THE LATEST HOLY WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 78, 30 March 1892, Page 4

THE LATEST HOLY WAR.

(From the Daily News.)

Ten years ago, when from his little island in tho Middlo Nile the new Prophet proclaimed his mission to overthrow Egypt and convert tho world, thoro were about 100 Egyptian garrisons scattattered over tho Soudan, a country nearly as large as India. At intervals during tho last eight years survivals and memorials of these garrisonß and of armies sent to relieve them have been, as it were, cast ashore on tho Egyptian Iwrder ; but for the rest, garrisons and armies have long since been swallowed up like ships at sea. These memorials are as authentic and complete as we may now hope them to be until the time comes, if it ever does come, when the Gordon journals and other papers in the Khalifa's possession at Khartoum aire made public. They comprise Mahdiata' documents found at tho time of the boat expeditions during the invasion of Egypt by the Malidiets in August 1889, and after the collapse of Osman Digna's power at Tokar in the spring of this year, as also the testimony of eye-witnesses during the siege of Khartoum, and of refugee Eyptiau officers, who on their arrival at Cairo wero tried by court-martial for their alleged conduct during tho defence. Besides all this, 'there are the reports of the English and Egyptian officers who have been engaged in the operations of the last 10 years, The materials thus gradually accumulated have just been put together iL\ consecutive co-ordinated order by Mayor F ; It. Wingate, of the Egyptian army, in his " Mahdiisin and the Egyptian Sudan " (Macmillan a:id Co,). Major Wlngate's book must not be judged by what it does not profess to be. The author has not tried to write an exhaustive history— the time ha 3 hardly come for that. His main purpose has been to explain the origin and meaning of Mahdism, and to mark its simultaneous progress in all the provinces since 1882. Straightforward, matter-of-fact statement, scrupulously verified —that, and not rhetorical artifice, nor word-painting, nor any oll'ort whatever after effect, is what tho reader will find in this useful and

interesting book. It is losti history than first-rate material for history. At the same time it may be doubted if any historical artist can improve upon Major Wingato'a plainly-told story or! the adventures of Sir Charles "Wilson and Lord Charles Beresford and their comrades on the Nile steamers between Metemeh and Khartoum. And nothing— except the testimony of some othor eye-witnesses, of whose existence the world is still ignorant—can surpass tho realism and the simple pathos of Bordeini Bey and Emir Mledawi'a narrative of Cordon's last days. Major "Wingate disposes once and for all of the story that Khartoum fell through Earag Pacha's treachery. It is not true that tho Mahdi put Farag Pacha to death in in his contemptuous anger against a traitor. Farag Pacha, it seems, surrendered only when all was over, and his death appears to have been owing to an ancient blood feud. We have called this book firstrate Vnaterial for history. We might havo called it first-rate material for tragedy, All the elements of tragedy— in the great sense of the word—are present. How fateful was the consultation between the Mahdi and his Emirs when they heard of the English victory at Abu Klea. The Mahdi wished to retreat to El Obeid—in other words, to raise tho siego of Khartoum and leave the way open between Gordon and his countrymen. And while these deliberations were going on Gordon'ssoldiors were dying of starvation at their posts, and the dead in the streets wore too numerous for burial. Gordon himself had at last given way to despair ; ho could no longer bring himself to say, " The English will bo here to-mor-row." " Gordon is lying," the soldiers and the people wero declaring but yet the Mahdi was ready for flight. And all his Emirs agreed except one, and this solitary dissentient prevailed upon them to attempt another assault, which was earned out in the dead of night. Tho Mahdi, the Emir El Nojumi, Sheikh Saleb, the northern tribesman, Gordon himself, wero all of thorn fateful characters whom a Shakespeare or a Greek tragedian would hayo made a possession for ail time. Thore is somothing

strangely fateful in the story that tbo men who killed Gordon did it to avenge Suliman Zubehr, whom Gordon put to death for slave hunting many years before in tho Southern Soudan. Suliman Zubehr was the son of Bultan Zubehr, who is still a

prieoner in cairo, who onco waa Gordon's most formidable enemy in the Far South, and whom Gordon in 1885, recommended to be established ruler of Khartoum. The Mahdi's fato, unlike Gordon's, was of the ignoble sort. He foil a victim to his own passions — and to a wronged woman's vengeance. As for Emir El Nejumi, he is one of the most striking and most dramatio characters in all history. His religious convictions wero as fixed and strong, his energy and devotion as great as those of Gordon himself. The name of the Emir El Nejumi is one to be remembered, Ho itjwas who destroyed Hicks Pacha's army, and why captured Khartoum. Ho, not tho Mahdi, nor

the Khalifa who succeeded him, was

the sword of Islam. It was he, who faithful to the mission of the Mahdi— the divinely Bent "Guide," "Deliverer" —inarched a thousand miles through the Western Desert into Egypt, fought the " unbelieving" at Toski, and thoro periebed, "We must all stand prepared to meet our Maker to-day," the Emir is reported to have said

■when, in the early morning, ho saw tho Egyptian and English troops in front ol him. This recalls some words attributed to the defender of Khartoum, " To-day Gordon must die." These are a few of tho leading personages. But there are many whoso careers, though of secondary importance, are full of romance—Lupton Bey, for instance, the Essex lad, first serving on board

a Red Sea steamer, and then wandering off in search of adventures to tho Soudan, where he becamo ruler of a country larger than France.

Major Wingate's collection of letters, written by the Mahdi and his Emire, are a wonderful revelation of the nature and pretensions of

Mahdism. There is nothing essen^ new in this religious movement Politically, of course, it was a re

volt against Egyptian corruption and European interruption with slavery. In so far as it is an honeinly religious movement it is to be classed with the Wahabi reformation in Arabia and India, and with tfee Sbnoßswyeh refoyniatiou

in Northern and Central Africa. In fact the Senoussiyeh have a Mahdi of their own, another veiled Mokanna, whom the Emirs may bring out next year— .lß92— unless they think it best to postdate tho prophecies. There is no doubt whatever that the rule of tho Mahdi, and of his successor, tho present Khalifa, has beon and is ono of utter selfishness and brutal cruelty and oppression. It is evident, too,

that in tho whole of tho enormous tract of country known as tho Soudan, tho Bagara tribesmen— a race of born soldiers— are tho Khalifa's only thoroughgoing supporters. In

tho last ten years the old tribal system in tho Soudan has been broken up. With a strong and

progressive ruler at Khartoum the Soudan might yet become a solid, prosperous stato of a type new in Africa ; and Major Wingate, tak-

ing note of certain signs of improvement in Khalifa Abdullah's adrninis-

tration, is inclinsd to think that some such result may bo possible.

It is now known thatOsrnan Digna, one of the Mahdi's four chief Emirs

lias been an oppressor of unexampled savagery. His headquarters at Afafifc, when captured some

months since, abounded with bones, carcases, and maimed figures of his victims. Until wo read his journals as quoted by Major Wingato, wo

had no notion what an astonishing

liar Osman Digna was. We have found only one unquestionably true statement in them, that in which he says that his men with thoir rifle

lire kept General Graham's army

awake the night before tho battle of Tamai. Osman's accounts of the

strength of tho English forco are wildly exaggerated. Ho makes out General Graham's force to have beon seven or eight times stronger than it was. But to give him his duo

he is fairly accurate in his report about the fleet. That array of vessels, gigantic troop ships, and trans-

port steamers ]might well have amazed Osman Bigna, especially when he saw them lighted up at night, like a city on the sea. For rest, of his passages about the Englishmen's dread of tho faithful, their retreats, their reluctanco to fight— their " funk," as tho British soldier would say — are very amusing reading. Some of the moat interesting passages in Major Wingate's book aro those which relate to.Sir Evelyn Wood's reorgrnisation of the Egyptian army and its training by tho Sirdars who havo succeeded him. Ten years ago,, who would havo believed that the Egyptian army — then recruited from weeping fellahs chained together, and driven by tho lash — was about to become, uuder the protection of the stranger, the most popular sorvico in the country. Besides being a narrative of the Mahdiist movement, Major Wingate's book is an inspiring testimony to the fact that Britain is doing her work in Egypt faithfully and well.