EGYPT. 



237 



'not individual members, to bring suit against the 

 Government. If Prance and Russia would not 

 accede to the British proposal the English Govern- 

 ment threatened to allow the mixed tribunals to 

 cease by efflux of time on the expiration of the 

 present convention in February, 1899. 



The Nile Campaign. Although the Soudanese 

 blacks of the Egyptian army had shown themselves 

 to be splendid soldiers under British leadership and 

 the fellahin had exhibited admirable coolness and 

 discipline under fire, the British military and polit- 

 ical authorities were determined that the credit of 

 smashing the Mahdi at Khartoum should be earned 

 by British troops. Hence, before beginning the 

 advance from Berber, the sirdar, Sir Herbert 

 Kitchener, asked for the support of European regi- 

 ments, of which three were dispatched in January, 

 1898. The dervishes, whose advanced post was at 

 Metamma, halfway between Berber and Khartoum, 

 were said to be preparing for an attack upon the 

 Egyptian position. The railway was already com- 

 pleted across the Bayuda desert to Abu Hamed and 

 up the river for 20 miles beyond. The rapid con- 

 struction of the Soudan Railroad by Lieut. E. P. C. 

 Girouard and his staff of young engineer officers 

 was the most remarkable achievement in the Nile 

 operations and the most essential for their success. 



Three Egyptian gunboats patrolled the river south 

 of Berber, and there was a fortified camp held by 

 the Khedive's Egyptian troops at El Darner, just 

 above the junction of the Atbara and the Nile. 

 Thr Jaalin and other river tribes were eager to join 

 the Egyptians or to aid them whenever they could 

 feel safe from the vengeance of their Baggara 

 masters. The reconquered 'province of Dongola 

 \va.s recovering from the effects of dervish misrule, 

 and the population had increased in a year from 

 58,000, of whom 40,000 were women and children, to 

 77.000. 



In the eastern Soudan the dervish power crum- 

 bled away from the hour when the Anglo-Egyptian 

 military authorities took over Kassala from the 

 Italians. The Emir Abdelrahim had 800 riflemen 

 at El Pasher and a force of infantry and cavalry 

 at Osobri. Prom these posts lie had constantly 

 threatened Kassala. Col. Parsons, before he re- 

 ceived the transfer of Kassala from Col. Count 

 Sanminiatelli on Christmas Day, enrolled in the 

 Egyptian army 450 of the Soudanese regulars 

 trained by the Italians and the band of irregulars, 

 consisting of 160 Hadendoa and Beni Amer Arabs, 

 who once had fought for the Mahdi. The easy 

 discipline of the Italians had developed the fighting 

 qualities of the Arab warriors far better than the 

 stern methods employed by British officers. The 

 British won the gratitude of the people of Kassala 

 by sending for their exiled spiritual chief, Sidi Ali, 

 the head of the Morgani family, directly descend- 

 ed from the Prophet. Col. Parsons flattered the 

 martial pride of his new recruits by sending them 

 out under their own sheiks to drive the dervishes 

 out of El Fasher and Osobri. They set out on 

 Dec. 20, 1897, before the arrival of the Egyptian 

 garrison of 900 fellahin and before the formal 

 surrender of Kassala. The native levies under the 

 Chief Aroda. 400 strong, captured and burned El 

 Pasher without difficulty, but Osobri stood out for 

 a week, and finally the dervishes cut their way 

 through Assabala's 160 men, both sides fighting 

 desperately, and escaped to Kedaref with a loss of 

 half their" force of 100 fighting men, the brave 

 Baggara Emir having persistently refused to accept 

 quarter from infidels. 



The army that was got ready in January for 

 operations on the Nile consisted of 18,000 Egyptians, 

 i British battalions, to be increased later as 

 necessity should require, and the Nile flotilla of 



gunboats. Arab irregulars held various posts in the 

 desert between Suakin and Berber, where the route 

 was open since the withdrawal of Osman Digna 

 from that part of the eastern Soudan in the pre- 

 vious autumn. The Arab levies of Col. Parsons 

 extended their operations to Nugatta, Gos Rejeb, 

 and Aderama, clearing of dervishes the whole 

 country east of the Atbara, and also westward 

 across the desert to Es Sofiyeh, nearly halfway to 

 Khartoum, and southward to Tomat and Kedaref. 

 The Khalifa was fast drawing his forces together to 

 make his final stand at Omdurman. At Metemma 

 the Emir Mahmud had a powerful host, which was 

 necessary not only to oppose the Egyptian advance, 

 but also to overawe the riverain and desert tribes 

 and prevent them from joining the invaders. At 

 the sixth cataract Shabluka was well fortified. 

 South of that there was no protection up to the 

 forts of Omdurman, where the Khalifa had elected 

 to fight his great battle, having seen in a vision the 

 destruction of the entire Anglo- Egyptian army by 

 the faithful and a terrible slaughte'r of the Turks, 

 as the Egyptians are called by the Arabs of the 

 Soudan, whom they once ground down. Now the 

 Egyptians were generally welcomed as deliverers. 

 Prisoners taken in skirmishes and deserters who 

 kept coming into the Egyptian lines were enlisted 

 for service with the Soudanese battalions. After 

 the advanced guard of the Egyptian field army had 

 arrived at Berber, Mahmud, the dervish general, on 

 Feb. 25 took his main force, under a harassing 

 attack of the Egyptian gunboats, over the river to 

 Shendy, on the right bank. There he was joined 

 by Osman Digna and his cavalry, and when detach- 

 ments of dervishes reconnoitered in the direction of 

 El Darner the Anglo-Egyptians, who held a strong 

 line from the Atbara to the Nile, sent forward 

 Major-Gen. William Forbes Gatacre's British bri- 

 gade to head off the expected attack. This brigade 

 in its march to the Atbara covered 140 miles in six 

 days, for one of which it was halted. On March 12 

 the dervishes moved northward out of Shendy 

 in force. Numbering 18,941 fighting men, they 

 marched up the Nile to Aliab, and then crossed 

 the desert to the Atbara, reaching on March 20 a 

 point between Nakheila and Fahada. The sirdar 

 dispatched a force from Berber, consisting of the 

 British brigade, the Egyptian division commanded 

 by Major-Gen. Archibald Hunter, 3 batteries of 

 artillery under Col. Long, and 8 squadrons of 

 Egyptian cavalry, the total strength being 13,000 

 men, with 24 field guns and 12 Maxims. This force 

 concentrated at Kunur on March 16, and on March 

 20, being joined by another battery and a brigade 

 of Egyptians, advanced to Ras el Hudi, at the bend 

 of the Atbara. The cavalry of the two armies 

 came in contact with each other on the following 

 day. Finding the Anglo-Egyptians in great force, 

 Mahmud decided to intrench his position and await 

 supplies from the Khalifa. Gen. Kitchener there- 

 upon ordered the gunboats to take the battalion at 

 Atbara fort and the Jaalin levies up to Shendy, 

 which was taken without the loss of a life on the 

 Egyptian side. The dervishes, who were taken by 

 surprise, fled after their leader was killed, leaving 

 Mahmud's reserve stores and cattle to be taken by 

 the enemy, with 650 prisoners, mostly Jaalin 

 women and children, kept as hostages by the Bag- 

 garas. Of these fierce warriors, who give no quar- 

 ter and take none, 170 were killed. The batteries 

 and forts at Shendy were destroyed. 



After Gen. Hunter had made a reconnoissance in 

 force on March 30 and found Mahmud not disposed 

 to stir from his intrenched camp. Gen. Kitchener 

 ordered an advance of 5 miles to Abadar, which 

 was carried out on April 4. Another reconnois- 

 sance drew out the dervish horsemen, who attempted 



