The Line Of Retreat Was Strewn With Weapons
And Other Effects, And So Many Babies Were Abandoned By Their Parents
That
an artillery waggon had to be employed to collect and carry them.
Wad Bishara, Osman Azrak, and the Baggara
Horse, however, made good their
flight across the desert to Metemma, and, in spite of terrible sufferings
from thirst, retained sufficient discipline to detach a force to hold
Abu Klea Wells in case the retreat was followed. The Dervish infantry made
their way along the river to Abu Hamed, and were much harassed by the
gunboats until they reached the Fourth Cataract, when the pursuit
was brought to an end.
The Egyptian losses in the capture of Dongola and in the subsequent pursuit
were: British, nil. Native ranks: killed, 1; wounded, 25. Total, 26.
The occupation of Dongola terminated the campaign of 1896.
About 900 prisoners, mostly the Black Jehadia, all the six brass cannon,
large stores of grain, and a great quantity of flags, spears, and swords
fell to the victors, and the whole of the province, said to be the most
fertile in the Soudan, was restored to the Egyptian authority.
The existence of a perpetual clear waterway from the head of the Third
Cataract to Merawi enabled the gunboats at once to steam up the river
for more than 200 miles, and in the course of the following month the
greater part of the army was established in Merawi below the Fourth
Cataract, at Debba, or at Korti, drawing supplies along the railway,
and from Railhead by a boat service on the long reach of open water.
The position of a strong force at Merawi - only 120 miles along the river
bank from Abu Hamed, the northern Dervish post - was, as will be seen,
convenient to the continuance of the campaign whenever the time should
arrive.
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