44 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

night set in. Soon after sunset a detachment was sent back to the seriba to bring in the camels with the commissariat stores, but they would not return till morning, and as the blankets, greatcoats, and coverings were all with the baggage at the seriba and the night was bitterly cold, there was not much sleep to be got except by those who were exceptionally hardy or who contrived to get between two camels and cover themselves with the baggage nets. The detachment sent to the seriba had no sleep at all, for they had to work hard all night to get the stores together from the places where they had been used as parapets, then to load up the camels, and to get away with the whole contents and accompanied by the occupants of the seriba, which had not been attacked. At about seven in the morning they were seen approaching, much to the delight of the men, who now had rations served out to them, and were able to get their first square meal since neon of the 1 6th, and this was ten o'clock in the morning of the i8th. A burying party was then told off to return to the field of battle and bury our dead. A staff-officer counted iioo bodies ot the enemy on the ground round the place which had been occupied by the square. It was estimated from reports received that about 12,000 of the Arabs were engaged, though only about 5000 made the actual charge. The bodies of sixty of our men were buried at about the spot v/here the square was attacked, and where it was reported that a gunner named Smith had gallantly defended Lieutenant Guthrie. At the moment when the other scunners had been borne back v;ith the rush he had kejDt back his assailants with a handspike, which perhaps, as it did not twist and could not "jam," was as good a weapon as some others used on the occasion.

Four prisoners who had surrendered had been brought in by the convoy coming from the seriba. They were blacks who had been in Hicks's army, and whom the Arabs had compelled to fight us. One of these was a sergeant and spoke in very fair Italian. The information elicited from them was that the enemy had consisted of Arabs and regulars from Berber; Arabs from Kordofan, some of the Mahdi's troops from Omdurman, men levied in the