time was
determined to pursue a policy of non-interference in the Soudan, gave a
tacit consent, and another great expedition was prepared to suppress the
False Prophet, as the English and Egyptians deemed him--'the expected
Mahdi,' as the people of the Soudan believed.

A retired officer of the Indian Staff Corps and a few European officers
of various nationalities were sent to Khartoum to organise the new field
force. Meanwhile the Mahdi, having failed to take by storm, laid siege
to El Obeid, the chief town of Kordofan. During the summer of 1883 the
Egyptian troops gradually concentrated at Khartoum until a considerable
army was formed. It was perhaps the worst army that has ever marched to
war. One extract from General Hicks's letters will suffice. Writing on
the 8th of June, 1883, to Sir E. Wood, he says incidentally: 'Fifty-one
men of the Krupp battery deserted on the way here, although in chains.'
The officers and men who had been defeated fighting for their own
liberties at Tel-el-Kebir were sent to be destroyed, fighting to take
away the liberties of others in the Soudan. They had no spirit, no
discipline, hardly any training, and in a force of over eight thousand
men there were scarcely a dozen capable officers. The two who were the
most notable of these few--General Hicks, who commanded, and Colonel
Farquhar, the Chief of the Staff--must be remarked.

El Obeid had fallen before the ill-fated expedition left Khartoum; but
the fact that Slatin Bey, an Austrian officer in the Egyptian service,
was still maintaining himself in Darfur provided it with an object. On
the 9th of September Hicks and his army (the actual strength of
which was 7,000 infantry, 400 mounted Bashi Bazuks, 500 cavalry, 100
Circassians, 10 mounted guns, 4 Krupps, and 6 Nordenfeldt machine guns)
left Omdurman and marched to Duem. Although the actual command of the
expedition was vested in the English officer, Ala-ed-Din Pasha, the
Governor-General who had succeeded Raouf Pasha, exercised an uncertain
authority. Differences of opinion were frequent, though all the officers
were agreed in taking the darkest views of their chances. The miserable
host toiled slowly onward towards its destruction, marching in a
south-westerly direction through Shat and Rahad. Here the condition of
the force was so obviously demoralised that a German servant (Gustav
Klootz, the servant of Baron Seckendorf) actually deserted to the
Mahdi's camp. He was paraded in tr