It is well known that for several years
France, at some cost to herself and at a greater cost
To Italy, had courted
the friendship of Abyssinia, and that the weapons by which the Italians
were defeated at Adowa had been mainly supplied through French channels.
A small quick-firing gun of continental manufacture and of recent make
which was found in the possession of the Khalifa seems to point to
the existence or contemplation of similar relations with the Dervishes.
But how far these operations were designed to assist the Marchand Mission
is known only to those who initiated them, and to a few others who have so
far kept their own counsel.
The undisputed facts are few. Towards the end of 1896 a French expedition
was despatched from the Atlantic into the heart of Africa under the command
of Major Marchand. The re-occupation of Dongola was then practically
complete, and the British Government were earnestly considering the
desirability of a further advance. In the beginning of 1897 a British
expedition, under Colonel Macdonald, and comprising a dozen carefully
selected officers, set out from England to Uganda, landed at Mombassa,
and struck inland. The misfortunes which fell upon this enterprise are
beyond the scope of this account, and I shall not dwell upon the local
jealousies and disputes which marred it. It is sufficient to observe that
Colonel Macdonald was provided with Soudanese troops who were practically
in a state of mutiny and actually mutinied two days after he assumed
command.
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