THE PRESENT SOUDAN EXPEDITION.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1511, 18 February 1885, Page 3

THE PRESENT SOUDAN EXPEDITION.

It would be tedioii3and uninteresting to detail the course of the expedition up the Nile. It started, as we have said, when the river had begun to fall, j •'thereby aggravating every natural difficulty, and rendering the passage of the cateracts impossible to steamers which c>nld have ascended with comparative ease had the proper season been chosen.", Tlie expeditiou has | therefore had literally to drag itself up the Father of Waters — a slow and toilsome process. It numbers in all about 12,000 men, comprising, besides the ordinary British troops, a number of Canadian, lioquoirt, and West African boatmen; and it bas been generously assisted by the Mudri of Dongola, a mler whose loyalty was long suspected, but who has up to the present time proved faithful to his professions. Not more than half of the force, however, is heing pnslind on towards Khartoum, The commutiica tion, about 1000 miles in extent, have to be kept open, and tha base protected. It is calculated that the column which Sir H. Stewart led across the Bayudah desert, chiefly composed of the camel corps, amounted to about 2000 men. The other, which is under the command of Major-gf neral Earle, and which is marching up the Nile by Abahamed and Berber, is probably larger ; though the telegrams have brought us no accurate details as to the respective strength of the two divisions.