CHAPTER II.

FIRST MISSION TO THE SOdAN (1897).

CAIRO 10 GEBEL BARKAL (nAPATA).

Leaving London early in August, 1897, I made my way as fast as possible to Cairo, where I received instructions about my journey to Merawi, where were at that time the Headquarters of the Egyptian Frontier Field Force. I was ordered by the British authorities to proceed to Aswan, and to report myself to the Commandant, Captain O. Pedley, to whom I had introductions.

I proceeded by rail to Nagh Hamadi, which was then the terminus, and embarked on the stern-wheeler which carried mails and passengers to the south. Looking at the country and the goodhumoured crowds which filled the stations, it was hard to imagine that Egypt was then engaged in a life-and-death struggle with Siidani hordes for the possession of the country containing the sources of the mighty river on which her very existence depended, and a few hundred yards away from the river and railway the natives pastured their cattle and watered their crops with as much unconcern as if the Sudan and its Khalifa did not exist. The war mattered nothing to them. They had obtained, thanks to the British irrigation officers in Cairo, all the water they needed for their crops, their cattle had multiplied, and were not raided by the local governors, as in the "good old days" of Turkish rule, their taxes wre light, bread and onions were cheap, and even if their sons were taken and made to serve in the army, it was God's Will, and " God is Good," they said.

It was, however, impossible to be near the railway and the river without noticing that matters of urgency were in progress throughout the country, and the railway sidings, which were filled with laden trucks, more nearly resembled the goods yards of some great English railway terminus than temporary resting-places of trains 64