The malarial fever,
which is everywhere prevalent on the Blue Nile in the autumn, was now
at its height.
More than 30 per cent of every garrison and every post
were affected. The company holding Rosaires were stricken to a man,
and only the two British officers remained fit for duty. The cavalry force
which had marched through the Ghezira suffered the most severely.
One after another every British officer was stricken down and lay burning
but helpless beneath the palm-leaf shelters or tottered on to the friendly
steamers that bore the worst cases north. Of the 460 men who composed the
force, ten had died and 420 were reported unfit for duty within a month
of their arrival at Karkoj.
During the end of November the Sheikh Bakr, who had deserted the Dervishes
after their retreat from Gedaref, arrived at Karkoj with 350 irregulars.
He claimed to have defeated his former chief many times, and produced a
sack of heads as evidence of his success. His loyalty being thus placed
beyond doubt, he was sent to keep contact with the Dervishes and encouraged
to the greatest efforts by the permission to appropriate whatever
spoils of war he could capture.
Meanwhile Ahmed Fedil was working his way slowly southward along a deep
khor which runs almost parallel to the Blue Nile and is perhaps twenty
miles from it. As soon as the position of the Dervish Emir was definitely
known, Colonel Lewis moved his force, which had been strengthened by
detachments of the Xth Soudanese, from Karkoj to Rosaires. Here he remained
for several days, with but little hope of obstructing the enemy's passage
of the river. On the 20th of December, however, full - though, as was
afterwards found, not very accurate - information was received. It was
reported that on the 18th Ahmed Fedil had reached the village of Dakhila,
about twenty miles south of the Rosaires post; that he himself had
immediately crossed with his advanced guard, and was busily passing the
women and children across the river on rafts.
On the 22nd, therefore, Colonel Lewis hurried the Sheikh Bakr up the west
bank to cut off their flocks and harass the Dervishes who had already
crossed the river. The irregulars accordingly departed; and the next day
news was brought that the Dervish force was almost equally divided by the
Blue Nile, half being on one bank and half on the other. At midday on
the 24th the gunboats Melik and Dal arrived from Omdurman with a detachment
of 200 more men of the Xth Soudanese under Major Fergusson, and thirty men
of the IXth Soudanese under Captain Sir Henry Hill. With this addition the
force at Colonel Lewis's disposal consisted of half the Xth Soudanese,
a small detachment of the IXth Soudanese, two Maxim guns, and a doctor.
Besides the regular troops, there were also the band of irregulars under
the Sheikh Bakr, numbering 380 men, 100 men under the Sheikh of Rosaires,
and a few other unclassified scallywags.
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