of the lack of support from the Egyptian Government and
of the intrigues of the Governor-General at Khartoum,
and returned to London in 1876.

In 1877, he came back to Egypt at the special solicita-
tion of Ismail Pasha, who appointed him Governor-General
of the Sudan and the Equatorial Provinces. For two years
he labored under great difficulties (being always in great
straits to get money, officers, and troops sufficient to exe-
cute his plans) to maintain order and security in the coun-
try, so that the natives might live in peace and raise their
crops. Conditions of life in the Sudan in those days were
hard and the situation of the people pitiful. During the
years 1875-79, Gordon reports that the loss of life from
famine, disease, and wars exceeded 81,000 in Dar-Fur and
18,000 in Bahr-el-Ghazal, to which must be added a fur-
ther decrease of eighty to one hundred thousand caused
by the innumerable slave raids.

Every effort was made to stamp out the practice of
slave hunting and trading, the slave traders being driven
in large numbers out of all the towns and the slave bands
freed at every opportunity. Zubeir Pasha, the Sultan of
Dar-Fur and the chief of the Arab slave rulers, was cap-
tured and sent into exile at Cairo. His son, Suleiman,
united all the chiefs of Dar-Fur and Bahr-el-Ghasal in an
attempt to stop the progress of reform and to secure free-
dom from Egyptian domination. But the indomitable
Gessi, after a terrific struggle lasting nearly two years,
completely defeated and scattered the forces of the slavers
in July, 1879. All the leaders, save Rabah, who escaped to
Wadai and appeared later in Nigeria, ¹ were captured; and,
after being tried by court martial for treachery and the
murder of Egyptians, eleven chieftains, including Sulei-
man, were condemned and shot. The country then settled

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