elings of his emirs. Must we always be ignorant? Must we always
be fighting? I can see no way out of it. Can you, Mudil?'

"'I can see but one way,' I said, 'and that may seem to you impossible,
because you know nothing of the strength of England. We have, as you
know, easily beaten the Egyptian Army; and we are now protectors of
Egypt. If you invade that country, as the Mahdi has already threatened
to do, it is we who will defend it; and if there is no other way of
obtaining peace, we shall some day send an army to recover the Soudan.
You will fight, and you will fight desperately, but you have no idea of
the force that will advance against you. You know how Osman Digna's
tribes on the Red Sea have been defeated, not by the superior courage
of our men, but by our superior arms. And so it will be here. It may be
many years before it comes about, but if you insist on war, that is
what will come.

"'Then, when we have taken the Soudan, there will come peace, and the
peasant will till his soil in safety. Those who desire to be taught
will be taught; great canals from the Nile will irrigate the soil, and
the desert will become fruitful.'

"'You really think that would come of it?' Abu asked, earnestly.

"'I do indeed, Abu. We have conquered many brave peoples, far more
numerous than yours; and those who were our bitterest enemies now see
how they have benefited by it. Certainly, England would not undertake
the cost of such an expedition lightly; but if she is driven to it by
your advance against Egypt, she will assuredly do so. Your people--I
mean the Baggaras and their allies--would suffer terribly; but the
people whom you have conquered, whose villages you have burned, whose
women you have carried off, would rejoice.'

"'We would fight,' Abu said passionately.

"'Certainly you would fight, and fight gallantly, but it would not
avail you. Besides, Abu, you would be fighting for that ignorance you
have just regretted, and against the teaching and progress you have
wished for.'

"'It is hard,' Abu said, quietly.

"'It is hard, but it has been the fate of all people who have resisted
the advance of knowledge and civilization. Those who accept
civilization, as the people of India--of whom there are many more than
in all Africa--have accepted it, are prosperous. In America and other
great countries, far beyond the seas, the native Indians opposed it,
but in vain; and now a great white race inhabit the land, and there i