EGYPT. 



301 



with the rest of his forces. Forming a square 

 around the camels and stores, they withstood 

 the fierce and reckless onset of the Soudanese 

 until evening, when the Mahdi withdrew. 

 The Egyptian camp-followers were thrown 

 into confusion by the stampeding of camels, 

 but the troops fought with admirable forti- 

 tude. The next morning the rebels resumed 

 the attack, re-enforced by the arrival of well- 

 armed troops from Kordofan, soldiers who 

 had surrendered at El Obeid. The Egyp- 

 tians held their ground through another day's 

 fighting, but on the third morning the square 

 was broken. The battle-ground had been se- 

 lected by the Mahdi with his usual sagacity. 

 It was a narrow, rocky passage between 

 wooded hills, in which he had placed the guns 

 and rifles captured in former engagements in 

 positions where they could be used with effect, 

 but where it was impossible for Gen. Hicks to 

 deploy his artillery. Into this ambuscade the 

 Egyptian advance column was led by a treach- 

 erous guide. The army of Hicks Pasha was 

 totally annihilated. The troops are reported 

 to have fought three days without water, 

 until all their cartridges were expended. Gen. 

 Hicks then ordered a bayonet-charge, but the 

 army was immediately overwhelmed and not a 

 man escaped. The cornraunder-in-chief, with 

 Alla-ed-Din, Governor-General of the Soudan, 

 Abbas Bey, Col. Farquhar, Majors von Ssck- 

 endorf, Massy, Warner, and Evans, Captains 

 Herlth and Anatyaga, Surgeon-Gen. Georges 

 Bey, Surgeon Rosenberg, O'Donovan, the well- 

 known war correspondent, a number of Egyp- 

 tian pashas and beys, and all the officers, who 

 numbered 1,200, and soldiers of the army, 

 were slain. All the camels, stores, and muni- 

 tions, with 36 Nordenfeldt, Krupp, and moun- 

 tain guns, fell into the hands of the Mahdi. 



The annihilation of the main Soudan army 

 at Kashgate left about 4,000 troops in the 

 Soudan scattered in various places. Col. Coet- 

 logon, who was almost the only surviving Eu- 

 ropean in the Soudan, being the next in com- 

 mand, collected these scattered bodies in Khar- 

 .toum and the other important posts. 



Baker Pasha was at once ordered to Suakin 

 with a mixed force of gendarmes, Bedouins, 

 and Soudanese. To Scbehr Pasha, the former 

 Soudan potentate, was confided the duty of re- 

 cruiting and leading the black and Arab ir- 

 regulars. The object of the expedition was to 

 keep open the line of communication between 

 Suakin and Berber, so as to afford an avenue 

 of retreat for the Egyptians in Khartoum and 

 other parts of the Soudan. 



The entire province of Sennaar declared for 

 the Mahdi as soon as the defeat of Hicks be- 

 came known. The majority of the Bedouins 

 of the coast, to secure whose co-operation was 

 the first thought of the Egyptian council of 

 war, which decided on a plan of operations 

 at Cairo, joined the rebellion. The whole 

 Soudan was involved except the fortified trad- 

 ing posts, which were held by feeble garrisons, 



and where the loyalty of the black population 

 was doubtful. 



After the first detachments of Baker's force 

 had arrived, the forts of Suakin were repeat- 

 edly attacked between November 26th and 

 December 1st by the slave-dealing Kabbabish 

 Arabs, who were the Mahdi's efficient allies in 

 the coast-region. On December 2d a force of 

 500 Soudanese infantry, 200 Bashi-Bazouks, 

 and 200 cavalry marched out from Suakin to 

 attack the rebels. Within three hours' march 

 from the town they were unexpectedly at- 

 tacked. They were without their Remington 

 guns most of which were strapped on the 

 camels but they executed the manoeuvre in 

 which the Egyptian soldiers are so well trained, 

 the hollow square, and fought valiantly until 

 the greater part of them were killed. Only 

 fifty are reported to have escaped. 



Gen. Baker was detained at Cairo by busi- 

 ness connected with transports and supplies 

 for his relief expedition until the middle of 

 December. When he arrived at Suakin he 

 had at his disposal a force of 2,300 gen- 

 darmes, 500 of them mounted, 1,500 black 

 troops, and 4,000 Bedouins, with five guns. 

 The gendarmes were under the command of 

 Col. Sartorius, the blacks and half the Bed- 

 ouins under Sebehr, and the rest of the Arabs 

 under Hussein Pasha. The latter division was 

 to advance up the Nile and join the others, 

 advancing from Suakin, between that place 

 and Berber. In the mean time the posts of 

 Tokar, on the coast of the Red sea, and Sinkat, 

 midway between Suakin" and Berber, were be- 

 leaguered by Arabs, and the garrisons reduced 

 nearly to starvation. 



The Egyptian Government, having been 

 practically deprived of all defensive power by 

 the abolition of its army, could only look to 

 England to restore the provinces which had 

 been lost through the English invasion. The 

 British Government was in a helpless dilemma. 

 It was out of the question to expose British 

 troops to the dangers and privations of a cam- 

 paign in the Soudan, or to employ Indian troops 

 for such a purpose again, and equally so to bur- 

 den the Egyptian treasury with the expenses 

 of a war to suppress the rebellion if the troops 

 could be raised in Egypt, or to call upon the^ 

 British people to help defray them. If the 

 Porte was willing to attempt the reconquest of 

 the Soudan, it would only be at the price of 

 impairing the position of England in Egypt. 

 The rebellion itself was a menace to English 

 interests in the Delta and on the canal. The 

 councils of the English Cabinet were divided 

 on the Egyptian question from the first. Mr. 

 Gladstone himself was opposed to establishing 

 direct British dominion in' any shape. The 

 policy of removing the occupying army and 

 leaving the Egyptians to themselves, of letting 

 them "stew in their own juice," as it was 

 phrased, was abandoned. A continued occupa- 

 tion of indefinite duration was now in prospect, 

 perhaps a permanent protectorate. Yet the 



