and considered it a well-written letter; in it
Hansal called the Mahdi "Sheikh," and begged him to release us,
receiving as a ransom such a sum as he should demand, and which he
(Hansal) was prepared to give. The bearer of the letter was then ordered
to take it direct to the Mahdi, but fearing that its contents might
compromise him, he gave it to Stambuli, who gave it as his opinion that
the letter was useless, as he himself had been doing all in his power to
effect our release, but was unable to do so. Father Bonomi, however,
urged that as the letter was useless it was therefore harmless, and that
there could be no objection to giving it to the Mahdi; consequently it
was taken to him, and he expressed himself much pleased with it;
although he admitted that the system of ransoming was in vogue during
the days of the Prophet, he stated that it had been changed by him, as
also was the tax per head formerly paid by Christians.

He, however, promised to give us protection until the coming of Sayidna
Isa (Jesus Christ), when we should either have to turn Moslems or die;
thus the letter was of no good to us, and on the following day a rumour
was spread abroad that the Austrian Consul had joined the Mahdi. The
messenger asked us to give him a few lines to take back, and thus prove
that he had delivered the letter to us; so we and Stambuli complied, and
the messenger left for Khartum; but he was followed by spies, and when
at Korsi--one and a half day's journey distant--he was searched by them,
and the letters found in the saddle-bag on the donkey, consequently he
was arrested, brought back, and thrown into chains.

The false news was now rapidly circulated that an English post had
arrived. Father Bonomi and I were at once summoned to read the letters.
It occurred to us that our letters had probably been seized and that we
were in some danger. I was not alarmed about my letter to Hansal, for I
had written in German, and there was no one besides myself in El Obeid
who understood German; but Bonomi's letters had been written in Italian,
and there were several people who understood that language. As we
entered the Mudirieh we saw Stambuli also coming. We were first taken to
the Khalifa Sherif, who was lying on a straw mat in his hut; after
greeting us, he lifted up the mat and drew out several letters, which we
at once recognised as those we had written. The Khalifa asked us if we
had written them, and we replied in the affirmati