Art Photogravure C o . L td . THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES OR THE AVENGING OF GORDON BEING A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE FINAL SOUDAN CAMPAIGN OF 1898 BY ERNEST N. BENNETT, M. A. FELLOW AND LECTURER OF HERTFORD COLLEGE, OXFORD SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT FOR "THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" WITH A PORTRAIT, MAP AND PLANS LONDON METHUEN & CO. NEW YORK NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY 1899 TO MY FRIEND H. R. H. I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK...

In the following pages I have aimed at furnishing some account of the interesting experiences which fell to our lot during the recent campaign in the Sudan. My best thanks are due to several friends for the assistance they have rendered me, and I feel especially grateful to H.H. Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein and Major Stuart-Wortley, C.M.G., for their very kind help in supplying me with much additional and interesting information about the work of the Gunboats and the Friendly Tr

Towards the end of last July I heard to my great joy, from the editor of the Westminster Gazette , that a permit had been granted me to act as his special correspondent during the forthcoming campaign in the Sudan. Sinister rumours had been afloat for a long time to the effect that the utmost difficulty would be experienced in securing such permission, and several officials at the Foreign Office had warned applicants that even in the event of a formal pass beyond Wady Halfa being accorded, there

We said good-bye to Wad Hamed on 26th August. Cross and I had, with several others, selected to go by river rather than by land, as this would afford us an opportunity of seeing the cataract of Shabluka, which had become a household word in the army because of the possibility of Dervish resistance at this point. The rest of the correspondents accompanied the two British brigades toward Beled Hagir, our next camping site, just south of the cataract, and opposite Rojan Island. As we were leaving W

On 2nd September we rose from our broken slumbers in the dull grey light of daybreak, and by the time the first sunlight had flushed the surface of the Nile everybody was hard at work over his breakfast. When one knows that within an hour or two the normal routine of regular meals may be rudely interrupted by the exigencies of a whole day's fighting, it behoves one to eat at least as substantial a breakfast, if it can be got, as one does in London before catching a morning express to Edinburgh.

No account of the recent campaign could be in any way complete if it did not include some mention of the valuable assistance rendered to the Sirdar and the Anglo-Egyptian forces by the gunboats and the Friendlies. I have thought it better to keep this portion of the narrative distinct from the rest, and to mould the present chapter more or less into the form of a diary. The Sirdar's fleet at the end of the campaign consisted of the following gunboats:— Sultan , Sheikh , Melik , Fatteh , Nasr , H

On the morning of 3rd September our troops moved out of Omdurman and encamped on the banks of the river some two miles to the north. The moment I had finished breakfast I made for the Mahdi's tomb. The interior was an absolute wreck. Vast quantities of stones and mortar, torn away by the Lyddite shells, were heaped upon the floor, and of the superstructure over the Mahdi's grave only the wooden framework remained. Some pieces of tawdry drapery which had covered the tomb lay on the ground, and th

I have handed over my small collection of insects to Professor Poulton, F.R.S., of Oxford, who has had them set, and has kindly supplied me with materials for the following list, which may possibly be of some interest to any reader interested in Entomology. Butterflies. Three specimens of Limnas Chrysippus , a Danaine butterfly, found over all the warmer parts of the Old World. Of these three butterflies, one is the brown type form (Wad Hamed); one the Alcippus or Alcippoides variety, with white