killed and his army annihilated, and Egypt freed
from fear of invasion.

After this Egypt began to advance; Sarras, beyond Wady Haifa, was
reoccupied, and a railway laid between the two places. In February 1891
Colonel Holled Smith, commanding the Egyptian garrison at Suakin,
marched out against Osman Digna's men with only Egyptian and Sudanese
troops, and defeated them after a good fight and occupied Tokar. In
this action Captain Barrow was killed, and of the enemy a large number
of Emirs; but Osman as usual got away. The effect of this battle was to
clear away the dervishes from the Eastern Sudan and re-establish
Egyptian government there.

In 1892 the dervishes again gave trouble both on the Nile and in the
Eastern Sudan, and there were many skirmishes. A serious attempt was
made in January 1893 to cut the railway between Wady Haifa and Sarras,
but without success; in the fight Captain Pyne, commanding the Egyptian
force, was killed. Osman Digna again turned up near Suakin, but had no
success except in his usual flight.

In this year Sir Horatio Kitchener, who had had a long experience both
of Egypt and the Sudan, having been on active service in one or the
other since 1882, became Sirdar in succession to Sir F. Grenfell, who
was appointed to the command of the British forces in Egypt, and he set
himself to the task of the re-conquest of the Sudan. He had not the
British tax-payer to draw upon, but the very meagre Egyptian Treasury,
and he had therefore to work with very limited means. His plan was not
to raise a costly army for the purpose of winning victories glorious but
fruitless, slaughtering Arabs by the thousand and then retiring till
they gathered head and then slaughtering more, after the manner of the
peace-loving Government of 1885, but to make sure of each stage of his
progress as he went along, driving back the Mahdi and bringing
confidence and commerce in his train, never retiring from ground once
occupied, but never advancing till his course was clear; and his chief
instrument for effecting his purpose was, as it will be seen, the
railway.

THE ADVANCE TO DONGOLA.

During all these years, as has been said, the Egyptian army was in the
making; and in 1896 it was decided to put it to the test, and to make an
advance on Dongola. On March 21st the Sirdar left Cairo for Wady Haifa,
taking with him a British regiment, the 1st Staffordshire, to join the
Egyptians already at the front; Indian tro