reinforcements, except
by accredited Khedivial officers. The Sirdar in a note informed Major
Marchand that he had prohibited the transport of all war material upon
the Nile. Thereafter the Sirdar resumed the journey downstream. The
long and fertile island of Abba--it extends for 20 miles--was passed
without seeing anything of the fugitive Khalifa and his followers. It
was to Abba island the Mahdi went, and it was there the rebellion
first broke out. Subsequently it was ascertained that Abdullah and
Osman Digna with their retainers sought shelter in the heavy woods
opposite Abba island, and they were stated to be in hiding there at
the end of December 1898. The Sirdar and headquarters got back to
Omdurman on the 25th of September.

Popular feeling ran very high at home when it was ascertained that,
despite repeated notification, the French had tried to grasp the
fruits of the British victory over the dervishes. A Liberal statesman
had, years before, declared, that any attempt on the part of France to
occupy the Upper Nile valley lands would be regarded as an unfriendly
act by this country. Conservative statesmen had endorsed that official
pronouncement; yet, in face of these declarations, the thing had been
done with every evidence of a fine contempt for British feeling and
self-respect. The enemies of England in Egypt and elsewhere were
sniggering. Our diplomatic and military chiefs were making unusual
efforts to keep the Marchand affair a profound secret. At every stage
down the Nile from Omdurman to Cairo, the Camerons and all who had
been to Fashoda and Sobat were officially warned to keep the matter a
profound secret. The case I thought was too serious to be left hidden
in the breasts of a few where the issues involved were so tremendous.
So I openly set myself to learning what had happened, and wiring every
scrap of information for publication. Several officers were sent down
from Omdurman with special despatches. Long before they arrived even
in Cairo, cypher messages extending to many folios had been forwarded
day after day direct from Khartoum to Downing Street.

The Sirdar reached Cairo on the 6th of October and left for England on
the 21st of the same month. By that time much had happened. The
official despatches had been published in a Parliamentary paper and
there were ominous preparations for war in both France and Great
Britain. Fleets were being got ready for sea and feverish activity
prevailed in Gall