the treaty concluded with the Wahhabis, and with the non-fulfilment of
certain of its clauses, determined to send another army to Arabia, and
to include in it the soldiers who had recently proved unruly. This
expedition, under his eldest son Ibrahim Pasha, left in the autumn of
1816. The war was long and arduous, but in 1818 Ibrahim captured the
Wahhabi capital of Deraiya. Abdullah, their chief, was made prisoner,
and with his treasurer and secretary was sent to Constantinople, where,
in spite of Ibrahim's promise of safety, and of Mehemet Ali's
intercession in their favour, they were put to death. At the close of
the year 1819, Ibrahim returned to Cairo, having subdued all present
opposition in Arabia.

Meanwhile the pasha had turned his attention to the improvement of the
manufactures of Egypt, and engaged very largely in commerce. He created
for himself a monopoly in the chief products of the country, to the
further impoverishment of the people, and set up and kept going for
years factories which never paid. But some of his projects were sound.
The work of digging (1819-1820) the new canal of Alexandria, called the
Mahmudiya (after the reigning sultan of Turkey), was specially
important. The old canal had long fallen into decay, and the necessity
of a safe channel between Alexandria and the Nile was much felt. Such
was the object of the canal then excavated, and it answered its purpose;
but the sacrifice of life was enormous (fully 20,000 workmen perished),
and the labour of the unhappy fellahin was forced. Another notable fact
in the economic progress of the country was the development of the
cultivation of cotton in the Delta in 1822 and onwards. The cotton grown
had been brought from the Sudan by Maho Bey, and the organization of the
new industry--from which in a few years Mehemet Ali was enabled to
extract considerable revenues--was entrusted to a Frenchman named Jumel.

Conquest of the Sudan begun.

In 1820 Mehemet Ali ordered the conquest of the eastern Sudan to be
undertaken. He first sent an expedition westward (Feb. 1820) which
conquered and annexed the oasis of Siwa. Among the pasha's reasons for
wishing to extend his rule southward were the desire to capture the
valuable caravan trade then going towards the Red Sea, and to secure the
rich gold mines which he believed to exist in Sennar. He also saw in the
campaign a means of getting rid of the disaffected troops, and of
obtaining a sufficient number