280 
THE EASTERN SOUDAN. 
. To refer to Nur Angora for a moment, we had 
JNur Angora . ° . . . , 7 
many conversations with him on the Soudan m 
on th© Khaiifa^ enera ^ Darfur, etc. We asked him what did the 
Khalifa do when he heard of the news of the advance of the Anglo- 
Egyptian force, of the fall of Dongola, Berber,etc., and Nur Angora 
replied:— 
“ I was at Omdurman when the news of your advance came. The 
Khalifa on learning of it was very much concerned, and shut himself 
up in his private apartments for six days and would see nobody. After 
the taking of Berber and subsequent operations at Kassala, he collect¬ 
ed his Ulema or learned men, and addressed them as follows:— 
f What does all this mean, at one time I was marching on Cairo (re¬ 
ferring no doubt to the Toski campaign) and my influence extended 
‘ as far as the Red Sea. Now day by day I lose post by post/ the 
Ulema replied : ‘it is the will of God, and you must submit, Mahmud 
will recover you your lost territory.’ After the defeat of Mahmud, the 
chief of the Ulema was decapitated for not having spoken the truth”. 
Qsman ssigjaa. With reference to Osman Digna, Nur Angora re¬ 
ported he was at Gedarif when Osman arrived there 
after his escape from the Atbara. He arrived footsore with scanty 
apparel, on a horse without a saddle, on which he escaped on being 
surprised by Major Benson’s patrol. When asked to explain what had 
happened Osman said with reference to the battle at Atbara that he 
had fought the infidels many times, but he had never had such a doing 
as he had had at this battle of Atbara. First, he said countless guns 
came into action, and under cover of their smoke the infantry advanced, 
then you heard a lot of music, and the infantry were on the top of the 
Zareba with their spears, he went on to say that he had advocated 
different tactics from what the EmirMahmud pursued. Osman wished 
to keep a containing force on the Nile near Shabluka cataract, and 
raid and harass with all the mounted men in the direction ofDongola, 
Berber and Kassala, he advocated having one big decisive fight outside 
Omdurman, and not fighting on the Atbara at all. The Sheikhs round 
Kassala told us that those tactics would be probably pursued by Mahmud 
and Osman. Osman was asked by Nur Angora to describe what hap¬ 
pened when he was surprised north of El Fasher. He said he was 
asleep under some palm trees at midday having travelled all through 
the night from considerably north of Asobri when he heard the firing, 
and jumped up, seised the nearest horse and was off, adding that had 
the firing not commenced so far off as it did, the chances were that he 
would have been captured, as it was he had time to escape, but in the 
hurry of departure he had left behind him all the dollars he owned in 
the world. He concluded by saying his friend the Jaalin Emir Sheikh 
Ed Damer, was captured, and confided in Nur Angora in so many words 
that the game was now up, and that they had no chance of ultimate 
success. It was unfortunate Osman was not caught, for had he 
been captured there might have been no influential Emir by the side 
of the Khalifa urging him and assisting him to escape from Omdurman 
at the time he did. 
