r own immediate kinsmen upon the field.
Even in the town rations were distributed to the needy. The gunboats
going up and down the river saw many sorry sights. Wounded dervishes
were lying by hundreds along the river's bank. Some, whose thirst had
maddened them, had drunk copiously, and then swooned and died, their
heads and shoulders covered with water and the rest of their bodies
stretched upon the strand. General Gatacre and Lieut. Wood on riding
to revisit the zereba near Kerreri, met a dervish, part of one of
whose legs had been blown off by a shell. The man was hobbling along,
leaning upon a broken spear handle, making for Omdurman, with his limb
burned and roughly tied up. They gave him food and water and passed on
meeting others. A mile away, the mounted orderly drew the General's
attention to an object upon the ground with the exclamation: "Blest if
it isn't that bloke's foot!" which sure enough was the case. A number
of officers were told off to count the enemy's dead upon the
battle-field. Sections of the ground were assigned to each. The actual
count was 10,800 dead bodies, which did not include all the slain,
for there were those who died in Omdurman, and afar upon the desert.
One of the officers wrote, "I won't enter into details of our day's
work. It suffices to say, that a piece of cotton-wool soaked in
eucalyptus placed in the nostrils and an ample supply of neat brandy
were only just sufficient to keep us on our legs for the six hours
that we were at the job." He and two others had undertaken to make a
sketch in addition to helping to count the slain. Unfortunately, the
sketch was lost.

And all might have been otherwise, for the Sirdar offered before the
battle to treat with the Khalifa. Here is the copy of the letter, as
translated and published, bearing upon the subject.

"_30th August 1898._
"Viz., 11 Rabi Akhar,
"1316 (M.E.)

"From the Sirdar of the Troops, Soudan,

"To Abdulla, son of Mohamed El-Taaishi, Head of the Soudan.

"Bear in your mind that your evil deeds throughout the Soudan,
particularly your murdering a great number of the Mohammedans
without cause or excuse, besides oppression and tyranny,
necessitated the advance of my troops for the destruction of your
throne, in order to save the country from