Egypt and the Sudan	139
verted later (1897) ^to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
Harrar was annexed by Abyssinia. Sennar, Kordofan,
and Darfur were ruled by the Khalifa. Equatoria re-
lapsed into the unknown, whence Emin was extricated
some years later. Of the sixty thousand soldiers and
officials in the Sudan, about half were absorbed by
Mahdism, a quarter were killed, and a quarter made
their way back to Egypt.
It was not until 1889 that the Dervishes, under their
most daring leader, Nejumi, conqueror of Hicks and of
Gordon, again attempted to invade Egypt. They were
then for the first time decisively defeated by Egyptian
troops at Toski (August 2). Nejumi was killed, and of
his six thousand fighting men barely a thousand escaped.
Egyptians under British officers had thus dealt the first
real blow to the Dervish power. Two years later Osman
Digma was defeated and Tokat recovered (February,
1891).
It was by now evident that this new Anglo-Egyptian
army, backed by the resources of civilisation, such as
railways, telegraphs, and machine-guns, was more than
a match for the medieval valour of the Dervishes, and
that they could now be safely " smashed/' The Con-
servatives were less averse from such enterprises than
their Liberal predecessors, and British enthusiasm could
easily be excited for a campaign for civilisation. It was
the jealousies of other Powers in the growing scramble
for Africa that were the main obstacle to an advance.
But, as it happened, Italy, trying to conquer Abyssinia,
had got into - difficulties. A diversion against the
Dervishes would oblige Italy and the Triple Alliance.
Their -approval was obtained for an advance as far as
Dongola, An expedition under Kitchener was accord-
ingly launched into the Sudan, laying a desert railway