re
deserved. I am bringing no charges here, but discussing a vexed and
withal important question. I am glad to say that during the Omdurman
Campaign there was no attempt, within my knowledge, of muzzling the
press. This does not bear upon the Fashoda incident, but that came
later.

Nasri Island as a base of concentration was, as I have intimated, a
blind. Although we correspondents were not permitted to go up the
river, or indeed move beyond the Atbara, until the Sirdar and
headquarters had started, yet we kept ourselves fully informed of all
that was happening at the front. There had been one or two little
skirmishes between bands of mounted dervishes and our wood-cutting
parties of Khedivial infantry. In these encounters our men had
generally the best of the fighting, and the Baggara horsemen
invariably retreated with a few empty saddles. In July Major-Generals
Hunter and Gatacre had, during a small reconnaissance, proceeded as
far up as Shabluka Cataract or Rapid on one of the gunboats. The
enemy, it was seen, were in no great strength there, and the seven
well-planned, thick-walled mud forts blocking the passage were weakly
held. Those two officers landed with a small body of troops and
surveyed a suitable camping site, at what they called Wad Hamid, but
which, in reality, was north of that place and close to Wad Habeshi.
The object was to find a spot easily accessible by river and land, and
with not too much bush about. At that season, the Nile having in many
places overflowed its lower borders, marshes extended for miles along
the ordinarily solid river banks. Wad Habeshi was merely a native
wood-cutting station at first, but little by little troops appeared on
the scene, and a large entrenched camp, with lines extending for
several miles, was duly formed. At the end of July two steamers, which
had made the perilous voyage up the Nile from the province of Dongola,
came in and made fast alongside the mud bars at Dakhala.

It was still early in August when all the four battalions of
Major-General Hon. N. G. Lyttelton's Second British Brigade reached
Dakhala. They were quartered in a cool and cleanly camp by the Atbara,
to the south-east of the fortified lines. The 21st Lancers also
arrived at Dakhala in due course. Major Williams' Field Battery, the
32nd R.A. of 15-pounders; Major Elmslie's 37th R.A., with the new
50-pounder Howitzers firing Lyddite shells; and Lieut. Weymouth's two
40-pounder Armstrong guns, bes