However, the tales which were coming in every few days were causing no little anxiety to the Khaleefa. None of us believed that the troops were coming across the desert in “iron devils,” and it was some time before we understood that a railway was being built. Indeed we could hardly believe it. Whatever the “iron devil” was, it behoved the Khaleefa to look well to his arms and ammunition. Sheikh ed Din was sent on a round of inspection of stores and arsenals,[11] and discovered that a large quantity of the |234| powder had caked with the absorption of moisture, that other large quantities were of very poor quality, and that the powder-stores in general were not as he thought they were. The Khaleefa threatened to cut a hand and foot off both Abd es Semmieh and Hassan Hosny, the directors of the factory, if they did not work the powder up again into a good explosive. Awwad, as the head of the Beit-el-Mal, came and asked if it was not possible to make some sort of machine for pulverizing the ingredients for the powder; the work was then being done by hand. I tried to interest Nahoum Abbajee in the work, as it was about time we got clear of our alchemists’ establishment on some excuse or another, otherwise I foresaw trouble if Sheikh ed Din should inquire too closely into our work. But Abbajee thought that he had had quite enough of me in connection with experiments and machinery, and decided to be out of the affair altogether; he thought his life had been in enough jeopardy already. Sirri elected to remain. [11] A few errors have crept into the report submitted to the Earl of Kimberley in April, 1895, after the escape of Slatin. On page 4 it is stated that the church of the Austrian Mission in Khartoum was utilized as the repairing shops of the arsenal. The church was never put to such a purpose. The account I have given of the purpose to which it was put is the correct one. On page 7 it is stated “Neufeld started the first saltpetre refinery in Khartoum.” This may or may not be correct, but it is very misleading. The refining of saltpetre for the Khaleefa was a big industry in Darfour and the environs of Omdurman and Khartoum long before I had anything to do with it. The account I have given as to how I came to be connected with this industry may be relied upon as being correct, while there are many living witnesses, irrespective of the stock of my saltpetre still existing, to prove that I deliberately prevented “the refining of saltpetre” so far as it lay in my power to do so. In the following paragraph to that quoted, it is stated that the powder-factory was at Halfeyeh. It never was. It was first in Omdurman, and, after the explosion, was gradually removed to Tuti Island. The transfer was not complete when I left Khartoum for the Saier in November, 1897.