atched, without delay. Major General Gatacre was appointed to the
command of the brigade.

At the end of the third week in January, the three regiments from Lower
Egypt had arrived at Wady Halfa, and the Seaforths at Assouan. At the
beginning of February the British brigade was carried, by railway, to
Abu Dis. Here they remained until the 26th, when they marched to
Berber, and then to a camp ten miles north of the Atbara, where they
arrived on the 4th of March, having covered a hundred and forty-four
miles in six days and a half, a great feat in such a climate.

Mahmud had made no movement until the 10th of February, when he began
to cross the Nile to Shendy. This movement had not been expected by the
Sirdar, and was hailed by him with satisfaction. Had Mahmud remained at
Metemmeh he could, aided by the forts, his artillery, and the walled
town, have offered a very formidable resistance. Had he marched along
the banks of the Nile, he would have been exposed to the fire of the
gunboats, but these could not have arrested his course. The country
round Berber was favourable to the action of his cavalry, and if
defeated he could have fallen back, unmolested, through Metemmeh on
Omdurman; but by crossing the river he practically cut himself off from
the Dervish base, and now had only a desert behind him; for we had
taken over Kassala from the Italians, and the Egyptian battalion there,
and a large force of friendly Arabs, would prevent him from retiring up
the banks of the Atbara.

Mahmud's plan was to march along the Nile to Ahab, then to cross the
desert to Hudi, at an angle of the river; whence a direct march, of
twenty-five miles, would take him to Berber, and in this way he would
avoid our strong position at the junction of the Atbara and the Nile.
It would have been easy for the gunboats to prevent Mahmud from
crossing the Nile, but the Sirdar was glad to allow him to do so. The
movement afforded him time to concentrate his force, and to get up
large supplies. For, each day, the distance that these could be
transported by the railway had increased; and he saw that, when the
time for fighting came, the victory would be a decisive one; and that
few, indeed, of Mahmud's men would ever be able to make their way to
Omdurman, and swell the Khalifa's force there.

On one occasion, however, the gunboats went up to watch what was going
on, and take advantage of any opportunity that might offer to destroy
some of Mahmud's boa