anything but good, and frequently
refers to the want of agreement between the two commanders--General
Hicks with his small body of European officers on the one hand, and Ala
ed Din Pasha, Governor-General of the Sudan, a man imbued with the old
Turkish system, on the other. The European officers were convinced that
the expedition would not be successful; the camels were badly looked
after, hundreds died every day, and their loads were piled on to the
others which were still alive; saddles were for the most part without
straw, so that the bare wood rubbing on their backs made terrible
wounds. Almost all the horses had died before the force reached Rahad.
General Hicks had also great trouble in keeping the men together;
numbers of them had recently been fighting against the English with
Arabi Pasha, and had been forcibly sent to the Sudan. It is also strange
that the shorter route from Duem to Bara, on which there was plenty of
water, was not chosen in preference to the long roundabout road they
took. While the latter route led through forests and long grass, the
former was entirely free from these obstructions, and, moreover, the
friendly Kababish tribe would have supported them on their northern
flank. There was still another circumstance which contributed to the
final disaster--the guides were treacherous, and led the army into the
hands of the Dervishes; indeed, it was an open secret in the camp at El
Obeid that the guides had been sent by the Mahdi.

At Rahad, Hicks expected to have been joined by five hundred Baggara
horsemen, and it is true a number of horsemen were seen in the distance,
and a white flag was shown; but the riders did not approach, and it was
soon evident that they were enemies. The force was in such a miserable
and wretched condition that the emir, Abdel Halim, begged permission of
the Mahdi to be allowed to attack it with his own followers; but this
the Mahdi would not permit him to do, as he wanted to have all the
honour and glory of victory for himself. Every day information about the
movements of the Egyptian troops was sent to the Mahdi; sometimes
reports reached him twice a day, and were always of the same tenour,
viz. that the men had no heart to fight. Had an expedition been coming
which had the elements of success in it, public opinion would have shown
itself by numbers deserting the Mahdi's standards; but they had heard
nothing of Hicks's early successes, and now the only reports that
rea