1889.Meanwhile Emin and Jephson had retired to Tunguru on the Albert Nyanza, and on 18th January, 1889, Stanley arrived at the lake for the third time with the remains of the expedition, and was joined by Emin and Jephson in the beginning of February. Selim Bey, now commander of a portion of Emin’s rebel troops at Wadelai, on being summoned by Emin, left Wadelai with 14 Egyptian officers for Tunguru, and on arrival expressed his contrition for the mutiny. Emin returns to the coast.A council held on the 18th determined that the evacuation should take place on the 10th April, and although Selim Bey, who had returned to Wadelai, where Fadl el Mula Bey was in command, wrote to say all would return with Emin to Egypt, they did not arrive in time, and although every opportunity was given them of overtaking the expedition, no one appeared. The expedition, numbering about 600 men in all, and 900 women and children, eventually arrived in Zanzibar at the end of the year 1889.
The Emir Karamalla, after retiring from before Lado and Emin in 1885, to quash disaffections amongst his own Emirs against the Khalifa’s succession, appears to have become disaffected himself. So the Khalifa, seeing the danger of trying to hold a huge province with insufficient forces, and fearing that Karamalla, being a Dongolawi, might revolt altogether, Bahr el Ghazal evacuated by Dervishes.ordered the latter to evacuate the province and retire to Shakka, and eventually to Omdurman. Thus the land returned to the semi-barbarous state it was in before the Egyptian occupation, and had peace from the Dervishes for some years, for the Mahdist operations were chiefly confined to the neighbourhood of the Nile, and had little effect in the direction of the Bahr El Arab and interior of the Bahr El Ghazal country.
1890. Shilluk war.In 1890 a rebellion against the Mahdists sprang up among the Shilluks, in the neighbourhood of Kodok and the Emir of Gallabat, Zeki Tumal, was sent thither to quell it, with a force chiefly consisting of the Gallabat men who had fought so well against the Abyssinians in the spring of 1889. 1891.During the whole of 1891 the war continued with varying fortunes, the Dervishes on more than one occasion being heavily defeated, and the communications between Omdurman and Bahr El Jebel being completely interrupted, much to the anxiety of the Khalifa. Alarmist reports continued to arrive in Omdurman during 1891 to the effect that Emin Pasha was at Dufile, advancing northwards with a large body of Germans, and reinforcements were sent to help Zeki and fight against the white invaders.[191]
1892.Eventually Zeki got the upper hand of the Shilluks in the beginning of 1892, but the Dervish supremacy did not last long. In the summer of that year it was reported at Omdurman that the Italians were advancing westwards from Massaua. Fate of Zeki Tumal.Zeki Tumal was therefore recalled with his army, and was thus obliged to evacuate Kodok, leaving only a very small guard for the purpose of collecting taxes.
He was then sent back to Gedaref and Gallabat, to make headway against the Italians, but on reporting that it was impossible to invade Eritrea, as the Khalifa wished him to do, he was again recalled to Omdurman, treacherously seized, thrown into prison, and ultimately starved to death.
During 1892 reports reached Omdurman from the south of an European advance on Equatoria from the Zanzibar direction. At this period there was a small Dervish garrison at Rejaf under Omar Saleh, and orders were sent to him to withdraw to Bor. This was effected, but the climate of Bor was so unhealthy, and the natives so difficult to manage, that Abu Girga October, 1892.Abu Girga,[192] a powerful Emir, whom the Khalifa was anxious to get rid of, was sent south in October with 250 men, with orders to send Omar Saleh to Omdurman. Abu Girga, who had got wind of the Khalifa’s intentions, took the first opportunity of fighting the other Baggara Emirs who were with him, and absconding at Kodok.
For several months he was supposed to have deserted the Khalifa and joined a serious movement in Kordofan which was led by a western saint, one Muzil el Muhan, and which aimed at the destruction of the Khalifa. The latter, by the way, had been much disturbed by this insurrection, and sent his cousin, Ibrahim Khalil, with 4,000, men to suppress it; but the movement died out by itself.
1893.Abu Girga eventually arrived at Rejaf in July, 1893. Probably fearing the Khalifa’s wrath, and finding the station in a flourishing condition, he sent the Khalifa a present of ivory as a peace offering; this arrived in August, 1893. Not even a rumour of any fighting having taken place at either Rejaf or Lado, least of all with any whites, seems to have reached Omdurman about this time.
On Omar Saleh arriving at Omdurman he assured the Khalifa that the district was not in danger, and that no Europeans had arrived there. The Khalifa thereupon despatched his relative Arabi Wad Dafaalla.Arabi Wad Dafaalla[193] to take command, to transfer the garrison from Bor back to Rejaf, and to place Abu Girga in chains (presumably for his misconduct at Kodok).
It is more than likely that the above-mentioned rumours at Omdurman of a large Christian force in Equatoria referred to Van Kerckhoven’s Congo expedition, which had at that time (November, 1892) barely crossed the great watershed; but rumour, especially in the Sudan, is not to be trusted implicitly.