Outside the bush the ground undulated gently, but the surface was
either stony and uneven or else cracked and fissured by the annual
overflow. Both these conditions made it hard for cavalry, and still more
for artillery, to move freely; and the difficulties were complicated by
frequent holes and small khors full of long grass.
Amid such scenes the squadrons moved cautiously forward. Having made
the ground good for fifteen miles from Hudi, Colonel Broadwood halted
his force at Abadar, an old fort, and sent one squadron under Captain
Le Gallais seven miles further. At two o'clock this squadron returned,
having met a few of the enemy's scouts, but no formed bodies. While the
force watered by turns at the river Captain Baring's squadron was extended
in a line of outposts about a mile and a quarter to the south-east.
But the reconnoitring squadron had been followed homeward by several
hundred Dervish horsemen. Creeping along through the dense bush by the bank
and evading the vedettes, these suddenly fell on the picket line and
drove in all the outposts. In this affair eight troopers were killed and
seven wounded. Thirteen horses were also lost, as, having rid themselves
of their riders on the broken ground, they galloped off after the Arab
mares on which the Dervishes were mostly mounted.
The news of an attack on Adarama was received on this same afternoon.
It appeared that the Arabs had been repulsed by the Abyssinian irregulars
raised by Colonel Parsons. Glowing details were forthcoming, but I do not
propose to recount the Homeric struggles of the 'friendlies.'
Little in them is worthy of remembrance; much seeks oblivion.
For more than a week the Anglo-Egyptian force remained halted at
Ras-el-Hudi, waiting for privation to demoralise Mahmud's army or to
exasperate him into making an attack. Every morning the cavalry rode out
towards the enemy's camp. All day long they skirmished with or watched
the Baggara horse, and at night they returned wearily to camp. Each morning
the army awoke full of the hopes of battle, waited during the long hours,
and finally retired to sleep in deep disgust and profound peace. And while
the army halted, the camp began to assume a more homely appearance.
The zeriba grew stronger and thicker, the glacis wider, the field kitchens
more elaborate, the pools of the Atbara more dirty. Over all the sun
beat down in merciless persistence, till all white men quivered with weary
suffering when in the open air, and even under the grass huts or improvised
tents the temperature always registered 115 degrees during the hottest hours of
the day. The nights were, however, cool and pleasant.
But although the main part of the force found the days long and tedious,
the time which the army spent at Ras-el-Hudi was by no means uneventful.
The work of the squadrons was hard, and ceased only with the night.
The continual patrolling told severely on men and horses; and the fact
that the Dervishes were far stronger in the mounted arm than the Sirdar's
army necessitated the utmost vigilance of the cavalry commander.
Employment was also found for the gunboats.
