THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN Hunter on August 7th, and declared that the Dervish corpses which they had seen floating down the river were so numerous that the crocodiles had returned to the Dongola reaches. It will be remembered that General Hunter left Merawi on July 29th with about 2,500 men for Abu Hamed. When he arrived at Abii Hamed he found the village held by about fifteen hundred Dervishes, three hundred of whom had rifles, and one hundred and fifty were mounted. The position was a very strong one, but it was captured after a fierce fight, and over twelve hundred Dervishes were slain ; the Egyptian loss was eighty-seven killed and wounded, and Major Sidney and Lieutenant Fitz-Clarence were killed. The Sirdar then ordered his gunboats and sailing boats with men and stores to hurry up through the Fourth Cataract to Abu Hamed, so that he might press on and attack Berber, but before this order could be carried out news reached him that the Dervishes had evacuated Berber, and withdrawn to the south. A large party of " friendlies " were sent on to occupy the town, and their leader, Ahmad Bey Khalifa, arrived there on September 6th ; a week later General Hunter arrived with the greater portion of his force. Now all the details of these important operations were kept a profound secret by that strong silent man the Sirdar, and even some of the British officers at Merawi were surprised when General Hunter and his battalions suddenly left Kassingar, about fifteen miles south of Merawi, to carry out the Sirdar's plans. The evacuation of Berber by the Dervishes and its reoccupation by the " friendlies " actually took place while we were steaming up the river to Merawi, and though it was generally known that " something was up," no one had the slightest idea what that something was. Questions and surmises were alike fruitless, and all the European passengers went ashore to look at the town.

Dongola, or Tunkul, was at one time a very important town, and the capital of a large and thriving province. When Hoskins visited it in 1833 the province contained five thousand water-wheels, each of which watered from four to five acres, and the population was estimated to be about fifty thousand. The town was fortified with walls and towers, on which were mounted a few pieces of cannon sent there by 104 1