EGYPT—EGYPTOLOGY by diplomacy, and contented himself with hoisting the British and Egyptian flags to the south of the French flag, and leaving a gunboat and a Sudanese battalion to guard them. He then steamed up the river and established a post at Sobat; and after sending a gunboat up the Bahrel-Ghazal to establish another post at Meshra-er-Rek, he returned to Omdurman. The French expedition had experienced great difficulties in the swampy region of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and had reached Fashoda on the 10th July. It had been attacked by a dervish force on the 25th August, and was expecting another attack when Kitchener arrived and probably saved it from destruction. The Fashoda incident was the subject of important diplomatic negotiations, which at one time approached an acute phase; but ultimately the French position was found to be untenable, and on 11th December Marchand and his men returned to France by the Sobat, Abyssinia, and Jibuti. In the following March the spheres of interest of Great Britain and France in the Nile basin were defined by a declaration making an addition to Article IV. of the Niger Convention of the previous year. During the Sirdar’s absence from Omdurman Colonel Hunter commanded an expedition up the Blue Nile, and by the end of September had occupied and garrisoned Wad Medina, Sennar, Karkoj, and Roseires. In the meantime Colonel Parsons marched with 1400 men from Kassala on the 7th September, to capture Gedaref. He encountered 4000 dervishes under Emir Saadalla outside the town, and after a desperate fight, in which he lost 50 killed and 80 wounded, defeated them and occupied the town on the 22nd. The dervishes left 500 dead on the field, among whom were four emirs. Having strongly entrenched himself, Parsons beat off, with heavy loss to the dervishes, two impetuous attacks made on the 28th by Ahmed Fedil. But the garrison of Gedaref suffered from severe sickness, and Colonel Collinson was sent to their aid with reinforcements from Omdurman. He steamed up the Blue Nile and the Rahad river to Ain-el-Owega, whence he struck across the desert, reaching Gedaref on the 21st October, to find that Ahmed Fedil had gone south with his force of 5000 men towards Roseires. Colonel Lewis, who was at Karkoj with a small force, moved to Roseires, where he received reinforcements from Omdurman, and on the 26th December caught Ahmed Fedil’s force as it was crossing the Blue Nile at Dakheila, and after a very severe fight cut it up. The dervish loss was 500 killed, while the Egyptians had 24 killed and 118 wounded. Two thousand five hundred fighting men surrendered later, and the rest escaped with Ahmed Fedil to join the Khalifa in Kordofan. On the 25th January 1899 Colonel Walter Kitchener was despatched by his brother, in command of a flying column of 2000 Egyptian troops and 1700 Friendlies, which had .been concentrated at Faki Kohi, on the White Nile, some 200 miles above Khartum, to reconnoitre the Khalifa’s camp at Sherkela, 130 miles west of the river, in the heart Operations °f ^he Baggara country in Kordofan, and if in the possible to capture it. The position was found Sudan, to be a strong one, occupied by over 6000 men ; and as it was not considered prudent to attack it with an inferior force at such a distance from the river base, the flying column returned. No further attempt was made to interfere with the Khalifa in his far-off retreat until towards the end of the year, when, good order having been generally established throughout the rest of the Sudan, it was decided to extend it to Kordofan. In the autumn of 1899 the Khalifa was at Jebil Gedir, a hill in Southern Kordofan, about 80 miles from the White Nile, and was contemplating an advance. Lord Kitchener concentrated 8000 men at Kaka, on the river,
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380 miles south of Khartum, and moved inland on the 20th October. On arriving at Fongor it was ascertained that the Khalifa had gone north, and the cavalry and camel corps having reconnoitred Jebil Gedir, the expedition returned. On the 13th November the Emir Ahmed Fedil debouched on the river at El Alub, but retired on finding Colonel Lewis with a force in gunboats. Troops and transport were then concentrated at Faki Kohi, and Colonel Wingate sent with reinforcements from Khartum to take command of the expedition and march to Gedid, where it was anticipated the Khalifa would be obliged to halt. A flying column, comprising a squadron of cavalry, a field battery, 6 machine guns, 6 companies of the Camel Corps,- and a brigade of infantry and details, in all 3700 men, under Wingate, left Faki Kohi on the 21st November. The very next day he encountered Ahmed Fedil at Abu Aadel, drove him from his position with great loss, and captured his camp and a large supply of grain he was convoying to the Khalifa. Gedid was reached on the 23rd, and the Khalifa was ascertained to be at Om Dubreikat. Wingate marched at midnight of the 24th, and was resting his troops on high ground in front of the Khalifa’s position, when at daybreak of the 25th his picquets were driven in, and the dervishes attacked. They were repulsed with great slaughter, and Wingate advancing, carried the Death camp. The Khalifa Abdullah el Taaishi, un- khalifa able to rally his men, gathered many of his principal emirs around him, among whom were his sons and brothers, Ali Wad Helu, Ahmed el Fedil, and other wellknown leaders, and they met their death unflinchingly from the bullets of the advancing Sudanese infantry. Three thousand men and 29 emirs of importance, including Sheik-ed-din, the Khalifa’s eldest son and intended successor, surrendered. The dervish loss in the two actions was estimated at 1000 killed and wounded, while the Egyptian casualties were only 4 killed and 29 wounded. Thus ended the power of the Khalifa and of Mahdism. On the 19th January 1900 Osman Digna, who had been so great a supporter of Mahdism in the Eastern Sudan, and had always shown great discretion in securing the safety of his own person, was surrounded and captured at Jebel Warriba, as he was wandering a fugitive among the hills beyond Tokar. The reconquest of Dongola and the Sudan provinces during the three years from March 1896 to December 1898, considering the enormous extent and difficulties of the country, was achieved at an unprecedentedly small cost, while the main item of expenditure—the railway—remains a permanent benefit to the country. The figures are:1— Railways . £E.1,181,372 Telegraphs 21,825 Gunboats . 154,934 Military . 996,223 Total . . . £E. 2,354,354 The railway, delayed by the construction of the big bridge over the Atbara, was opened to the Blue Nile opposite Khartum, 187 miles from the Atbara, at the end of 1899. (r. h, v.) Egyptology. —Since 1880 the appearance of almost every part of Egyptology has been changed. In the history, the kings who used to be thought mythical are now as well known as those of late times, and the long prehistoric age is better knowp than that of any other country. In the archaeology, total ignorance is now replaced by an accurate discrimination of the ages of all the usual manufactures. In the language, the guess-work 1 See Lord Cromer’s Report, dated at Cairo, 26th February 1899.
