The Project Gutenberg EBook of Khartoum Campaign, 1898, by Bennet Burleigh

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Title: Khartoum Campaign, 1898
or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan

Author: Bennet Burleigh

Release Date: May 17, 2008 [EBook #25504]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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KHARTOUM CAMPAIGN

1898

OR THE

RE-CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN

BY

BENNET BURLEIGH.

AUTHOR OF "SIRDAR AND KHALIFA."

WITH MAPS, PLANS OF BATTLE, AND NUMEROUS
ILLUSTRATIONS

SECOND IMPRESSION.

LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
1899

PREFACE.

By the overthrow of Mahdism, the great region of Central Africa has
been opened to civilisation. From the date of the splendid victory of
Omdurman, 2nd September 1898, may be reckoned the creation of a vast
Soudan empire. At so early a stage, it is idle to speculate whether
the country will be held as a British possession, or as a province of
Egypt. "The land of the blacks," and their truculent Arab despoilers,
has the intrinsic qualities that secure distinction. Given peace, it
may be expected that the mixed negroid races of the Upper Nile will
prove themselves as orderly and industrious as they are conspicuously
brave. Whoever rules them wisely, will have the control of the best
native tribes of the Dark Continent, the raw material of a mighty
state. This, too, is foreshadowed; the dominant power in Central
Northern Africa, if no farther afield, will have its capital in
Khartoum, "Ethiopia will soon stretch out her hands unto God."

The recent events which have so altered the condition of affairs upon
the Upper Nile, deserve more than ephemeral record. A campaign so full
of inspiriting incident, a victory which has brought presage of a
great and prosperous Soudan, merits re-telling. Through half a score
of battles or more, from the beginning to the death of Mahdism, I have
followed British and Egyptian troops into action against the
dervishes. I knew General Hicks, and had the luck to miss accompanying
his ill-fated expedition. In the pre