WARS OF THE NINETIES. 38 morrow of the occupation of Dongola,and that the Sirdar was dividing the expeditionary force into a number of garrisons, there was a cry for an immediate prosecution of the advance on Khartoum, if need be with the assistance of British and Indian troops. But the time was not ripe for this greater undertaking. Much preparatory work had first to be accomplished The Sirdar, and the Governments for which he acted, wisely held to the plan of reconquering the Soudan steadily and surely, step by step.

The Dongola province was reorganisedunder a mixedcivilandmilitaryadministration. Strong garrisons wereplaced at Debbeh and Merowe to watch the Dervish border; the Camel Corps pushed more than one reconnaissance into the Bayuda desert, and parties of Arab Friendlies secured the wells on the northern part of its more important camel tracks, those leading to Berber, Metemneh, and Omdurman; the gunboats, nowreinforced by the three newsteamers, patrolledthe river;and, most important of all, the railway crept steadily on from Kosheh to Abu Fatmeh at the head of the Third Cataract, so that by the early summer of 1807 supplies could be conveyed by steamer and railway all the way from Cairo to Dongola and Merowe, whatever might be the state of the Nile.

hostages by the retreatinggarrison of Debbeh fort. The post was occupied by a party from the flotilla,and one of the gunboats pushed on the Merowe,at th; head of the open water,and just below the FourthCataract. Merowe, which was now to be for some time the advanced outpost on the Nile, was reached at dawn on Saturday, the 20th, and was found to be abandoned by the enemy. The Camel Corps, which hadpursued southwards from Dongolaalong the west bank of the Nile, reported that what was left of the enemy had broken up into small parties, which werein flight towards Metemneh andKhartoum across the Bayuda desert. As an organised force the Dervish army of Dongola had ceased to exist. Despite unexpected difficulties and delays, the Dongola expedition had proved a complete success. The Sirdar's despatch, written after the fall of Dongola, thus sumsup thegains of the six months' campaign:— ''The result of these operations has been to completely stop the constant Dervish raids on the villages betweenAssouan and Wady Haifa ; to add some 450 miles of the Nile Valley to Egyptian territory, 300 miles of which may be described as of great fertility; and to relieve,to their intense delight, the large and suffering population of Dongola from the barbarous and tyrannical rule of the savage and fanatical Baggaras."

The Dervishes maintained garrisons at Abu Hamed, Berber,and Metemneh, the last having an advanced post at the wells of Abu Klea. Remembering the campaign of 1885, they expected a hostile advance by the same line.

There were fears that during the winter the Khalifa would have attempted extensive raids upon the Dongola province, but the Dervishes stood strictly on the defensive on the Nile. Early in 1897 a considerable force of Mahdists from the Gedaref district threatened for a few Sir Herbert Kitchener, when he achieved this splendid success, ranked in the British army as a brevet-colonel in the Royal Engineers. He was at once promoted to the rank of major -general, and the same promotion was given to Colonel Rundle, his chief of the staff, and Colonel Archibald Hunter, the commander of the infantry division. Major Wingate, of the Intelligence Department, was promoted to the rank of colonel. days an attack on the Italian fort of Agordat between Kassala and Keren, but they retired without fighting. So the winter passed on the Nile in steady and undisturbed preparation for the next advance, which was to carry the Egyptian army forward to Abu Hamed and Berber.

At the Outset of the expeditionnot a few of its critics in England had spoken of it as a somewhat rash enterprise. Its success was followed by a reaction of public opinion in the opposite direction. When it was reported that the Staffords hadbeen sent back to Cairo on the