WADl HAI.FA for help, and three hours later Lieut. Machell arrived with troops, and the gunboat " Metemmeh " began to shell the portion of the fort held by the Dervishes. The Dervishes, greatly surprised at the turn events had taken, fought bravely, but all were soon killed or wounded, and when the Egyptians regained possession of the fort they found the dead bodies of eighty-five Bakkara and Jaalin Arabs. A considerable number of the enemy had also been killed in trying to escape. The Egyptian loss was nineteen killed and thirty-four wounded. This defeat made the Dervishes ponder for a while, and for two years Haifa remained undisturbed. The Egyptian troops were unable to take the offensive, but in i8go Saba Bey made a reconnaissance towards Abu Hamed, and captured and held for a few hours one of the Dervish outposts. It is satisfactory to be able to say that in the fight which took place as Saba Bey retreated Suleman Wad Kamr, who murdered Colonel Stewart on September i8th, 1884, was killed.

By the end of 1892 the Dervishes had gained sufficient strength and boldness to advance towards Haifa once more, and in January, 1893, they attempted to cut the railway between that town and Sarras, but failed. Six months later they descended on the town of Beris, to the south of the Oasis of Kharga, hoping to be able to make a way into Egypt on the western bank of the Nile, but success did not attend their efforts, and nothing more was heard of an invasion of Egypt. In 1895 the Haifa district was raided by the Dervishes once more, and they became so bold that on one occasion they descended on the officers playing polo outside Haifa, causing them to leave their game and run for the Haifa gate. On another occasion, when General Knowles was reviewing the Haifa garrison, the parade was broken up quickly to allow some of the troops to go in pursuit of raiding Dervishes. Only a few months before the Dongola Expedition, the raiders had galloped through Tawfikiya, slashing at the unarmed and inoffensive inhabitants, several of whom were drowned in attempting to save themselves by the river.

In March, 1896, as a result of the defeat of the Italians by the Abyssiniansat Aduwa on February 29th, the British and Egyptian ' Royle, "Egyptian Campaigns," p. 472.

2 "Sudan Campaign," p. 5. By An Officer. London, 1899.

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