No further attempt was made to subdue the country.  The people of the Soudan had won their freedom by their valour and by the skill and courage of their saintly leader.  It only remained to evacuate the towns and withdraw the garrisons safely.  But what looked like the winding-up of one story was really the beginning of another, much longer, just as bloody, commencing in shame and disaster, but ending in triumph and, let us hope, in peace.

I desire for a moment to take a more general view of the Mahdi’s movement than the narrative has allowed.  The original causes were social and racial.  But, great as was the misery of the people, their spirit was low, and they would not have taken up arms merely on material grounds.  Then came the Mahdi.  He gave the tribes the enthusiasm they lacked.  The war broke out.  It is customary to lay to the charge of Mohammed Ahmed all the blood that was spilled.  To my mind it seems that he may divide the responsibility with the unjust rulers who oppressed the land, with the incapable commanders who muddled away the lives of their men, with the vacillating Ministers who aggravated the misfortunes.  But, whatever is set to the Mahdi’s account, it should not be forgotten that he put life and soul into the hearts of his countrymen, and freed his native land of foreigners.  The poor miserable natives, eating only a handful of grain, toiling half-naked and without hope, found a new, if terrible magnificence added to life.  Within their humble breasts the spirit of the Mahdi roused the fires of patriotism and religion.  Life became filled with thrilling, exhilarating terrors.  They existed in a new and wonderful world of imagination.  While they lived there were great things to be done; and when they died, whether it were slaying the Egyptians or charging the British squares, a Paradise which they could understand awaited them.  There are many Christians who reverence the faith of Islam and yet regard the Mahdi merely as a commonplace religious impostor whom force of circumstances elevated to notoriety.  In a certain sense, this may be true.  But I know not how a genuine may be distinguished from a spurious Prophet, except by the measure of his success.  The triumphs of the Mahdi were in his lifetime far greater than those of the founder of the Mohammedan faith; and the chief difference between orthodox Mohammedanism and Mahdism was that the original impulse was opposed only by decaying systems of government and society and the recent movement came in contact with civilisation and the machinery of science.  Recognising this, I do not share the popular opinion, and I believe that if in future years prosperity should come to the peoples of the Upper Nile, and learning and happiness follow in its train, then the first Arab historian who shall investigate the early annals of that new nation will not forget, foremost among the heroes of his race, to write the name of Mohammed Ahmed.

CHAPTER II:  THE FATE OF THE ENVOY