Soon after Gessi’s arrival in Egypt with all his stores, he was informed that a fire had broken out at Suez railway station, resulting in the complete destruction of all his goods, involving a monetary loss of something like twelve hundred pounds. He therefore returned to Italy, gave up the idea of exploring the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and instead resolved to start for the river Sobat, and work his way from the upper waters of that stream to the southern regions of Abyssinia, where two Italians--Cecchi and Chiarini--were supposed to be wandering. His second expedition was financed by generous Italians and by the late King of Italy. He was accompanied by Dr. Pellegrino Matteucci, who was subsequently to cross Africa from east to west and die at the end of his journey. Ernst Marno, a Viennese, had attempted, in 1870, to ascend the Blue Nile and then enter the country of the Galas to the south of it. After penetrating, however, as far as Fadasi, he was obliged to turn back, owing to the hostility of the people. The same obstacles turned back Gessi and his companions, and the expedition to Kaffa was given up. Returning to Khartum, Gessi was preparing to attempt the ascent of the Sobat when Gordon returned to his post, from which he had been absent, and invited Gessi to re-enter the service of the Egyptian government. A serious revolt had occurred in the western part of the Egyptian Sudan. The great slave-trader, Zubeir, who had conquered Darfur, had become a danger to the Egyptian power. By dint of a wily invitation he was lured to Cairo, and once in Egypt, was prevented by the Khedive from returning to the Sudan. His son Suleiman, however, remained in Darfur, and attempted to rise against the Egyptian government. His attempt was frustrated by Gordon, who, however, pardoned him, and appointed him sub-governor of his country with a handsome salary. But in 1878 Suleiman openly espoused the cause of the Nubian and Arab slave-traders whose devastations of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the White Nile regions had been sternly suppressed by Baker and Gordon. Putting himself at the head of these disaffected people, Suleiman practically subjugated all the vast territory of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and proclaimed his independence. Gessi proceeded with a small force on steamers to Lado, on the White Nile, where he met Emin Pasha. From this point he started for the Nyam-nyam country,[94] picking up on the way all the soldiers he could obtain from the various stations of the Sudan government. He found that Suleiman had proclaimed himself “Lord of Bahr-al-Ghazal, Rōl, and Makarka.” At Dem Idris, in the most western part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal province, the great battle took place.[95] The people of the country were on the side of Gessi and the Egyptian forces, because of the incessant slave-raiding of Suleiman and his men. Gessi had entrenched himself and his small force, which at the outside amounted to seven thousand men, regulars and irregulars. He had