THE SUDAN PAST AND PRESENT. 
691 
dervish fighting leaders, the conqueror of Hicks and the director of 
the assault on Khartum. 
From this date, with the exception of an occasional raid, the Egyp¬ 
tian frontier has been quiet ; the dervish advanced post is now at 
Suarda, upwards of 100 miles south of Haifa, though their patrols 
generally come north as far as Akasheh. Such is the present disposi¬ 
tion of the Northern Dervish Force. 
The oft-resuscitated Osman Digna, too, after the withdrawal of the 
British expedition in 1885, held Sawakin more or less in a state of 
siege. Several minor actions took place almost under the walls, and, 
in December, 1888, a combined British and Egyptian force was again 
obliged to assemble to drive the dervishes out of the trenches which 
they had made within 800 yards of the advanced works. 
Still the state of siege continued, and it was not till February, 1891, 
that a small Egyptian expeditionary force, under the command of 
Colonel Holled Smith, succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat on Osman 
Digna at Tokar, which caused his force to disperse towards Berber 
and Kassala, and left the Egyptian troops in possession of the fertile 
Tokar delta; thus at length a period of peace has fallen upon that 
unfortunate neighbourhood which has been, for upwards of seven 
years, the scene of almost constant warfare. 
In the south-east, Kassala is still held by a small dervish garrison, 
whilst Italian influence has already penetrated sufficiently far to cause 
the Khalifa considerable anxiety in that direction. 
As regards Equatoria, for upwards of two years after Stanley’s 
departure, little was known of events in that far-distant province, but 
recently the pioneers of the British East Africa Company have suc¬ 
ceeded in securing the services of a large portion of the old Equatoria 
garrison, which is now employed in holding Unyoro and Uganda. 
Some 400 of Emin’s old mutinous troops are still at Wadelai in an 
independent position, whilst the most southerly dervish post is at 
Begaf, but is cut off from the north by the revolt of the Dinka and 
Shilluk tribes, who are causing much trouble to the dervish garrison 
at Fashoda. 
El Obeid, to which reference has already been made, is now the 
western limit of the Khalifa’s dominions, which are clearly less exten¬ 
sive than they were a few years back. Constant warfare has, no 
doubt, considerably reduced his power to undertake offensive move¬ 
ments on a large scale; but it is probable he will be better able to 
govern his now curtailed territories, and he is said to be capable of 
profiting by past experience. He is endeavouring to encourage cul¬ 
tivation and to make himself, as far as possible, independent of external 
communication. His policy is to strengthen his own power, and 
concentrate it in the hands of his own tribesmen, the Baggara. These 
Baggara are now, no doubt, in absolute military occupation of the 
Sudan, and they rule its unfortunate inhabitants with a ruthless 
tyranny, which makes the latter long for a return of the Egyptian 
power which they so heedlessly cast off. 
The Sudan peoples are not, as is often supposed, united under their 
present ruler, and, strong as the Baggara power is at present, the 
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