Wad Adlan, prior to the Mahdist revolt, had been |146| one of the principal and richest merchants in Kordofan. His business connections had taken him a number of times to Cairo and other parts of Egypt. For intelligence, and as a man of the world, he was far and away superior to all the “great” people who from time to time became my fellow-prisoners; I should be inclined to place him on a higher level than the best of the old Government officials; he read and wrote well, and, as will be seen later, he was not deficient in certain qualities which go far towards making a successful Oriental diplomatist. To the end he was loyal to the core to the old Government, but he was compelled to act a part—and well he acted it. Had there been one more Adlan in the Soudan—and many had the opportunity of being such—the rule of Abdullahi would have ended with the insurrection of Khaleefa Shereef. That insurrection just missed being successful, but it was through no fault of Adlan. Carefully and secretly he had paved the way to it, but his task ended when he had paved the way; it was for others to take the goal. Adlan was the one man in the Soudan who had the courage of his opinions, and expressed them to Abdullahi; he was a man himself, acted as one, and despised heartily those who, in his opinion, were carrying their obedience to the confines of servility. Failing to induce Abdullahi to rule with some little semblance of justice and equity, as laid down in the Quoran, he set about to undermine his influence and power, but he had to carry out his work by subterfuge, and single-handed. There were, he told me, a number |147| of people he would have wished to take into his confidence, but some he was afraid might betray him, and the others he could not trust with the little discretion they could boast of. He feared they might unwittingly let slip a few words prematurely, and then his and their tongues would be silenced for ever.