ASSASSINATION OF ISMAIL PACHA. 
59 
At the town of Matemma^ Abd il Majid^ Petherick’s principal 
agent on the upper part of the White Ptiver, joined us. He had 
waited our arrival at that place one month. He had deemed it 
advisable to meet us here^ in order to secure Petherick^s undivided 
attention to all he had to relate ere we reached Khartoum^ as he 
was sure that a pressure of business there would render it almost 
impossible to do so. He said many atrocities had been committed 
against the negroes by traders,, and that in consequence the negroes 
rose upon all indiscriminately^ and massacres were numerous. 
Last year, near Gondokoro, a sad tragedy took place. Nickla, chief 
of his tribe, a man of wealth, and regarded as a rain-prophet, 
had failed in his promise to bring down rain. His people waited 
day after day with impatience, and, furious at the delay, they rose 
upon him and attacked him. He defended himself valiantly for a 
long time, but at last he was overpowered and cruelly murdered. 
On the bank opposite Matemma is Shendy, the ancient capital. 
It was here that Ismail Pacha met with his terrible fate. On his 
return from the conquest of Sennaar, exactions of cattle, horses, 
and provender of so extensive a nature, and in far too short a time 
for possible execution, were insisted on, that the native chiefs, with 
the best intent, able to supply but a fraction of the enormous re- 
quirements, determined to extricate themselves from the dilemma 
by that night assassinating the guard and burning the Pacha and 
his suite. 
The horrible tragedy, with the aid-of unbounded hospitality and 
copious drink, was successfully accomplished, for no sooner had the 
unsuspecting guard been noiselessly poignarded, than hundreds of 
individuals, already prepared with the materials, rushed to heap up 
bundles of dry reeds and straw agaiust the sides of the frail huts 
wherein the unconscious victims slept. Not a sound was heard 
