² They were not, however, the only ones. Cf. p. 80 infra.Google Scholar

³ Holt, P. M., The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881–1893, Oxford 1958;Google Scholaridem, ‘The Archives of the Mahdia’, Sudan Notes and Records, XXXVI, I (June 1955), 71–80.

⁴ ‘…Religion fell into the hands of the Turks, who changed it and replaced it with infidelity. They annulled the laws of the Merciful and revived the ways of Satan…. When God determined to cut short such a state of affairs, he called me forth as the Mahdi…’ [Khartoum Archives] Mahdia 1/34/11, The Mahdi to the Negus Yohannes, 1302/1884–5 (no day or month).Google Scholar

⁵ ‘Become a Muslim and peace will be unto you… If on the other hand you choose disobedience and prefer blindness … no doubt about your falling into our hands as we promised the possession of all the earth… God fulfils his promises… Let not the Devil hinder you’. (Mahdia, loc. cit., The Mahdi to Yohannes.)Google Scholar

⁶ Holt, P. M., Address on ‘The Foreign relations of the Sudanese Mahdia’, delivered to the Anglo-American Conference of Historians, July 1957.Google Scholar

⁷ Mahdia 1/34/16, Yohannes to ‘The Great Abū 'Anja’, 17 Kiyahk 1881/25 Dec. 1888.Google Scholar

⁸ Ibid. Ras Zawudah to al-Zaki Tamal, 1881 (i.e. Sept. 1888 to Sept. 1889, but not in fact earlier than March 1889).

⁹ Infra, pp. 84–86. Cf. Sanderson, G. N. ‘Emir Suleyman ibn Inger Abdullah’, Sudan Notes and Records, XXXV, I (06 1954), 22–74.Google Scholar

¹⁰ ‘Africa’ excludes of course Egypt and the Barbary States.Google Scholar

¹¹ Cf. infra, 86–89.Google Scholar

¹² Holt, P. M., A Calendar of the Correspondence of the Khalifa Abdullahi and Mahmoud Ahmed, Khartoum 1955. (Date of publication misprinted ‘1950’.)Google Scholar

¹³ Victualling from Omdurman was quite impossible; the Khalifa did not succeed even in organizing an effective supply system for Mahmūd Ahmad's army at Metemma (Holt, op. cit. passim).Google Scholar

¹⁴ The Papers of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury (deposited at Christ Church, Oxford): Cabinet Memoranda, Cromer to Salisbury, 5 and 6 June 1897. I am grateful to the present Marquis for permission to use this material.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Kitchener to Grenfell, 14 Oct. 1897Google Scholar, cited Arthur, G., Life of Lord Kitchener, I (London 1920), 215–17.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Kitchener to Cromer, 18 Oct. 1897, cited Arthur, op. cit. 219–20. Cf. Salisbury, P.P., Cabinet Memoranda, Cromer to Salisbury, 22 Oct. 1897;Google Scholaribid. Egypt, Salisbury to Cromer, Tel., 23 Oct. 1897. Lack of confidence in the military situation was not indeed the only motive which prompted Kitchener's resignation; but his dismay was genuine enough. Cromer's verdict was that he had ‘lost his nerve’.

¹⁷ Salisbury, P.P., Cabinet Memoranda, loc. cit.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Maurice, F., and Arthur, G., The Life of Lord Wolseley, II (London, 1924), 304,Google Scholar citing Wolseley to Lansdowne, Oct. 1897.Google ScholarCf. The Letters of Queen Victoria, Third Series, III, 206—Wolseley to the Queen, 25 Oct. 1897.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Newton, (Lord), Lord Lansdowne (London 1929), 147,Google Scholar citing Salisbury to Lansdowne, 22 Oct. 1897; Salisbury, P.P., Egypt, Salisbury to Cromer, 29 Oct. 1897.Google Scholar

²⁰ Notably a report in June 1897 that the Marchand Mission was concentrated at the M'Bomu-Uele confluence; and another in Sept. of Liotard's arrival at Deim Zubeir. Cf. PRO., F.O. 27/3338, Gosselin to Salisbury No. 192, 25 June 1897; P.R.O., F.O. 27/3371, W.O. Intelligence Division to F.O., 20 Sept. 1897.Google Scholar

²¹ Salisbury, PP., loc. cit.Google Scholar

²² Ibid. C. F. Newton, loc. cit.

²³ Salisbury, PP., Cabinet Memoranda, Cromer to Salisbury, 5 Nov. 1897.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid. Cramer to Salisbury, II Nov. 1897.

²⁵ P.R.O., F.O. 78/4895, Grenfell to the War Office, 19 Nov. 1897.Google Scholar

²⁶ Intelligence Reports, Egypt, no. 57, Nov.-Dec. 1897;Google Scholarcf. Churchill, W. S., The River War, I (London 1899), 359, 363–4.Google Scholar

²⁷ P.R.O., F.O. 78/4895, Cromer to Kitchener, 22 Dec. 1897;Google ScholarIbid. Cromer to Salisbury, Tel. no. 155, 22 Dec.

²⁸ Wingate, R., Wingate of the Sudan (London 1955) 113–14, citing Wingate's diary;Google Scholar P.R.O., F.O. 78/5049, Cromer to Salisbury, Tel. no. I, I Jan. 1898.Google Scholar

²⁹ P.R.O., F.O. 141/336, Salisbury to Cromer, Tel. no. 8, 26 Jan. 1898.Google Scholar

³⁰ Holt, Calendar, Introd., pp. 10–11;Google Scholaribid. no. (48), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 5 al-Awwal, Rabi' 1355/4 Aug. 1897; no. (208), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 19 Safar 1315/20 July 1897; no. (218), same to same, 24 Safar/25 July; no. (237), same to same, 7 Rabi' al-Awwal/6 Aug.; no. (349). same to same, 2 Rajab/ 27 Nov.Google Scholar

³¹ Ibid. no. (322), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, II al-Akhira, Jumāda 1315/7 Nov. 1897; no. (324), same to same (same date); no. (332), same to same, 25 Jumāda al-Akhira/2, Nov.Google Scholar

³² Holt, op. cit. no. (240), Mahmūd to theKhalifa, 15 al-Awwal, Rabi' 1315/14 August 1897 (ammunition). Supplies (sample evidence only), no. (39), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 20 Safar 1315/21 July 1897; no. (194), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, II Safar/12 July; no. (298), same to same, 7 Jumāda al-Awla/4 Oct.; no. (337), same to same, 26 Jumāda al-Akhiral/22 Nov.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid.passim

³⁴ Ibid. e.g. no. (190), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 8 Safar 1315/9 July 1897; no. (209), same to same, 19 Safar/20 July; no. (299), same to same, 7 Jumāda al-Awla/4 October.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid. Introd., pp. 53–54; ibid. no. (364), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 23 Rajab 1315/18 Dec. 1897; no. (140) same to same (same date).

³⁶ Ibid. no. (140), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 25 Rajab 1315/20 Dec. 1897.Google Scholar There seems little ground for the contemporary belief in Anglo-Egyptian circles that the Khalifa dispersed the concentration because of irreconcilable disputes over the question of command.

³⁷ Holt, op. cit. no. (151), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 14Google ScholarSha'bān 1315/8 Jan. 1898.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid. no. (382) Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 22 Sha'bān 1315/16 Jan. 1898.

³⁹ Ibid. no. (277), (278), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 12 Rabi' al-Akhir 1315/10 Sept. 1897; no. (280), same to same, 13 Rabi' al-Akhir/11 Nov.Sept.

⁴⁰ Ibid. no. (311), same to same, 19 Jumāda al-Awla/16 Oct.; no. (362), same to same, 22 Rajab/17 Dec.

⁴¹ Ibid. no. (138), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 18 Rajab 1315/13 Dec. 1897.

⁴² Ibid. no. (382), Mahmūd to the Khalifa, 22 Sha'bān 1315/16 Jan. 1898.

⁴³ Ibid. no. (158), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 23 Sha'bān 1315/17 Jan. 1898.

⁴⁴ Ibid. no. (160), same to same, 16 Ramadān 1315/8 Feb. 1898; cf. Intelligence Reports, Egypt, no. 59, Appendix B.

⁴⁵ For Kitchener's dispositions, see Churchill, op. cit. I, 359–63, 365–6.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Holt, op. cit. no. (162), the Khalifa to Mahmūd, 20 Ramadān 1315/12 Feb. 1898; no. (402), Mahmūd to the Khalifa 29 Ramadān/21 Feb. no. (411), same to same, 12 Shawwāl/6 March.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Ibid. no. (414), Madmūd to Khalifa, 14 Shawwāl/8 March; no. (427), same to same, 2 Dhu al-Qa'da/25 March.

⁴⁸ Arthur, op. cit. I, 224–5; Magnus, P., Kitchener (London, 1958), pp. 119–20.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Intelligence Reports, Egypt, no. 59, Kitchener to G.O.C. Egypt, 24 June 1898.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ However, the received account is by no means immune from revision, as the F.O. Records and the Salisbury Papers are beginning to show.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Again, the received account cannot be regarded as anything but provisional.Google Scholar

⁵² E.g. the motives for Delanghe's injudicious and ultimately disastrous advance from Ganda to the Nile in the summer of 1893. The authors are also less than candid about the personal rivalries and dissensions which sometimes hampered Belgian action.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ed. Dellicour F., and others, Brussels, 1948–.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ E.g. in different articles (by the same author) there are mutually inconsistent accounts of the siege of Mundu; and of the movements of Milz in Oct. 1892.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The present author has attempted a preliminary sketch in an unpublished Ph.D. thesis.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Lotar, La Grande Chronique du Bomu, 5–6.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Although this destruction is now known not to have been complete, Lotar vouches for the disappearance of these records.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Flament et al., op cit. 306–8; Lotar, La Grande Chronique de l'Uele, 200–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Printed in Sudan Intelligence Reports, no. 60, Appendix 46.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ E.g. his account of ‘Arabī's campaign against Fadl al-Mūlā.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Bashīr Mahjūb, a Tā'īshī.Google Scholar

⁶² Lotar, op. cit. 204.Google Scholar

⁶³ Zande chiefs, notably Renzi and Bili, had begun to come out openly against the Congolese as the Mahdist threat began to develop early in 1894.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Lotar, op cit. 208, citing the account of the Congolese officer D'Heygere.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Lotar, loc. cit. admits heavy Congolese casualties.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Lotar, op. cit. 209–12, 215–28.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Ibid. 244–6.

⁶⁸ Lotar, op. cit. 219–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ ‘Zande Historical Texts’, Sudan Notes and Records, XXXVI, 2 (Dec. 1955), 123–45; XXXVII (1956), 20–47; XXXVIII (1957), 74–99.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Zaīre, 1956.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Evans-Pritchard, E. E., ‘History of the Kingdom of Gbudwe’, Zaīre, May 1956, 457.Google Scholar

⁷² Cf. Hargreaves, J. D., ‘Towards a History of the Partition of Africa’, The Journal of African History, I, I (1960), 97–109, ad finem.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷³ Fr. Santandrea does not state the precise date of his inquiries.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Sudan Notes and Records, XXXVI, 2 (Dec. 1955), 188–91.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ ‘Radzeer’=Raga; ‘Tarragone’=Telgona; ‘Adjer’=Hajar [Chief of the Njangulgule]; ‘El Catin’=al-Khātim [Mūsā].

⁷⁶ For Hamad Mūsā, see Santandrea, S., ‘A Preliminary Account of the Indri, Togoyo, Feroge, Mangaya and Woro’, Sudan Notes and Records, XXXVI, 2 (12 1953), 230–64.Google Scholar Hamad Mūsā later handed over his Treaty to the Mahdists; it was seen by Slatin in Omdurman in Feb. 1895, just before his escape (Intelligence Reports, Egypt, General Report on the Egyptian Sudan, March. 1895).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Santandrea, ‘The Belgians in Western Bahr El Ghazal’, 190.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Cf. idem, ‘A Preliminary Account …’ for the history of these tribes.

⁷⁹ Santandrea, op. cit. 239–51.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ His full name was Hamad al-'Abbās Mūsā (Holt, , The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 202); but his habit of calling himself sometimes Hamad Mūsā and sometimes al-'Abbās Mūsā has misled the Belgian editor of his correspondence into bisecting him.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Abel, A., ‘Traduction de documents arabes concernant le Bahr-el-Ghazal (1893–4)’, Bulletin de l'Institut Royal Colonial Belge, XXV, 5 (1954), 1385–1409.Google Scholar

⁸² Abel, op. cit. Hamad Mūsā to Zemio, 3 al-Akhir, Rabi' 1311/15 Oct. 1893.Google Scholar

⁸³ Ibid. 1403–5, Hamad Mūsā to the Governor of the M'Bomu, 5 Dhu al-Q'ada 1311/9 May 1894: pp. 1401–3, Hamad Mūsā to ‘Ibn Zagal’ (unidentified, but evidently a Mahdist adherent of power and importance), Muharram 1314/11 July 1894. The second letter is a skilful exercise in ambiguity.

⁸⁴ On the River Adda, at ‘Katuaka’, which Santandrea (‘The Belgians in Western Bahr el Ghazal’, 190) identifies with the Kresh clan-name ‘Koti Waka’.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ ‘Egyptian’ by allegiance; but Sudanese, and largely southern Sudanese, by ethnic origin.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Cf.Lugard, F. D., The Rise of our East African Empire, II, London 1893, 201–6.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Lotar. La Grande Chronique de l'Uele, 135–40; Biographie Coloniale Belge, 1, Arts. Fatel Moulah Bey, Gustin, Milz. Lotar gives approximate dates, but they are erroneous; the chronology of the writer in B.C.B. is very indefinite.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Lotar, op. cit. 140, footnote.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Mahdia, 1/34/3.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Mahdia, 1/34/3, Milz to al-Mūlā, Fadl, 25 Sept. 1892, cited Holt, op. cit. 199–200.Google Scholar

⁹¹ al-Sughaiyar, Sa'īd, in Sudan Intelligence Reports, no. 60, Appendix 46.Google Scholar

⁹² Mahdia 1/32, ‘Arabī Dafa’ Allāh to the Khalifa, 29 Sha'bān 1311/7 March 1894, cited Holt, op. cit. 201.Google Scholar

⁹³ Ibid., loc. cit.

⁹⁴ It has been published (from the Belgian Archives) only in Deutsches Kolonialblatt, XXVII (June 1916), 142.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ In spite of official and other disclaimers. Salisbury's minutes and correspondence with Leopold, at P.R.O., F.O. 84/2082 and 84/2083 leave no doubt that approval was not only given but reiterated, both verbally and in writing.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Holt, op. cit. 200.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Lotar, op. cit. 154, citing the correspondence of Delanghe. The French translation seems to have disappeared.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Lotar, op. cit. 140. Mahdia, loc. cit. ‘Arabī Dafa’ Allāh to the Khalifa, 29 Sha'bān 1311.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ B.C.B., I, Fatel Moulah Bey, Gustin, Milz; II, Delanghe. Lotar, op. cit. p. 141, seems to suggest that Fadl al-Mūlā did occupy Dufile; but this must be a slip.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Lotar, op. cit. 146–9.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Ibid. 148. As a safeguard against an Egyptian volte-face, the Congolese commandant Delanghe recruited more Zande irregulars from among Renzi's people—an injudicious step, as events were to show.

¹⁰² Mahdia 1/34, Gustin to al-Mūlā, Fadl, 23 Jan. 1893.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Lotar, op. cit. 165, 168.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Mahdia 1/32, al-Mukhtār Bakr to the Khalifa, 6 Safar 1311/19 Aug. 1893; Mahdia 1/5, abū Qarja to the Khalifa, 15 Safar 1311/28 Aug. 1893. Fadl al-Mūlā reported these advances to the Congolese (Lotar, op. cit. 159). Given the difficulties of the Belgians, his candour may have been a disguised threat.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ al-Sughaiyar, Sa'īd, Sudan Intelligence Reports, loc. cit.; Mahdia 1/32, ‘Arabi Dafa’ Allāh to the Khalifa, 29 Sha'bān 1311/7 March; 1894.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ al-Sughaiyar, Sa'īd, loc. cit. The battle took place on 29 Jan. 1894.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ ‘Arabī Dafa’ Allāh to the Khalifa, 29 Sha'bān 1311 (Mahdia, loc. cit.).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ al-Sughaiyar, Sa'īd, loc. cit.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Most of the material seems to have disappeared at the time of the Italian invasion in 1935; any remnants are in the personal custody of H.I.M. the Emperor and are not open to inspection.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Sellassie, G., Chronique du Règne de Ménélik II, Roi des Rois d'Ethiopie, trans. Sellassie, T., ed. de Coppet M., 2 vols. (Paris 1930, 1931). The author was Minister of the Pen to Menelik, and wrote under his supervision.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Its usefulness is greatly increased by Menelik's practice of enclosing an Arabic translation of the Amharic original.Google Scholar

¹¹² Both the correspondence and Muhammad ‘Uthmān’s account are at Mahdia 1/34.Google Scholar

¹¹³ I am indebted to my colleague, Mr Sālih Muhammad Nūr, for access to his translation of these.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Mahdia 1/34/12, ‘Abdallāhi to Menelik, Safar 1313/July-Aug. 1895.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Mahdia 1/34/16, Menelik to ‘Abdallāhi, 8 Miyazya 1888/25 April 1896.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Menelik's letter contained indeed a thinly veiled warning against harbouring aggressive designs against Ethiopia.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Mahdia 1/34/16, Ras Bitwatid Mangasha to 'Abdallāhi, 6 Safar 1314/17 July. 1896. This Ras Mangasha (not to be confused with Mangasha of Tigre) was the chief ‘Court Ras’, with the titles ‘Ras Ru'us’ and ‘Chief of the Nobility’.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Ibid., loc. cit.; and Menelik to ‘Abdallāhi, Seni 1888/11 June 1896. (Letter of authentication for al-Hājj Ahmad, bearer of a verbal message.)

¹¹⁹ Mahdia 1/34/12, 'Abdallāhi to Menelik, Rabi' al-Akhir 1314/Sept.–Oct. 1896.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad 'Uthmān al-Hajj Khālid.Google Scholar

¹²¹ Ibid., loc. cit.

¹²² Mahdia 1/34/16, ‘Ras Mangasha son of Yohannes King of Kings’ to 'Abdallāhi, 6 Yakatit 1889/10 Ramadān 1314/12 Feb. 1897; ibid., RasTakla Haymanotto ‘Abdallāhi, 20 Yakatit [1889]/26 Feb. 1897. Cf. Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad ‘Uthmān.

¹²³ Mahdia 1/34/16, Ras Bitwatid Mangasha to ‘Abdallāhi, 22 Tut [1890]/1315/1Oct. 1897; Memoirs of Yūsuf Mikhā'īl, fo. 96, ‘he gave [Menelik] some of the Banī Shanqūl mountain’; Mahdia 1/34/15, loc. cit.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Mahdia 1/34/16, Menelik to 'Abdallāhi, 7 Kiyahk 1890/15 Dec. 1897; Yūsuf Mikhā'il, fos. 95–6.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad 'Uthmān; 1/34/16, Ras Makonnen of Harar to ‘The respected Shaikh Mohammed Mahmūd’, Shawwāb 1315/27 Feb. 1898.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Mahdia 1/34/15, Menelik to 'Abdallāhi, unsigned and undated Note found (by Wingate) attached to a letter Menelik to 'Abdallāhi, 7 Kiyahk 1890/15 Dec. 1897. The hand of the scribe and the colour of the ink—both very distinctive—are identical in the Arabic versions of both the letter and the Note. Cf. Mahdia 1/34/15, Kitchener to Rodd, 7 Sept. 1898; P.R.O., F.O. 141/333, Rodd to Salisbury No. 146, 16 Sept. 1898.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ P.R.O., F.O. 1/32, Rodd to Salisbury No. 21, 14 May 1897. Text printed in Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty (3rd edition, 1909), 11, no. 99.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ P.R.O., F.O. 1/32, Memorandum by Wingate enclosed in Rodd to Salisbury no. 18, 9 May 1897. Précis of Information obtained by the British Mission to Abyssinia, March to June 1897 (War Office Confidential Print), 71–2.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ P.R.O., F.O. 1/32, Memorandum by Wingate enclosed in Rodd to Salisbury, no. 21, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ P.R.O., F.O. 1/32, Rodd to Salisbury no. 15, 4 May; no. 21, 14 May 1897. Ibid. Rodd to Menelik, 14 May; Menelik to Rodd, 6 Genbot 1889/14 May 1897.

¹³¹ Camille Mondon-Vidailhet became Minister of Posts and Public Instruction; Léon Chefneux, Councillor for Railways.Google Scholar

¹³² D[ocuments] D[iplomatiques] F[rançais], I, XIII, no. 386, Lagarde to Hanotaux, 24 Dec. 1897;Google Scholaribid. no.159 Convention pour le Nil Blanc, 20 March 1897.

¹³³ D.D.F., I, XIII, no. 149, Lebon to Lagarde, 14 March 1897.Google Scholar

¹³⁴ Michel, C., Vers Fashoda à l'encontre de la Mission Marchand à travers l'Ethiopie (Mission de Bonchamps) (Paris, n.d. [1900]) 137Google Scholar(citing in translation Menelik's letter to Dejazmach Tassama), 236–7.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ Michel, op. cit. 93–112, 137–53, 162–71, 204–37.Google Scholar

¹³⁶ Ibid. 257–389. The issue by Menelik of less ambiguous instructions to Tassama in Oct. 1897 had made no practical difference.

¹³⁷ They certainly had no powers of command.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ Michel, op. cit. 390–461.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ Of course, Menelik's notification might be interpreted as a ‘confidence trick’. But if he intended to occupy, why notify l'Abdallāhi at all?Google Scholar

¹⁴⁰ In fact, the initiative in planting even the Ethiopian flag was taken entirely by the Europeans; and Tassama never attempted an occupation of the lower Sobat valley.Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ Cf. his expeditions to the Banī Shanqūl and to Lake Rudolf; and his dispatch in 1898 of an Ethiopian flag, coupled with a demand for tribute, to Abū Shūtāl, Shaikh of Roseires (F.O. 141/333, Ras Bitwatid Mangasha to Abū Shūtāl [undated] enclosed in Rodd to Salisbury, no. 163, 13 Oct. 1898).Google Scholar

¹⁴² Archives of the Ministère de la France d'outremer, Afrique 111, 36a, undated Note by de Bonchamps, ‘Causes d'impossibilité de jonction avec Marchand’ and minute by Gustave Binger.Google Scholar

¹⁴³ E.g. Michel, op. cit. (who even attributes Menelik's unhelpfulness to his having been deliberately misled by Lagarde); Cocheris, J., Situation Internationale de l'Egypte et du Soudan (Paris 1903);Google Scholar and, more cautiously, Langer, W. L., The Diplomacy of Imperialism (2nd edition, New York 1951).Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Michel, op. cit. 93–5, 115, 146–7, 237–55, 391, 420.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ Ibid. 245, purporting to quote Lagarde's ipsissima verba.

¹⁴⁶ Menelik's Swiss Councillor of State, Alfred Ilg, was strongly pro-French and on intimate terms with Lagarde.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁷ He ultimately admitted that the Abyssinians were ‘réfractaires à toute ingérance européenne’ (DDF, I, XIV, no. 101, Lagarde to Hanotaux, 9 March 1898; cf. Michel, op. cit. 422).Google Scholar

¹⁴⁸ For a fuller survey of Lagarde's behaviour, see Sanderson, op. cit. 56–60, 68–71.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁹ Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad 'Uthmān. Cf. D.D.F., I, XIV, no. 55, Hanotaux to Lebon, 17 Feb. 1898.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁰ F.O. 141/333, statement of al-Muddaththir Ibrāhim al-Hajjāz, enclosed in Rodd to Salisbury, no. 165, 13 Oct. 1898.Google Scholar

¹⁵¹ Mahdia 1/34/16, unsigned Note attached to Menelik to 'Abdaliāhi, 7 Kiyahk 1890/15 Dec. 1897;Google Scholaribid. Menelik to 'Abdallāhi, 9 Ter 1890/14 January 1898. Cf. F.O. 141 /33, translation of a document written by the Abūna Matthios giving the gist of Menelik's unsigned Note and enclosed in Cromer to Salisbury, no. 88, 16 June 1898.Google Scholar

¹⁵² ‘It would therefore appear that Menelik although openly conceding to French wishes, took steps to secretly annul them’. (Memo. by Wingate, 16 June 1898, F.O. 141/333, loc. cit.)Google Scholar

¹⁵³ Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad 'Uthmān.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁴ Ibid.; D.D.F., 1, XIV, no. 227, Lagarde to Hanotaux, 18 June 1898.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ Mahdia 1/34/15, Statement of Muhammad 'Uthmān; Yūsuf Mikhā'īl, fos. 96, 99–101. Yūsuf obtained his information from the Khalifa's orderlies.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁶ ‘His Majesty … said that the enmity between his Empire and the Dervishes was irreconcilable… It was inconceivable that he could ever give them aid or countenance’. ‘He repeated most emphatically that … he could never, under any circumstances, enter into any form of understanding with [the Dervishes] … and then said directly that … he would not be unprepared for common action against them’. (F.O. 1/32, Rodd to Salisbury, no. 20, 13 May 1897; same to same, no. 26, 15 May.)Google Scholar

¹⁵⁷ Dejazmach Tassama (Sobat); Ras Makonnen (Banī Shanqūl); Ras Wolda Giorgis (Lake Rudolf).Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ Langer, op. cit. 546.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁹ Ibid. 540–7.

¹⁶⁰ Hargreaves, op. cit. 109.Google Scholar