266 Autumn of 1898.

The British troops were now qiiickly sent down-stream, and the Sirdar — shortly afterwards elevated to the Peerage under the name of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum — turned his attention to stamping out the remaining Dervishes, to reducing the country to some sort of order, and to exploring up-stream, with a view of meeting the French expedition under Major Marchand, which had been reported as having arrived at Kodok.

THE MAIIDl's TOMB, MOUNING AFTER THE liATTLE OF 2ND SEPTEMHER, 1898.

Kodok.

Sobat.

Meslira el Bek.

On the 10th September the Sirdar left Omdurman for the south with 5 gimboats, 2 Sudanese Battalions (XI and XIII), 100 Camerons, an Egyptian battery, etc., and having destroyed a Dervish force of 700 at Renk on the 15th, found, on the 19th, the French expedition entrenched at Kodok. This gallant little force of about 180 men had, after experiencing enormous difficulties in the swampy region of the Bahr el Ghazal, penetrated, with the help of its steamlaunch, the " Faidherbe," the country between the Nile-Congo watershed and Kodok, and had arrived at this latter point on the 10th July. On the 25th August they had been attacked by a Dervish force in 2 steamers, but had repulsed them, and were awaiting a second attack, when the Egyptian gimboats arrived and probably saved them from annihilation.* The British and Egyptian flags were at once hoisted to the south of the French flag at Kodok, and the Xlth Battalion, a gunboat and 4 guns were left at this point xmder Major Jackson. After much negotiation between France and England, which threatened at one time to lead to serious results between the two Powers, the French position was found to be untenable, and Kodok was eventually evacuated on the 11th December by Marchand and his companions, the latter proceeding to Jibuti, vid the Sobat and Abyssinia, and eventually reached France in May 1899.

The junction of the Sobat and Nile was reached on the 20th September, and a garrison (the Xlllth Battalion) left here under Captain Gamble. The Bahr el Jebel was foimd entirely closed by sudd, but a gunboat under Major Peake was sent up the Bahr el Ghazal, and hoisted the Egyptian flag a few miles north of Meshra el Rek. Subsequently the Bahr el Zaref was explored by Major Stanton for a distance of 175 miles, and the Sobat was explored by Majors GJamble, Maxse, Capper, etc., up to the 282nd mile, both these rivers and their tributaries being mapped and their courses laid down provisionally, ♦ See end of Chapter for details of this expedition.