ernment, and indeed His
Holiness the Pope, on our behalf, and one of the missionaries was
maintained on the Egyptian frontier with the special object of
endeavouring to procure our release; they took it in turns to relieve
each other, and were Fathers Dominicus Vicentini, Yohann Dichtl, Xavier
Geyer, Alois Bonomi, Leon Henriot, and Alois Specke, the last of whom
died at Assuan. We had many great difficulties, but perhaps the greatest
was the continual bad faith of the Arabs.

The transport of letters endangered the lives not only of the bearers,
but of the receivers as well, and any letter addressed to a European
would, if discovered, undoubtedly end either in the intended recipient's
death or imprisonment for life. But Archbishop Sogaro worked on with
indefatigable earnestness. Early in 1890 he sent one of our Coptic
Mission teachers, named Hanna Arraga, with money and goods to the
frontier, whence, if possible, he was to proceed to Omdurman and assist
us. It was thought the plan might succeed, for at that time Zogal was
Emir of Dongola, and he was desirous of opening trade with Halfa. Hanna
therefore sent an Arab on to find out how matters stood, while he
himself remained on the frontier; but the Arab never returned.

It so happened that just at this time Zogal and the two Baggara emirs
sent to watch him had a violent dispute, which resulted in all of them
being recalled to Omdurman. The Khalifa decided in favour of the
Baggaras, Zogal was thrown into chains, and Abdullah's nephew, Yunis,
was appointed Emir of Dongola; the latter held very different views with
regard to intercourse with Egypt, and that is why the Arab never
returned to Halfa. About fifteen days, however, before I effected my
escape, the Arab came to Omdurman and told me about the matter. His own
master and son had been implicated in the Dongola dispute and had been
thrown into chains; that was his reason for not returning, and after
that I never saw him again.[T]

Meanwhile, Ahmed Hassan, whom I had sent to Cairo with the letter, duly
delivered it to Archbishop Sogaro, who made a written agreement with him
for our release; he also instructed Hanna to proceed from Halfa to
Korosko, and there hand over to Ahmed Hassan the goods valued at L100.
Through Archbishop Sogaro's intermediary, Ahmed Hassan was given every
support by the Egyptian military authorities, who presented him with L20
and gave him a free passage to Korosko. On the 15th of September, 1