ully informed of all the circumstances, he would never have
permitted him to advance. As it was, famine, want of water, and the
unseasonable time of the year, ought to have been sufficient reasons for
postponing the expedition; but Nejumi turned a deaf ear to all their
protests, he feared the Khalifa; his plundering and cruelties cried to
heaven for vengeance, and the instruments of that vengeance appeared in
the persons of General Grenfell and Colonel Wodehouse.

Saleh Bey, the son of Hussein Pasha Khalifa, and a subsidized sheikh of
the Egyptian Government, drove his nephew out of Murat, advanced almost
to Abu Hamed, and we fondly hoped that the Government would at least
advance to Dongola, which is the key of the Sudan; but we were again
doomed to disappointment.

And now Mahdiism was far too exhausted to make any further attempts on
Egypt. The province of Dongola had been utterly ruined, and Yunis's
ill-treatment of the inhabitants was beyond description. Complaints of
his evil deeds eventually reached the Khalifa's ears, and fearing that
the inhabitants might be induced to join the "Turks," he relieved Yunis
of his appointment, and replaced him by Zogal, who, in spite of his
former fall from power, was known to be a just man, and the Khalifa
trusted to him to restore the confidence of the people. Yet the Khalifa
did not entirely trust Zogal, and still left Mussaid to watch him, he
also sent another Baggara called Arabi with three hundred troops to
observe his doings.

Dongola now became a hotbed of spying and cross-spying. Matters became
so serious that it seemed a fight between the rival parties was
imminent, and every post brought letters from either section, accusing
the other of malpractices. The Khalifa therefore summoned these two
emirs--Mussaid and Arabi--to Dongola, and on their arrival they reported
that it was Zogal's intention to deliver up the province to the Egyptian
Government. Thereupon the Khalifa recalled Zogal, and replaced him by
Yunis.

Zogal, on his arrival in Omdurman, was well received, and did not
hesitate to refute the misstatements of the emirs; but he was not
believed, and was thrown into chains, where he remains to this day.
Zogal's only fault is, that he is a Dongolawi, and a relative of the
Mahdi, whilst his opponents are all Baggaras, who are the governing
party, and therefore he is not likely to receive any pity from them.

Besides Wad en Nejumi and Abu Anga, there yet remained