258 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

body of Arabs who were under a lieutenant of Osman Digma, and who, with their leader, fled on our approach, and were driven over the hills, leaving the valley in our hands without any stubborn resistance. About 100 of the enemy who fired upon our men from the hills were killed, and nearly 2000 sheep and goats, besides camels and donkeys, were taken; the friendlies having rendered good service by acting with the mounted infantry from Otao. This body of Arabs who had been defeated were they who had fired on Otao and Tambouk, had burned the sleepers of the railway, and had kept Osman Digma supplied with provisions while they menaced our outposts with the only organized force in the district.

Till the i6th of May Lord Wolseley was busily inspecting the line and all the post arrangements. The men were permitted to have a little rest, though it was reported that another expedition in force against Osman was to be made and there were preparations for transport. On the 8th the commander-in-chief held a review of all the troops at Suakim. The martial spectacle of the march past and the glittering arms and accoutrements under the early morning sun was a splendid spectacle from a military point of view : the guards, the Sikhs, and the Australians being particularly noticeable for their admirable order and steadiness. On the same evening it was known that there would be no further expedition. The medical officers had Wrongly deprecated the continued marches in such a climate at that season, and there was reason to fear that if the exertion were prolonged the mortality would be appalling, for sickness was already spreading rapidly, fever of a typhoid character was increasing, the hospitals were filling, and a heavy rain which fell on the night of the 9th had brought out the foul odours from the sand and showed what a pestilential area the camp had become.

Yes, the campaign was at an end. Officers on the sick-list or among the wounded were being conveyed to the vessels that are to take them home to recover or to die. General Graham and his staff embarked in the Deccan on the 17th, after having bidden farewell to his troops. The/ia/tna, with the guards, left on the same day. Lord Wolseley followed in the Qiiee7i two days afterwards. He had issued an address to the troops, in which he said, " the deeds of the force in the Soudan have added one more chapter to the glorious record of our national prowess."

The Australians, after seven weeks of good service, were ordered home.

They had taken their part in the skirmishing, the marching, the holding of the seribas, the advance against the enemy, the privations in that burning climate. After reviewing them in company with General Graham, General Greaves, Lord Charles Beresford, and the staiT, Lord Wolseley had addressed them, speaking highly of their soldierly appearance and of the fitness of the artillery which had just arrived at camp after a long march ; he also said: