t took the sting out of them, though there were still
individual dervishes who would keep trying to charge us. Colonel
Broadwood came up at that juncture with the supports, whereupon the
enemy all bolted for the hills. At 2 p.m. we reported to headquarters,
and, following the infantry, went to water our horses at the Nile. The
same afternoon we passed through part of Omdurman and went out upon
the open desert to the south-west. At 6.30 p.m. Slatin Pasha brought
us orders to start immediately in pursuit of the Khalifa. We went on
as best we could until 8.30 p.m., without food or water. Trying to run
in towards the river to procure both, for a gunboat was to carry our
supplies, we found it was impossible to get within two miles of the
Nile owing to the overflow having turned the margin into boggy land.
Besides, the bushy inaccessible ground was teeming with hostile
dervishes. We had missed our way. Without off-saddling, we bivouacked
where we were, forming square. At 4 a.m. we mounted and rode on,
going until 8.30 a.m., when we got down to the river. There Slatin
Pasha quitted us, returning to Omdurman. We halted for an hour,
watered and fed our poor horses, and had a bite for ourselves. Then we
remounted and rode fifteen miles farther south. We had reached a point
just thirty-five miles south of Omdurman. Our horses had been going
almost continuously for four days previously, the forage was finished,
and the animals exhausted, so we again halted. Supplies had been
ordered forward to that spot, but the overflow prevented us from being
able to get near enough the native boats to draw upon them for stores.
We decided to bivouac there and take our chance of being able somehow
to get at the boats. Next morning we were ordered back into Omdurman.
Slatin Pasha had learned from fugitives and natives that the Khalifa
was still twenty-five miles ahead of us. Abdullah had with him 100
Taaisha Baggara, and had procured fresh camels and horses, so was
'going strong,' too good for us to catch up. The riverside country
people could not credit that we had defeated the Khalifa and taken
Omdurman. On our way back we picked up six of Osman Digna's
Hadendowas. They said Osman was riding with the Khalifa, showing him
the tracks and bypaths, with all of which he was familiar. We heard
that neither Osman nor the Khalifa was wounded, and that Sheikh Ed Din
was likewise untouched."

It has been too readily accepted that the Black, although an
i