Stas began to ask why the Egyptian
Government had annexed all the country lying south of Nubia,
particularly Kordofan, Darfur, and the Sudan as far as Lake Albert
Nyanza and deprived the natives there of their liberty. Mr. Rawlinson
explained that whatever was done by the Egyptian Government was done at
the request of England which extended a protectorate over Egypt and in
reality ruled her as Egypt herself desired.

"The Egyptian Government did not deprive anybody of his liberty," he
said, "but restored it to hundreds of thousands and perhaps to millions
of people. In Kordofan, in Darfur and in the Sudan there were not
during the past years any independent States. Only here and there some
petty ruler laid claim to some lands and took possession of them by
force in spite of the will of the residents. They were mainly inhabited
by independent Arab-negro tribes, that is, by people having the blood
of both races. These tribes lived in a state of incessant warfare. They
attacked each other and seized horses, camels, cattle, and, above all,
slaves; besides, they perpetrated numerous atrocities. But the worst
were the ivory and slave hunters. They formed a separate class, to
which belonged nearly all the chiefs of the tribes and the richer
traders. They made armed expeditions into the interior of Africa,
appropriating everywhere ivory tusks, and carried away thousands of
people: men, women, and children. In addition they destroyed villages
and settlements, devastated fields, shed streams of blood, and
slaughtered without pity all who resisted. In the southern portion of
the Sudan, Darfur, and Kordofan, as well as the region beyond the Upper
Nile as far as the lake they depopulated some localities entirely. But
the Arabian bands made their incursions farther and farther so that
Central Africa became a land of tears and blood. Now England which, as
you know, pursues slave-dealers all over the world, consented that the
Egyptian Government should annex Kordofan, Darfur, and the Sudan. This
was the only method to compel these pillagers to abandon their
abominable trade and the only way to hold them in restraint. The
unfortunate negroes breathed more freely; the depredations ceased and
the people began to live under tolerable laws. But such a state of
affairs did not please the traders, so when Mohammed Ahmed, known
to-day as 'the Mahdi,' appeared among them and proclaimed a holy war on
the pretext that the true faith of Mahomet w