Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — A Powerful Kingdom in Africa. [ARTICLE]

A Powerful Kingdom in Africa.

Traders who have recently reached Tripoli from Bornu In the Soudan, tell of the rise of a new and powerful kingdom in the Interior of Africa, The monarch is named Rabah. He began life as a slave. Afterward he became a lieutenant of Zcbehr Pasha, who was Egyptian governor of Darfur. After the full of Gordon, Rabah, who was collecting taxes in the Soudan, made his way with a body of fighting men to Bughlrml, southeast ot Lake Tchad, and not only held his own against the Mahdists, but conquered the country far and wide. He then turned against the Sultan of Bornu, whose capital Is Kuka, on lake Tchad, where the traders wore. Ashem, the Sultan, was defeated, and Klari, Ashetn’s nephew, who succeeded as Sultan, gathered fresh forces and attacked Aabah again and again, but was always repulsed. Rabah is a free lance, fighting for his own hand and profit; his army lives on pillage. He is a tall spare negro, very energetic, and of simple tastes. He has collected a large store of gold, silver, coral, feathers, and ivory, and has a good number of modern rifles. His power is absolute, and he is rapidly forming a powerful state behind the French, English, and German hinterlands.