17 NOVEMBER 1888, Page 3

The great wave of change has clearly struck Africa. On

all her coasts there is movement; somebody called by the natives the "White Pasha" is advancing from the Lakes up the Nile, -with, according to report, "a naked army;" and something big is going on in the very centre of the continent. At least, the 'Tripolitan Government, which is not inventive, has heard that -seventy thousand" Mahdists " have attacked Wadai, the State • west of Darfur, and after a severe struggle, in which they -were at first defeated, captured Wadai, its capital, the Sultan flying. It is a safe rule never to believe figures if stated by an Asiatic or an African ; and it is not certain that the victors are those whom we call " Mahdists." They may be followers of the Senoussia, the great semi-monastic association which has of late grown so strong in all the unknown country south of Tripoli and Tunis ; but that some military event of importance to Mussulmans has happened, is beyond question.