A PRISONER OF THE KHALIFA.* SATIRISTS have often been eager

to insist that all great quarrels spring out of petty feuds ; but none has pointed out how from great strifes there follow mean ones. There is never a fight in the field nowadays but it breeds a newspaper war. Fourteen months ago Mr. Neufeld, the European who was known to be in bondage at Omdurman, was the object of universal sympsthy ; to-day he publishes a book which is for the most part an angry vindication of himself against strictures on his conduct. His book appears to us to have a good many faults in taste; but no doubt much allowance should be made for a man who feels that he has been mis- represented, and perhaps but for the hostile criticism Mr.

Neufeld would have been less disposed to insist upon his per- sonal courage. At all events, we are glad that the wide publicity already given to his narrative, which the circulation of his book will extend, wakes it quite superfluous for any one to enter upon his defence. Setting aside these personal matters, there remains a great deal of extraordinary interest.

Mr. Nenfeld, who had for some years been trading in Upper Egypt and had acted as interpreter with the British forces, took part in the spring of 1887 with an Arab merchant in a venture to bring gum from Kordofan to Wady Haifa. At this time the western caravan routes were still kept open by Sheikh Saleh of the Kabbabish tribe, who remained loyal to the Government; and Mr. Neufeld, arriving at Wady Haifa before his Arab partner, decided to start in advance with a caravan of Saleh's men. At Selima Wells, two days from Haifa, the party was fired on by a small body of Dervishes who retreated, and the march was continued. But the guides played them false, the way was lost in the desert, water failed, and after six days' march- ing they found themselves in such a position that the only water near was at the wells of Wadi-el-Kab, where it was known that Dervishes might be. The description of this march, with its continual agony of doubt among men who half knew themselves betrayed, is well given, leading up to a terrible stratagem of desert warfare. There was no choice but to make for the water; and at the well a small party of Dervishes were found. These fled, disappearing behind hillocks, and they left their camels and their water-skins ' ready filled. Instantly there was a mad rush for the water ; the men, beside themselves with thirst, flung down their arms and fought for a drink ; and in a moment they were attacked on all sides. Such prisoners as had been made were taken to the Emir Wad-en-Nejoumi at Dongols, where all except Mr.

Nenfeld were beheaded, on their refusal to become Mahdists. They died like Spartans :—

" Darb es Safai and the others had been marched off for a short distance and set to dig a shallow trench; when this was finished they were ordered to kneel at the edge, and their hands were tied behind them. This action is practically the declaration of the death sentence. Es Safai asked to be beheaded last as he wished to see how his men could die Only one jumped to his feet when a few heads had rolled into the trench, when Es Safai called out Kneel down. Do you not see these cowards are looking at us ? '" Mr. Nenfeld was kept alive, as Wad-en-Nejoumi explained to him, for the sake of the information that he could give, and be holds that Nejoumi was even then convinced that the

Khalifa' s was a falling cause. For long years the Khalifa was surrounded with men ready to betray him, but the despotism was too strong to be shaken off, and universal dis- trust made combination impossible. Mr. Neuield declares that when Nejoumi fought at Toski, be only fought because the alternative was imprisonment at Omdurman ; and this, as the captive discovered, was not a pleasant alternative. Being sent to Omdurman, he was interviewed by several Emirs and questioned about the English forces. He was then fettered, his hands bound together with ropes, and water poured over the ropes so that they tightened and bit into the flesh. Thus hampered he was taken out into an open place and baited before the rabble. "Dervishes rushed at me prodding with spear and sword, and while this was going on two men, one on each side of me, with the mouths of their onbeyehs placed against my ears, blew their loudest blasts."

After a period of this torture he was taken back and told that crucifixion awaited him ; an hour later he was led

.4 Prisoner of the Klialecfa : TuvIre rears' Captivity at Orndurman. By Charles Neuleld. London : Chapman and Hall. [124.)

to the foot of a gallows and asked if he would die as Muslim or Kaffir. While this debate was in progress a messenger arrived with a reprieve, and next day the captive was brought before the Khalifa in person. A letter in Arabic was then written announcing the fact that Mr.

Nenfeld had sworn allegiance to the Mahdi and his Kbalifa, and this letter he signed. It was sent to Assouan. He was then taken into the prison, a third set of shackles was fixed upon his ankles, and a ring and chain fitted to his neck. The prison was about 30 ft. square, crowded with prisoners, who lay in filth absolutely untended. Many of them were political captives, men whom the Khalifa feared or whose property

he coveted. Teachers learned in the creed were told off to instruct Mr. Neufeld in Mahdieh, but he declined to be con- verted, though expressing willingness to become a Mahom- medan. As part of the instruction, he was taken in Gordon's steamer to Khartoum, shown the stairs still discoloured with Gordon's blood, and the skeletons which still pointed the lesson of the Mahdi's invincibility. At the great Bairam feast he was brought out to a grand parade of the Khalifa's troops; the fetters had ulcerated the limbs, and with the motion of the camel the ulcers broke. Abdullah ordered lighter irons to be substituted, and it was done, though with great difficulty, for the flesh had swollen round the chains. This was the last of Mr. Nenfeld's outings for four years. Daring this time he was closely confined in the prison, of which he has written a description so horrible as almost to pass belief. Yet it seems that certain allevia- tions were purchaseable, and in some way which he does not explain he commanded a supply of money. But the reputation of wealth was dangerous; the gaoler extorted money, nominally for the Treasury, by a threat of extra pains, not upon individuals, but on groups, and the groups had to contribute jointly. Strangely enough, this ill-gotten spoil did not spend itself on luxuries; much went to fortune- tellers, part in backsheesh to officials about the Khalifa. The gaoler levied toll also on the food which came from without ;— no provision was made for the prisoners, nor is made in any African prison; they depend on outside help. But the Christian captives at large in Omdurman, Father Ohrwalder and the rest, were more than charitable; and Mr. Nenfeld's Abyssinian servant-girl, who had accompanied him from Cairo, also helped with great devotion. And among the prisoners themselves there was mutual succour; those who were friendless lived on what others spared them and on the charity of devout Mahommedans outside, who bestowed their wealth in this way, as we subscribe to hospitals.

At the end of four years (so far as we can gather from his very confused narrative) Mr. Neufeld became a captive at large. There was among the prisoners a professing alchemist whom the Khalifa had ordered to be confined to carry on his operations. Zecki, an old Egyptian doctor, came in to super- vise the experiment, and so fell into converse with the European, and questioned him as to the process of manu- facturing saltpetre. Being a German, Mr. Nenfeld, o; course, had some rudiments of chemistry, and saw his way to com- parative liberty. He was taken from prison, given a light chain in place of the heavy weight of iron, and set to superintend the business. Out of this has arisen much controversy. The saltpetre was to make powder, the powder was to be used against Europeans, and Mr. Nenfeld has been blamed for complying. He declares that he purposely made saltpetre that was useless for explosives, and in any case we do not see that he would have been blameworthy had he done his best. At this period Father Ohrwalder escaped, and Mr. Neufeld was plotting a similar deliverance, but in the beginning of 1895 came the flight of Slatin. He was then returned to the Saier (the prison) and again loaded with irons. But shortly after he was requisitioned again to assist in the production of a coining press, and was transferred to the arsenal. The Khalifa (whose buried hoards must, according to Mr. Neufeld, be enormous) issued silver dollars containing a minimum of silver. To refuse any coin issued from the Treasury was an offence which entailed maiming. Naturally this state of things was an incentive to coiners, and the Khalifa was anxious to get a milling stamp. Bat the pro- jected machine went wrong, and the captive went back to the Saler, though under more favourable treatment. In 1896 he was again released, and sent to Khartoum to assist in some

wild scheme of procuring gold and silver from crushing nnmineralised quartz. But matters were now beginning to threaten down the Nile. Dongola was taken, and there was a hue and cry for ammunition. Mr. Neufeld was again called upon to produce a powder-mill and cartridge-machine, and he made them, though as he declares, probably with great truth, he made them so that they would not work. So time wore on; the prisoner was still plotting escape, but unable to pro- cure a camel which should await him on the east bank, and in November, 1897, he was sent back to the Saler. Before that, however, an addition had been made to the arsenal. "A field gun had arrived from the South as a present for the Khaleefa ; it was accompanied by a limited supply of ammunition,—brass cartridges carrying a shell in the same way as the rifle carries its bullet." Whence this mysterious present came Mr. Neufeld does not hint. But he says openly that the Abyssinians sent in an offer of aid, and the Khalifa, on the ground that they were Christians, refused it,—a statement which we should not accept without confirmation. Meanwhile, Mr. Nenfeld in his prison, where he was now only "a visitor—a distinguished one at that "—was a centre for inquiries and confidences. To him came Mohammed Barrai, a sympathiser with the Europeans, who was planning to counteract the devices of a Tunisian refugee, Nowraani, maker of river-mines (which he called torpedoes). Barrel had destroyed Nowraani's boom at the Shabluka„ but the mines were still a project. Mr. Neufeld was consulted as to their workability by the Khalifa's officers, and by Burrai as to the means of making them use- less. How it happened is not known, but the mines, while being conveyed to their destination on the `Ismailia,' blew up; Burrai was aboard her and perished. As things neared the end, men came to make interest with the European; traitors were everywhere. An old prophecy declared "that the great fight would take place on the plains of Kerreri,"— but the plan was still uncertain. The Khalifa was in the mosque, busy with prayer and meditation, and the troops were unarmed, for none but the Baggara and Taaishi could be trusted, and the Khalifa dare not issue rifles. When he moved, he moved in such haste that many rifles were left in the arsenal. Then came the gunboats and the first shells. One struck the prison wall, and there was wild confusion; but we have not space to quote Mr. Neufeld's account of his deliri- ous joy as the shells screamed overhead; nor the thrilling tale of the battle as it gradually unfolded itself to the captives from the mouths of men who came in from the field, asking to have bullets extracted; nor the story of Abdullahi's last hoar in Omdurman, as he sat deserted and stupefied. One incident of the night before the battle must be given :—

" Between ten and eleven at night a riderless horse from the British or Egyptian cavalry came slowly moving, head down, towards the Dervish lines. The Khalifa had related how, in one of his visions, he had seen the Prophet, mounted on his mare, riding at the head of the avenging angels destroying the infidels. This apparition of the riderless horse was too much ; at least one-third of the Khalifa's huge army deserted terrified. When Yacoub told him of the desertion, Abdullahi merely raised his head to say, 'The prophecy will be fulfilled if only five people stay near ire.'"

The remainder of the book, after the story of his own deliver- ance, is taken up by Mr. Neufeld with unprofitable and

disagreeable controversy ; it includes, however, a narrative of Gordon's end taken down from the lips of Gordon's own orderly, who roused his master to the last alarm, and was left for dead beside him in the last fatal straggle,— for by the soldier's account the end was a great and bloody combat. On the whole, we may say that this volume is more prolific and picturesque than Slatin's book ; but we do not feel so

confident as to its historic value.