The re-occupation of Dongola was then practically
complete, and the British Government were earnestly considering the
desirability of a further advance. In the beginning of 1897 a British
expedition, under Colonel Macdonald, and comprising a dozen carefully
selected officers, set out from England to Uganda, landed at Mombassa,
and struck inland. The misfortunes which fell upon this enterprise are
beyond the scope of this account, and I shall not dwell upon the local
jealousies and disputes which marred it. It is sufficient to observe that
Colonel Macdonald was provided with Soudanese troops who were practically
in a state of mutiny and actually mutinied two days after he assumed
command. The officers were compelled to fight for their lives.
Several were killed. A year was consumed in suppressing the mutiny and the
revolt which arose out of it. If the object of the expedition was to reach
the Upper Nile, it was soon obviously unattainable, and the Government were
glad to employ the officers in making geographical surveys.
At the beginning of 1898 it was clear to those who, with the fullest
information, directed the foreign policy of Great Britain that no results
affecting the situation in the Soudan could be expected from the Macdonald
Expedition. The advance to Khartoum and the reconquest of the lost
provinces had been irrevocably undertaken. An Anglo-Egyptian force was
already concentrating at Berber. Lastly, the Marchand Mission was known
to be moving towards the Upper Nile, and it was a probable contingency
that it would arrive at its destination within a few months. It was
therefore evident that the line of advance of the powerful army moving
south from the Mediterranean and of the tiny expedition moving east from
the Atlantic must intersect before the end of the year, and that
intersection would involve a collision between the Powers of Great Britain
and France.
I do not pretend to any special information not hitherto given to
the public in this further matter, but the reader may consider for himself
whether the conciliatory policy which Lord Salisbury pursued towards Russia
in China at this time - a policy which excited hostile criticism in England
- was designed to influence the impending conflict on the Upper Nile and
make it certain, or at least likely, that when Great Britain and France
should be placed in direct opposition, France should find herself alone.
With these introductory reflections we may return to the theatre of
the war.
On the 7th of September, five days after the battle and capture
of Omdurman, the Tewfikia, a small Dervish steamer - one of those formerly
used by General Gordon - came drifting and paddling down the river.
Her Arab crew soon perceived by the Egyptian flags which were hoisted on
the principal buildings, and by the battered condition of the Mahdi's Tomb,
that all was not well in the city; and then, drifting a little further,
they found themselves surrounded by the white gunboats of the 'Turks,'
and so incontinently surrendered.
