t, and attacked the main body of the enemy at Ginnis on the 30th of
December 1885, completely defeating it and capturing two guns and twenty
banners. It was here the new Egyptian army received its baptism of fire
and acquitted itself very creditably. Although checked, the dervishes
were not discouraged, and continued to press upon the frontier in
frequent raids, and thus in many bloody skirmishes the fighting
qualities of the Egyptian troops were developed. In April 1886 the
frontier was drawn back to Wadi Halfa, a fortified camp at the northern
end of the desolate defile, Batn-el-Hagar, through which the Nile
tumbles amid black, rocky hills in a succession of rapids, and debouches
on a wide plain. The protection of the frontier was now left in the
hands of the Egyptian army, a British force remaining at Assuan, 200 m.
to the north, as a reserve in case of emergency, and two years later
even this precaution was deemed unnecessary.

In October 1886 Wad en Nejumi, the amir who had defeated Hicks Pasha in
Kordofan three years before, and led the assault at Khartum when General
Gordon was slain in January 1885, replaced Mahommed el Kheir as
"commander of the force for the conquest of Egypt," and brought large
reinforcements to Dongola. An advanced column under Nur-el-Kanzi
occupied Sarras in April 1887, was attacked by the Egyptian force under
Colonel H. Chermside on the 28th of that month, and after a stubborn
resistance was defeated with great loss. Nur-el-Kanzi was killed and ten
standards taken.

Battle of Toski.

The troubles in Darfur and with Abyssinia (q.v.) induced the khalifa to
reduce the garrisons of the north; nevertheless, the dervishes
reoccupied Sarras, continued active in raids and skirmishes, and
destroyed the railway south of Sarras, which during the Nile expedition
of 1884 and 1885 had been carried as far as Akasha. It was not until May
1889 that an invasion of the frontier on a large scale was attempted. At
this time the power and prestige of the khalifa were at their height:
the rebellions in Darfur and Kordofan had been stamped out, the
anti-mahdi was dead, and even the dervish defeat by the Abyssinians had
been converted by the death of King John and the capture of his body
into a success. It was therefore an opportune time to try to sweep the
Turks and the British into the sea. On the 22nd of June Nejumi was at
Sarras with over 6000 fighting men and 8000 followers. On the 2nd of
July Colonel