244 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

were acting as videttes. A few shots were fired from the top of a large hill called Dihilbat, and a small party of Hadendowas charged down on a patrol of the 20th Hussars, killing one of the men and wounding a sergeant. Lieutenant Birch of the mounted infantry, who had climbed a spur of the hill to get a better view, was attacked by five or six Arabs who were in hiding, and he only escaped after a sharp tussle in which he defended himself stoutly though he had a spear wound in the shoulder. The reconnoitring force reached the village without further opposition, but found only twenty or thirty rude huts made of grass and matting, which had been recently cleared out, nothing of any importance being discovered but three Remington rifles and a few cartridges. There were only two wells containing about seven feet of fairly good water, ten feet below the surface. Before noon the reconnaissance was completed, and the cavalry and mounted infantry, being covered by the horse artillery stationed on a low hill whence they could command the plain, retired in order. By half-past twelve all the men were in camp again. A letter addressed to Osman Digma was left stuck on a cleft stick near the village. It was a reply to a boastful letter sent by him to our camp a fortnight before, in which he referred to the power and success of the Mahdi, and the defeats of Hicks and Baker, and exhorted our generals to submit and to become Mohammedans. In answer to this he was reminded of the fact that he had been several times defeated and that events had proved the inability of the Mahdi's troops to withstand the British, and he in turn was exhorted to surrender. This letter was found next day trampled in the dirt, but whether he to whom it was addressed had ever read it there were no means of knowing.

Though the climate is exhausting and the conditions of the camp were in many respects revolting, daybreak when witnessed in the desert is a lovely spectacle, and especially in the open country, dotted with mimosa scrub and here and there a tree. At half-past five in the morning the whole force moved out with the exception of the 53d (the Shropshire Regiment), which remained behind to guard the camp.

Ring-doves, larks, and the small birds of the wilderness were singing their morning song and flitting hither and thither quite regardless of the moving body of armed men, who, as they went in glittering array across the bright and level plain, formed a brilliant spectacle.

The formation was an open square. The guards formed the right, marching in quarter column of companies. The second brigade formed the front in columns of fours. The native infantry were upon the left flank. The artillery, the mule-battery of six Gardner guns, the ambulance and transport were in the centre. The cavalry and mounted infantry were opened out in advance of the square, which reached the first ridge of hills at half-past eight o'clock, the enemy who occupied them retiring upon our