came the main phalanx of the Mahdi's military system.

The financial position of the Egyptian Government in the Soudan was as
bad as the military and political. The Khedive's Governor-General at
Khartoum, Ismail Yakoob Pasha, was nominally responsible for the
administration of Darfour, although Zebehr reaped all the gain. This
arrangement resulted in a drain on the Khedive's exchequer of L50,000
a year. The revenue failed to meet the expenditure in the other
departments, and this was mainly due to the fact that the slavers no
longer paid toll or tithe in the only trade that they had allowed to
exist in the Soudan. What share of the human traffic they parted with
was given in the way of bribes, and found no place in the official
returns. All the time that this drain continued the Khedive was in a
constant state of apprehension as to the danger which might arise to
him in the south. He was also in receipt of frequent remonstrances
from the English and other Governments as to the iniquities of the
slave-trade, for which he was primarily in no sense to blame. On the
other hand, he derived no benefit from the Soudan; and if he thought
he could have obtained a secure frontier at Abou Hamid, or even at
Wadi Halfa, he would have resigned all the rest without a sigh. But it
was his strong conviction that no such frontier was attainable, and
Ismail clung to his nominal and costly authority over the Soudan in
the hope that some improvement might be effected, or that, in the
chapter of accidents, the unexpected might come to his aid.

Alarmed as to his own position, in view of the ambition of Zebehr, and
harassed by the importunities of England, Ismail, acting on the
advice of his able and dexterous Minister, Nubar Pasha, one of the
most skilful diplomatists the East has ever produced, came to the
decision to relieve himself from at least the latter annoyance, by the
appointment of Gordon. This was the main object the Khedive and his
advisers had in view when they invited Gordon to accept the post of
Governor of the Equatorial Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel
Baker, who resigned what he found after many years' experience was a
hopeless and thankless task. The post was in one sense peculiar. It
was quite distinct from that of the Egyptian Governor-General at
Khartoum, who retained his separate and really superior position in
the administration of the Upper Nile region. Moreover, the finances of
the Equatorial districts were in