Colonel Hicks was a brave man; urged
on by the authorities in Cairo, he shut his eyes to the danger
ahead of him, and marched out from Khartoum in the direction of
El Obeid at the beginning of September, 1883. Abandoning his
communications, he was soon deep in the desolate wastes of
Kordofan. As he advanced, his difficulties increased; the guides
were treacherous, the troops grew exhausted, the supply of water
gave out. He pressed on, and at last, on November 5th, not far
from El Obeid, the harassed, fainting, almost desperate army
plunged into a vast forest of gumtrees and mimosa scrub. There
was a sudden, appalling yell; the Mahdi, with 40,000 of his
finest men, sprang from their ambush. The Egyptians were
surrounded, and immediately overpowered. It was not a defeat,
but an annihilation. Hicks and his European staff were
slaughtered; the whole army was slaughtered; 300 wounded wretches
crept away into the forest.
The consequences of this event were felt in every part of the
Sudan. To the westward, in Darfur, the Governor, Slatin Pasha,
after a prolonged and valiant resistance, was forced to
surrender, and the whole province fell into the hands of the
rebels. Southwards, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Lupton Bey was shut up
in a remote stronghold, while the country was overrun. The
Mahdi's triumphs were beginning to penetrate even into the
tropical regions of Equatoria; the tribes were rising, and Emir
Pasha was preparing to retreat towards the Great Lakes.
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