HICKS PASHA, WILLIAM. 



HONDURAS. 



431 



as chief of staff in the reorganized Egyptian 

 army, was appointed by the Khedive com- 

 mander-in-chief of the Soudan army. In 1882 

 the Mahdi had destroyed, at the battle of 

 Gebel Geon, the main Egyptian force in the 

 Soudan, led by Yussuf Pasha. In the winter 

 he had captured by siege El-Obeid, the capital 

 of Kordofan. Through the co-operation of the 

 slave-traders and slave-owners, who now made 



WILLIAM HICKS PASHA. 



common cause with him, he could gather at 

 any point an enormous army of black slaves, 

 such as constituted the formidable military 

 power of S-ebehr a few years before, and were 

 described by Gordon Pasha as "smart, dapper- 

 lookmg fellows, like antelopes, fierce, unspar- 

 ing, the terror of Central Africa." The Mahdi 

 had captured many breech-loading rifles, and 

 had a few disciplined troops who had joined 

 him after surrendering at El-Obeid, but in the 

 main his warriors were armed only with jave- 

 lins and swords. The same slaves formed the 

 flower of Arabi's army. Col. Hicks, on whom 

 the Khedive now bestowed the title of pasha, 

 enlisted as many of them as he could in his 

 expeditionary force, but it was made up mostly 

 of forced conscripts, some of them brought in 

 chains to the transport-boats. He began his 

 preparations in the spring, arrived at Khar- 

 toum in July, and marched against the Mahdi 

 in September at the head of a force of between 

 10,000 and 11,000. Not far from El-Obeid he 



was entrapped in a rocky defile, where his 

 Nordenfeldt and mountain guns were useless, 

 and where there was no water for his soldiers. 

 The battle lasted three days, and when the 

 ammunition was exhausted Col. Hicks endeav- 

 ored to break through the host of savages by a 

 bayonet-charge. He was the last of the staff 

 to fall, and used his revolver and sword with 

 deadly effect until he was pierced by a lance. 



HONDURAS, a republic of Central America. 

 Area, 120,480 square kilometres; population, 

 350,000. Congress met on Oct. 15, 1883, and 

 promptly accepted the resignation of President 

 M. A. Soto, ordering the election of a successor. 

 There were four candidates : Gen. Bogran, Don 

 Monico C6rdova, Don Celio Arias, and Gen. 

 Delgado. Gen. Luis Bogran was elected. He 

 was one of the ministerial triumvirate govern- 

 ing the country during the absence of Presi- 

 dent Soto after May, 1883, and he assumed 

 the ministry of Public Works upon the death 

 of Gen. Gutierrez, Sept. 13, 1883. The Cabinet 

 was composed as follows : Minister of the Inte- 

 rior, of Justice, and Public Works, Gen. Bogran ; 

 Foreign Affairs, Public Instruction, and War, 

 Sefior Alvarado ; Finance, Sefior A. Zelaya. 



The United States Consul at Amapala is Mr. 

 C. Morris. 



Finance. During the fiscal year 1879-'80 the 

 revenue amounted to $969,854, and the expen- 

 diture to $854,352: the budget estimate for 

 1880-'83 valued the annual income at $861,970, 

 and the outlay at $759,930. 



National Debt. The consolidated home indebt- 

 edness is represented by bonds issued to the ex- 

 tent of $1,000,000. The floating debt amounts 

 to $578,609. 



Communications. There is a line of railway in 

 operation between Puerto Cortez and San Pe- 

 dro, 37 miles. The length of telegraph lines in 

 operation is 1,046 kilometres. In 1879 there 

 were 19 post-offices, which forwarded 96,973 

 letters, 41,411 of these being government dis- 

 patches, 4,900 newspapers, and 47 sample pack- 

 ages. Income, $3,026 ; expenses, $18,073. 



Commerce. The President estimates that the 

 average annual trade movement comprises ex- 

 ports worth $1,805,000; viz. : gold and silver 

 bullion, $600,000; indigo, $200,000; cattle, 

 $150,000; cabinet and dye-woods, $180,000; 

 and hides, $100,000. The trade of the republic 

 is carried on, on the Pacific shore, through the 

 port of Amapala, and on the Atlantic shore 

 through Truxillo and Omoa. 



Pine-Forests. A few miles from Santa Bar- 

 bara, in a region whose altitude is about 2,500 

 feet above the sea, the grand mahogany and 

 huge cedar trees begin to diminish in size, and 

 vast forests of yellow and red pitch-pine cover 

 the foot of hills and mountain-tops. It may 

 be safely asserted that half -of the entire area 

 of the republic is composed of these pineries. 

 The fact that the West India islands and the 

 republics of .South America which border on 

 the Atlantic consume millions of dollars' worth 

 of pitch-pine lumber, shingles, etc., annually, 



