434 THE SUDAN AND EQUATORIAL PROVINCE. 



which Pauf Pasha had demanded were said to be quite un- 

 necessary; the Government in Khartum was quite able to 

 crush the rebels with the resources at its own command. 



Whilst this expedition was still on its way, and amusing 

 itself with drinking mrisa — for an irregular never travels 

 without a pot of beer, a rosary for prayer, and one or two 

 concubines — the smouldering fires of rebellion broke out in 

 Kordofan and in Sennar, and the Government of Khartum 

 was hardly able to supply half the aid in men and ammuni- 

 tion demanded from it on all sides. In Sennar especially 

 things came to such a pass that the town of Sennar was set on 

 fire, the Governor and his few soldiers were driven into the 

 fortified barracks and there besieged, and the whole land was 

 filled with murder and the most shocking anarchy. 



Although Giegler Pasha himself went with a small steamer 

 to Sennar, the Government would have lost the whole district, 

 had it not been for the united exertions of Salih-Aga, a very 

 brave leader of some irregular troops, and Awad-el-Kerim, the 

 great Shukurie chief, who personally led two thousand horse- 

 men into the fight, and so saved Khartum from a like fate. 

 In Kordofan, too, villages were burned and the people mur- 

 dered. Communications in all directions were discontinued, 

 and if the situation improved a little after the victory in 

 Sennar, whereby the Government regained to some extent its 

 former prestige, yet the new Governor- General and Minister of 

 the Sudan, Abd-el-Kader Pasha, who arrived about this time, 

 found plenty to do. 



As the official duties connected with my province fully 

 occupy my time, I am not able to write much more concerning 

 the last few days of my stay in Khartum. The situation in 

 Kordofan appeared to be very critical, and we all waited 

 anxiously for news of Yussuf Pasha's great army. The news, 

 too, which came from Egypt gave us enough to think about. 

 Notwithstanding the extreme kindness of both Europeans and 

 Arabs, I was, as I have already said, heartily glad when the 

 steamer Ismailia, which had been placed at my disposal by 

 Abd-el-Kader Pasha, steamed into the White Nile, and I 

 had once more the pleasure of ascending its majestic waters. 

 Descriptions of this district have been too often given for me 



