sed. A sixth
Soudanese battalion was raised in 1896, and in that and the following
year four additional fellaheen battalions were added to the army. When
the Khartoum campaign began, the total muster-roll of the regular
troops was eighteen battalions of infantry, ten squadrons of cavalry,
a camel corps of eight companies, five batteries of artillery,
together with the customary quota of engineers, medical staff,
transport, and other departmental troops. There was a railway
construction battalion numbering at least 2000 men, but they were
non-combatants. As the whole armed strength of Egypt was, for the
occasion, practically called into the field, the peace of the Delta
had to be secured by other means. A small armed body called the Coast
Guard and the ordinary police, apart from the meagre British garrison,
were responsible for public tranquillity. The re-organisation and
increase of the Coast Guard, which was decided on, into an army of
8000 men, was a brilliant idea, and one of the recent master-strokes
of Lord Cromer and the Sirdar. It is ostensibly a quasi-civil force,
and it was formed and equipped without the worry of international
queries and interference. The Coast Guard is mainly composed of picked
men, including old soldiers and reservists. Their duties carry them
into the interior as well as along the sea-coast, for, partly on
account of the salt tax, there are revenue defaulters along the
borders of the Nile as well as by the Mediterranean and Red Sea. They
are dressed like soldiers and are armed with Remingtons.

Mohammed Achmed, who called himself the Mahdi, or the last of the
prophets, whose mission was to convert the world to Islamism, was a
native of Dongola. He was born near El Ordeh, or New Dongola, in 1848,
and was the son of a carpenter. In person, he was above the medium
height, robust, and with a rather handsome Arab cast of features.
During 1884 I saw his brother and two of his nephews in a village
south of El Ordeh. All of them were tall stalwart men, light of
complexion for Dongolese, courteous and hospitable to strangers.
Mohammed Achmed, from his youth, evinced a taste for religious studies
coupled with the ascetic extravagances of a too emotional nature. From
Khartoum to Fashoda he acquired a great reputation for sanctity.
Religious devotees gathered around him and followed him to his retreat
upon the island of Abba. There he, in May 1881, first announced his
claims as the true Mahdi. His b