d that the Mahdi's power could
save them from the wild impetuous stream. Many of them crossed on
angaribs (native beds), to each post of which an inflated skin was
attached.

Towards the end of June, 1884, Slatin Bey arrived at Rahad. The Khalifa
Abdullah ordered the big war-drums to be beaten, and the whole of the
cavalry left the camp to meet him and escort him in. The Mahdi received
Slatin very kindly, and he was attached to Khalifa Abdullah's followers.

Abdullah delighted in collecting foreigners around him. One day Father
Bonomi and I were summoned by Abdullah to meet Slatin, and this gave me
a chance of meeting Father Bonomi, whom I had not seen for months.

It was about this time that Marietta Combotti, one of our black girls,
came from Khartum to Rahad. After Hicks's defeat we sent her to Khartum
to inform our people there about our condition and about the Mahdi's
power, and urged everyone to leave Khartum as soon as possible. We gave
her some letters which were sewn into the end of a mat. Consul Hansal
had assisted Combotti in every way, and had given her several things for
us, such as clothes, money, and medicines. She had suffered greatly on
the journey, had been put in chains, and all she had succeeded in saving
was her money. She had been away seven months.

Amongst other things Consul Hansal sent us a photograph of our new and
highly-honoured bishop, Monsignor Imbrien, of the Tyrol. Marietta also
brought a letter from the consul to me describing the condition of
Khartum, and the defeat of Baker Pasha, about which we had heard
nothing. The consul further added: "We hope that the English will
energetically push forward into the Sudan, or we shall be lost. Our
condition is desperate." This letter was dated early in January, 1884.
Hansal also sent us the _Tyroler Volksblatt_ newspaper, published in
Posen, and in it I was surprised to read an account of my own death. The
paper said I had been captured by the Mahdiists, and had died of fatigue
and ill-treatment. So my friends believed I was dead! and, indeed, I
felt then that death could not be far distant. My complaint was worse
than ever, and I was suffering from scurvy as well. We did indeed feel
grateful to the unfortunate Hansal who had done all he could to
alleviate our distress; but God has disposed otherwise. How I wish poor
Hansal had taken our advice and gone home.

The state of moral darkness in which we lived, the constant insults,
being gazed