The last formidable leader in the Soudan seems to be
really dead. The Abyssinian Commander-in-Chid, Ras Alula, who was despatched to the relief of Kassala with 8,000 men, met him and his Hadendowas at Kufeit on September 23rd. A severe engagement, in which the Arabs were aided by "fortifications," ended in their total defeat; and they fled, leaving 3,000 dead upon the field, together with their leader, Osman Digna. The story, which comes from native sources, has been con- firmed by a letter from Ras Aida himself, and is believed by Colonel Chermeide and the Khedive's Government. We may, therefore, hope that Snakim will in future be let alone by the Arabs, and that the tribes of the Soudan will revert to their position before the Egyptian conquests. There must be wonderful force in these Abyssinians. During twelve hundred years the Arabs, who have defeated everybody else, from Europeans downwards, have been foiled in their efforts to defeat them. The ablest lieutenants of Mahommed and the early Khalifs failed as completely as Osman Digna, the Abyssinians retaining their independence against numbers ten- fold their own, distinctly better civilised, and animated by the highest fanatic feeling. The explanation is all the more diffi- cult because the Abyssinians, for all their splendid courage, have not been a conquering people, and are not greater than they were twelve hundred years ago.
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