A SUMMONS FEOM THE MAHDI. 463 



however, in the interests of my people and of Junker, not 

 despair of a favourable solution to all these complications in the 

 end. I believe I told you about Lupton Bey's last letters, 

 in one of which he announced that the Mahdi's men, seve- 

 ral thousands in number, were encamped six hours' march to 

 the west of him, and that he was resolved to fight and die. 

 Another followed directly after with the news that, being left 

 in the lurch by all his men, he had surrendered his province, 

 and was going to Kordofan — he hoped also to see me shortly. 

 Together with this letter I received a despatch from the 

 " Emir Keremallah," commander of the army of the Mahdi 

 on the Bahr-el-Ghazal, summoning me peremptorily to join 

 him at once in Assuan with my men, and submit to the 

 Mahdi. The whole of the Sudan had done so, Khartum was 

 besieged, General Hicks and his troops, Alaeddin Pasha, and 

 all the higher officials were slain, and, if I delayed, all my 

 communications both by land and water would be cut off, so I 

 had better make haste. 



Now just think of my position. For fourteen months I had 

 had no communication with Khartum, or news from there, the 

 magazines were quite empty of cloths, soap, coffee, &c, and 

 though I had repeatedly pressed by letter for a consignment 

 of a couple of hundred Remington rifles and a sufficient 

 supply of ammunition, I had not received them ; the whole 

 of Makraka, Rol, and part of Monbuttu were full of armed 

 Danagla ; in Lado itself there was a rabble of drunkards and 

 gamblers, most of them fellow-countrymen of the rebels — the 

 clerks of my divan. The prospect was not brilliant. My 

 soldiers, of little account under any circumstances, were scat- 

 tered over a wide extent of territory, and their withdrawal had 

 to be accomplished with the greatest circumspection. 



Accordingly, I asked my officials here, in open council, 

 whether they considered it more desirable to submit or to 

 prepare to fight. There could be no doubt what the answer 

 would be — the purport of it was submission. A letter in that 

 sense Was therefore drawn up, and then we consulted as to 

 who should deliver it. The choice fell on myself, the Kadi, 

 the schoolmaster, and a few other men of this place, among 

 them one of my clerks, whose family possesses great influence 



