During this summer (1893), in consequence of some inter-tribal fighting, Abu Mariam advanced against the Dinka or Jangé tribe. Dinkas beat Dervishes.A battle took place, in which Abu Mariam was killed and his force destroyed, whereupon the fugitive Dervishes took refuge in Shakka, leaving many of their rifles in the hands of the Dinkas. On hearing of this the Belgian Governor of Zemio (Le Marinel) sent to Faki Ahmed and Ajerra, chiefs in Dar Fertit, and unwilling allies of the Dervishes, asking them to make common cause with the Dinkas against the Mahdists. At the same time he despatched an ally of Zemio’s, one Baudué, who appears to have been starting an expedition in the direction of Deim Bakr “to conquer the Bahr el Ghazal” on his own account, to help, and reinforced him by sending 2,000 men to Mbanga.
They were, however, not required. The Dervishes were too broken to renew the attack on the Dinkas, and no further action appears to have taken place in this direction. Mahmud.Mahmud, chief Emir of Kordofan and the Bahr El Ghazal, was much incensed at Abu Mariam’s defeat, and sent to Darfur for reinforcements; but the chiefs in Darfur refused to assist, or even to come and see him.
1894.By the beginning of 1894 the Congo Expedition for the North was ready, and in February Nilis, with La Kéthulle as second in command, five other whites (Lannoy, Gérard, Libois, Gonse Deschrymacker, and Sergeant Philippart) and a strong party, made a start for the North.
Recapitulating shortly, we see that by the end of February, 1894, the Dervishes based on Rejaf were pressing the remains of the Kerckhoven expedition under Baert on the Congo-Nile watershed, but that in the rest of the Bahr el Ghazal their influence was practically nil, their only post of any importance, and that weakly held, being Shakka, to the north of the Bahr el Arab. The Congo forces had not succeeded in establishing posts on the Nile, whilst between the north-west of the Bahr el Ghazal and Zemio’s country they were busy cementing relations with the natives, who seemed not ill-disposed to receive them. Since the British Government had taken over Uganda on 1st April, 1893, fears had been expressed that the Dervishes would attack the colony from the north; but for this there appears to have been no justification, for the Khalifa had no intention of enlarging his dominions in this direction, and was content to keep Rejaf as a penal settlement and as an outpost against the inroads of the whites.
La Kéthulle.The expedition under La Kéthulle (for Nilis’e name disappears almost at once) penetrated, viâ Sandu, up the Chinko River, Sango, back to Sandu, Bakuma, Kreich, Bandassi country (7° 30′ north lat.), Upper Adda or Bahr el Arab (8° 40′ north lat.), to the important village of Hofrat el Nahas (where there are valuable copper mines), being well received all along the route. At Hofrat el Nahas the natives are said to have offered[195] to take La Kéthulle west along the caravan route to Lake Chad, but he declined, and himself returned along his own route to Rafai, where he arrived on 8th June, 1894, and at once proceeded to Europe.
Re-occupation by Dervishes.The Khalifa, on hearing of the presence of Europeans in the Bahr el Ghazal, and of their having communicated with the Emir of Shakka, sent orders to Mahmud to re-occupy the Bahr el Ghazal, and in consequence a force of 1,800 Sudanese riflemen and 2,000 spearmen, under the Emir Khatim Musa, was despatched from Shakka towards the Belgian posts in the summer of 1894; they were delayed some time by the rains, but eventually pushed forward. The Belgians, whose headquarters were at Liffi, with advanced post at Hofrat el Nahas (?), retired before Khatim Musa, who entered Faroge. Sheikh Hamed, finding himself deserted by the Belgians, sided with the Dervishes, and handed over the treaties; these, together with two letters written by Belgians at Liffi, dated September, 1894, arrived at Omdurman in January, 1895.
The result of the Dervish victory over Fadl el Mula manifested itself at Omdurman in May, 1894, by a steamer from Rejaf bringing back loot in the shape of many tarbushes, two guns, ivory, five red standards with white stripes, and many breech-loading rifles and Congo Free State buttons, together with a report that a great victory had been gained over the “Turks.” This produced at first considerable conjecture in Egypt as to the identity of those who had been defeated.
As regards Abu Girga, he was thrown into prison about the same time by Dafaalla.
The Dervishes had meanwhile been losing ground in the west, and only retained garrisons at El Fasher, El Obeid, Nahud, and Shakka, besides the penal settlement at Rejaf.
During 1894 there were various disturbances and rumours of invasion by white men in general from the south-west, and by Rabeh Zubeir in particular. Although little is known about these western movements in Wadai, etc., it is worth noticing that much information, curiously accurate on the whole, regarding movements of Europeans and their native troops on the Upper Nile, trickled down to Omdurman, and thence to the Egyptian Intelligence Department.