ltivation, it once teemed with people, the villages along the banks
appearing to be one continuous row of dwellings. Helped by the
Shilluks, Major Marchand had no difficulty in capturing Fashoda. The
old fortification was built upon the only accessible strip of dry
land, at high Nile, available for miles along the bank in that
vicinity. Seen from the river, the works consisted of a rectangular
mud-wall about 200 yards in length, protected by horse-shoe bastions
at the corners. The Khalifa being as usual in need of supplies sent
out a small foraging expedition many weeks before our arrival on the
scene. Starting in the steamers "Safieh" and "Tewfikieh," they
collected grain and cattle, shipping them down to Omdurman. Learning
that Europeans had been seen at Fashoda, part of the force proceeded
there, and engaged the French, attacking them by land and water. The
date was the 25th of August. Behaving with great steadiness, and
helped by Shilluks, after a stiff fight the dervishes were driven off,
after losing a number of men, by Marchand's little garrison. "If they
had had cannon," said the dervish skipper to me, "they fired so well
that they would have sunk our steamers." The dervish captains then ran
their boats down stream to collect their followers and return to
assault the position. About 100 miles north the "Safieh" stopped to
collect the raiders, who numbered about a thousand with four brass
guns.

At six o'clock on the morning of the 10th September, the Sirdar set
out from Omdurman with his expeditionary force. The troops were
embarked upon the gunboats "Sultan," "Sheik," "Fatah," and barges
towed by these vessels. Colonel Wingate, Major Lord Edward Cecil,
Captain J. K. Watson, A.D.C., and other officers, accompanied the
General on the stern-wheel steamer "Dal," which had for armament
several Maxims. A Union Jack, as well as an Egyptian flag, was hoisted
on the boat. Abundance of ammunition and two months' provisions for
the force were carried on the steamers and tows. The steamers went
along very leisurely, going only by daylight. In the afternoon, or
towards sunset, the flotilla made fast to some suitable bank. The
troops then formed a sort of camp, and parties went out with saws and
axes to cut timber for fuel for the boilers. The hard gummy mimosa and
sunt, when there is not too much sap in it, burns fiercely with a glow
almost equal to ordinary coal. South of Omdurman, the river still
being in full flood, the