Produced by StevenGibbs, Linda Hamilton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: Father Ohrwalder, The Sisters Catterina Chincarini and Elisabetta Venturini and The Slave girl Adila From a photograph by Stromeyer & Heyman, Cairo. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd.] TEN YEARS' CAPTIVITY IN THE MAHDI'S CAMP 1882-1892 FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF FATHER JOSEPH OHRWALDER LATE PRIEST OF THE AUSTRIAN MISSION STATION AT DELEN, IN KORDOFAN BY MAJOR F. R. WINGATE, R.A. DIRECTOR OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, EGYPTIAN ARMY; AUTHOR OF 'MAHDIISM AND THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN' _WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY WALTER C. HORSLEY_ THIRD EDITION LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY _LIMITED_ =St. Dunstan's House= FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 1892 (_All rights reserved._) LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. [Illustration: FATHER OHRWALDER.] After the fall of Khartum in January 1885, various attempts were from time to time made to effect the release of some of the European prisoners who had fallen into the Mahdi's hands during the early stages of the Sudan revolt. These attempts were for the most part attended with little result. The causes of their failure, and eventual success in one instance, are fully described in the following personal narrative of Father Ohrwalder. As Father Ohrwalder is the first European who has escaped from the Sudan since 1885, I was fully occupied with him during the few days immediately following his arrival in ascertaining, for official purposes, the actual situation in the Sudan, and that completed, we had many interesting conversations on the historical events which had occurred in these revolted districts during the last ten years. Having but recently completed a _resumé_ of these events,[A] which had been largely compiled from the statements of natives who had escaped, I was not unnaturally desirous to verify, by the independent witness of Father Ohrwalder, the accounts which they had given, and I further begged Father Ohrwalder to carefully read over the book and point out the errors. It was with considerable satisfaction that I learnt from him that the facts had been faithfully recorded; but the flood of light which he was enabled to throw on many obscure passages, and the great interest attaching to the narrative of an active participator in so many of these now historic occurrences, induced me to suggest that he should set to work, while the memory of these events was fresh in his mind, to write a personal narrative of his varied and terrible experiences, of which the general public have hitherto learnt but the bare outline.