On Kitchener's departure the province was placed under military law, Major-General Hunter, who had fixed his head-quarters at Merawi, being in command.

Courts of justice and a police force were established in the province of Dongola, the rebuilding of the town was begun, and the railway was continued along the Nile to Kermeh, forty miles to the north, and which now became the southern terminus. The former inhabitants were invited to return to their lands, and cultivation was gradually resumed.

The princ.i.p.al difficulty in the way of progress was the lack of population, which since 1885 had fallen off from 75,000 to 56,000, and of these a large proportion consisted of women and children. The number of cattle had also diminished from 36,000 to less than 12,000 in the same period.

Whilst Dongola was being put in order, the Khalifa, who expected that the capture of that province would be followed by a further advance, hastily took steps to fortify Omdurman, where he gathered all his available warriors, and awaited events.

This was the situation at the end of 1896.

We now arrive at the year 1897, when the intended reconquest of the Soudan, by the aid of British money and arms, was announced in the House of Commons. This took place on the 5th February, when the "Dongola Expedition vote" of 798,802 was moved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach declared on this occasion 'that, since the Dongola Expedition was undertaken, the British Government had never concealed, either from Parliament or the country, that, in their view, there should be a further advance in the same direction; that Egypt could never be held to be permanently secured so long as a hostile Power was in occupation of the Nile Valley up to Khartoum; and that England, having compelled the Egyptian Government to abandon the Soudan, had incurred towards its inhabitants responsibilities for the fulfilment of which the moment had arrived now that the baleful rule of the Khalifa was crumbling to decay.'

The Sirdar's policy of advancing gradually and consolidating at every step the authority of the Egyptian Government continued to be pursued in 1897.

The work of getting up supplies for the large force at the front occupied the first few months of the year, and this was a task of no small magnitude, considering that the country contained little or no produce, and that everything required had to be forwarded from the base in Cairo.

The necessity for the construction of a new railway for military purposes from Wady Halfa across the desert via Murad Wells to Abu Hamid now impressed itself on the Sirdar's mind. Such a line was almost indispensable in the event of operations being extended in the direction of Berber and Omdurman. The existing line to Kermeh had served its purpose in bringing up supplies and otherwise until the time of the capture of Dongola, but its further extension would have to be made through a difficult country, and at a great sacrifice of time and money.

It was therefore determined to discard it so far as the expedition was concerned.

The immense advantage of making a short cut across the eastern desert instead of following the tortuous windings of the Nile Valley will be evident to any one who studies the map and notes the respective positions of Wady Halfa, Kermeh, and Abu Hamid. The saving in distance is about 330 miles.

Influenced by these considerations, the authorities sanctioned the new line, and the materials having been got together at Wady Halfa, the work was promptly taken in hand.

Once commenced, the line, laid for the greater part on the desert sand by working parties from Wady Halfa, progressed with almost inconceivable rapidity, under the able direction of Captain Girouard. The country over which the railway pa.s.sed consisted mostly of undulating desert. There were no bridges, and but few cuttings, and the average rate of progress was a mile and a half a day.

Although it was known that there was a Dervish force at Abu Hamid, no opposition was encountered from it.

In order to present the history of events in chronological order, it is here necessary to make a slight digression and refer to what happened about this period in another part of the Soudan.

In the month of June the Khalifa was compelled to detach a portion of his army from Omdurman, and send it, under the orders of his cousin and princ.i.p.al emir Mahmoud, to suppress a revolt of the Jaalin Arabs at Metammeh. This tribe, which had long been kept under the Khalifa's rule by the terrorism of the Baggara, was anxious to join hands with the Egyptians, and now struck for freedom. They fortified Metammeh, and courageously awaited Mahmoud's attack. On the 1st July it came, and, hemmed in and outnumbered by the Dervish horde, the brave Jaalins, after three days' resistance, in which all their ammunition was exhausted, were utterly routed. Metammeh was captured and burnt, and the country round devastated by the victors, who killed men, women and children indiscriminately.

The Jaalins had exasperated their foes by their determined resistance, and when the town was taken no less than 2,000 of its defenders were ma.s.sacred. The prisoners were drawn up in line and treated thus: the first was beheaded, the second had his right hand cut off, the third his feet, and so on in succession until they had all been-dealt with. Their chief, Abdullah Wad Sud, the head of the Jaalin tribe, was taken a prisoner to Omdurman, and walled in in such a position that he could neither stand nor sit, and was thus left to die of hunger and thirst.

Such of the Jaalins as escaped declared their allegiance to the Khedive, and, being supplied with firearms, and subsidized, joined the ranks of the "friendlies" and became useful allies. One of their first acts, when they had time to reorganize a little, was to seize and hold Gakdul Wells, a move which not only covered the Egyptian right on the subsequent advance, but also saved the province of Dongola from the danger of surprise by Dervish raiders.

Towards the end of July the desert railway line had advanced as far as it was deemed prudent to go whilst Abu Hamid remained in the enemy's possession, and it was determined to take the place by means of troops co-operating from what may be considered the opposite direction, viz., Merawi.

On the 29th July, General Hunter, with four battalions of Soudanese infantry and some artillery,[155] started from Merawi for Abu Hamid.

Following the route taken by the River Column under General Earle in 1885, and pa.s.sing the battlefield of Kirbekan, Hunter arrived on the night of the 6th August within a few miles of Abu Hamid. The march, which covered 132 miles, made in the hottest time of the year, was accomplished in eight days.

At daylight on the 7th, the troops moved up to attack the enemy, who occupied an intrenched position in front of and within the village.

Their centre was a rectangular mud-walled inclosure, extending over six acres, and in this were contained the wells, military stores, and quarters for the soldiers. The mud huts of the village were connected by walls, and these, as well as the walls of the inclosure, were loopholed for musketry. The whole position was held by about 1,500 men, one-third of whom were armed with rifles, and 150 were mounted.

The infantry deployed for the attack, and, as soon as the movement was completed, advanced in line covered by the fire of the artillery on their right. Some high ground overlooking the village was first carried with but little resistance. When the troops had approached within 300 yards of the walls they were met by a furious fusillade, and many of the Egyptians fell. The rest rushed onwards, and a stubborn house-to-house fight, in which several lives were lost, ensued. In some cases so determined was the resistance that the artillery were obliged to advance before a position could be carried. Eventually, when the enemy's mounted men had lost about half their number, the residue fled. They were followed by about 100 of the foot-soldiers, all that was left of the garrison, and Abu Hamid was then taken and occupied. Many prisoners were captured, including the Dervish leader, Mohammed Zein.

The serious nature of the fighting may be gathered from the fact that on the Egyptian side there were twenty-three killed and sixty-four wounded.

Amongst the killed were two English officers: Major Sidney and Lieutenant FitzClarence. The Dervish loss must have been much heavier, quite four-fifths of the garrison being either killed or taken prisoners.

The fugitives continued their flight to Omdurman, spreading as they went the news of the defeat.[156]

Abu Hamid having fallen, every effort was now made to hurry up the rest of the army from Merawi, Debbeh, and Dongola with a view to an advance upon Berber, the next Dervish stronghold on the river.

The Nile having by this time risen sufficiently, the gunboats with further troops were enabled to pa.s.s the Fourth Cataract, and by the 29th August, with the exception of one which came to grief in the cataract, arrived at Abu Hamid. The sailing boats with more men and stores were also successfully hauled through, and reached Abu Hamid shortly after.

Before, however, they had time to arrive, intelligence was received to the effect that the Dervishes were evacuating Berber, the next stronghold on the river. The importance of this move was at once realized, and a party of "friendlies," under Ahmed Bey Khalifa, were sent on ahead of General Hunter's troops to seize the place. Meeting with no resistance, the "friendlies" entered Berber, where on the 6th September Ahmed was joined by the gunboat flotilla. Hunter, with the greater part of his army, entered Berber on the 13th. Berber, formerly a large and prosperous town and an important centre of trade, but now sacked and destroyed, was represented by a big Dervish village, built on a site some miles north of the original place, and some two miles from the river.

On the day that Ahmed Bey reached Berber, two of the gunboats went on to Ed Damer, a few miles beyond the junction of the river Atbara with the Nile. Here they exchanged some shots with the Dervish force which had retreated from Berber, and they also succeeded in capturing several boat-loads of grain.

Ed Damer, now become the Egyptian advanced post, was occupied by a half battalion of infantry; a fort was erected, and other steps were taken for putting the place in a state of defence.[157]

CHAPTER LXIII.

ON THE RIVER--Ka.s.sALA.

Whilst Hunter was making his advance upon Abu Hamid and Berber, the irrepressible Osman Digna, of Souakim notoriety, had collected a force of 5,000 men, besides a large following of women and children, at a spot called Adarama, on the bank of the Atbara river, about ninety miles above Ed Damer. Here Hunter proposed to attack him, but, owing to delays in bringing forward transport and supplies from Abu Hamid, he was not ready to advance till the 23rd of October. On this date, taking with him 400 of the 11th Soudanese, some detachments of the Camel Corps, and two guns, Hunter started. Marching by the Atbara river, the force reached Adarama on the 29th of October, only to find, to their disappointment, that Osman, hearing of the approach of the Egyptian troops, had evacuated that place only two days before, and crossing the river at Guidi, was now with his fighting men and followers making for Abu Deleh, 100 miles in the desert between Omdurman and Ka.s.sala.

Adarama was completely deserted, and on the 2nd November, after having set fire to the village, the expedition returned to Berber.

Osman Digna's retreat left the Eastern Soudan clear of Dervishes; and the Souakim and Berber route, after being so many years closed to trade, was now reopened. Amongst the first persons to take advantage of the reopening of the road was a batch of newspaper correspondents, who, being given to understand that no advance on Omdurman was likely to take place until the following year, chose that route for returning to Cairo.

They met with no difficulty on the way, and reported that plenty of water was obtainable all along the route by merely improving the existing wells or digging new ones.[158]

The inaction of the Mahdist forces about this time is attributed to the differences which existed between the princ.i.p.al Dervish leaders. Mahmoud with 10,000 men was known to be in the neighbourhood of Metammeh, and, young, energetic, and full of ardour, was anxious to advance and meet the invaders. But between Mahmoud and Osman Digna, now at Abu Deleh, there was a feud on a question of women taken from Osman's tribe.

Consequently Osman, like another Achilles, sulked in his tents and refused to co-operate in any way with Mahmoud. The Khalifa at Omdurman, under the impression that the attack on his capital could not be much longer delayed, refused to weaken his forces by sending either men or supplies to enable Mahmoud to make a move, an operation of which, by the way, he strongly disapproved. Mahmoud, not feeling strong enough to risk an attack unaided, was thus constrained to remain on the defensive.

On the 15th October, three of the gunboats were sent, under Commander Keppel, to reconnoitre Mahmoud's position. Pa.s.sing Shendy, on the east bank, they steamed on until they sighted Metammeh (the scene of the fight with Stewart's column in 1885), on the opposite bank. The town was found to be protected by seven circular mud forts, placed at intervals along the river for a distance of one and a half miles. The gunboats cleared for action, and, with the Egyptian flag flying, formed in line of battle in true naval style. As they advanced, keeping always on the eastern or opposite sh.o.r.e, Baggara hors.e.m.e.n were seen galloping from fort to fort as if to stimulate the defenders. As the steamers approached they opened fire simultaneously on the two nearest forts at a range of 4,000 yards, making excellent practice with their quick-firing twelve and six-pounder guns. The Maxims were directed on the hors.e.m.e.n, and so effectively that in a few minutes they disappeared from the scene of action. The forts, mounting each one obsolete bra.s.s cannon, returned the fire, but their sh.e.l.l nearly always fell short. Two or three, however, struck the gunboats, and one man was mortally wounded.

After bombarding at long range for an hour, the flotilla moved up abreast of the position, and poured sh.e.l.l and shrapnel into any place where the enemy was supposed to be. The missiles burst in all directions, with the effect of causing the return fire to slacken perceptibly. As the gunboats pa.s.sed the forts it was discovered that the embrasures existed only on the northern front, so that when once in the rear of the work no guns could be brought to bear.

Whilst steaming along the east bank and keeping a look-out for the enemy a party of riflemen opened fire on the vessels at a range of 100 yards.

The bullets rattled against the sides of the gunboats, but no one was struck, and a few rounds from the Maxims speedily dispersed the sharpshooters, who fled amongst the scrub, leaving their dead behind them. The vessels then steamed past the town, firing as opportunities offered. They then turned and retraced their course down stream, sh.e.l.ling as they went till 2.30 p.m., when all firing ceased. The flotilla then dropped down to an island half a dozen miles to the north of Metammeh and made fast for the night.

On the morning of the 17th, the reconnaissance was resumed. During the night two additional guns had been mounted in the forts, making the total now nine instead of seven. The manoeuvres of the previous day were repeated, and after a few hours' sh.e.l.ling, the reconnaissance being completed, the gunboats proceeded to withdraw down the river. This being observed from the forts, they redoubled their efforts, and fired sh.e.l.l after sh.e.l.l at the retiring vessels, keeping it up long after they were out of range. At the same time a vast horde of Dervish warriors, probably Mahmoud's entire force, sprang into sight, streaming across the hills behind which they had fixed their camp. Led by a chief on a white horse, they waved their banners and shouted in wild exultation at the supposed defeat of the attacking vessels. Keppel does not appear to have thought it worth while to take any notice of the demonstration and continued his course to Berber. Beyond the casualty above mentioned the Egyptians sustained no loss in the two days' engagement. There were no means of arriving at the number of killed and wounded on the Dervish side, though from the accuracy of the gunboats' fire and the fact that they expended no less than 653 sh.e.l.ls upon the defenders it may be a.s.sumed that their loss was considerable.[159]

On the 1st November General Hunter made another reconnaissance with the gunboats, this time as far as the foot of the Shabluka, or Sixth Cataract. As on the previous occasions, the flotilla, both in going and returning, sh.e.l.led the forts whilst pa.s.sing Metammeh, where a large number of Dervishes, both mounted and on foot, showed themselves. The fire in reply from the enemy was ill directed, and the gunboats got back to Berber with only three men wounded.

The result of the reconnaissance was to show that Mahmoud was still in force at Metammeh and meant fighting. His men were nevertheless in great difficulty for want of the supplies asked for from Omdurman. To procure food they took to raiding the neighbouring Jaalin villages, a party of about 1,000 of them having the temerity to proceed close to Berber, despite the presence of the large Egyptian force there. Evading the vigilance of the gunboat patrol, the marauders, divided into five bands, proceeded to attack the like number of villages simultaneously. The inhabitants, consisting of "friendlies," had, however, been furnished by the Government with Remingtons. Of these they made such good use that in each instance they beat off the Dervish attack and forced the aggressors to retire.

After the fall of Abu Hamid had insured the non-interruption of the work of constructing the military railway from Wady Halfa to Abu Hamid, the line was pushed on, and finally completed on 31st October. Abu Hamid was not, however, destined to be the terminal station. The advantage of continuing the railway to Berber for the purpose of bringing up supplies, as well as to facilitate the further advance in the direction of Omdurman was too obvious to escape attention. So, 200,000 being set apart by the Egyptian Government to meet the cost, the work was commenced and pushed forward with all possible rapidity.

Egyptian rule being now practically re-established in the Soudan, negotiations took place between the Egyptian and Italian Governments for the retrocession of Ka.s.sala, in accordance with the arrangement under which Egypt a.s.sented to the Italian occupation. The negotiations resulted in an agreement that the town and contiguous territory should be formally handed over to Egypt on the 25th December, 1897.

As the time drew near the Sirdar, now Major-General Sir Herbert Kitchener, who had been absent at Merawi, proceeded to Cairo and thence to Souakim and Ma.s.sowah, to arrange with the Italian military authorities for the pa.s.sage through the Italian colony of Erythrea of the Egyptian troops which were to relieve the existing garrison of Ka.s.sala.