 In August 1881 the then-governor of the Sudan, Raouf Pasha, sent two companies of infantry each with one machine gun to arrest him.The captains of the two companies were each promised promotion if their soldiers were the ones to return the Mahdi to the governor.Both companies disembarked from the steamer that had brought them up the Nile to Aba Island and approached the Mahdi's village from separate directions.