CHAPTER XVIII: ON THE BLUE NILE
The authority of the Khalifa and the strength of his army were
for ever broken on the 2nd of September, and the battle of Omdurman is the
natural climax of this tale of war. To those who fought, and still more to
those who fell, in the subsequent actions the climax came somewhat later.
After the victory the public interest was no longer centred in the Soudan.
The last British battalion had been carried north of Assuan; the last Press
correspondent had hurried back to Cairo or London. But the military
operations were by no means over.
The enemy had been defeated. It remained to reconquer the territory.
The Dervishes of the provincial garrisons still preserved their allegiance
to the Khalifa. Several strong Arab forces kept the field. Distant Kordofan
and even more distant Darfur were as yet quite unaffected by the great
battle at the confluence of the Niles. There were rumours of Europeans
in the Far South.
The unquestioned command of the waterways which the Sirdar enjoyed
enabled the greater part of the Egyptian Soudan to be at once formally
re-occupied. All towns or stations on the main rivers and their tributaries
were at the mercy of the gunboats. It was only necessary to send troops to
occupy them and to hoist the British and Egyptian flags. Two expeditions
were forthwith sent up the White and Blue Niles to establish garrisons,
and as far as possible to subdue the country.
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