13

EMBARKING HORSES AT BALLIANA FOR THE FRONT

CHAPTER III

THE STAKT FOR DONGOLA

THE

orders from England for an advance into the Dongola province came as a complete surprise to all in Egypt. It was the worst time that could be chosen for a Soudan campaign. The hottest season of the year was approaching, the Nile was at its lowest. No one expected that the long

warfor the reconquestof theSoudan was about to begin. It seems to have been a surprise even to the Italians,and the full story of how the decision was arrived at, which had such momentous consequences, is a chapter of con-

temporaryhistory that cannot yet be told. The British Government at first would not admit that anything so important as an advance to Dongola

was yet in view. In the House of Commons, when explanations were asked for, it wasreplied that Akasha was to be reoccupied,and the rail- way across the desert relaid. What further operations would be undertaken would depend on the amount of resistance met with. The immediate object was to make a diversion in

favour of the Italians, and enable them to hold on to Kassala.

Kitchener— theSirdar,orCommander-in-Chiet,ot

theEgyptian army— in a telegram from London late on the night of March 12, 1896. Early next day a staff-officer came into Cook's offices

near Shepheard's Hotel, asked the manager to shut the doors andkeep everyone out, and then

discussed the arrangements for using Messrs. Cook's fleet of steamers andbarges for the trans- portof menand stores to Assouan. This would be the first stage of the concentration on the

frontier. Up to Assouan the Nile is navigable by fairly large steamers. Just above the town begin the seven milesofreefs androcks, swirling

eddies and roaring rapids, that form the First Cataract. At Assouan everything has to be carried round the cataract by a short railway

to Shellal, at the head of the rapids. At Shellal begins another stretch of open water, some 220 miles long, to Wady Haifa. Above Wady Haifa navigation is blocked tor many a mile by the Second Cataract and the long -eiies

of rapids where the Nile forces its way through the rocky ridges of the Batn-el-Hagar desert. Only at high Nile can these rapids be pa-ed,

and then with infinite labour and some risk. The orders for the advance reached General