The three brigades now closed upon the village and, clearing it
step by step, advanced to the water's edge. MacDonald's brigade did not
indeed stop until they had crossed the swampy isthmus and occupied
the island. The Arabs, many of whom refused quarter, resisted desperately,
though without much effect, and more than eighty corpses were afterwards
found in one group of buildings. By 7.20 o'clock all firing had ceased;
the entire Dervish camp was in the hands of the Egyptian troops,
and the engagement of Firket was over.
The Sirdar now busied himself with the pursuit, and proceeded with
the mounted troops as far as Mograka, five miles south of Firket.
The whole cavalry force, with the Camel Corps and Horse Artillery,
pressed the retreat vigorously to Suarda. Osman Azrak, however, succeeded
in transporting the women and children and some stores, with a sufficient
escort, to the west bank before the arrival of the troops. On the approach
of the cavalry he retired along the east bank, with a small mounted force,
without fighting. The Emir in charge of the escort on the other side
delayed, and was in consequence shelled at long range by the Horse battery.
The local inhabitants, tired of the ceaseless war which had desolated the
frontier province for so long, welcomed their new masters with an
appearance of enthusiasm. The main pursuit stopped at Suarda, but a week
later two squadrons and sixteen men of the Camel Corps, under Captain
Mahon, were pushed out twenty miles further south, and an Arab store
of grain was captured.
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