THE RECONOUEST OF THE SOUDAN. 83 and destroyed the forts. The enemy's deserted camp and earthworks on the opposite side of the Nile at Metemneh had already been occupied by Jaalin friendlies, who had retired to the Egyptian post at Gakdul Wells, in the Bayuda desert, after the disaster in July. The Nile between Ed Darner and the Shabluka cataract had thus been cleared of the enemy. Hickman's brilliant feat had the further result that, Mahmoud's base of supplies being destroyed, the emir's large army must choose between attacking the Sirdar's camp at Rasel-Hudi or slowly starving, whether it remained inactive on the Atbara or retired across the desert by Gos Regeb. The capture of Shendy, in fact, made General Kitchener master of the situation.

in front. Broadwoodand the Egyptian cavalry moved out to charge them, but they did not await theattack. Thev retired steadily through the bush, evidently unwilling to risk close combat. At last glimpses of the enemy's works were seenout in front. The broken groundand the masses of thick bush preventedan uninterrupted view of the whole. The horse artillery unlimbered and sent some twenty of its shells into the camp,but not a shot was fired inreply, though it couldbe seen that the nearest trenches were black with theenemy'sriflemen. Mahmoud evidently had directed them to reservetheir fire tillthe attack came to close quarters.

While this bombardment was in progress General Hunter, accompanied by Major Mahon of the cavalry, and Captain Watson, the Sirdar's aide-de-camp, succeeded in getting well to the front in the bush,till at one moment they were within 300 yards of the enemy's lines. They could only get an imperfect view of them, but they saw a huge camp,fortified with trench and rifle pits, surrounded by a high and widezereba hedge of entangled thorns,and having inside it a kind of citadel or inner line of defence. The enemy's reluctance to fire even a few shots was takento meanthat he had notmuch ammunition to spare.

Amongst the prisoners taken at Shendv was one of Mahmoud's clerks or secretaries, who, 0:1 being questioned, supplied a lot of most useful information. Amongst other things, he stated that the muster-rolls of the force with which Mahmoud marched to the Atbara gave a total of 18,041 fighting men, and that he had ten guns with him, some of them Krupp's, some oldbrass cannon.

As Mahmoud made no sign of coming out of his entrenched camp, the Sirdar began a series of reconnaissances with a view to obtaining a cLar knowledge of his position in the Dervish general had to be attacked in his entrenchments, though there was still a h ipe that he would be enticed out of them, or forced to move by growing shortness supplies.

Having obtained as much information as he could, Hunter rejoined his men and gave the order to retire. But the return march had hardly begun when,with a flash of spears and a rush of galloping horses, the Dervish cavalry came out frombehindthe camp andswept round on the exposed flank of the column ready to charge. A shower of Maxim bullets and a coupleof shells from the guns showed them that the Egyptians were on the alert, and they fell back,and contented themselves with following Hunter's retirement for awhile at a very respectful distance. When Abadar was reached they haddisappeared. They had no desire to come within rifle shot of the Soudanese infantry.

On Tuesday, March 29th (three days after the capture or Shendy), a strong column of all three arms, commanded by General Hunter, 1 out of the Ras-el-Hudi camp. There were eight squadrons of Egyptian cavalry, under Colonel Broadwood, the horse artillery under Major Young, a battery of new quicktiring guns under Captain Peake, Major Lawrie's "f Maxims, and two battalions of infantry— the 12th (Townshend)and 13th (Collinson). All the force belonged to the Egyptian army, for the Sirdar was keeping his British brigade in reserve for the decisive battle of the campaign. The column bivouacked for the night at Abadar,andnext morning, while the ret oi the troops were held in reserve, Hunter advanced towardsHilgi withBroadwood's squadrons, the horse battery, and the Maxims. He had not been long on themarch whena mass ofDervish horsemen, about 300 strong,appeared For the next few days Broadwood's cavalry kept in touch with the Dervishes, watching for a possible movement from the camp, while patrols were sent up the opposite bank of the river to get a view of Mahmoud's position from that direction. Almost daily, deserters came in from the enemy. They would meet a cavalry patrol,surrender,and tramp in through thebush.

Then they would be brought to Colonel Wingate's tent to be questioned. They weremostly in rags,and all showed the thin, drawnlook of half-starved men, and the tale they told was that