,VAR3 OF THE NINETIES 56 noEgyptian caravan had passed since aconvoy of supplies came up that wayin 1883 for Hicks Pasha's ill-fated expedition. They found that Osman Digna's fort at Kokreb, thirty miles beyond Ariab, where he had kept a small party for years to watch the caravan track, had been abandoned immediately after the fight at Abu Hamed. TheHadendowas and Amararshadbeen for some time our friends, and the Governor of Suakin arranged with them tokeep the seaward strong enough for this,so he prudently decided to retire farther up the Nile. Just when the Sirdar was ready to advance, the friendly scouts of the Ababdeh tribe under their sheikh, Ahmed Bey, who had made a reconnaissance towards Berber, discovered that it had been evacuated. Word wassentback to Abu Hamed, andthe gunboatssteamedup,bringing withthem abattaliontoform agarrison for the town. Steaming past Berberto the mouth of the Atbara, they EPPEL'S GUNBOATS 1> .MBARDING METEMNEH half of the route open. It had once been the short cut to the Soudan, but the railway and steamers on the Upper Nile now afforded an ctisier way for supplyingthe army at AbuHamed and Berber,and very little use has been made of the route as a line of supply since it was reopened.

found a largebodyof the enemynearEd Damer. A few shells were fired at the Dervishes, who retreated rapidly to the southwards, without making any attempt toreply. They abandoned fourteen large boats laden with grain, which were picked up by the gunboats and towed back to Berber.

The objectassigned to the expeditionof 1897 had thus been obtained, as a direct result of Hunter's victory at Abu Hamed. It only remained for the Sirdar to secure his position at Berber and reap, as he well knew how,the full fruits of success.

Abdul Azim's Friendlies were sent to reconnoitre the old route to Suakin, along which In the second week of October a party oi Dervish camel-men, from Osman Digna's camp at Adarama on theAtbara, rushed a villagenear Berber, killed eleven of the inhabitants, and carried off a number of the women. They were pursued by Captain King's company of the Camel Corps, and all the captives were rescued. To secure the district against raids of