers were constantly augmented by 

 the arrival of deserters from the Khalifa's army, 

 most of them Baggaras. Arabs whose pasture 

 lands were far enough north to be safe returned 

 gradually to their own districts, but their places 

 were taken by inhabitants of the districts that 

 were raided by the Khalifa's army. Thus the 

 situation remained practically unchanged until 

 the overthrow and death of the Khalifa. After 

 that the main task of the Government was to send 

 back to their homes the inhabitants of the gum- 

 producing region and to rid the Ghezireh of its 

 useless stranger population. Many thousands be- 

 longing to tribes of Kordofan and Darfour could 

 not be got rid of until the road to Bara and El 

 Obeid was thoroughly opened up and the water 

 supply improved. The Nubas and other tribes of 

 central and southern Kordofan were willing to 

 render the Government active assistance in the 

 final operations against the dervishes, but their 

 efforts did not go beyond petty raids. After the 

 death of the Khalifa they sent deputations to 

 the Government and expressed their willingness 

 to obey its commands. The Arabs had a large 

 supply of firearms, and most of these remained in 

 their possession after the final defeat of the 

 Khalifa. Some of these firearms were issued by 

 the Government to be used as a means of defense 

 ;> gainst the dervishes; others were procured from 

 the dervishes themselves. After the overthrow of 

 the Khalifa these arms were often employed in 

 raids by one tribe upon another. The first step the 

 Government took was to call in all the firearms, 

 and from the Bayuda tribe and the riverain popu- 

 lation south of Berber a large number was re- 

 covered. In those districts raiding quickly ceased, 

 and wherever the Government was able to extend 

 its direct administration the same results followed. 

 In the remoter districts, in which the people still 

 retained their arms, the intertribal raids went 

 on without abatement. Much time must elapse 



Oil W 



before prosperity can return to the tribes of the 

 Soudan. The population wasted away under der- 

 vish rule. The important Kabbabish and Shuku- 

 rieh tribes suffered most and were left mere shad- 

 ows of what once they were. The Baggaras suf- 

 fered almost as much. Instead of being possessors 

 of large herds of cattle, many of them, even of 

 their chief men, were obliged to pick up a pre- 

 carious living in the Ghezireh or in Gadaref by 

 working for hire or turning their hands to occupa- 

 tions that were new to them. The budget estimate 

 of revenue from the Soudan for 1899 was E. 51,- 

 500, of which E. 38,500 came from the land tax 

 and other taxes collected in the mudiriehs, E. 5,- 

 000 from the post office, E. 3,000 from tele- 

 graphs, and E. 5,000 from railroads. The ex- 

 penses were estimated at E. 185,500, of which 

 E. 123,000 were for administration, E. 5,000 

 for public buildings, E. 3,000 for the post office, 

 E. 4,500 for telegraphs, and E. 55,000 for 

 railroads. The deficit was made good by the 

 Egyptian Government. The problem of taxation 

 in the Soudan is a serious one for the Government, 

 which feels bound to apply rigorous methods of 

 collection usual in the Western countries, whereas 

 the dervishes, if they exacted heavy taxes in pros- 

 perous seasons, did not attempt to collect taxes 

 when the crops failed. Slavery is another problem 

 hard to deal with. The frontier between the 

 Soudan and the Italian colony of Erythrea was 

 delimited in 1899 from Ras Kasar, on the Red 

 Sea, to Sabderat, east of Kassala. The further de- 

 limitation up to the point where the line strikes 

 Abyssinian territory was the subject of negotia- 

 tions in 1900. The general basis of a frontier ar- 

 rangement in respect to the country west of the 

 Blue Nile was settled with the Negus Menelek, 

 and commissioners were dispatched to survey the 

 ground in dispute. An endeavor was made to 

 cut through the sudd, the accumulation of vege- 

 table growths and floating matter that obstructs 

 the White Nile, the removal of which will en- 

 able steam craft to ascend the river and open up 

 communication with Uganda. A party of British, 

 French, and Belgian officers succeeded in penetrat- 

 ing from the south to the point where Major Peake 

 with his party of Egyptians was engaged in cut- 

 ting the sudd. Osman Digna was captured near 

 Tokar on Jan. 19 with the help of the local 

 sheikhs. Darfur has not been reconquered, and 

 there the influence of the Senussi Mahdi has suc- 

 ceeded that of the Khalifa. The Senussi sect flour- 

 ishes within the French sphere and is strongest in 

 Wadai and Bornu. They obtain arms and am- 

 munition from Europe by way of Benghaz, in 

 Tripoli, and their Mahdi threatened to declare a 

 jehad against England and to invade Egypt, but 

 from his oasis in the desert south of Kafra it was 

 impossible for him to carry "out his threat, the 

 absence of roads and water forbidding the move- 

 ment of any considerable force. An abortive mu- 

 tiny of the black troops in the Soudan against 

 their British commanders was planned after the 

 departure of Gen. Kitchener by some of the junior 

 Egyptian officers, whose disaffection was partly 

 the result of grievances about pay. Without in- 

 citement from above or sympathy from their fel- 

 low-officers they failed of their purpose, and were 

 deserted by the troops whom they misled. 



EXPLOSIVES. In the Annual Cyclopaedia for 

 1885 (page 342) the subject of explosives was 

 treated quite fully, and descriptions of gunpowder, 

 gun cotton, nitroglycerin, dynamite, explosive gela- 

 tin, potassium chlorate powders, picric acid com- 

 pounds, and liquid explosives, with their many 

 varieties, were given. Since that time experts of 

 different nations, in their efforts to surpass one 



