344 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN CHAPTEK XXII THE CROWNING VICTORY I T was eight weeks before he recovered, and even then the doctor said that he was not fit for any exertion. He learned that on the 22nd of October, Colonel Lewis, with two companies of the camel corps and three squadrons of Lancers, had started from Omdurman to visit the various villages between the White and Blue Xiles, to restore order, and proclaim that the authority of the Khedive was established there. On the 7th of Xovember, following the Blue Nile up, he reached Karkoj, but a short distance below the point at which the navigation of the river ceased. He had come in contact with a portion of Fadil’s force, but nothing could be done in the thick undergrowth in which the latter was lurking, and he therefore remained waiting for the next move on the part of the Dervish commander, while the gunboats patrolled the Blue river up to Kosaires. Six weeks passed. His force and all the garrisons on the river suffered severely from heat, thirty per cent of the troops being down together. The cavalry had suffered particularly heavily. Of the four hundred and sixty men, ten had died and four hundred and twenty were reported unfit for duty a month after their arrival at Karkoj ; while of the thirty white officers on the Blue Nile, only two escaped an attack of fever.

At the end of the month Colonel Lewis was joined by the Darfur Sheik and three hundred and fifty of his men. He had had many skirmishes with Dervish parties scouring the country for food, and his arrival was very welcome.

Gregory was recommended to take a river trip to recover his health, and left on a steamer going up with stores and some small reinforcements to Colonel Lewis. They arrived at Karkoj on the 14th of December, and learned that the little garrison at Kosaires had been attacked by the Dervishes.