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Such was the battle of Argin. The check given to Wad-el-Najûmi, who had confidently expected to out-general and defeat his opponent, made a profound impression on the dervishes. It probably accounted for the serious reduction in the number of men which eventually followed Makinel-Nur and Ali-Wad-Saâd to Bellâna, as rumours of this defeat must have dispirited all but the most determined. It made the name of Wodehouse a familiar word in the Soudan. To have baffled the man who had hitherto overcome every opponent, was in their eyes a deed of great significance. The dervish cavalry from that day ceased to be of any use as an offensive arm. The dervishes no longer had confidence in their artillery, and having lost one gun, they buried the rest. Abd-el-Halim, the second in command, was seriously wounded. Well might a Shagia Bashi-Bazouk, one of Gordon's old soldiers, remark, on revisiting the battlefields, that one had to go to Abu Klea to witness a greater carnage. Wadel-Najûmi, however, was as undaunted as ever. He pitched his camp behind the first range of hills, about 2 miles from the river, and halted on the 3d and 4th July. By the night of the 4th his camp had become a great graveyard for the burial of those who were seriously wounded on the 2d, and he was compelled to move about three miles farther north, where he pitched his second camp at Argin.

In corroboration of what has been said of the bold advance of Wodehouse on the field of Argin, may be brought the following impressive incident from General Grant's biography. On the first occasion that Grant commanded an army, he was sent against a Southern force, and his first impres

sion when he saw them was, that it would be wise to withdraw a little; but he almost immediately noticed the Southern general withdrawing his men. From that day, he added, he had assumed, not only on the battlefield, but in every relation of life, that when he was afraid of an opponent, his opponent was more or less afraid of him. By putting on a bold front and appearing perfectly indifferent, he had frequently won his point without the necessity of a trial of strength.

During the fight at Argin the Egyptian soldiers in the cavalry and camel corps showed the same spirit as the Sudanese of the 9th, 10th, and 13th battalions, and elicited universal admiration. Much of the fighting was hand-tohand, and reminded one of some of the old Homeric battles, where the immortal gods often interfered and overthrew all calculations. In the modern parallel the HenryMartini, in the hands of the Egyptian soldiers, took the place of the immortal gods of old, and threw the advantage always on the Egyptian side. They were more effective than Mars in complete armour. Instances of per

sonal bravery on the part of the Egyptians are not wanting. A camel-corps man, finding that his company had gone on to assist in clearing the village, followed on his camel along the outside of the village. On being charged by two horsemen, he dismounted from his camel when they were quite close up to him, shot them both, and returned to camp with their spoils. Another man, when on foot, engaged in clearing the village, ran out in front of his men-just as the picked men of the corvée rush with a shout into some difficult bit of work-engaged one of the enemy in single combat, and ran his bayonet through him: by a miracle

he returned with his life. Again, a sergeant-major of the cavalry, seeing an English officer attacked by two spearmen, came readily to his assistance, killing one of the men, and receiving a very severe sword-cut on his bridle arm. the above were not Sudanese, but Egyptian fellaheen.

All

The dervishes themselves were fearless to a fault, but could do nothing against riflemen. Again and again they rushed on certain death with a kind of fascination. In one instance, while a company of infantry were advancing, an Arab horseman rode out from behind a wall and charged straight into the men. Horse and rider fell dead on the bayonets of the front rank, pierced by a score of bullets. His saddle, which is preserved at Halfa, was pierced by seven bullets. witnessing scenes like these, one understands how formidable must have been the Arab invaders of Southern Europe and Northern Africa during the early days of Mohammedanism, when firearms were unknown. The fearlessness of the dervishes was equalled only by their fanaticism. Towards the end of the day at Argin, when a number of Arabs had taken refuge in a house and could not be turned out, the roof was set on fire: after a short interval an old man, reading out of an open Koran, walked quietly out of the door, followed by a dozen spearmen.

Very little mercy was shown to any of the fighting men of the enemy, for reasons easy to understand. In the first place, they never asked for nor wanted to be treated with mercy, neither could their word be trusted for an instant again and again officers, more humane than their fellows, were put in considerable danger while trying to safe the life of an

enemy, who did not wish to live provided he could send an infidel into the next world immediately before he went there himself. In the second place, the English officers of the Egyptian army were in no temper to be very lenient to an enemy of whom such inhuman deeds were reported by the women and children forming the camp-followers, and who were deserting in large numbers. To save these last every reasonable effort was made. They were encouraged in every possible way to leave Wad-el-Najûmi's camp, and surrender themselves to the Egyptian troops. They were treated considerately, as only Englishmen know how to treat captives similarly situated. The Pasha himself is a man who errs if anything on the side of humanity, and whose purse was and has since then been fully at the disposal of the wretched destitutes who have crowded round him. When the refugees from the country between Dongola and Halfa began pouring into Egyptian territory, he insisted that it was the duty of a civilised government to provide somehow for these people, and prevent them from dying on its soil. He personally superintended their settlement on lands where work could be provided them, and invented means of finding occupation for them. In all these measures he was supported by the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, while their principal opponents were humanitarian civilians at Cairo who denounced the brutality of the army during the campaign. For the first two or three days of the campaign strenuous efforts were made to prevent the enemy's force from watering, but it was soon recognised that the enemy had a far more formidable foe in famine

than in the failure of their water supply. The gunboats were then used as patrols, more to prevent communications between the two sides of the Nile and put a stop to all sale of food to the dervishes, than to keep the enemy away from the water. The low sand-hills, which run right up to the river's edge, provided excellent shelter for the watering parties, while the smoke from the steamers' chimneys always disclosed the position of the steamers themselves when they were miles off. Possibly not 100 men were shot from off the steamers from the beginning to the end of the campaign. It is difficult for an ordinary rifleman to hit a small object a long way off when he is on terra firma, while it is practically impossible for him when he himself is proceeding quickly down a river and the object is concealed behind sand-hills. All testify to the small execution done off the steamers, while the sand-hills themselves contain very few dead. The river, however, was perfectly patrolled, and supplies were prevented from reaching Wad-el-Najûmi's force, which was of infinitely more importance than the killing of a small number of the enemy. The number of the camp-followers who died between the camp and the river's edge on their way to and from watering was perfectly insignificant, while between the different camps themselves it was not so appalling as would at first be imagined. Between Matûka and Bellâna (a distance of 45 miles) there was one death per mile, while between Bellâna and Toski (a distance of 20 miles) there were four deaths per mile. To obtain approximately the number of those who died in the desert from wounds, hunger, and exhaustion, one has to add together the following numbers: 45 between Matûka and

Bellâna, 80 between Bellâna and Toski, 100 off the steamers, 50 between the Nile and the different camps, and some 150 at Argin, Bellâna, and Toski-making a total of 425. Most of these were wretched Berabra from between Dongola and Halfa, who had nothing whatever to do with either force, but had been dragged along by Wad-el-Najûmi on his northward march.

On visiting Wad-el - Najûmi's first camp at Argin after it had been evacuated, the first thing which struck one was the enormous amount of equipage of every kind which had been left behind. This suggested great diminution in the means of transport. There were scores of dead bodies lying usburied in the middle of the camp. Among these latter was the headless trunk of a black soldier, with a pool of blood lying near the neck. The head was a short distance away. This was evidently the man responsible for the loss of the gun on the field of Argin. He had been publicly executed on his return to the camp. Finding his artillery difficult to transport, and not of much use when in action, the dervish leader buried the remaining guns at the different encamping grounds. At the second camp of Argin, which Najûmi formed on the 5th July, there were very few dead bodies. A little to one side of the camp lay the body of a woman, and a few yards off that of her infant son. Their backs were turned to each other. "And Hagar cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child." There the parallel ended. No angel from heaven moistened the lips

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of mother or child on the desert sands of Argin. On the 6th July Wad-el-Najumi marched northwards to Serra (5 miles), and pitched his camp about 3 miles from the river; this camp he left on the 7th, and moved to Faras (5 miles). He occupied the old ruined fort of Faras on the bank of the Nile, and placed there a few riflemen; but as he could not get a site for his camp, owing to the formation of the desert, out of reach of Wodehouse's artillery on the opposite bank of the river, he had reluctantly to abandon the fort on the 10th July, and moved his camp to Bellâna (12 miles). He preserved his distance of about 3 miles from the river's edge, and in a strong position, protected by hills on three sides, he formed his camp at Bellâna, where he halted till the 28th July. This camp was shelled for many days with effect. It is amusing at times to compare the written description of an action with what actually took place. These Krupp shells, which were fired with effect, were picked up unexploded in numbers, and used by the dervishes to mark out the different sections of some of the emirs in their camp. While Wad-el-Najûmi waited for Makinel-Nur and Ali-Wad-Saâd's reinforcements in his camp at Bellâna, Wodehouse Pasha occupied Bellâna village some 3 miles off, and continued his plan of campaign without intermission.

No sup

plies of any kind were allowed to reach the dervish camp, and his camp-followers were encouraged to desert in numbers. On the 15th July, the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, Sir Francis Grenfell, arrived, and expressed his approbation of the tactics hitherto employed. On the 16th he sent a letter to Wad-el-Najûmi calling on him to surrender, and offering him

and all his followers their lives. A soldier was sent into Najûmi's camp with the letter. He was taken into Najûmi's tent, where all the emirs were assembled, and the Sirdar's letter was read to them. On Najûmi then asking them if they would consent to a surrender, they all sprang to their feet, brandished their spears, and replied that they would far rather die on the field of battle. They laughed at the idea of reinforcements affecting the issues one way or another, since God could give the victory to whom He chose. He dismissed the soldier, and sent him back to the Sirdar's camp with his reply. Wad-el-Najú mi's reply ran as follows: "He thanked the Sirdar for his courtesy, but added that on two previous occasions he had received similar letters from previous English generals, once from Hicks Pasha, and the other time from Gordon. He had refused to surrender, and events had justified the course he had followed. He reminded the Sirdar of the chances of war, and asked him to consider his own situation. He ended his letter by saying that he could not accept any conditions offered to men who were the servants of the Khalifa and not of himself, nor had he any right to keep the Khalifa ignorant of the terms offered. He had therefore forwarded the letter to Khartoum." Reading this letter, one is reminded of the answer sent by Henry V. to the French king on the eve of Agincourt. The disparity in numbers was even greater at Agincourt than on the Nile, so that Wad-el-Najûmi's letter may be taken to represent the real thoughts of a brave man, whom past successes had endowed with a perfect confidence in himself. To visit the camp at Bellâna and see the site of Najûmi's tent,

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