A statement was received in London on Thursday which, if
it is true, settles the question as to the fate of Emin Pasha. An Egyptian soldier who had been living for nine months at Khartoum, which he left on November 23rd, has arrived in Cairo, and announces that on November 1st the steamer Bordein ' arrived from Bahr-el-Gazel, bringing news that Emin had defeated the dervishes, and now held the country between the Nile and the Atbara, which would mean that Emin was approaching Berber, and might shortly be in communica- tion with Suakin. Nothing is said of Stanley, and the soldier affirms that Emin is the famous "White Pasha." The only safe course with African news is to disbelieve every word until confirmed either by facts or by a white man's testimony; but it will be observed that the soldier's statement, though directly contrary to Osman Digna's story, corresponds with the previous accounts, according to which Emin, at the head of a Negro army, was marching on Khartoum. The diffi- culty is to imagine where he gets cartridges from, or how he supplies their want. Why, by-the-way, if the Mahdi can manage the steamers, do they never appear above Khartoum?
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