THE ADVANCE ON DONGOLA Secret negotiations between France and Abyssinia — Major Marcband sets forth on a so-called scientific mission from the French' Soudan to the White Nile — Menelek expected to send army to meet and support Marchand on his arrival on Soudanese territory — British Government thereupon orders an immediate advance on Dongola— Orders carried out with utmost promptitude.

If Ismail Pasha's life had been prolonged for a few months, he would have had the satisfaction of seeing the policy he had recommended, at the date of the evacuation of the Soudan, carried into execution by the British Government. This policy, as I have explained, consisted in occupying the furthest point southwards the troops at our disposal could hold with safety, and then, step by step, proceeding to push onward till Khartoum was once more included within the territories of Egypt. Wady Haifa was selected in 1885 as the southernmost outpost of Egypt in the Nile valley. Our power to hold this outpost was clearly established by the repeated defeats we inflicted on the Dervishes when they attempted to break through our lines. But from 1885 up to 1896 no advance beyond the Wady Haifa frontier was executed, or apparently even contemplated. After the battle of