THE RECONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN. 19 Erkowit. Spies reported that Osman Digna had formed a camp, defended by a zereba or thornhedge, at or near Harasab in the Erkowit hills, and his emissaries were endeavouring to persuade the neighbouring tribes to join him. Llovd summoned the localchiefs to meet him at Suakin,andin a conference pointed out to them thatif theydeclaredagainst theGovernment they hadnot theremotest chanceof storming thefortified town,and they would certainly bepunished by a strong force assembledat Suakin to operate against them. He reminded them that every attempt thev had made on Suakin had ended disastrously for them, and theypromised to hold aloof from Osman Digna, who so far had been joined by very few menof the district, and had with him chieflv those he had brought from the Major Sidney, who was to march from Tokar to meet him. A large force of friendlies, under Sheik Tita, was to guard the heights above Khor Taroi and Khor Wintri, so as to give warning of any advance of the enemy from the directionof Harasab.

Llovd's march to Taroi was slow and tedious, for the column moved over broken ground covered with dense high scrub, amongst which small parties of the enemy's horsemen were sighted from time to time. The advance had therefore to be made cautiously, with frequent halts,while the scouts explored the ground in front. On reaching the wells in the afternoon a zereba was formed,apd the cavalry, about one hundred men in all, accompanied by Captain Fenwick of the staff, rode forwardtowardsKhor Atbara. But Lloyd felt that it would create a bad impression if he kept his garrison shut up behind the walls of Suakin and Tokar, and in the middle ofAprilhe formedacolumn to take the field against the invaders.

The force whichmarched out ofSuakin on the eveningof April 14thwas about 1,200 strung. It wasmade up of a squadron of Egyptian cavalry,six companies of Egyptian infantry, one company of Soudanese, a company of the camel corps,andtwoguns. Every man was mounted, about a thousand extra camels beingrequisitioned for the purpose. Two hundredof the friendly Arabs accom-Wmtri with orders to get touch with Sidney's force and let him know the column washalted at Taroi Wells. It was soon clear that Tita's friendlies were doingtheir workvery carelessly, for about halfway to Khor Wintri, without any warning, the cavalry came suddenly upon some twohundredDervish horsemen supported by a force of infantry.

The Egyptian cavalry were ordered to retire at a trot, but in the rough ground and among the patchesof scrub the Dervish horsemen gained upon them, and the trotbecame for most of the squadron a disorderly gallop. Horses fell, and their riders were panied the column, their duty being to help in the Ob.MAN DIeiNA speared by the pursuers. The affair was terribly near scouting and to take careof thecamels whenthe infantry dismountedto fight. Lloyd's object was to challenge anattack from Osman Digna, in the hope ofinflicting on him such a defeat as would discourage the wavering chiefs of the district from holding any relations with the Dervish leader. His first march was to be to the wells of Khor Taroi,in a valley nearly twenty miles to the southward, on the edge of the hill country. He was to be joined ten miles fartli at Khor Wintri by a smaller column, consisting of half a battalion of the 10th Soudanese, under being a disaster. But the situation was saved by Fenwick's splendidcourage. Rallying thirtyeight officers and men he occupied an isolated hillock, and during the evening and in the hours of darkness that followed he beat off four successive attacks of the enemy. He was a good rifle shot, and he himself sired no less than 140 shots during the brief siege of the hillock. A little before dawn the Dervishes retired.

About midnight Fenwick and his men had been encouraged by hearing the roar of Lloyd's mountain-guns away to the northward. Early