The record-union., 1897-09-29
oSMAN DIGNA.
A Story That the African Chiefs
Real Name Is Nesbit.


Real Name Is Nesbit.
The news that Abdullai, who has
been posing as a kind of deputy Mahdi
since the death Of the original Mahomet
Achmet in June 1855, has sent for Os-
man Digna, revives interest in the most
striking and mysterious figure of the
whole Mahdist movement Osman has
figured in some eight pitched battles
in the Suakim district; he has been re-
ported dead half dozen times; a re-
ward of 5000 has been offered for
him alive or dead; and yet with his
absurdly small body of followers he
still manages to present, as he has done
for the last fourteen years, the most
fndomitable resistance to the combined
Egyptian and British authority. He
has crossed swords with. Baker, with
Graham and with Grenfell; and al
though badly smashed by the last
named at Handuk in December, 1883,
he still keeps popping up" from time
to time and if he is now offered the
command at Metammeh or Omdurman
he may yet cause the Sirdar more
trouble than can be anticipated from
the inert and unready Khalifa.
prominently, very little is known of
him, and the most contradictory state
ments have been published as TO his
origin and personality Among q
sparsely bearded race he is distinguished
by growth that has procured for him
the title of Dikn or Dikna, THE Beard
ed One and his dark beard, contrast
ed with the comparative lightness of his
color, is said to be the most noticeable
characteristic on first sight. 1t used
to be said in Suakim that his father
was a Turkish slave-dealer. who mar
ried the daughter of a Hadendown
sheikh; and it is certain that in the
seventies he was himself a wealthy
slave-dealer in Suakim, and that he
possessed immense influence with the
Hadendowas and other Soudanese'
tribes.
About a year ago one who professed
to possess undoubted sources of in
formation on the subject gave me- with
assurances of its general accuracy, the
following outline Of the life and ad-
ventures of this remarkable man. He
is not a Soudanese and not Turk, but
a Scotchman, and his name is George
Nisbet. His father was an adventur-
Gus Glasgow man, who in the thirties
found himself a merchant in ROuen.
Here his son George was born in 1886.
and here the first ten or twelve years
of the boys life were spent. March rev.
olutions and short lived republics were
not, however, much to the taste of the
elder Nisbet, and, hearing of the great
things that We're being done by Meh-
met Ali in Egypt and of a good opening
for trade at Alexandria, he migrated
to that city in 1S4S, only to fall a vic
tim to fever a few months after start
ing in business. His wife then mar
ried Turkish trader named Osman,
a man Of some means and position, who
adopted young Nisbet made a Mussul-
man of him, named him Osman Ali and
sent him to the military school at Cairo.
Here Osman Ali met and become at
tached to a young "Fellah'' cadet, Ach
met Arab, of whom Europe heard
much later on as Arab the Egyptian
or Arab Pacha Meanwhile Osman.
the Turk had settled in Suakim, had
married the Hadendowna sheikh's
daughter and amassed great wealth as
a slave-dealer On his death George
Nisbet, or Osman ALI gave up his mill
NcSI CellCSI dllO DIS sure 1Sll lOOh OfCl
his adaptive fathers business as a
slave-dealer Now began his grievances
against the civilization which he had
abandoned. Under English and French
pressure the Egyptian Government was
making efforts to repress the slave
trade, and this tended to the ruin Of
Osman's business. Then came the
movement of his old friend Arab
against the Dual Control; and finally
the rising of the Mahdi, in which he
has done his best to wipe out old scores
against England and against Egypt.
1 wonder if any of those who have
been brought into contact with the
black -beared Scotchman Che is over 60
now, and his beard will not be so black
as it was) can add to or corroborate
these details? Does Major Wingate,
who has the dossier of everybody in
the Soudan we'll noted up in his pigeon
holes, know anything of the story? A
bright Scotch laddie of II must have
got many things into his head before
they made Turk of him. Does he
carry a Shorter Catechism and a vol
ume of Burns poems in his baggage?
Has he heard of the window, in
Thrums? Or of Mr.. Crockett? Has he
ever tasted haggis? Does he adhere
to the Frees of the gu. P.'s"? Has
he views ON Mary Queen of Scots?
These are a few of the questions which
arise: and one can only hope that when
Sir Herbert Kitchener has finished his
work and Osman Digna gives up his
warlike ways Geo. Nisbet will return to
the land of his fathers, and will give US
his "reminiscences in two stout volumes.
Mr. Heinemann ought to be on the
lookout, for it will be the book Of the
season-St. James Gazette.