30 HISTORY [ No. 98 difficult task now that the Mahdi was dead ), and was always dangerous . Under his rulethe country suffered greatly from battle, oppression, disease, and famine.

"The population was said to have been reduced from aight and a half millions to two millions; whole tracts were deserted and went out of cultivation ; towns were destroyed ; tribes which opposed the Khalifa (such as the Jaalin, Shukria, and Kababish ) became practically extinct . Omdurman itself, it is true, grew into a conglomeration of 150,000 souls, swarming in squalid pestilential mud hovels. The loyalty of the Baggara, an efficient spy system , and the terror of the Khalifa's system of government triumphed over all the misery and discontent of the population .

The Abyssinian defeat of the Italians at Adowa on March 1 , 1896 , and the fear lest this should incite the Dervishes to attack Kassala , at once determined the British Government to reconquer the Sudan . An advance on Dongola would divert their attention . But there were other and deeper motives, three in number. viz .: ( 1) policy — the security of Egypt and safe guarding of her water supply; (2 ) philanthropy — the redemption of the Sudanese from misery and the final destruction of the slave trade ; ( 3 ) sentiment- English amour propre and the popular indignation at the fate of Gordon. All three co -operated strongly tomove the Government , and the Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, was ordered to take the field .

The great offensive was accomplished with thorough ness and methodical precision. The first brush with the enemy occurred at Firket on June 7, 1896 . On September 23 Dongola was reoccupied, and Merowe (Merawi) became army headquarters for the next few months. In the following year Abu Hamed was cap tured on August 7 , and Berber occupied on August 31 . The railway was built to Abu Hamed, the Suakin Berber road was reopened, and Kassala was taken over once more by Egypton Christmas Day.

In the spring of 1898 the army marched south from Berber . On April 8 the Dervish army of 12,000 men,