OSMAN DIGNA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 2, 30 May 1885, Page 2

OSMAN DIGNA.

A very ititerestipgi accouat' of the ' stout soldior and astute- leader who is giving so^nifi^h trouble to Sir| Qerald ■Graliam aj^ jars m the Daily Newt. oa- ; man. jpignaj. 'is .deems; (remarks the Lk&lifi Newa\ is 'the grandson of a Turkish immigraht, SvK6' sesttled at Sualcifa jand took/ tb himself an Arab wife or so, i towards the beginning of the century^ 'The old Turk was. .a merchant and slave-dealer, and^eft, ,4 well-established business to his son Abubekr, the father of Osman and Aluned. The house throve under Abubekr and his sons till the year 1870. Ahmed was the resident pattner at Suakim, and Osman travelled the deserts, buying ostrich feathers, gum, ivory, skins, and slaves, m exchange tor European goods. In 1870, Ahmed lo^t Ws lucrative' post .as sheikh of the Suakim merchants, and about the same time Osmin's quick eye began to detect rebellious tendencies amongst his correspondents' of the Soudan and Darfour. Then followed losses by the seizure of a couple, of slave- cargoes on their way to Jeddah. by British cruisers ; and the Anglo-Egyptian Slave Convention coiuplox-d the ruin of the firm. Osman, it is sail, tried to rouse his frienda to reb-jlii-m' against Ismail ; but they laughed i. him, and he withdrew into the SouJ m mkil the appearance of Mahomined A-mcl as Mandi m 1881. He seems to bo :i foe worthy of our steel