50 TEE SOUDAN. liad passed some depot or a forest where the fuel was usually procured from. Even as it was, in the small skirmishes which occurred in this expedition, he complained of the way the Egyptian soldiers fired in the air; how absolutely callous they were as regards sentries and outposts, the highest officers objecting, as they said the poor men would thus be placed in dangerous positions! A few extracts from General Hicks’s letters and his chief of the staff, Colonel Farquhar’s, correspondence, will give a good idea of the troubles they had to contend with. The first of them, dated the 6th of May, reports his action at Marabia, and is as follows :— “ Cairo, May 6. “ To his Excellency the Minister of War, “ Excellency, “ You will have received, through the telegrams from me, which I requested might be com municated to you, and from those of his Excellency Aladdin Pasha, Governor-General of the Soudan, the intelligence of our victory over the rebels near Marabia. On account of the great difficulty in obtaining any information, I preceded the main body of the army on its leaving Kawa, and with a small force proceeded up the river to reconnoitre and to take possession of the ford at Abuzed. On arrival at the ford, 1 found it in possession of a small body of Arabs, which I had no difficulty in dislodging. On the 23rd of April I remained there, placing the boats which 1 had brought up with me, containing Bashi-Bazouks under
