322 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

liability on their part to assist Egypt in suppressing the Soudanese insurrection.

Upon this refusal being received, the Khedivial Government began to collect troops at the Barrage. Early in 1883, an army of 10,000 men left Lower Egypt for the Soudan, under the command of Hicks Pasha, an English officer, who had acquired a considerable reputation in India. Many of the soldiers who had deserted after Tel-el-Kebir were brought back in chains. The officers were all more or less disaffected; and the leniency with which the Arabi mutiny had been punished had completely destroyed the sense of military duty. When Colonel Hicks, accompanied by a number of British officers, assumed command of the expedition in the Soudan, he restored a certain semblance of discipline and order. His first military operations were successful, and on the news of these successes being received in Cairo, Colonel Hicks was ordered to march with his army upon Kordofan. Further reinforcements, though of a most unsatisfactory character, were sent from Cairo, and on the 9th of September, 1883, the Egyptian army set forth from Omdurman on its march.

From this date, the whole story of the advance is surrounded with confusion. The first hundred miles from Omdurman were accomplished without difficulty.

There remained a track of desert, of about the same distance, to be traversed before the invading force could rely on finding water. Hicks Pasha received information from his Egyptian colleague in the