298 



EGYPT. 



graph wires and prevent Arabi from holding 

 telegraphic communication with the East. A 

 sheik named Meter Sofieh accompanied them 

 as guide and protector from Moses' Wells on 

 Aug. 10th. Betrayed perhaps by him, they 

 were captured by a troop of Bedouins and shot 

 as spies. Of the thirteen persons brought to 

 trial on Feb. 18, 1883, five were shown to have 

 taken a subordinate part in the act, and were 

 executed on Feb. 28th. 



On the 7th of June Suleiman Daoud Sami, 

 military commandant of Alexandria at the 

 time of the bombardment, was brought before 

 a court-martial on the charge of having or- 

 dered the plundering and burning of Alexan- 

 dria. The British Government gave assur- 

 ances that the rules of evidence and the right 

 of defense would be observed, but the motive 

 for the removal of Suleiman Sami and closing 

 the delicate questions connected with that epi- 

 sode of the war was so strong that he was 

 hastily put through an irregular trial, and exe- 

 cuted on June 9th, just as the Foreign office in 

 London were about to bestir themselves in the 

 matter. In the beginning of July Said Bey 

 Khandeel, prefect of police at Alexandria, was 

 tried for conspiracy, on suspicion of having in- 

 cited the massacres of Alexandria. The advo- 

 cates of the accused offered to prove that the 

 Khedive himself instigated Omar Lutfi, then 

 Governor of Alexandria, to stir up the disturb- 

 ances which culminated in the riot and massa- 

 cres of June 11, 1882, with the object of dis- 

 crediting Arabi Pasha who had guaranteed 

 public safety. Said Khandeel was acquitted 

 of the main charge, but condemned to seven 

 years' hard labor for neglect of duty and con- 

 nivance in the disorders. In September a num- 

 ber of the native police were executed for hav- 

 ing taken part in the massacres. There were 

 numerous other executions in different parts 

 of the country. 



In the first week of October, the jails were 

 thrown open, and the multitude of prisoners 

 incarcerated on charges connected with the 

 mutiny and rebellion were set at liberty. The 

 courts-martial and prosecution committees 

 were dissolved, and on the 10th of October the 

 Khedive granted amnesty to all concerned in 

 acts of violence, pillage, and incendiarism dur- 

 ing the disturbances, murder excepted. 



The Cholera. On June 26th the cholera ap- 

 peared atDamietta, and, spreading through the 

 Delta, raged until autumn. The European press 

 charges the British authorities with having 

 negligently allowed infected persons to import 

 the disease from India. It is certain that no 

 quarantine precautions were taken, and that 

 the disease was of the genuine Oriental type. 

 The English Government, in their anxiety to 

 rebut this accusation, obtained a report of Eng- 

 lish experts declaring that cholera had been 

 endemic at Damietta since 1865, while Egyp- 

 tian officials published a statement that Asiatic 

 cholera had never been endemic in Egypt. 



The Sondj n Rebellion. The resistance of Se- 



behr, who, with a large number of sheiks and 

 chiefs, threw off the authority of the Khedive 

 in 1878-'79, and successfully opposed the ef- 

 forts of Sir Samuel Baker and Gen. Gordon 

 to put down the slave-trade, prepared the Sou- 

 danese for the great uprising of a mingled re- 

 ligious and political character under Moham- 

 med Achmed, the pretended Mahdi, or ex- 

 pected redeemer of Islam (see MAHDI, EL). 

 The English war of occupation gave this lead- 

 er the opportunity of consolidating his power, 

 and enabled him to obtain the prestige of vic- 

 tory. The efforts of the English to root out 

 slavery, and the approach of 1889, the year 

 set for general emancipation, added new mo- 

 tives to the old desire for deliverance from the 

 Egyptians. 



The religious phase of the movement in the 

 Soudan, though prominent in the beginning, 

 gradually sank in importance as compared with 

 the political side of the rebellion. The Mahdi 

 himself, while proclaiming his divine mission 

 to revive the power of the Shiite sect in the be- 

 ginning of the thirteenth century of the Hegi- 

 ra, showed more of the characteristics of an 

 ambitious ruler than of a religious leader. The 

 Soudanese themselves were filled with a long- 

 ing for deliverance from the harsh Egyptian 

 yoke. They had not forgotten the cruelties 

 of the conquest, sixty years before, when the 

 Fung, the finest of the Ethiopian tribes, whose 

 kingdom extended from Sennaar to the second 

 cataract, succumbed after a valorous resistance 

 to the Egyptian fire-arms, but, unable to furnish 

 the boat-load of gold demanded by Ismail Pa- 

 sha, son of Mehemet Ali, murdered the prince, 

 and were in return butchered to a man by the 

 relentless defterdar, except those who escaped 

 into Abyssinia. The inferior fellaheen battal- 

 ions have had to contend from that day to the 

 present with these brave races, whose superi- 

 ority in a military sense has been proved by 

 the black regiments of the Khedive in every 

 battle in which Egyptian troops have been en- 

 gaged. The oppressions and extortions of the 

 Egyptian officials, which culminated in the ad- 

 ministration of Dhafar Pasha, Governor of 

 Khartoum, in 1870, made the existence of the 

 Soudanese a social martyrdom. The country- 

 people dared not venture into Khartoum, for 

 they were robbed by the soldiers and officials 

 of the Khedive, and pressed into any labor that 

 was required. Theft and robbery were never 

 punished, and nothing was accomplished with- 

 out bribery. Under Muntas Pasha, the next 

 governor, who posed as a reformer, the im- 

 poverishment of the country was pursued with 

 more system and thoroughness. The fields 

 were no longer cultivated, because the har- 

 vest was confiscated. Pieces of land selected 

 at will were declared khedivial property and 

 cultivated with forced labor. The regulations 

 of Baker Pasha for the suppression of the slave- 

 traffic were circumvented, unless the officials, 

 on the pretext of carrying them out, seized the 

 slaves for their own use. To the Khedive's 



