ders of
Abyssinia. News seems to have reached them of Colonel Parsons'
advance, and it became a race for Gedarif. The Egyptians had a good
start, and managed to reach and capture the place and occupy the two
forts, one on either side of the river, or, what it is more
frequently, the khor, before the dervishes got back. Fadl was a man
of mettle and resolutely assaulted the town and forts of which he had
so long been governor. A desperate action ensued, but Fadl was beaten
off with a loss of 700, it is said, in killed and wounded. The
casualties in Colonel Parsons' force were about 100. But the
dervishes, though severely beaten, soon returned to attack the forts.
With increased numbers they sat down before the place and began to
harass sorely the Egyptian troops, cutting their communications with
Kassala, whence by wire to Massowah over the Italian lines and up the
Red Sea to Egypt the Sirdar was able to keep in touch with Colonel
Parsons. They endeavoured again, on several occasions, to storm one or
other of the forts, which were about half a mile apart, but happily
they were invariably repulsed. Still they persisted in their tactics
of worrying, evidently determined to recapture the place. At last
matters grew so serious that Major-General Rundle was sent with a
brigade of infantry and several batteries to deal with Ahmed Fadl's
dervishes. Advancing up the Blue Nile in gunboats, the Egyptian force
cleared the banks of all the many wandering armed bands of the enemy.
Through the aid of the wily Abyssinian scouts, information was sent to
and received from Colonel Parsons and a plan arranged for catching
Fadl and his men between two attacking columns. Seventeen hundred men
of the Omdurman force attacked the dervishes on one side, whilst
Colonel Parsons' garrison assailed them from the other. The enemy were
completely routed and scattered in all directions. Hundreds of
dervishes were slain, and ultimately many who escaped were so closely
pressed by friendlies and Abyssinians that they surrendered. A
thousand fugitive Baggara or so vainly tried to make their way up the
Blue Nile, in order to retire to their former country in Kordofan.
They were caught crossing far up stream, near Rosaires, by Colonel
Lewis, vigorously attacked, defeated, and finally scattered. Thus the
last dervish army in the field was destroyed, and the country
reclaimed to the side of peace, order, and civilised government.

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