Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/502

460 would not be full until that time. To carry out the expedition successfully General Hicks asked the Khedive for full powers, which arrived on the 20th August. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition to Kordofan, with the rank of General of Division. General Hicks' plan was to leave Khartoum early in September and march up the banks of the White Nile to Berair (16 miles below Duem) with 8,600 infantry, 1,400 cavalry and Bashi-Bazouks, 1 battery of Krupp field-guns, 2 batteries of mounted guns, 1 battery of Nordenfeldts, and 5,000 camels. Leaving the river at Berair, he intended to advance on Bara, and then on El Obeid; leaving some of his troops in garrison on the way, he would reach El Obeid with 7,000 men, whom he considered sufficient to defeat the rebel forces. He started accordingly on the 8th September and reached Zeraig about 30 miles from Duem on the last day of the month. A despatch from General Hicks, sent to Khartoum and telegraphed to Cairo on the 17th October, reported as follows: "The army has arrived within 28 miles of Sarakhna. We found water, but cannot establish military posts and lines of communication. The place is evacuated; the health of the troops is good but the heat is intense." The last despatch received from General Hicks is dated October 3, 1883, and reads as follows:

I left Duem on the White Nile and established military posts of 200 men each in strongly fortified places, along the line of march. We marched to Schatt, and before reaching Zeraig I was informed by the governor-general of the Soudan that it was useless for me to expect any supplies to be pushed up from Duem; that the post would not guard the convoys; that the Arabs, although now absent from our line of route, would return after we had passed, and that they would be numerous, and the garrisons of the posts would not consider themselves