The British Campaign in the Soudan. 185 but the mounted men could ever have cut their way back to Suakim. | This retreat, after a victory, illustrates the peculiar difficulties of warfare in the Soudan. It was impossible to pursue the Arabs among the foot-hills, where the British could not retain their formation in squares, and where the enemy could lie in ambush in every ravine. In fact, if the Arabs had avoided battle on the plain from the first, and had drawn the British imto the hills, the result might have been very different. But the insuperable difficulty was the want of water. Not one drop could be found in the hills or on that arid plain scorched by tropical heat, so that the retreat was inevitable. It will be seen further on how the Bedouins manage to supply themselves with water where Europeans would perish for want of it.

The expectation entertained that the Arabs would be discouraged by their heavy losses at Teb and Tamai was quickly dispelled. Osman-Digma reoccupied his former position as soon as the British retired, and harassed them in their lines around Suakim by nightly alerts. General Graham, hoping to crush him by a final defeat, made a second advance. His purpose was to attack Osman’s position at the wells of Tamanieb, a short distance beyond Tamai. Several days were consumed in establishing a water depot half-way, and the difficulty of the undertaking may be imagined when it is known that every drop had to be brought in goat-skins on camel-back from the condensing steamers in the harbor or the brackish wells outside of the town. On the 24th of March the troops moved out from their camp, and before they had advanced eight miles, one fourth of the soldier gave out