18

SUAKIN.

CHAPTER IV,

FIRST VICTORIES OVER THE DERVISHES IN

the middle of March, 1896, the Italian Government agreed to an armistice with Menelek, andacceptedas thebasis of further

him that the Sirdar's army wasassemblingfor a march up the Nile. To his mind a movement on the river suggested a probable advance of another Britishforce fromSuakin. It hadbeen so in previous campaigns, and he resolved to attempt once more to raise the Hadendowasand the other fighting tribes round Suakin against the British. More than a week before Stevani's victories, Osman left the Dervish camp near Kassala and,accompanied by a band of trusted adherents, madea forced march towardsSuakin. Colonel Llovd, the commandant of the town, had with him there twoEgyptian battalions,a portion of the newly-formed battalion of reserv- ists, a battalion of Soudanese, some mountain guns,and a small force of cavalry and camel- corps men. There were also some 1,500 " friendlies," tribesmen of the district, whose loyalty could not be trusted very implicitly in

case of a reverse, but who might be counted upon as long as the garrison was able to show a bold front to Osman Digna's raiders.

On April 3rd the friendlies got touch of the enemy on the scrub-covered plain near Sinkat. The Dervishes were only a small scouting party. Shots were exchanged at long range, and the enemy retired, leaving four

wounded camels on the ground. On the 7th the Dervish horsemen wereseen nearTamanieb. and there was a skirmish between another party of friendlies and the enemy's scouts near

negotiations terms ofpeace which gave the am- bitious Abyssinian king all he was fighting for. The claim to suzerainty was abandoned,and it

was understood that the Italian Government would evacuate all Amhara and Tigre, with the exceptionof a small tract of country north of the river Mareb,including the fortified plateau of Asmara. This truce enabled the Italians to reinforce the garrison ofKassala. On April 2nd Colonel Stevani,the commandant, who had till

then remained strictly on the defensive, attacked the Dervishes in front of the place. The enemy were about 5,000 strong,but they were driven from their position with the loss of 600 men, and retired on Tucruf, where they had formed an entrenched camp. Stevani, who had only about 2,500 men under his command, attacked their lines againnext day,capturedsomeof their works, but was unable to clear the wholeposi- tion. The Dervishes had, however, suffered so severelyin the two battles that they raised the siege of Kassala and retired to their villages on

the Atbarariver.

Osman Digna, the old slave-trader of Suakin, who had so often assembled the coast tribes for an attackon the town, and had fought so many battles with the British and the Egyptians, was

with the besiegersofKassala,when newsreached