PREFACE

The reconquest of the Soudan will ever be mentioned as one of the most difficult and at the same time the most suc-

cessful enterprises ever undertaken. The task of carrying an army hundreds of miles across a waterless desert, convey- ing it up a great river bristling with obstacles, defeating an enormously superior force unsurpassed in the world for cour-

age, and finally killing the leader of the enemy and crushing out the last spark of opposition, was a stupendous one. After the death of Gordon and the retirement of the British

troops there was no force in existence that could have barred

the advance of the fanatical hordes of the Mahdi had they poured down into Egypt. The native Egyptian army was

as yet in the earliest stage of organization, and could not be

relied upon to stand firm against the wild rush of the Der-

vishes. Fortunately time was given for that organization to

be completed, and when at last the Dervish forces marched north they were repulsed. Assouan was saved, and Wady Haifa became the Egyptian outpost.

Gradually preparations were made for taking the offensive

:

a railway was constructed along the banks of the Hile, and a mixed force of British and Egyptians drove the enemy be- yond Dongola ; then by splendidly organized labour a railroad was made from Wady Haifa across the desert towards the

elbow of the great bend from Dongola to Abu Hamed. The

latter place was captured by an Egyptian brigade moving up from the former place, and from that moment the movement was carried on with irresistible energy. The railway was

pushed forward to Abu Hamed, and then southward past

V