that he had 25,000 dollars' worth of silver cast into bullets in order
to foil the magic of any enemy who was said to be proof against lead.
Strong as this truculent leader was in men and money, the Khedive
Ismail did not believe that he would dare to resist his power. He
therefore decided to have recourse to force, and in 1869 he sent a
small military expedition, under the command of Bellal Bey, to bring
the Bahr Gazelle into submission. Zebehr had made all his arrangements
for defence, and on the Egyptian army making its appearance he
promptly attacked and annihilated it. This success fully established
the power and reputation of Zebehr, who became the real dictator of
the Soudan south of Khartoum. The Khedive, having no available means
of bringing his rebellious dependent to reason, had to acquiesce in
the defeat of his army. Zebehr offered some lame excuse for his
boldness and success, and Ismail had to accept it, and bide the hour
of revenge.

Zebehr, encouraged by this military triumph, turned his arms against
the Sultans of Darfour, who had incurred his resentment by placing an
embargo on wheat during the course of his brief campaign with Bellal.
This offensive action still further alarmed the Khedive Ismail, who
was fully alive to the danger that might arise to his own position if
a powerful military confederacy, under a capable chief, were ever
organised in the Soudan. Instead of allying himself with the
Darfourians, as would probably have been the more politic course,
Ismail decided to invade their territory simultaneously with Zebehr.
Several battles were fought, and one after another the Sultans of
Darfour, whose dynasty had reigned for 400 years, were overthrown and
slain. Zebehr received in succession the Turkish titles of Bey and
Pasha, but he was not satisfied, for he said that as he had done all
the fighting, he ought to receive the Governor-Generalship of Darfour.
If he failed to win that title from the Khedive, he succeeded in
gratifying a more profitable desire, by leading off into slavery the
larger half of the population of Darfour. He was still engaged in this
pursuit at the time of Gordon's appearance on the scene, and the force
at his disposal was thus described by that officer: "Smart,
dapper-looking fellows, like antelopes, fierce, unsparing, the terror
of Central Africa, having a prestige far beyond that of the
Government--these are the slave-dealers' tools," and afterwards they
no doubt be