THE DERVISH INVASION OF EGYPT. 423 finally marched to Kosheh. On the 29th of December, 1886, the enemy were attacked by our troops, driven out of their camp at Ginnis, and, after a short and sharp engagement, were completely routed. The loss on our side was extremely small ; that on the side of the enemy very heavy. The battle of Ginnis, however, is memorable in itself, partly because it stemmed the tide of the insurrection, still more because it showed that, under British officers, the Egyptian troops could overcome the terror which had hitherto rendered them utterly useless as against the Dervishes ; and, most of all, because it shook the belief of the Soudanese that, by sheer courage and contempt of death, they could more than hold their own against British soldiery. If rewards in war, as elsewhere, were regulated solely by the value of the services rendered. General Stephenson and General Grenfell should by rights have had fuller recognition of their merits than that which has been accorded to many men who have done far less both for England and for Egypt.

It was no want of good- will on the part of the British military authorities in Egypt which hindered this success from being pushed forward. The Dervishes were disheartened by their defeat at Ginnis, and if the tactics I have mentioned, as recommended by Ismail Pasha, had been adopted, an attempt would have been made at once to advance the Egyptian frontier southwards to Dongola. In obedience, however, to the policy of non-intervention, still maintained by the British Government, nothing was done, and the