EGYPT. 



239 



British and 4 composed of native soldiers under 

 British and native officers, the whole body number- 

 ing 25,000 men, of whom 10,000 were British troops 

 commanded by Gen. Gatacre and 15.000 were Egyp- 

 tians under Gen. Hunter. On Sept. 1 the Anglo- 

 Kgyptian forces advanced to a point near Kerreri, 

 driving in the enemy's outposts without loss to 

 themselves. There they halted while the gunboats, 

 under Commander Keppel, having in tow 6 great 

 howitzers on barges, went up the Nile beyond Nasri 

 island, clearing the right bank of dervishes and 

 demolishing the forts on Juti island without suffer- 

 ing damage. The howitzer battery was placed in 

 position on the river bank opposite Omdurman 

 and bombarded the forts, destroying also the mosque 

 and the tomb of the Mahdi. The cavalry on Sept. 

 2 advanced, with a horse battery, to Kasor Shanbal, 

 whereupon the Khalifa, with his entire force of 

 40,000 to 50,000 men, marched forth from behind 

 the hills where they had passed the night and 

 drew up in battle order within a mile of the Anglo- 

 Egyptian forces, which were disposed to good ad- 

 vantage in the form of a horseshoe, with guns and 

 Maxims placed at intervals and both flanks resting 

 on the river, protected by the gunboats. The Brit- 

 ish soldiers built a zariba, while the Egyptians 

 threw up intrenchments. The dervishes advanced 

 against the front and both flanks simultaneously. 

 On the right the Egyptian cavalry and camel corps 

 drew off the attack, leaving 2 guns in the hands of 

 the pursuing dervishes. On the front and on the 

 left flank, which was formed by the British divi- 

 sion, the attack was fully developed, but under the 

 unerring fire of field guns and Maxims and the 

 withering fusillade of repeating rifles the dervishes 

 melted away before coming within the firing dis- 

 tance of their own weapons. Their ranks were half 

 destroyed while inflicting a loss of not more than 

 100 on the Egyptians, who cleared the field in less 

 than fifteen minutes. The dervishes retired and 

 reformed behind the shelter of the low range of 

 hills. On the other side of the Surgham hill the 

 Khalifa had a large body of fresh troops in re- 

 serve. Toward the close of the action the British 

 lancers led the advance to Omdurman. Beyond 

 the hill they were fired at by concealed riflemen, 

 at which they charged through the dervishes, who 

 numbered 2,000, and faced about on reaching the 

 top of the opposite incline. Meanwhile the sirdar, 

 seeing no more foes in front, ordered a general ad- 

 vance of the brigades in echelon to Omdurman. 

 As Gen. MacDonald's Soudanese took a wide turn, 

 in order to let the Egyptians under Gen. Lewis 

 pass, it was fiercely attacked on flank and rear by 

 dervishes sweeping down from the Kerreri hills. 

 The camel corps, which, followed by the cavalry, 

 was guarding the rear of the transport column, was 

 involved in the attack. Gen. MacDonald wheeled 

 his battalions about so as to form two sides of a 

 square fronting the enemy in both directions, the 

 line being prolonged by the camelry on the right, 

 where the attack was heaviest. The sirdar ordered 

 the rest of the brigades, which were in advance, to 

 change front and wheel to the right round Surgham 

 hill, while he sent one of the British brigades back 

 to re-enforce MacDonald's men. These, however, 

 had broken the force of the attack before the sup- 

 ports arrived. An attack from the Khalifa's camp 

 behind the hill was readily repelled by the British 

 and Soudanese infantry on the extreme left, sup- 

 ported by a field battery and Maxims. The rest of 

 the battle was a mere chase. The battery on the 

 left, co-operating with long-range infantry fire, 

 drove the dervishes off to the west to prevent their 

 re-entering Omdurman. Swinging round Surgham 

 bill, the guns and infantry crumpled up the der- 

 vish columns in the plain beyond. The intrepid 



Arabs rallied repeatedly and returned to the charge, 

 but were mown down by a deadly cross fire of in- 

 fantry and artillery from the Anglo-Egyptian line 

 that now enveloped them. The Egyptian cavalry 

 kept the Baggara horse busy throughout the en- 

 gagement. The dervishes, although kept at long 

 range, 2,000 yards or more, most of the time, never- 

 theless succeeded in inflicting a loss of nearly 2,000 

 on the Anglo-Egyptians, but only by a courage 

 that sought death and at the cost of almost total 

 annihilation. More than 8,000 were killed outright. 

 The broken remnant that trailed over the desert 

 could not be collected and reorganized into a fight- 

 ing force. The battle was over before noon, and on 

 the same day the sirdar entered Omdurman, while 

 his troops encamped under its walls. The Khalifa 

 Abdullah, his power utterly crushed, retired to El 

 Obeid. Slatin Bey, the former governor of Kor- 

 dofan, who was kept a prisoner by the Mahdi for 

 many years, was installed at Omdurman as Egyp- 

 tian governor. 



The Fashoda Incident. France, supported by 

 Russia, consistently refused to recognize the Sou- 

 danese and Equatorial provinces of Egypt after 

 they were abandoned by the Egyptian Government 

 under British control as either a no-man's land 

 open to European occupation in general or as a 

 British sphere forming a Hinterland of British 

 East Africa or falling to England by virtue of her 

 occupation of Egypt. The Italian and German 



gavernments in their conventions with Great 

 ritain acknowledged a British claim to these 

 regions, but the French and Russian governments 

 took the view that all the territories that once were 

 Egyptian under the Sultan's suzerainty are still a 

 part of Egypt and of the Ottoman Empire. That 

 they are Egyptian is the view finally adopted by 

 the British Government when it sanctioned the ex- 

 pedition to wrest the Nile provinces from the 

 Khalifa after the French and Russians had ar- 

 ranged a friendly understanding with the Negus of 

 Abyssinia on the east and the French Congo stations 

 were extended up the Ubangi- Welle to the edge of 

 the Nile basin. The French Government asserted 

 that it had an equal right with England to establish 

 stations in the Bahr el Ghazal region or on the 

 Nile and hold the country as custodian for the 

 Khedive and the Sultan. The Anglo-Egyptian 

 Nile expedition, which was carried out with the aid 

 of British money after France and Russia had re- 

 fused to sanction the application of the Egyptian 

 general reserve fund to this purpose, was regarded 

 by the French as a scheme to strengthen the Eng- 

 lish hold on Egypt and the Suez Canal and to pro- 

 long indefinitely the British occupation, which, 

 according to the pledges of the British Government, 

 will come to an end as soon as a native government 

 can be organized in Egypt that is capable of main- 

 taining order and fulfilling international obliga- 

 tions. 



M. Liotard in 1896 had planted the French flag 

 in the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin by 

 the establishment of a post near Tambura, the 

 residence of the great A Zandeh chief, 30 miles 

 from the left bank of the Sueh. He had founded a 

 string of stations affording a line of communica- 

 tions down the Ubangi. Capt. Marchand followed 

 him with an expedition organized in the second 

 half of 1896 with the distinct object of invading 

 the Nile valley and disputing the British claim of 

 pre-emption. His party included 9 French officers 

 and 8 other whites, and was abundantly equipped 

 with trade goods, which M. Liotard had lacked, 

 although he succeeded in securing the acceptance 

 of a French protectorate from the chief of Tambura. 

 Capt. Marchand succeeded in transporting 6,000 

 loads of merchandise and munitions from Brazza- 



