vi PREFACE

Berber up to the Atbara river. An army of twenty thousand men under one of the Khalifa’s sons was attacked in a strong

position and defeated with immense loss. Fresh British

troops were then brought up, and, escorted by gun-boats and

steamers carrying provisions, the army marched up the Kile,

crushed the Khalifa’s great host before Omdurman, and re-

cove 3d possession of Khartoum. T jn the moving spirit of this enterprise, the man whose

marvellous power of organization had secured its success, was

called to other work. Fortunately he had a worthy successor

in Colonel Wingate, who, with a native force, encountered

that which the Khalifa had again gathered near El Obeid,

the scene of the total destructioii of the army under Hicks

Pasha, routed it with ease, killing the Khalifa and all his

principal emirs. Thus a land that had been turned into a

desert by the terrible tyranny of the Mahdi and his successor was wrested from barbarism and restored to civilization, and

the stain upon British honour caused hy the desertion of Gordon by the British ministry of the day was wiped out.

It was a marvellous campaign—marvellous in the perfection of its organization, marvellous in the completeness of its

success.

G. A. HENTY.