rsed
was but fourteen or sixteen miles, and the column reached the
halting-place, Magawiya, about two p.m. We made our way over broken,
cracked ground to the river's edge, and there bivouacked under the
shade of a magnificent forest of stately date palms. The ripening
fruit had been extensively plucked by thieving natives, but there was
enough left for our men. It was a most picturesque scene for a camp,
but an unwholesome place for all that. It was given out that the
column was to rest a day at Magawiya, as the place was a wood and food
supply depot. During the course of the evening the sternwheeler
"Kaibur" came in, and a sick officer, Lieutenant Russell, and about a
score or more of men were sent back upon her to Dakhala, or Atbara
camp. It merits record that a party of Egyptian gunners carried upon a
native bed or angreeb a sick British artilleryman from Maguia to
Magawiya, from bivouac to bivouac. That was something like good
comradeship and _esprit de corps_.

[Illustration: HALT BY THE WAY.]

At nightfall the column was formed up so that the men slept upon the
ground within supporting distance of each other. Sentries and patrols
also were set, but the force was not one, I fancy, that would have
been able to offer a stubborn resistance to a surprise party of
dervishes. On Saturday, the 20th of August, as was anticipated, the
troops remained in camp and enjoyed much needed rest and opportunities
for washing. Several gunboats and steamers passed us during the day
going south, including one upon which were a number of correspondents
who were enjoying their _dolce far niente_ under awnings in a breezy
draught with inexhaustible supplies of filtered and mineral waters. We
saw the Grenadier Guards, the Lincolns, and other battalions pass us,
and steam slowly up stream towards Wady Hamed. On Sunday, the 21st, a
really early start for the first time was effected. We were to march
as far as Abu Kru that day, and encamp near the spot held by Stewart's
handful of men in 1885. Major Williams, R.A., went off with his
battery, the 32nd, at 3.30 a.m., and the 37th battery accompanied him.
Lieutenant H. Grenfell got away at four a.m., and the Lancers at 5.20
a.m. I pushed ahead of the troops in order to have time to revisit
some of the old ground I had been over with the Desert Column in
1884-85. It was odd, that though hundreds still survived who marched
with Sir Herbert Stewart, there were but fifteen persons in the whole
of