dara, the dj. Bou Dober and Doum? It is impossible

to say.

The general opinion is that General Hicks marched not less than two months, and that the march was most trying. The camels with the convoy died one after the other. For want of transport, provisions fell short, and it was impossible to obtain any in that poor country. The troops had to content themselves with biscuit. Such a diet was, as a matter of necessity, tolerable; but that which they could not endure was the want of water. At long intervals they came upon a half dried puddle called by the Arabs "r'dair "—" guilta"; and, at long distances also from each other, on a well filled up by the enemy! . . . . .

Unprovided with boring apparatus, which would have enabled them to turn to account any subterraneous sheets of water, the men were literally dying of thirst; and it is alleged that it was in seeking the road which should have brought them to a pool, they ran so miserably to their destruction.

For a long time past, moreover, the position of General Hicks had become rather precarious. He had found it impossible to secure his line of communications with the rear. At only 50 kilomètres from Oumm-Dourman he had not been able, we

know not why, to organize the "Zriba" or palisaded post, which it was indispensable for him to maintain. He thus found himself en l'air, lost in space; and was soon cut off from his base of operations on the Nile. From that time, numerous bodies of the enemy's partisans began to harass him on his rear, while others hovered incessantly on his flanks; and at the same time he had to repel attacks in the front! For three weeks he had to sustain these daily contests, when the day of the final disaster arrived.

For a long time past no news had been received from him, but this silence did not cause much uneasiness, as the General, it was alleged, had said that he would only send despatches on the occasion of some important event.

Events were before long to occur, most terribly decisive.

X.

HASHGATE.*

THE first news received, and with consternation, was that of the "catastrophe at Tokar."

A detachment of 400 to 500 men, escorting a fieldpiece and a convoy of eighty-five camels, had lately been sent to the Upper Nile to join and reinforce the expeditionary corps of General Hicks. Some days after leaving Souakim, it entered the defiles of Tokar. It is said that, in order to march with greater ease, the men were so imprudent as to place their arms on the camels. However that may be, they were suddenly assailed by bands of Hillmen, and exterminated to nearly the last man. The English Consul at Souakim, who accompanied the detachment, was, it is added, killed with the officers. The women,

* It is thus that the British called the spot which was the scene of the denouement of this drama. We do not yet know its original name.

the children, and the camels of the convoy, 300 Remington rifles, and 40,000 cartridges fell into the hands of the enemy. Encouraged by this success, they pushed on to Souakim, which they ventured to attack on the 12th November. The place was panicstricken, and a number of its inhabitants embarked to seek refuge at Djeddah.

The line of operations of the expeditionary corps was cut at its original base. Who were the authors of this bold stroke? It can be attributed only to bands who obeyed the orders of some lieutenant of the Prophet, working on the coasts of the Red Sea, at ONE THOUSAND KILOMETRES from his generalissimo. An operation of this nature, with a result so crushing, testifies to the boldness of conception of this one, to the clearness of his plans of campaign, the extent of his resources, and let us add, to the amplitude of his military talent. Of what avail then are the academies and the superior military schools of European powers, if a simple Khouan of the Mussulman brotherhood can frame such combinations on so vast a chessboard?

The British were dismayed, but they were far from having reached the end of their painful trials. This was merely a prologue. They had hardly had

time to apprehend the news of the catastrophe at Tokar, when further tidings reached them, most terrible and heartrending. It was rumoured at Cairo that General Hicks, in his turn, had been cut off from the base of his secondary operations on the Nile. This was not believed at first . . but it became

necessary to yield to evidence.

The fact reported was only too true.

The despatches did not yet say all, but they foreshadowed a disaster. It soon became impossible to deny the reality of that disaster.

Here our information fails us, and without drawing on our imagination we could not venture to give a detailed account of the drama which has just been enacted. It is said that on the 3rd November the British expeditionary corps allowed itself to be drawn into a cut-throat place analogous to that "Defile of the Hatchet," where, in days of old, Amilcar destroyed

*This denomination of "defile of the Hatchet" comes from an inaccurate translation, for Polybius wrote " defile of the saw." The ancient saw was an instrument in every respect analogous to our modern tool, and could in former times, as well as in these days, compare to this sharp-toothed blade, a wall of rocks, whose summits are reflected on the sky in gigantic festoons. The Romans called a saw serra," while the Spaniards have turned it into "sierra." This is the name which is given in Spain to many mountains with indented tops.

66