THE RISING OF THE MAHDI* 323 command of the expedition that water was forthcoming halfway across the desert. On the strength of this information, whether given in ignorance or with intent to deceive, Hicks, much against his own judgment, proceeded on his perilous march.

Sometime early in November, the final disaster arrived. There had been dissensions, so the rumour went, between the English and the Egyptian officers. The friendly tribes, whose services the Egyptian general, Al-ed-Din Pasha, had secured, or professed to have secured, went over to the enemy on the appearance of the Mahdi's army, and turned their arms against their comrades; so, at least, it was reported. But all these reports are utterly unreliable.

All that can be asserted with any certainty is that Hicks and his army of 10,000, with all its officers, guns, and ammunition, disappeared as completely as if they had been swallowed up by an earthquake. From that day to this the true story of the Hicks disaster has never been known. In order to show how utterly the whole affair was buried in obscurity, I may state that two years later, on one of my many visits to Cairo, I received one day a message from Nubar, who was then Prime Minister, to the effect that apparently trustworthy intelligence had arrived from the Soudan, stating that half of Hicks s army, some 5000 men, had succeeded in making good their escape, and had entrenched themselves on an island in the White Nile, where they could obtain full supplies of food and water, and where they were safe against