sacred Abdalla wad Said and his garrison.

On the 29th of July, after several reconnaissances, Major-General
Hunter, with a flying column, marched up the Nile from near Merawi to
Abu Hamed, 133 m. distant, along the edge of the Monassir desert. He
arrived on the 7th of August and captured it by storm, the dervishes
losing 250 killed and 50 prisoners. By the end of the month the gunboats
had surmounted the 4th cataract and reached Abu Hamed. Berber was found
to be deserted, and occupied by Hunter on the 5th of September, and in
the following month a large force was entrenched there. The khalifa,
fearing an attack on Omdurman, moved Osman Digna from Adarama to Shendi.
In the 23rd of October Hunter, with a flying column lightly equipped,
left Berber for Adarama, which he burned on the 2nd of November, and
after reconnoitring for 40 m. up the Atbara, returned to Berber. The
Nile was falling, and Kitchener decided to keep the gunboats above the
impassable rapid at Um Tuir, 4 m. north of the confluence of the Atbara
with the Nile, where he constructed a fort. The gunboats made repeated
reconnaissances up the river, bombarding Metemma with effect. The
railway reached Abu Hamed on the 4th of November, and was pushed rapidly
forward along the right bank of the Nile towards Berber.

The forces of the khalifa remaining quiet, the sirdar visited Kassala
and negotiated with the Italian General Caneva for its restoration to
Egypt. The Italians were anxious to leave it; and on Christmas day 1897
Colonel (afterwards General Sir Charles) Parsons, with an Egyptian force
from Suakin, took it formally over, together with a body of Arab
irregulars employed by the Italians. These troops were at once
despatched to capture the dervish posts at Asabri and El Fasher, which
they did with small loss.

Sudan campaign, 1898.

On his return from Kassala to Berber the sirdar received information of
an intended advance of the khalifa northward. He at once ordered a
concentration of Egyptian troops towards Berber, and telegraphed to
Cairo for a British brigade. By the end of January the concentration was
complete, and the British brigade, under Major-General Gatacre, was at
Dakhesh, south of Abu Hamed. Disagreement among the khalifa's generals
postponed the dervish advance and gave Kitchener much-needed time. But
at the end of February, Mahmud crossed the Nile to Shendi with some
12,000 fighting men, and with Osman Digna advanced along the right