[Footnote 409:  For the Sudan in this period see Wingate’s Mahdism; Slatin’s Fire and Sword in the Sudan; C. Neufeld’s A Prisoner of the Khalifa.]

With the hour had come the man.  During the dreary years of the “mark time” policy Colonel Kitchener had gained renown as a determined fighter and able organiser.  For some time he acted as governor of Suakim, and showed his powers of command by gaining over some of the neighbouring tribes and planning an attack on Osman Digna which came very near to success.  Under him and many other British officers the Egyptians and Sudanese gradually learnt confidence, and broke the spell of invincibility that so long had rested with the Dervish hordes.  On all sides the power of the Khalifa was manifestly waning.  The powerful Hadendowa tribe, near Suakim, which had given so much trouble in 1883-84, became neutral.  On the Nile also the Dervishes lost ground.  The Anglo-Egyptian troops wrested from them the post of Sarras, some thirty miles south of Wady Halfa; and the efforts of the fanatics to capture the wells along desert routes far to the east of the river were bloodily repulsed.  As long as Sarras, Wady Halfa, and those wells were firmly held, Egypt was safe.

At Gedaref, not very far from Omdurman, the Khalifa sustained a severe check from the Italians (December 1893), who thereupon occupied the town of Kassala.  It was not to be for any length of time.  In all their enterprises against the warlike Abyssinians they completely failed; and, after sustaining the disastrous defeat of Adowa (March 1, 1896), the whole nation despaired of reaping any benefit from the Hinterland of their colony around Massowah.  The new Cabinet at Rome resolved to withdraw from the districts around Kassala.  On this news being communicated to the British Ministers, they sent a request to Rome that the evacuation of Kassala might be delayed until Anglo-Egyptian troops could be despatched to occupy that important station.  In this way the intended withdrawal of the Italians served to strengthen the resolve of the British Government to help the Khedive in effecting the recovery of the Sudan[410].

[Footnote 410:  See articles by Dr. E.J.  Dillon and by Jules Simon in the Contemporary Review for April and May 1896.  Kassala was handed over to an Egyptian force under Colonel Parsons in December 1897. The Egyptian Sudan, by H.S.L.  Alford and W.D.  Sword (1898).]

Preparations for the advance southwards went forward slowly and methodically through the summer and autumn of 1896.  For the present the operations were limited to the recapture of Dongola.  Sir Herbert Kitchener, then the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was placed in command.  Under him were men who had proved their worth in years of desultory fighting against the Khalifa—­Broadwood, Hunter, Lewis, Macdonald, Maxwell, and many others.  The training had been so long and severe as to weed out all weaklings;