The power of the gunboats and their effect in the Dongola campaign were fully appreciated by the Arabs; and the Khalifa, in the hopes of closing the Sixth Cataract, began to construct several forts at the northern end of the Shabluka gorge.  The Bordein, one of Gordon’s old steamers, plied busily between Omdurman and Wad Hamed, transporting guns and stores; and Ahmed Fedil was sent with a sufficient force to hold the works when they were made.  But the prophecy of the Mahdi exercised a powerful effect on the Khalifa’s mind, and while he neglected no detail he based his hopes on the issue of a great battle on the plains of Kerreri, when the invaders should come to the walls of the city.  With this prospect continually before him he drilled and organised the increasing army at Omdurman with the utmost regularity, and every day the savage soldiery practised their evolutions upon the plain they were presently to strew with their bodies.

But after a while it became apparent that the ‘Turks’ were not advancing.  They tarried on the lands they had won.  The steamers went no further than Merawi.  The iron road stopped at Kerma.  Why had they not followed up their success?  Obviously because they feared the army that awaited them at Omdurman.  At this the Khalifa took fresh courage, and in January 1897 he began to revolve schemes for taking the offensive and expelling the invaders from the Dongola province.  The army drilled and manoeuvred continually on the plains of Kerreri; great numbers of camels were collected at Omdurman; large stores of dried kisru or ‘Soudan biscuit,’ the food of Dervishes on expeditions, were prepared.

The Sirdar did not remain in ignorance of these preparations.  The tireless enterprise of the Intelligence Branch furnished the most complete information; and preparations were made to concentrate the troops in Dongola on any threatened point, should the enemy advance.  Regular reconnaissances were made by the cavalry both into the desert towards Gakdul Wells and along the river.  Towards the end of May it was reported that the Emir Yunes had crossed the Nile and was raiding the villages on the left bank below Abu Hamed.  In consequence the Sirdar ordered a strong patrol under Captain Le Gallais, and consisting of three squadrons of cavalry under Captain Mahon, three companies of the Camel Corps, and 100 men of the IXth Soudanese on camels, with one Maxim gun, to reconnoitre up the Nile through the Shukuk Pass and as far as Salamat.

The outward journey was unbroken by incident; but as the patrol was returning it was attacked by an equal force of Dervishes, and a sharp little skirmish ensued in which one British officer—­Captain Peyton—­ was severely wounded, nine Egyptian troopers were killed, and three others wounded.  This proof that the Dervishes were on the move enforced the greatest vigilance in all the Dongola garrisons.