ks is advancing--Slatin
Bey's defence of Darfur--His heroism--The Mahdi prepares to resist
Hicks--The march of the Hicks Expedition--Extracts from the diary
of Major Herlth--Colonel Farquhar's gallantry at Rahad--Gustav
Klootz deserts to the Mahdi--Klootz's interview with the Mahdi in
which Ohrwalder and Bonomi act as interpreters--The expedition
advances towards Shekan--Is surrounded and annihilated--Description
of the battle--The Mahdi victor of Kordofan.

In our present miserable plight all our hopes were directed on Khartum,
from whence we expected succour. Hitherto we heard only vague rumours,
but the news of the defeat and death of Wad Makashef on the White Nile
encouraged us to hope on. We had no idea who commanded the Egyptian
troops in this action. We were quite uncertain as to what policy the
Government would adopt regarding Kordofan; and of course, at this time,
false reports were flying about everywhere, and it was quite impossible
to arrive at the truth. At first we were inclined to believe everything
we heard, but gradually we found that we lived in such an atmosphere of
lying and deceit that we arrived at believing almost nothing we heard.
The Sudanese proverb, "Consider all news to be good and true, even if it
be false," is universally acted on in the Moslem world; and those who
looked for help from the Government always hoped for good news, and
seized on the smallest pretext to give colour to their expectations;
their belief in dreams which never came true accentuated their misery.
It was useless to try and enlighten these poor ignorant people,
contradiction only made them annoyed. Fortune-tellers were often
consulted about the future, and naturally they foretold what they
thought their interrogators wanted to hear, and thus gave them hope for
a short time; but when it turned out incorrect--as was invariably the
case--it only increased their depression.

God, in His mercy, sent a ray of light into the darkness of our
captivity, which again kindled the hope of succour which had been
well-nigh quite extinguished. On the 21st of June, 1883, a man came into
our little hut and asked in a scared sort of way if we were the
missionaries. After repeated assurances that we were, the man took
courage and withdrew from his trousers a little note, which he had
concealed very carefully, and handed it to Father Bonomi, who at once
tore it open in nervous haste and eagerly scanned