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[Illustration: Father Ohrwalder, The Sisters Catterina Chincarini
and Elisabetta Venturini and The Slave girl Adila

From a photograph by Stromeyer & Heyman, Cairo.

Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd.]




  TEN YEARS' CAPTIVITY
  IN THE
  MAHDI'S CAMP
  1882-1892

  FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF
  FATHER JOSEPH OHRWALDER
  LATE PRIEST OF THE AUSTRIAN MISSION STATION AT
  DELEN, IN KORDOFAN

  BY
  MAJOR F. R. WINGATE, R.A.
  DIRECTOR OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, EGYPTIAN ARMY;
  AUTHOR OF 'MAHDIISM AND THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN'

  _WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
  BY WALTER C. HORSLEY_

  THIRD EDITION

  LONDON
  SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY
  _LIMITED_
  =St. Dunstan's House=
  FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
  1892
  (_All rights reserved._)




  LONDON:
  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.




PREFACE.


[Illustration: FATHER OHRWALDER.]

After the fall of Khartum in January 1885, various attempts were from
time to time made to effect the release of some of the European
prisoners who had fallen into the Mahdi's hands during the early stages
of the Sudan revolt.

These attempts were for the most part attended with little result. The
causes of their failure, and eventual success in one instance, are
fully described in the following personal narrative of Father Ohrwalder.

As Father Ohrwalder is the first European who has escaped from the Sudan
since 1885, I was fully occupied with him during the few days
immediately following his arrival in ascertaining, for official
purposes, the actual situation in the Sudan, and that completed, we had
many interesting conversations on the historical events which had
occurred in these revolted districts during the last ten years.

Having but recently completed a _resume_ of these events,[A] which had
been largely compiled from the statements of natives who had escaped, I
was not unnaturally desirous to verify, by the independent witness of
Father Ohrwalder, the accounts which they had given, and I further
begged Father Ohrwalder to carefully read over the book and point out
the errors. It was with considerable satisfaction that I learnt from him
that the facts had been faithfully recorded; but the flood of light
which he was enabled to throw on many obscure passages, and the great
interest attaching to the narrative of an active participator in so many
of these now historic occurrences, induced me to suggest that he should
set to work, while the memory of these events was fresh in his mind, to
write a personal narrative of his varied and terrible experiences, of
which the general public have hitherto learnt but the bare outline.

It should be borne in mind that the circumstances under which Father
Ohrwalder lived in the Sudan precluded him from keeping any written
record of his life; it was therefore agreed that I should supervise his
work which, I need scarcely add, it has given me great pleasure to do.
Father Ohrwalder's manuscript, which was in the first instance written
in German, was roughly translated into English by Yusef Effendi Cudzi, a
Syrian; this I entirely rewrote in narrative form. The work does not
therefore profess to be a literal translation of the original
manuscript, but rather an English version, in which I have sought to
reproduce accurately Father Ohrwalder's meaning in the language of
simple narration.

England and the British public in general have shown so much interest in
the stirring events which have occurred in the Sudan, and in which many
gallant British officers and men have lost their lives, that it is
Father Ohrwalder's desire that the narrative of his experiences should
be published in the first instance in England, as his modest tribute to
the nation which struggled so gallantly, and so nearly successfully, to
effect the relief of Khartum and the rescue of those unfortunate
Europeans who, like himself, had fallen into the hands of a cruel and
merciless enemy.

It seems almost incredible that such sufferings as the European captives
endured did not long ago bring to them the happy release of death they
so ardently longed for; but it was not to be. The door of escape, which
they had thought closed to them for ever, suddenly opened, and they did
not fear to risk the dangers and perils of that terrible desert journey,
with scanty food and water, and the sure knowledge that they must ride
for bare life; re-capture would have ended in certain death, or, at
best, perpetual incarceration in a prison, the horrors of which beggar
description. In spite, however, of all he has endured, Father Ohrwalder
longs for the time when it may be possible for him to return to the
Sudan and continue the Mission work so suddenly and hopelessly
interrupted since 1882.

I am greatly indebted to Mr. Walter C. Horsley for the admirable manner
in which he has executed his portion of the illustrations. The remainder
are chiefly from photographs, taken by Mr. Lekegian in his photographic
studio in Cairo, of Dervish prisoners captured at the action of Toski,
and of refugees who have recently reached Cairo from Equatoria, through
the territory administered by the Imperial British East Africa Company.

F. R. WINGATE.
CAIRO, _30th July, 1892_.


FOOTNOTES:

[A] Published under the title of 'Mahdiism and the Egyptian
Sudan.' London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.




CONTENTS.


INTRODUCTION.

FATHER OHRWALDER'S JOURNEY TO THE SUDAN.
                                                                    PAGE
  Description of Kordofan and Dar Nuba--The Mission Station
  at Delen                                                             1


CHAPTER I.

THE MAHDI AND HIS RISE TO POWER.

  The rise of the Mahdi--Early successes--Personal appearance
  --His   Khalifas described--Military organization--Makes new
  laws--He summons El Obeid to surrender                               6


CHAPTER II.

FATHER OHRWALDER AND HIS COMPANIONS TAKEN CAPTIVE.

  The storm rises in Dar Nuba--The Baggara begin to raid--
  Khojur Kakum of Delen--Mek Omar besieges Delen--The slave
  guard deserts the Mission--The priests and nuns surrender--
  They are sent to the Mahdi                                          22


CHAPTER III.

THE MISSIONARIES AND THE MAHDI.

  Description of El Obeid--Said Pasha's system of defence--
  The Mahdi's followers encircle the town--Townspeople desert
  to the Mahdi--Unsuccessful attack on Government buildings
  --Dervishes driven off with loss of 10,000 men--The
  missionaries brought before the Mahdi--Threatened with
  death--Preparations for the execution--Reprieved at the
  last moment--The Mahdi's camp described--Death of some
  of the missionaries--Illness of remainder                           34


CHAPTER IV.

THE SIEGE OF EL OBEID.

  Terrible sufferings of the besieged--The Kababish--Fall of
  Bara--Fall of El Obeid--The Mahdi enters the town--Fate
  of the El Obeid Mission--Cold-blooded murder of the brave
  defenders--The Dervishes live a life of ease in El Obeid--
  The Mahdi makes laws--He sends out proclamations--Prestige
  increased by capture of town--News from Khartum--Bonomi and
  Ohrwalder summoned before the Mahdi--The interview                  52


CHAPTER V.

THE MAHDI'S VICTORY OVER HICKS PASHA.

  The European captives learn that General Hicks is
  advancing--Slatin Bey's defence of Darfur--His heroism--
  The Mahdi prepares to resist Hicks--The march of the Hicks
  Expedition--Extracts from the diary of Major Herlth--Colonel
  Farquhar's gallantry at Rahad--Gustav Klootz deserts to the
  Mahdi--Klootz's interview with the Mahdi in which Ohrwalder
  and Bonomi act as interpreters--The expedition advances
  towards Shekan--Is surrounded and annihilated--Description
  of the battle--The Mahdi victor of Kordofan                         72


CHAPTER VI.

THE MAHDI'S TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO EL OBEID.

  Fall of Darfur--Slatin surrenders--The Mahdi's divinity
  credited after the annihilation of Hicks--King Adam of
  Tagalla--Stambuli's kindness to the European captives