48 FLOATING ISLANDS ON THE NILE.

CHAPTER X THE TAKING OF ABU HAMED.

THE town of AbuHamed is one ofthe most important strategic points on theUpper Nile. A glance at the map shows how view— the capture of Berber and Khartoum. The immediate gain resulting from the occupation of Abu Hamed would be that it would secure the terminus of the new railway and enable the work of getting up the gunboats to be begun. From the bend of the Nile at Abu Hamed there are no obstacles that cannot be easily passed at or near high Nile. There is a small cataract, the Fifth, between Abu Hamed and Berber,but the rise of the Nile obliterates it. The Sixth or Shabluka Cataract, between Metemneh and Khartoum, is a long stretch of broken water at apoint where the hills close on the river and form a gorge about two mileslong. But at high Nile steamers can ascend it with their own engines, without any help from the shore Abu Hamed might thus be considered the base of operations for the final advance against the Khalifa's capital.

the Dervishes, so long as they held it,blocked both the river route and the desert track to the northwards by Murat and Korosko. In 1885 its capture was the first object assigned hy Lord Wolseley to General Earle and the river column. Earle, with a large quantity of boat transport, started from Merowe and toiled up the cataracts, his men during the first of the land marches being kept on the left or south bank of the Nile. At Kirbekan he defeated the Arabs under Wad Gamr, but was killed in the fight. General Brackenbury then took command, crossed the Nile above Kirbekan, and was almost in sight of Abu Hamed when he was told to retire to Merowe, as an immediate advance on Berber and Khartoum was out of the question. While the river column moved on Abu Hamed, a large convoy of camels incharge of Lieutenant Rundle (chief of the Sirdar'- staff at Ferkeh and promoted major general after Dongola) was waiting at Korosko n j to cross the desert as soon as Abu Hamed was taken.

Major-General Hunter, the Governor of the Dongola province and the chief of its frontier garrisons, was entrusted by the Sirdar with the task of securing this important place. The secret of the coming expedition was so well kept that, although the Sirdar had established his headquarters at Merowe, a clear sign that the time was at hand for a further advance in the Soudan, the newsof the victory of Abu Hamed came with a certainshock of pleased surprise to Egypt and England. Quietly, withoutanynews Twelve years had passed since the retreat of Brackenbury and the river column, and now anothermarch was to be made from Merowe to Abu Hamed, with the same ultimate object in