Page:A Prisoner of the Khaleefa.djvu/394

Rh thrown upon his shoulders, he appealed to the Ulema for their advice, as these apostates were now their co-religionists, and they decided to have nothing whatever to do with their "proposals of treachery," as no good could come of it. Matters were made still worse by Slatin writing to Gordon asking him to be a party to proceedings very foreign indeed to Gordon's nature at all events. Slatin's request to Gordon was to write to him personally one letter in French, and another letter in Arabic, "asking him to obtain permission from his Master to come to Omdurman and discuss with him the conditions of his (Gordon's) surrender," which letter he could use in order to obtain permission to come to Omdurman. If Gordon had written that Arabic letter. . ..

If all these facts were not known to Father Ohrwalder before 1892, six years is quite long enough time to have learned them, and now I have no hesitation in saying that to assert that Gordon brought about his downfall by refusing the services of people willing to risk their lives in reaching him is, to put it charitably, pure fiction.

Irrespective of the opinions expressed in the first four extracts given, extract No. 5 makes out a very good case for the Sirdar to write in large letters at the Soudan Frontier, "No Missionaries Admitted," for Father Ohrwalder proves conclusively that they can do no good. Honestly I believe that for many years to come the only religious teachers allowed to penetrate into the Soudan should be enlightened exponents of the Quoran. Consider that for sixteen years the