52 
A PATROL ON THE ATBARA. 
It appears that some of the dervishes, knowing him, made signs to him 
to come over and join them instead of continuing in the Government 
service. 
My two patrols from Fasher arrived next day (22nd) with thirty- 
seven more prisoners, mostly from the bodies we had engaged and 
scattered on the 21st. They had had several skirmishes. About mid¬ 
day arrived the camels, fantasses and a further batch of prisoners from 
Asobri, together with a welcome caravan of flour and ammunition; 
also a letter from Colonel Parsons saying he was sending me a rein¬ 
forcement of fifty men of the Arab Battalion on fifty camels (impressed 
from a Suakim caravan) under the command of Captain Wilkinson, the 
commander of the Arab Battalion. He was sending them to Asobri 
with a view to their working north from that place. It was a pity that 
caravan had not arrived at Kassala three or four days earlier. ! 
I now set to work to get a convoy of prisoners ready, and the after¬ 
noon was employed in filling fantasses, counting prisoners and gener¬ 
ally evolving order out of the prevailing noise and confusion of the 
crowded camp. We got the convoy started for Kassala at 5 p.m. con¬ 
sisting of 260 prisoners and some horses and donkeys escorted by 
about eighty men under the Yuzbashi. This large escort was necessary 
as some of the Baggaras had been overheard making proposals for 
effecting their escape. Having got rid of them all, I had my first real 
wash for several days—with the result that I got fever that night. 
On the 23rd patrols were sent out as usual, and prisoners brought in 
stated there were scarcely any formed bodies now to the north of us. 
That day. I got a note from Wilkinson reporting his arrival at Asobri. 
Matters now looked like quieting down, so I sent orders to Minni Ali 
to rejoin me when his rations were finished. Wilkinson, however, 
seemed to be having a fairly lively time and picked up a goodly num¬ 
ber of prisoners during his patrols, besides killing several others. On 
the 25th, I got a note from him stating that a strong body of the 
enemy had gone past him, so I collected all available men, amounting 
to only about 100 and sent them out under the sheikhs to do what 
they could. Owing to prisoners’ escorts and the regular patrols, my 
strength in camp was now much reduced. Every bone in my body 
was aching with fever so I could not go myself and there was another 
convoy of prisoners to send off, including batches from Wilkinson and 
Minni Ali, the latter of whom had turned up the previous day, bring¬ 
ing a small caravan which had come from Kassala via Fasher, in 
accordance with my request. I sent Sergeant Nicklin in charge of 
this convoy which also took all the rifles and other loot. Just after 
dark, as I was trying to get to sleep, Hassibullah came to me with a 
somewhat sorry tale. It appeared they had come across a body of 
dervishes and after inflicting severe loss and taking some thirty prison¬ 
ers, they had been attacked by another body. A stiff fight ensued, 
during which the prisoners escaped and some of our camels were shot, 
(I had sent out twelve for scouts). Eventually, ammunition running 
short, our people had retired with a loss of six camels killed and miss¬ 
ing and one man wounded. I sent out a reliable man next day to as- 
