amers.

On the 22nd of October Colonel Lewis, with two companies of the Camel
Corps and three squadrons of cavalry, started from Omdurman with
the object of marching through the centre of the Ghezira and of
re-establishing the Egyptian authority. His progress was in every way
successful. The inhabitants were submissive, and resigned themselves
with scarcely a regret to orderly government. Very little lawlessness
had followed the defeat of the Khalifa, and whatever plundering there
had been was chiefly the work of the disbanded irregulars who had fought
at Omdurman under Major Wortley's command on the east bank of the Nile.
In every village Sheikhs were appointed in the name of the Khedive,
and the officers of the cavalry column concerned themselves with many
difficult disputes about land, crops, and women--all of which they
settled to their satisfaction. Marching through Awamra, Haloosen, and
Mesalamia, Colonel Lewis reached Karkoj on the 7th of November, almost
at the same time that Ahmed Fedil arrived on the Dinder.

For the next six weeks the movements of the two forces resembled a game
of hide-and-seek. Ahmed Fedil, concealed in the dense forest and jungle
of the east bank, raided the surrounding villages and worked his way
gradually towards the Rosaires Cataract. Colonel Lewis, perplexed by
false and vague information, remained halted at Karkoj, despatched vain
reconnaissances in the hopes of obtaining reliable news, revolved deep
schemes to cut off the raiding parties, or patrolled the river in the
gunboats. And meanwhile sickness fell upon his force. The malarial
fever, which is everywhere prevalent on the Blue Nile in the autumn,
was now at its height. More than 30 per cent of every garrison and every
post were affected. The company holding Rosaires were stricken to a man,
and only the two British officers remained fit for duty. The cavalry
force which had marched through the Ghezira suffered the most severely.
One after another every British officer was stricken down and lay
burning but helpless beneath the palm-leaf shelters or tottered on to
the friendly steamers that bore the worst cases north. Of the 460 men
who composed the force, ten had died and 420 were reported unfit for
duty within a month of their arrival at Karkoj.

During the end of November the Sheikh Bakr, who had deserted the
Dervishes after their retreat from Gedaref, arrived at Karkoj with 350
irregulars. He claimed to have defeated his form