The course adopted by the Egyptian authorities was well calculated to increase his prestige. First they ignored, then they underrated, his power. Feeble attempts were made to seize him, which failed utterly. At first Sennar was the centre of disturbance; a little later the Mahdi appeared in Southern Kordofan. A small force of regulars was sent against him in December, 1881; they fell into an ambush and were utterly destroyed. In June, 1882, Yusuf Pasha, Governor of Fashoda, with several thousand men, set out to crush him finally. Yusuf had distinguished himself in Gessi’s famous campaign. That an experienced leader of disciplined troops could have anything to fear from a crowd of half-naked Arabs seemed to him utterly impossible; so he neglected every precaution, with the inevitable result of annihilation. Throughout the Soudan it was regarded as little less than a miracle. The warlike tribes of the west began to flock to the Mahdi’s standard. His fame spread to the farthest extremities of Darfur. By the end of 1882 he had three armies in the field. Everywhere the Egyptian garrisons were beleaguered. The hated tax-collectors and outlying bodies of troops were the first to feel the vengeance of the rebels. Early in 1883 came the fall of El Obeid, after a most gallant resistance under Mohamed Pasha Said. The Egyptian Government made a desperate attempt to regain their position. Hicks Pasha arrived at Khartoum with 10,000 men, mostly raw recruits, and advanced into Kordofan. Betrayed by their guides, suffering terribly from heat and thirst, deficient alike in courage and discipline, the expedition was beaten before it set out. On November 5 the massacre, for it was nothing else, took place, and only 300 survivors were left. The effect was tremendous. On the one side it was decided to abandon the Soudan and withdraw all the garrisons, and Gordon was sent to carry out this task; on the other, a gigantic impulse was given to the cause of Mahdism.