ot.
The Mahdi not only had upwards of 69,000 men on his side, but a large
proportion of them were fine plucky fellows, worthy of a better foe.

[12] One writer thus describes the Mahdi:--"Mohammed Achmet was a
native of Dongola, the son of a shipwright, formerly well known
there. From his early youth he was fond of meditation and
studying the Koran, rather than of working like his brothers; and
his tastes were encouraged. He became the disciple of a fakir, or
dervish, near Khartoum. In 1870 he took up his residence on an
island, where he gained reputation as a learned and devout man.
For a time he used this reputation only for selfish and sensual
ends. He took wives from among the Arabs, and thus made many
alliances, which he afterwards turned to account. After some
years he began to assume more ambitious claims, and declared
himself to be the true Mahdi."

Mr. Power says: "The last that was seen of poor old Hicks was his
taking his revolver in one hand, and his sword in the other; calling on
his soldiers to fix bayonets, and his staff to follow him, he spurred
at the head of his troops into the dense mass of naked Arabs, and
perished with all his men." They had fought for three days and nights
without a drop of water, the whole day under a scorching sun on a sandy
plain. Gordon writing to a friend says: "What a defeat Hicks's was! It
is terrible to think of over 12,000 men killed; the Arabs just prodded
them to death, where they lay dying of thirst, four days without water!
It is appalling. What a hecatomb to death!"

* * *

That victory changed everything. Nothing succeeds like success; the
Mahdi became the hero of the hour in the Soudan, and his forces, it was
supposed, at one time numbered something like 300,000 men. Here then
were all the elements ready for a new Mohammedan crusade, and
considering how much trouble the first Mohammedan crusade had given in
Europe, it was not to be wondered at that there was fear and trembling
in Egypt, the first country on the line of march of this huge fanatical
army, flushed with victory, believing their leader to be none other
than the long-expected reformer of Islam and conqueror of the world. A
hurriedly-scraped-together force, consisting mainly of gendarmerie, was
at once dispatched under Baker Pasha, _via_ Suakim, to relieve
Khartoum, and attack the Mahdi. This f