The next day the general arrived at Wad Medina, where the Dervish garrison—­1,000 strong—­had already surrendered to the gunboat Sheikh.  These men, who were regular Dervishes, were transported in sailing-boats to Omdurman; and augmented the number of prisoners of war already collected.  On the 29th of September General Hunter reached Rosaires, 400 miles south of Khartoum, and the extreme limit of steam navigation on the Blue Nile.  By the 3rd of October he had established garrisons of the Xth Soudanese in Rosaires, at Karkoj, at Sennar (the old seat of the Government of the province), and at Wad Medina.  Having also arranged for gunboat patrolling, he returned to Omdurman.

But there was one Dervisb force which had no intention of surrendering to the invaders, and whose dispersal was not accomplished until three fierce and critical actions had been fought.  Ahmed Fedil, a zealous and devoted adherent of the Khalifa, had been sent, after the defeat on the Atbara, to collect all the Dervishes who could be spared from the Gedaref and Gallabat provinces, and bring them to join the growing army at Omdurman.  The Emir had faithfully discharged his duty, and he was hurrying to his master’s assistance with a strong and well disciplined force of no fewer than 8,000 men when, while yet sixty miles from the city, he received the news of ‘the stricken field.’  He immediately halted, and sought to hide the disaster from his soldiers by announcing that the Khalifa had been victorious and no longer needed their assistance.  He even explained the appearance of gunboats upon the river by saying that these had run past the batteries at Omdurman and that the others were destroyed.  The truth was not, however, long concealed; for a few days later two emissaries despatched by Slatin arrived at the Dervish camp and announced the destruction of the Omdurman army, the flight of the Khalifa, and the fall of the city.  The messengers were authorised to offer Ahmed terms; but that implacable Dervish flew into a rage, and, having shot one, sent the other, covered with insults and stripes, to tell the ‘Turks’ that he would fight to the bitter end.  He then struck his camp, and marched back along the east bank of the Blue Nile, with the intention of crossing the river near its confluence with the Rahad, and so joining the Khalifa in Kordofan.  His Dervishes, however, did not view this project with satisfaction.  Their families and women had been left with large stores of grain and ammunition in Gedaref, under a strong garrison of 3,000 men.  They urged their commander to return and collect these possessions.  Ahmed at first refused, but when on arriving at the place of passage he found himself confronted with a gunboat, he resolved to make a virtue of necessity and set out leisurely for Gedaref.