battalion into line, and advanced across the bare shingle
against the sand hills. Major Ferguson, with one company, was detached
to attack a knoll on the right, held by two hundred Dervishes. The
remaining four companies, under Colonel Mason, kept straight on towards
the main position.

A very heavy fire was concentrated upon them, not only from the sand
hills, but from Fadil's riflemen. The Soudanese fell fast, but held on,
increasing their pace to a run; until they reached the foot of the
first sandhill, where they lay down in shelter to take breath. A
quarter of the force had already fallen, and their doctor, Captain
Jennings, remained out in the open, binding up their wounds, although
exposed to a continuous fire.

This halt was mistaken by the Dervishes, who thought that the courage
of the Soudanese was exhausted; and Fadil, from the opposite bank,
sounded the charge on drum and bugle; and the whole Dervish force, with
banners waving and exultant shouts, poured down to annihilate their
assailants.

But the Soudanese, led by Colonels Lewis and Mason, who were
accompanied by Gregory, leapt to their feet, ran up the low bank behind
which they were sheltering, and opened a terrible fire. The Dervishes
were already close at hand, and every shot told among them. Astonished
at so unlooked-for a reception, and doubtless remembering the heavy
loss they had suffered at Gedareh, they speedily broke. Like dogs
slipped from their leash, the black troops dashed on with triumphant
shouts, driving the Dervishes from sandhill to sandhill, until the
latter reached the southern end of the island.

Here the Soudanese were joined by the irregulars who had first crossed,
and a terrible fire was maintained, from the sand hills, upon the
crowded mass on the bare sand, cut off from all retreat by the deep
river. Some tried to swim across, to join their friends on the west
bank. A few succeeded in doing so, among them the Emir who had given
battle to Colonel Parsons' force, near Gedareh.

Many took refuge from the fire by standing in the river, up to their
necks. Some four hundred succeeded in escaping, by a ford, to a small
island lower down; but they found no cover there, and after suffering
heavily from the musketry fire, the survivors, three hundred strong,
surrendered.

Major Ferguson's company, however, was still exposed to a heavy fire,
turned upon them by the force on the other side of the river. He
himself was severely wou