WARS OF THE NINETIES. 190 and the troops landed, and were drawn up in line,to salute the flag. Asit fluttered out from the flagstaff, the bands of the two Soudanese regiments played the Khedival March, the infantry presented arms, and the artillery fired a salute of twenty-one guns. Later in the day the British flag washoisted beside theEgyptian. Major Jackson was installed as governor of Fashoda, and leaving with him his own regiment, four of the guns, and oneof the gunboats, the Sirdar re-embarked the rest of his force, the men marching back to the river-bank to the tune of the "March of the Cameron Men." The spot selectedfor theEgyptian camp cut off the French camp from all access to the interior, for the ground that Captain Marchand had chosen was partly enclosed by marshes on the land side, and the way past them ran along the front of Major Jackson's position. The French were very short of both food and ammunition, and the Sirdar handed over to them a portion of his stores of preserved provisions, the French commandantsending him in return a case of wine and some fresh vegetables and flowers from a little garden he had improvised. The two commanders showed throughout that they felt a high esteem for each other,and the Sirdar notesin his officialdespatch that " during these somewhat delicate proceedings nothing could have exceededthe politeness and courtesy of theFrench officers."

to protect it, consisting ofhalf a battalion of the 13th Soudanese, with twoguns and twoMaxims. A steamer was alsoleft with orders to patrol up the White Nile and theBahr-el-Ghazal, as far as Meshra-er-Rek, the head of the navigation in that direction. She was to stop any transit of ammunition or reinforcements for Fashoda that she might meet on the way. Considering that Marchandhad left a post at Meshra-er-Rek and had a small gunboat on the river between that place and Fashoda, this opened further possibilities of conflict. Having done this, the Sirdar steamed back to Fashoda. During his absence the Soudanese had built a little village of huts and straw sheltersround Jackson's headquarters, and a fort had been improvised for its defence. The Shilluk chief of the district,the same who was said to have made a treaty with Captain Marchand, had come in. He welcomed the British commandant to his country, and denied he had ever signed a treaty with the French commander. It is impossible to suppose that' M. Marchand had no grounds for his definite assertion to the contrary, and the probability is that this negro kinglet, as often happens in Central Africa, put his mark on a paper offered to him withouthavingthe remotest idea that he was signinganimportant document.

Some of the Shilluks who had joined the Frenchpromptly deserted totheir comrades and fellow tribesmen of the nth battalion. The result was that Marchand was left withhis handful of white officers and 120Senegalese. With a resolution that every soldier must admire he stuck to his post nevertheless,waitingfor orders fromhis Government, ready to die there if need be. Only the victory of Omdurman had saved him from a Dervish attack which, with his supplies and ammunition all but exhausted, he hadnomeansofrepelling. This is not the place to tellthe story of the subsequent resultsot that momentous meeting of the representatives of France and England on the Upper Nile, But, whatever may be thought of the policy which, in defiance of England, organised this march from the Congo to the Nile of those who so gallantly obeyed the orders of the French Government, we may wellsay, in the words of the Sirdar's despatch, " it is impossible not to entertainthe highestadmiration for thecourage, devotion, and indomitable spirit displayed by M. Marchand's expedition." These generous words are honourable to Captain Marchand and no less honourable to the brave and chivalrous Havingre-embarkedwhat wasleft of his force, the Sirdar again steamed southwards with the four remaining gunboats. He was going to further close his grasp upon the White Nile countryandmakeMarchand's position still more untenable. There were vague rumours of an Abyssinian force in the valley of the Sobat, which runs into the Nile some eighty miles above Fashoda. To close this access to the White Nile and intercept any supplies or reinforcements coming down from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, it was determined to place another Egyptian garrison at Sobat, the site of a former Government station at the mouth of the river of the samename.

Sobat was.reached on the 20th. There were neither Frenchmen nor Abyssinians anywhere in the neighbourhood. As for the former, Marchand had passed the place on his way down to Fashoda. As to the latter, their nearest post was said to be more than three hundred miles away up the Sobat. The Egyptian flag was hoisted and saluted with much the same ceremony as at Fashoda, and a garrison was left soldier who wrote them.