EUROPE AND AFRICA 
of the Governor-General at Khartoum, and returned to 
London in 1876. 
In 1877, he came back to Egypt at the special solicita- 
tion of Ismail Pasha, who appointed him Governor-General 
of the Sudan and the Equatorial Provinces. For two 
years he labored under great difficulties (being always in 
great straits to get money, officers, and troops sufficient to 
execute his plans) to maintain order and security in the 
country, so that the natives might live in peace and raise 
their crops. Conditions of life in the Sudan in those days 
were hard and the situation of the people pitiful. During 
the years 1875-79, Gordon reports that the loss of life from 
famine, disease, and wars exceeded 81,000 in Dar-Fur and 
18,000 in Bahr-el-Ghazal, to which must be added a further 
decrease of eighty to one hundred thousand caused by the 
innumerable slave raids. 
Every effort was made to stamp out the practice of slave 
hunting and trading, the slave traders being driven in large 
numbers out of all the towns and the slave bands freed at 
every opportunity. Zubeir Pasha, the Sultan of Dar-Fur 
and the chief of the Arab slave rulers, was captured and 
sent into exile at Cairo. His son, Suleiman, united all the 
chiefs of Dar-Fur and Bahr-el Ghazal in an attempt to stop 
the progress of reform and to secure freedom from Egyptian 
domination. But the indomitable Gessi, after a terrific 
struggle lasting nearly two years, completely defeated and 
scattered the forces of the slavers in July, 1879. All the 
leaders, save Rabah, who escaped to Wadai and appeared 
later in Nigeria,! were captured; and, after being tried 
by court martial for treachery and the murder of Egyptians, 
eleven chieftains, including Suleiman, were condemned and 
shot. The country then settled down to a period of peace, 
security, and progress; and, under the skillful hand of 
1 See Chapter V1 and Chapter VII, ante. 
394