138 
EUROPE AND AFRICA 
vishes at Renkh, three hundred miles south of the capital 
of the Sudan. Here he learned of the presence of Marchand 
at Fashoda, through Said Sogheir, the captured leader of the 
Dervishes, and he continued his advance the same day. 
When within twelve miles of Fashoda, Kitchener re- 
ceived on September 19 a letter from the French com- 
mander notifying him of the French occupation of Bahr-el- 
Ghazal and the Shillucks country from the confluence of 
the Bahr-el-Jebel along the left bank of the White Nile to 
Fashoda. He reached the latter place the same day, hoisted 
the Egyptian flag on the old Egyptian fort, five hundred 
meters from the French flag, and protested vigorously 
against Marchand’s invasion of the Khedive’s lands. De- 
manding immediate withdrawal, Kitchener asserted that 
England would never tolerate the occupation of any part 
of the Nile Valley by a foreign power. Marchand replied 
that he was unable to oppose the raising of the Egyptian 
flag, but that he was acting under the orders of the French 
Government and could not leave until ordered to do so 
officially. Kitchener left a garrison at Fashoda and pro- 
ceeded south as far as Sobat reclaiming the country for the 
Khedive of Egypt; but he returned soon after, informing 
Marchand that the whole country was under martial 
law and the transport of munitions of war was forbidden, 
yet offering to furnish a boat and escort to accompany him 
down the river to Carro. 
Meanwhile the news of the encounter at Fashoda was 
heralded over two continents, great excitement prevailed 
in Paris and London, and a lively correspondence ensued 
between the Foreign Offices of both countries. A discus- 
sion of the British rights in Bahr-el-Ghazal, started by a 
statement of Sir E. Grey! in a speech before the House 
of Commons on March 28, 1895, to the effect that Eng- 
1 Now, Viscount Grey of Fallodon.