WARS OF THE NINETIES. 20
cavalryaction,which took place near Akasha on May-day. In the middleof April the Dervishes had pushed forward apicked force of black regu-
lars (known as Jehadia,or " soldiers of the Holy
War "), Arab cavalry and camel-men, and spear and swordsmen on foot, to Ferkeh, a ruined village twenty miles south of Akasha. Ferkeh stands at the point where the last of the passes of the rockvBatn-el-Hagar desert opens on the river bank. Southwards to near the Third Cataract a plain, now wide, now narrow, opens between the Nile bank and the desert hills. It
was therefore an important point— the gate,as it were, of the more open country stretching
towardsDongola. The ruined village was made the nucleus of a large camp,in which the war- like Baggaras, the men of the Khalifa's own
tribe, were largely represented. The Emir
in the evening an Egyptian officer and thirty-
two of the cavalry had ridden into the Taroi bivouac, with news that the squadronhadbeen cut up,and that they had been pursued by a
strong force of Dervishes. The enemyprowled round the zereba tillabout midnight, whenthey
tried to rush it, but were beatenoff by a heavy- fire ofrifles and guns.
Sidney was meanwhilehalted at Khor Wintri. He had reached his bivouac there on the after- noon of the 15th, and was attacked the same afternoonby a Dervish force which he estimated at 500 foot and 90 horse. He hadonly 250 men
with him. But they were Soudanese, the best fighting men of the Egyptian army;men who count two to one very smallodds. Their steady rifle volleys forced the Dervishes to retreat with heavy loss, and the enemy's fire was as usual
wild and high, so that HammudaIdris was in the cost of the skirmish command, having for his right - hand man OsmanAzrak, whohad led a division of the Dervisharmy atToski, and had since then been foremost inmany raids on the Nile vil- lages. From Ferkeh occasional scouting parties of Dervishes approached the camp of Akasha in thenight, and once they ven- tured to fire into an advanced post. Ham-
muda sent to his chief,
to the victors wasonly three men wounded.
Early next day Fen- wickrejoined Lloyd at Taroi, and the column marched on to Khor
Wintri, whereit joined hands with Sidney's force. The scouts re- ported that the Der-
vishes had everywhere retired into the hills, carrying a large num- ber of wounded men
with them. Lloyd had not either provisions or transport with him for a prolongedexpedition, so,having obtained his object by challenging a fight and teaching the Dervishes asevere lesson, he re-enteredSuakin, wherethe little army was receivedwith acclamationsby the people.
the Emir Wad Bishara, the governor of Don- gola,mendacious accounts of great victories he had won over the infidels, and received in reply exhortations to advance and capture Akasha. But instead of venturing on such a dangerous enterprise he appears tohave occupied his time in quarrelling withOsman Azrak and theEmirs in commandof the Jehadia. These dissensions in the Dervish camp are the most probable explanation of the strange inactivity of the enemy during the first difficult weeks of the Dongola campaign.
The next few days brought news that Osman Digna's camp at Harasab was full of sick and
wounded men. Deserters began to come into Suakin. None of the local tribes would join him,andbefore the end of the month he recog- nised that his expedition was a failure, and re-
turned to the Atbara country. This was the last attempt made by the Dervishes .against Suakin. The skirmishes at Taroi and Wintri had an excellent effect on the whole Egyptian
army. Lloyd's andSidney's success, slight asit was,seemed to be an earnest of further victories at alater stage of thecampaign.
The Sirdar, who had established his head- quartersat Wady Haifa, was kept in touch with the doings of the Dervish leaders, thanks to the system of obtaining information organised bythe chief of the EgyptianIntelligenceDepart- ment, Major Wingate. It would be difficult to praise too highly the workhe did, work to which The first fight on the UpperNile was a small