WARS OF THE NINETIES. 180 1,300 men for the attack onAhmedFadil's force, which was reported to be at least 3,000 strong andprovided with artillery. Moreover, Parsons had no European troops with him. It was entirely a native army, with only a few white officers. First he had the ibth Egyptian infantry, one of the two reserve regiments raised in1896. Then there were a couple of hundred of the camel corps and a battalion of native irregulars,400 strong. The irregularshad some of them served under the Italians ;others were men from the neighbourhood of Suakin who had come up to Kassala after we occupied it— "Fuzzy-Wuzzies" of theHadendowa tribe, who had fought against us under Osman Digna in the old times of Tamai and El Teb. It was a mined to go out and offer battle in the open.

With 2,500 riflemen and some 1,500 spearmen he marched to the northward and camped on theEgyptian line of advance,challenging attack. Colonel Parsons pluckily- accepted the challenge, but on his approach the Dervishes, instead of waiting in their zereba, came out and attempted a charge on the little column opposed to them. Twice they were beaten off, and twice they renewed the attack. After the third failure the Egyptians, ledby Parsons, advanced, turned the Dervish flank, got into their camp and on their line of retreat, and, pushing forward, entered Gedaref town without further fighting.

The Dervishes had lost about 500 men. Among the dead emirs on the field one was bold stroke to set such a force in movement against nearly threefold their number of Mahdists holding a fortified town in a difficult country.

Gedaref is properly the name of the fertile district, in the midst of whichstands the town of Suk-Abu-Sin, but the name is often applied to the capital of the country as < well as to the district. It had been the scene of manysuccesses won by the Dervishes over the Abyssinians, who had made several attempts to possess themselves of the Gedaref pointed out as the Mahdist governor, AhmedFadil, but this was afterwards found to be a mistake. He was alive and very active for some time after his first defeat in this battle,fought on Thursday,September 22nd, which gave the capital of his province to the Egyptians. The fight had cost Parsonsa loss of nearly a hundred officers and men, a serious diminution of his already small force, and, relatively to the numbers engaged, a far heavierlossthan that of the Anglo-Egyptian army at Omdurman. Of the loth OLONEL PARSONS (Photo:Mnyall.)

province. After the Egyptian occupation of Kassala Ahmed Fadil made more than oneraid across the Upper Atbara, but never succeeded in carrying off anything of value or inflicting any serious loss on the watchful Egyptian outposts. He had so long enjoyed impunity that he doubt'essconsideredhimself safe at Gedaref, in his mud-walled fort, armed with four brass cannon.

When Omdurman was threatened by the Sirdar's advance, Ahmed had detached part of his force, with orders to march to the help of theKhalifa. But on thebanks of the Blue Nile the Dervishes were met by the gunboat Sultan, and their further progressstoppedby a bombardment fromher quick-firing guns. They marched back to Gedaref, and had hardly arrived when there was news that Parsons was advancing from Kassala. So confident was the Emir in the prowess of his fighting men that he deter-Egyptian infantry three officers were wounded, and twenty menwere killed and thirtywounded. This was their first battle. The irregulars had fifteen killed and twenty wounded,andthe camel corps an officer wounded, two men killed, three wounded, and two missing.

Ahmed Fadil rallied his army to the south of the town, and obtained reinforcements by gathering to his standard the Dervish partisans from the outlying districts of the province. Thus strengthened, he tried to recapture Gedaref six days later, on Wednesday, September 28th. But whatever chance he might have had in the battle in the open, he had none now when he was rashly attempting to storm the mud-walls of the town manned by well-trained riflemen. They were beaten on with the loss of several hundred killed and w< inded. But Ahmed Fadil still kept together such a strong following that il