Lord Kitchener has announced his arrival at Berber after a
camel-ride of eight hundred miles through the Eastern Soudan. His report on the condition of the country is in the main re- assuring, the prime condition of security having been attained by the overthrow of the Dervish tyranny. Everywhere the Sirdar found the people thankful for their release, while the Sheikhs were doing their best to repair the damage wrought during the Dervish rule, and at work upon the necessary task of well-sinking and road-making. "The Hadendoas," he says, "suffered worse than the other tribes, immense numbers dying of famine in Osman Digna's camp, where the whole tribe was collected by the Baggaras, and not allowed to leave." As an instance of the ruin brought about by the Dervishes, the Sirdar mentioned that the Shukurieh tribe, which used to pasture eighty thousand camels, now has only one thousand. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the Arabs, for all their secular dependence on "the ship of the desert," are far less efficient in their feeding and veterinary treatment of the camel than the English.
Previous page
