dy fraternising with their Soudanese captors, whose comrades in
arms they were soon to be. While the infantry occupied the town the
cavalry and Camel Corps were despatched in pursuit. The Baggara horse,
however, maintained a firm attitude, and attempted several charges to
cover the retreat of their infantry. In one of these an actual collision
occurred, and Captain Adams's squadron of Egyptian cavalry inflicted
a loss of six killed on the enemy at a cost to themselves of eight men
wounded. The cavalry and Camel corps had about twenty casualties in the
pursuit. But although the Dervishes thus withdrew in an orderly manner
from the field, the demoralising influence of retreat soon impaired
their discipline and order, and many small parties, becoming detached
from the main body, were captured by the pursuers. The line of retreat
was strewn with weapons and other effects, and so many babies were
abandoned by their parents that an artillery waggon had to be employed
to collect and carry them. Wad Bishara, Osman Azrak, and the Baggara
horse, however, made good their flight across the desert to Metemma,
and, in spite of terrible sufferings from thirst, retained sufficient
discipline to detach a force to hold Abu Klea Wells in case the retreat
was followed. The Dervish infantry made their way along the river to
Abu Hamed, and were much harassed by the gunboats until they reached the
Fourth Cataract, when the pursuit was brought to an end.

The Egyptian losses in the capture of Dongola and in the subsequent
pursuit were: British, nil. Native ranks: killed, 1; wounded, 25. Total,
26.

The occupation of Dongola terminated the campaign of 1896. About 900
prisoners, mostly the Black Jehadia, all the six brass cannon, large
stores of grain, and a great quantity of flags, spears, and swords
fell to the victors, and the whole of the province, said to be the
most fertile in the Soudan, was restored to the Egyptian authority.
The existence of a perpetual clear waterway from the head of the Third
Cataract to Merawi enabled the gunboats at once to steam up the river
for more than 200 miles, and in the course of the following month the
greater part of the army was established in Merawi below the Fourth
Cataract, at Debba, or at Korti, drawing supplies along the railway,
and from Railhead by a boat service on the long reach of open water.
The position of a strong force at Merawi--only 120 miles along the river
bank from Abu Hamed, the north