318 



EGYPT. 



Gadir mountain; on the 17th of June he met 

 the rebels in a densely wooded country, and 

 was routed, and his command was badly cut 

 up. In Kordofan the rebels attacked Bara on 

 June 28, but were repelled with great loss. 



Toward the end of June the works of de- 

 fense for the protection of Khartoum were 

 begun at the south of the town. Abd-el- 

 Kader resolved to form negro battalions, and 

 every slave-owner in Khartoum was called 

 upon to give up a certain number of slaves for 

 the purpose. In August a state of siege was 

 proclaimed in the city. Five forts had been 

 constructed, each armed with one gun. The 

 town was divided into four military sections, 

 and pickets patrolled the streets both day and 

 night. As a further protection, a canal was 

 cut south of the town, joining the two branch- 

 es of the Nile, but not till November. The 

 Kababish Arabs, an important tribe occupying 

 a large tract between Kordofan and Dongola, 

 were in revolt, and were encamped within a 

 day's march of Khartoum. 



During July and August minor engagements 

 were fought upon the lines of communication 

 between the White Nile and Kordofan, which 

 almost always resulted in favor of the rebels. 

 The commercial town of Shott, on the road 

 from Duem, on the White Nile, to El-Obeid, 

 was totally destroyed, the male population was 

 put to the sword, and the women and children 

 were carried off into captivity. 



In the beginning of August the insurgent 

 forces were divided into three principal groups : 

 The Mahdi, with his troops, on the mountain of 

 Gadir, in the Takalla district ; a second army 

 was in Kordofan ; and a third stretched along 

 the White Nile from Duem to Abba on the 

 western bank, and from Kawa to Marabieh on 

 the eastern. On the 19th of August the rebels 

 were again defeated near Bara, and El-Obeid 

 was subsequently revictualed. 



The rebels, operating along the western bank 

 of the White Nile, under Ahmed Wad-el-Mak- 

 shef, were attacked by the Egyptian troops near 

 Duem on the 28th of August, and routed, leav- 

 ing 3,500 dead on the field. This defeat frus- 

 trated the march upon Khartoum. The Mahdi 

 now took the field in person and advanced upon 

 El-Obeid. The garrison at El-Obeid consisted 

 of 6,000 men, armed with Remington rifles, 

 sent them by Abd-el-Kader in anticipation of 

 a siege. On the 8th of September the Mahdi 

 made an assault, repeated on the llth and 

 14th, which was repelled with great loss. The 

 Mahdi was now deserted by many of his fol- 

 lowers. At El-Kona, however, the Egyptians 

 under Ali Satfi Bey had been attacked. The 

 losses of the Egyptians, including "Satfi, were 

 1,100 killed, and 1,150 rifles and a large quan- 

 tity of ammunition and stores. 



Abd-el-Kader Pasha then telegraphed that 

 he must have 10,000 men. In November, 2,000 

 to 3,000 men who had fought under Arabi had 

 been concentrated at the Barrage on the Nile, 

 and were being equipped for the expedition. 



Ali-el-Din Pasha, Governor of the Red Sea 

 Provinces at Suakin, became the moving spirit 

 by which these timid and doubting troops were 

 quickly dispatched across the desert. By the 

 middle of February, 1883, 100 dismounted 

 cavalry, 100 gunners, and three regiments had 

 been sent forward. Lieut-Col. Stewart, of the 

 Eleventh Hussars, arrived in Khartoum on the 

 16th of December. He had been sent by the 

 English Government to inquire into the true 

 state of affairs. In the mean time five battal- 

 ions, 4,170 men, had arrived from Cairo, and 

 were encamped at Omdurman. On the llth 

 of February a messenger arrived at Khartoum, 

 confirming the news that Bara had fallen on 

 the 5th of January. By this surrender 2,000 

 troops, besides a considerable quantity of arms 

 and ammunition, fell into the hands of the 

 rebels. Five days afterward the news arrived 

 that El-Obeid had capitulated on the 17th of 

 January, and that the whole of the Kordofan 

 was in the hands of the Mahdi. 



Abd-el-Kader took the field on the 13th of 

 February, and on the 24th defeated the enemy 

 at Meshra-el-Dai, and again on the 4th of March 

 at Sekhedy. 



On the 4th of March Col. Hicks reached 

 Khartoum, and with him Lieut.-Col. Colborne, 

 Lieut.-Col. Coetlogen, Maj. Martin, Maj. Far- 

 quhar, Capt. Warner, Capt. Massey, Evans 

 Walker, and Surg.-Gen. Rosenberg. Col. 

 Hicks had been appointed chief- of- staff of the 

 army of the Soudan, with local rank of major- 

 general but it was intended that he should di- 

 rect and be responsible for all preparations and 

 operations ; in fact, that he should in reality 

 be the commander-in-chief, while nominally 

 holding a subordinate post. Suleiman Nyasi, 

 whose military career dated back to the days 

 of Mehemet Ali and the Crimean War, was 

 consequently named to the chief command, 

 but with the understanding that he was to pay 

 strict attention to and carefully follow out Gen. 

 Hicks's instructions and plans; but his indo- 

 lence, apathy, and ignorance, and apparent 

 malignity and jealousy, caused him to act in 

 anything but the spirit of the instructions given 

 him at Cairo. On the 26th of March Ali-el-Din 

 Pasha was proclaimed Governor-General of 

 Khartoum and the Soudan, and on the same 

 day Hussein Pasha left for Sennaar, to inform 

 Abd-el-Kader of his removal from office. After 

 months of preparation and insignificant skir- 

 mishes with the enemy, Gen. Hicks, on the 9th 

 of September (1883), set in motion a column 

 estimated at 10,000 men, four Krupp field-guns, 

 six Nordenfeldts, 500 horses, and 5,500 camels, 

 to attack the Mahdi at El-Obeid. On the 

 19th of November a messenger returned to 

 Khartoum with the astounding intelligence of 

 the entire destruction of this expeditionary 

 force. 



In the mean time the operations from Snakin 

 were far from satisfactory. Osman Digna, a 

 well-known slave-dealer, assisted by his neph- 

 ews Ahmed and Fagi Digna, had raised the Er 



