00 men--the total fighting strength of
the column being raised to about 2300 men. For whatever errors had
been committed, and their consequences, the band of soldiers assembled
at Jakdul on that 12th of January could in no sense be held
responsible. Without making any invidious comparisons, it may be
truthfully said that such a splendid fighting force was never
assembled in any other cause, and the temper of the men was strung to
a high point of enthusiasm by the thought that at last they had
reached the final stage of the long journey to rescue Gordon. A number
of causes, principally the fatigue of the camels from the treble
journey between Korti and Jakdul, made the advance very slow, and five
days were occupied in traversing the forty-five miles between Jakdul
and the wells at Abou Klea, themselves distant twenty miles from
Metemmah. On the morning of 17th January it became clear that the
column was in presence of an enemy.

At the time of Stewart's first arrival at Jakdul there were no hostile
forces in the Bayuda desert. At Berber was a considerable body of the
Mahdi's followers, and both Metemmah and Shendy were held in his name.
At the latter place a battery or small fort had been erected, and in
an encounter between it and Gordon's steamers one of the latter had
been sunk, thus reducing their total to four. But there were none of
the warrior tribes of Kordofan and Darfour at any of these places, or
nearer than the six camps which had been established round Khartoum.
The news of the English advance made the Mahdi bestir himself, and as
it was known that the garrison of Omdurman was reduced to the lowest
straits, and could not hold out many days, the Mahdi despatched some
of his best warriors of the Jaalin, Degheim, and Kenana tribes to
oppose the British troops in the Bayuda desert. It was these men who
opposed the further advance of Sir Herbert Stewart's column at Abou
Klea. It is unnecessary to describe the desperate assault these
gallant warriors made on the somewhat cumbrous and ill-arranged square
of the British force, or the ease and tremendous loss with which these
fanatics were beaten off, and never allowed to come to close quarters,
save at one point. The infantry soldiers, who formed two sides of the
square, signally repulsed the onset, not a Ghazi succeeded in getting
within a range of 300 yards; but on another side, cavalrymen, doing
infantry soldiers' unaccustomed work, did not adhere to the strict