THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 9, 8 December 1883, Page 3

THE SOUDAN EXPEDITION.

The news brouoht by the Suez mail throws a good deal of light upon the disaster to the Egyptian arms m the Soudan. It seems that the A.rab tribes rose m the rear of the forces of Hicks Pa*ha (who, by the way, is an Ameri. can officer) as he marched from Khartoum, aud that commander decided not to stop to clear his communication with his base of supplies, but deter mined to push on, carrying what provisions he could with him, with a view of striking a decisive blow at the false prophet JfiS Obeid, As t-1 Obeid is situated lifnrly 200 miles from the Nile, Hicks Pasha had to march ororlaud away from water, and Mr Dono-. van,' the special correspondent of the Daily News, iv a telegram dated 30th September, describes the march as equivalent to " burning the boats." The army plunged into the unknown, and was cut off from all communications with the outer world. Hicks Pasha was apprehensive of surprise, and had accustomed his troops to from hollow squares on the march, the fieid pieces m front of the faces, and the terrible Nordenfeldt niachiue gun at the angles. We now know that there was a surprise, as Hicks Pasha expected, and that the hollow square was formed, but without avail. The troops were without water, and what they must ba\e suffered before they broke on the third day may be judged by one of Mr O'Donovan's statements :— " The heat is intense; the camels are dying daily." The men h d to endure this heat and the feverish excitement of battle also, so that their sufferings must have been terrible.