GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 33

While thesepreparations weregoing onalargenumber of Baggaras were gathering under the leadership of Achmet-el-Makashef, on the White Nile south of Duem, wdiich they were again threatening. To oppose thema strong force of Egyptian troops had been massed at Kawa, under Hussein Pasha, the successor to Abd-el- Kader, in command of the Senaar army. On April 6, General Hicks steamed up the Nile with further reinforcements from Khartoum, and on the 23rd four battalions and a half of Egyptian infantry, Arabi's old

troops, a contingent of Bashi-Bazouks, a handful of mounted Soudanese on their active little ponies, and on camels, and four Nordenfeldt guns set out to encounter the enemy, who was reported to be entrenched at Gebel Ain. This force was under the command of Suleiman Pasha, who was accompanied by Colonels Colborne and De Coetlogon, and some other European officers. General Hicks, whilst retaining the controlof the entire expedition,embarked onboarda steamer with two more Nordenfeldts and a Gatling, and proceeded some forty miles up the White Nile to take possession of the important ford between Senaar and Kordofan, by the island of Aba, with a view of cutting off the retreat of

the Baggaras.

Suleiman Pasha on quitting Kawa,at once formedhis troopsin onelargesquare,and advancedin that cautious formation. The first day's march over ground scored with fissures caused by the action of the sun, and covered with thorny patches of mimosa scrub, proved a fatiguing one to the troops, who halted in a ruined village. The next night's halt was on a rise near the river, where a large zereba was formed. The report that animmediate attack was intended, led General Hicks to landand joinhis troops the followingmorning, and they remained in the position they had taken up for three days. On the afternoon of the 26th alarge body of the enemy's horsemenwasdescried. These,after gallopingup to withina thousandyards of the rapidly formed square, weremet with a fire from the rocket tubesand howitzers that caused them to turn reinand disappear.

HICKS PASHA,COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE SOUDAN ARMY.

of Magdala. In1882, when holding the retiredrank of colonel, he went to Egypt, and after filling the position of chief of the staff, was appointed by the Khedive earlyin 1883 Commander-in-Chief of the Soudan Army.

Hicks Pasha and his staff left Cairo on February 7, and proceeded by train to Suez, and thence by steamer to Suakim. Here they were rowed ashore, and as Colonel Colborne tellsus," werereceivedby the governor

with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, whichon this occasion consisted of the blowingof asth- matical trumpets, which made day hideous by their braying, and a feeble salute from a dilapidated gun."

The troops of the small garrison were drawn up in line, in front of the residenceof the Governor of the Eastern Soudan, who met the British officers on the beach. On the 11th, General Hicks and his staff left with an escort of Bashi-Bazouks by the desert route for Berber. Here they embarked on board steamers and made their way up the Nile to Khartoum, which was reached early in March. Three weeks later they were joined by a detachmentfrom Cairo, withsix Nordenfeldt guns, the first introduced into theEgyptian army, under Captain Walker. The troops were assiduously drilled andtrained inballpractice, and no effort was spared to render them fit to take the field. This was a very needful task, for as the ex-Khedive Ismail subsequently pointed out, the very wayin which the poor fellows were sent to the war, wasenough of itself to deprive them of all stomach for fighting. "Egyptian soldiers," he ob- served, "need more than all others a flag, military music, and all the eclat of war* without these things

they w*ill not, and even cannot, fight." Although this musthave been well-known to allconcerned, Arabi'smen, sent up to reinforce Hicks Pasha, were despatched like so manymalefactors under a guard and without arms, and were in many instances led by officers who were forced to accept the task oai a punishment or even as

On the 28th theEgyptian forces brokeup their camp and advanced with mounted Bashi-Bazouks in front to feel the way, and the square in close formation, with camels and baggagein the centre. Inthe evening they encampednighto the fortified villageof Merabieh. The next morning they again advanced, but after an hour's march the scouts rode back and announced thatthe foe

was rapidly advancing. The position was an excellent one for the tactics abouttobe pursuedbyGeneral Hicks, being an open plain with no cover nearer than eight hundred y7ards. The square was soon halted and in readiness, withallthebaggage, camels and camp followers in the centre. Along each face bristleda thousandrifles,

whilstat each corner at intervals outside the line were placed the Nordenfeldt-rifled howitzersandrocket tubes. This plan of placing the guns outside the lineobviated thenecessity of leavingany gaps inthe square by which an entrymight be effected, but has notbeen followedby the British commanders in subsequent engagements. "Crow's feet," little ironspikes joinedin three and calcu- lated to make the ground inconvenient for stepping on

to bare-footed savages, or horses without shoes, were thrownout freely. " The prompt formation of the men," writes Colonel Colborne*, "was satisfactory in the extreme, and all

wereapparently7 ready7 for the fight. There is noques- tion as to the goodmoraleffect producedby thepresence * With Hicks Pashainthe Soudan. By Col. the Hon. J. Colborne, an alternativeto exile. pp. 153-6, 159-61.