Egypt and the Sudan 133
ending the Turco-Egyptian r6gime. This to some extent
accounts for the first disasters to the Egyptian garrison.
Sennar was besieged by the Mahdi and a force of six
thousand Egyptians sent to relieve it was surrounded and
surrendered (June, 1882). In Kordofan, the Mahdi
took the capital, El Obeid, after a three months' siege
(January, 1883). Thereafter, Mahdism was a political
power.
The new Anglo-Egyptian Government were, for
reasons of prestige, anxious to recover as much as pos-
sible of the Egyptian Empire in Africa. They believed
they could do so with Egyptian troops under British
officers. But the British Government were disillusioned
on this point by their representatives, Cromer at Cairo
and Stewart at Khartum. They had no intention of send-
ing British troops to fight fierce savages for these arid
wastes. Though by now deeply involved in Egyptian
affairs, they believed they could keep clear of Sudanese
complications by formally disassociating themselves from
them. "His Majesty's Government are in no way
responsible for operations in the Sudan/1 wrote Granville
(May 7, 1883). On the other hand, they feared to face
the outcry both from philanthropists and imperialists if
they made themselves responsible for surrendering the
Sudan again to slavery and savagery. So, although they
knew that the Egyptians could not hold the Sudan
alone, they let them send Hicks Pasha with an impro-
vised army of ex-Arabists on an expedition for the recon-
quest of Kordofan. This Egyptian army, led astray by
its guides in the forests south of El Obeid, and perishing
of thirst within a mile of water, was overwhelmed by forty
thousand Dervishes, and of the whole fifteen thousand
barely three hundred survived (November 20, 1883).
Even before definite news of this disaster reached