ginal intention had been to march to Hudi. But he now
learned that at Hudi he would have to fight the Sirdar's main force.
Not feeling strong enough to attack them, he determined to march to
Nakheila. The mobility of the Arabs was now as conspicuous as their
dilatory nature had formerly been. The whole Dervish army--horse, foot,
and artillery, men, women, children, and animals--actually traversed in
a single day the forty miles of waterless desert which lie between Aliab
and Nakheila, at which latter place they arrived on the night of the
20th. The Sirdar's next object was to keep the enemy so far up the
Atbara that they could not possibly strike at Berber or Railhead.
Accordingly, at dawn on the 21st, the whole force was ordered to march
to Ras-el-Hudi, five miles nearer the Dervishes' supposed halting-place.
The detour which the Arabs would have to make to march round the troops
was nearly doubled by this movement. The utter impossibility of their
flank march with a stronger enemy on the radius of the circle was now
apparent.

The movement of the Anglo-Egyptian force was screened by seven squadrons
of cavalry and the Horse Artillery, and Colonel Broadwood was further
instructed to reconnoitre along the river and endeavour to locate the
enemy. The country on either bank of the Atbara is covered with dense
scrub, impassable for civilised troops. From these belts, which average
a quarter of a mile in depth, the dom palms rise in great numbers. All
the bush is leafy, and looks very pretty and green by contrast with the
sombre vegetation of the Nile. Between the trees fly gay parrots and
many other bright birds. The river itself above Ras-el-Hudi is, during
March and April, only a dry bed of white sand about 400 yards broad,
but dotted with deep and beautifully clear pools, in which peculiarly
brilliant fish and crocodiles, deprived of their stream, are crowded
together. The atmosphere is more damp than by the Nile, and produces,
in the terrible heat of the summer, profuse and exhausting perspiration.
The natives dislike the water of the Atbara, and declare that it does
not quench the thirst like that of the great river. It has, indeed, a
slightly bitter taste, which is a strong contrast with the sweet waters
of the Nile. Nevertheless the British soldiers, with characteristic
contrariness, declared their preference for it. Outside the bush the
ground undulated gently, but the surface was either stony and uneven or
else cra