34 WARS OF THE NINETIES.

river,followed by her consorts, while the land batteries continued the bombardment of the Dervish position, from which a desultory fire was returned during the day. The Dervishes had some Krupp guns and an old Nordenfeldt in their works. The machine gun was out of order, and only fired slowly shot by shot. The shells from the Krupps seldom or never burst. It was said afterwards that the gunners who served them were artillerymen of the old Egyptian army, captured in the defeat of Hicks Pasha's army and at Khartoum,and that, being forced by the Mahdists under pain of death to serve the guns, they contrived to minimise the possible damage to their friends on the other side by taking care to put no fuses in the shells.

The Dervish steamer sank riddled with shots from the Egyptian guns, and towards evening only a feeble reply was made from the enemy's trenches. Next morning it was seen that the works on the west bank were all abandoned. Bishara had retreated in the darkness, leaving his Krupp guns in the entrenchments. He dared not hold his ground once the gunboats had passed his position and threatened his line ofretreat. Such was the battle of Hafir, which secured for the Sirdar the passage of the Nile andopened the way to Dongola.

GETTING THE GUNBOATS UP:A LONG HAWSER UP A BACK-WATER.