WARS OF THE NINETIES. 2

handful ofmenunder LieutenantsAnnesley and

Fitton, was attacked, but saved by the deter- mined valour of its garrison. General Sir F. Stephenson,thenincommand inEgypt,marched

to the relief of Mograka with a mixed British and Egyptian force, and defeated the Dervishes

onDecember 30, 1885,in the hard-fought battle of Ginnis. But this success was followed by a further retirement. Early in 1886 Mograka, Akasha,and the other posts in the desertsouth of Haifa, wereevacuated. By April the frontier

of Egypt was the little sandy valley of Khor Moussa, five miles south of Haifa, where a couple of mud-walled forts served as outposts for the frontier fortress.

the undisputed dominion of the Mahdi and his followers, whose very existence implied a per- manent state of war against the European and all who acknowledged his influence. Emin Pasha held for a whilesome isolated outpostsin

the far south. A British garrison, supportedby a naval force, secured Suakin on the Red Sea coast. All the rest of the Egyptian Soudan was gradually evacuated.

Notwithstandinga protestfromLordWolseley, who pointedout that the evacuation of Dongo'.a wouldmean a far more costly expedition for its recovery at a later date, it was decided to fix

thefrontier of Egypt at Wady Haifa,just below the Second Cataract. This was a point which couldbe easily defended by a smallgarrison, and which was all the year round in communication by steamer with Cairo andLowerEgypt. South

of Haifa the Batn-el-Hagar desert— a hundred miles of dark volcanic hills with narrow valleys between them— presented a barrier to the ad-

vance of an invader. Under its walls of dried muda level sandy plain, a mile across, offered a field of fire that no savage spearmen could hope to cross in the face of modernrifles andmachine guns. From Haifa a light railway ran across the desert to Akasha,and at first there was an idea that it would be well to hold Akasha for the sake of the railway, and advanced posts at Mograka and Kosheh,some miles farther to the

southward,inorder to command the approaches to Akasha. This part of the plan wasafterwards given up,and the defence of the frontier was concentratedat Wady Haifa.

The Dervishes formed alarge camp at Sarras, thirty miles from Haifa. Almost every day their scouts showed themselves on the other side of Khor Moussa, and there were frequent skirmishes. One night, owing to the help ot a traitor, they nearly captured one of the forts. Another evening they actually raidedthe native suburb of Haifa itself. They tore up the rail- way line through the desert,carrying away the bolts and fish-plates, which they manufactured into spear-heads and other useful articles, burn- ing the sleepers,or building huts with them at Sarras, andleaving the heavy railway ironlying on the sand near the track. So long as they held their advanced postsin the desert noneof

the Nile villages between Haifa and Korosko weresafe from murderousraids. The Egyptian camel corps on the land, the stern-wheel gun- boats on the river,had to be constantly on the

alert to save thevillagers from beingslaughtered in their sleepor at their work. TheBritishrearguard,under GeneralBracken- bury,left the town of Dongola on July 5, 1885, crossing to the other bank of the Nile some miles lower down at El Hafir, a place to be heard of again in the story of our victorious return elevenyearslater. The vanguard of the enemy, the Mahdists or Dervishes, under the Emir Abd-el-Medjid el Khalik, was at Merowi,

on the northern border of the Bayuda desert. As soon as he heard that the British were gone he began his advance down the river, and he

enteredDongola on August 17, 1885— six weeks after its evacuation— at the head of 3,000 fight- ingmen.

In the Eastern Soudan, along the Red Sea, everything was at the mercy of the revolted

tribes under the old slave-dealer,Osman Digna. More than once he tried to capture Suakin,and there was always a desultory warfare in progress under its walls.

The very essence of Mahdism was war against the infidel, and for the Dervishes the infidel meant not only the Christian but all who had dealings with Christians. The Mahdi claimed to be the prophet who is expected by Moham- medans to appearin the last days of the world, and to reduce it all to the obedience of Islam. Thus the "Holy War "

was an essential part of his mission. He had united under his banner

the tribes who were discontented withEgvptian misrule,and all those who had been made our

enemies by the efforts of Baker and Gordon to

Inthe winter the Dervishes attacked our out- posts at the head of the desert railway. The fort at Mograka, held by detachments of the Cameron Highlanders and of a regiment of the new Egyptian army, the qth Soudanese, was closely besieged. The railway was torn up at

Ambigol, and a little fort on the line. heleLlwJ stamp out the slave trade. His victories seemed