A MARCH OUT FROM SUAKIM. 249 victory. At anyrate, the enemy were not much disheartened, as was shown by the furious attack they made upon the force which marched from Suakim to estabhsh a position at Tofrek in what was known as Baker's seriba. This movement was made before the position at Hasheen was abandoned. It had been determined to march on Tamai without further delay, and as the distance from Suakim was too great for troops to make the journey and return to Suakim in one day, it was decided to estabhsh two seribas on the hne of advance, one four miles and the other eight miles from Suakim.

On Sunday the 22d of March the officers and men of the transport service were up at two o'clock A.M., and at daybreak were on the way with a convoy of 1500 baggage animals, consisting of 580 camels with 11,500 gallons of water, 500 camels with supplies, and about 400 pack-mules, draft-horses, and baggage-camels, with commissariat, water-tanks, ammunition, and ambulance; a vast unwieldy column, with a large number of native drivers.

This convoy filled the hollow square formed by the Indian contingent, which was preceded by a squadron of lancers and columns of infantry. By six o'clock A.M. the advance towards Tamai was made, the lancers scouting in front, then thirty of the naval brigade with four Gardner guns, a detachment of royal engineers with field telegraph, the telegraph wagon uncoiling its wire as they went, a battalion each of the Berkshire and the royal marine light infantry. This was the first square, with spare ammunition and water-carts in the centre. The second square, following on the right rear, consisted of a company of Madras Sappers, the isth Sikhs, 28th Bombay Native Infantry, 17th Bengal Native Infantry and all the transport, the 20th Hussars patrolling in the rear to keep open the line of communication to Suakim. This force was under the command of Sir John M'Neill, with General Hudson in charge of the Indian contingent.

It was terrible work to get the vast convoy of animals along in the midst of intervening thorn bushes, and the progress was very slow, while the tremendous heat and the thick cloud of dust that rose in the midst of the square added to the dilficulty of the dense scrub, and the camels became almost unmanageable. It soon became obvious that the original plan could not be carried out, as if the force advanced eight miles there would not be daylight to form the seriba and for the Indian brigade to return.

Sir John M'Neill therefore determined to halt at six miles and there to form one seriba. At half-past ten o'clock the force emerged on a fairly open space of sandy and gravelly ground, apparently about 300 to 400 yards across, dotted with thorn bushes and surrounded by thick bush and scrub, from which, as well as from the thorn bushes, material was cut to form a seriba, consisting, as usual, of a hedge of about four feet high with a two- foot ditch behind. It was a triple seriba—three inclosures of