THE FALSE PROPHET IN THE SOUDAN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3605, 31 January 1883, Page 4

THE FALSE PROPHET IN THE SOUDAN.

Professor Schweinfurth communicated to the Times correspondent at Cairo on October 20th the folknving news from the Soudan :— Last June GOOO Egyptian soldiers, without provisions and tired, Averc surrounded by the folloAvers of the Mahdi, or False Prophet, and massacred. The uoavs of September 15th is as Mloavs : —Abd-el-Kadcr is in despair at not receiving reinforcements. He asks for Remingtons and ammunition. Khartoum is fortified, but the soldiers demoralised by repeated defeats. The population is secretly adhering to the Mahdi. Eight thousand soldiers are believed to have perished in the combats of September loth. El Obcid, capital of Kordofan, has been forty days besieged. Its capture is expected, and an attack on Khartoum will folloAv. Communication with Darfur has ceased. The Shutaurigc tribe alone remains faithful, Berber and Dongola are tranquil but uncertain. Dr. ScliAveinfurth's informants may possibly have somewhat exaggerated the facts, but the Professor is much impressed with the gravity of.the situation, Avhich, he declares, dwarfs into insignificance Arabi's miserable little revolt. The general belief through Islam is that the new prophet Avill be revealed on the Ist. of Moharrem, or 12th of November next. If these tribes carry Khartoum, they may, in Dr. Sclnvcinfurth's opinion, raise the entire upper country. As there seems some anxiety to understand the nationality of the parties, it may be as Avell to explain that this movement is directed against the Egyptians, and that the troops defeated and massacred arc Arabi's Egyptian soldiers of the Soudan, avlio, in consequence of the recent movements of Arabi, have been left Avithout sufficient reinforcements. One of the first acts of the military revolt, now called national patriotism, Avas the refusal of the Egyptian regiments to go to the Soudan.