THE WHITE PASHA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1942, 12 September 1888, Page 3

THE WHITE PASHA.

The Suakim correspondent of the " Times " telegraphing on the 28th Ja!y eyas :— " Many pilgrlm3 and refugees have come In, and all are carefully qiestloned There oan be no doubt of the presenoa of a white man with an armed force on the B»hr cl-Gez*l. Some declare that they have seen soldiers weatiug tarbushes and Europeans wearing hats at Bakoondl Ibl and Bourba ; but the statements to this effect are incomplete and untrustworthy. All the informants unite la asserting the existence of an armed force and that the peoples of Darfour and Bongo are In friendly communication with the white man. The report of the defeat of Oaman.la.noo, an SSmir of the Khalifa, Bysaid, a slave of the Sultan Yusef of Datfour, m February last, Is fally confirmed. The Khalifa, who is said to have had a prophetic vision of the destruction .of hit power and of his own death* confines himself to his house. Dissensions exist everywhere among his followers. Tho Emln Wad-el-Najem has been polioned, and other Emir« have been tortured and imprisoned. Kabbah', a powerful independent chief, once a follower of Zobebr Pasha has, offered to join forces with the white man and the Darfour tribes to crush the Mahdl. It is diffion.lt to sift the evidence owing to the stupidity of the Takrurl informants, some of whom have been journeying on pilgrimage from regions In Western Africa for years, their language be?",' scarcely | nnderstood here. But strong and varied ! testimony points to the presence of EminJ Pasha or Mr Stanley, or possibly botb, oni the confines of D*rfour, and it is oleir that he or they are marching towards Khartoum. It is believed that ifZobehr Pasha, with a small and well-equippeJ force, accompanied by eeveral eelec ed English officers, were to march by the Nile m support of the white man or men, tbe power of the Mahdl would speedily be crushed. It is stated that Ouman Dlgna'a power is fading, and that his followers are dispersing to the mountains. " The same correspondent reports on the 22nd July : — Some Soudanese soldiers of the Egyptian garrisons, coming from Khartoum, pilgrims and tradeis, bars arrived hare. All confirm the accounts of a defeat of the Khalifa's forces at Darfour, and of dissensions among the dervishes^ Most of the new-comers had heard news of the white man # with his forces, alternately described as " Turks," or as " foreigners "—the term (< ?ark" being indisorlminate'y applied to the Egyptian garrison of the Soudan. The position of tbe white man and his fol lowsts is not accurately described, some stating that they bad beard of them several months ago as " Kaon a z'.bta Bakinge," In the Niam country, marching towards Darfour. The friendly neighbor log tribes stated also that the white -man and tbe chief of Darfour had sent a joint ultimatum to tha Khtlifa, requiring him to inrrender Knartoom. Ths Khalifa is greatly alarmed, and his Emirs and many of his followers are m revolt.