2 KHARTOUM CAMPAIGN.

Egyptian infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery. Although there were Soudanese amongst Arabi’s troops, they were mostly gunners. It was not until May 1884 that the first “black” regiment was raised. Yet it had been notorious that the Soudanese were the only Khedivial soldiers who made anything of a stubborn stand against us in the 1882 campaign. The blacks who came down with the Salahieh garrison on the gth of August 1882, and joined in the surprise attack upon General Graham's

brigade then in camp at Kassassin, were not easily driven off. The large body of Egyptian infantry and cavalry, although supported by several Krupp batteries which, issuing from the Tel-el-Kebir lines, assailed us in front, were readily checked and pushed back. It was our right rear that the ‘“ blacks” and others form- ing the Salahieh column menaced, and it required some tough fighting before Sir Baker-Russell with his cavalry and horse artillery was able to drive them off.

In truth, the “blacks” held on long after the main body of Arabi’s force had abandoned their intention of driving the British into the Suez Canal or the sea.

The first Soudanese battalion was recruited and mustered-in at Suakim. It got the next numeral in regimental order, and so became known as the ‘‘ Ninth.”

Many of the blacks who enlisted in the Ninth—Dinkas, Shilluks, Gallas, and what not—were deserters from the Mahdi’s banner, or dervishes who had been taken prisoners at E] Teb and Tamai. It has never yet been deemed advisable to enrol any of the Arab tribesmen

in the Khedivial regular army. Hadendowa, Kaba-