The River War

The River War

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The River War, by Winston S. Churchill (#1 in our series by Sir Winston S. Churchill)
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: The River War
Author: Winston S. Churchill
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4943] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 2, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE RIVER WAR ***

This etext was produced by Ronald J. Goodden

THE RIVER WAR
An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan
(1902 edition)

By Winston S. Churchill

CONTENTS:


Chapter I.
The Rebellion of the Mahdi II. The Fate of the Envoy III. The Dervish Empire IV. The Years of Preparation V. The Beginning of War VI. Firket VII. The Recovery of the Dongola Province VIII. The Desert Railway IX. Abu Hamed X. Berber XI. Reconnaissance XII. The Battle of the Atbara XIII. The Grand Advance XIV. The Operations of the First of September XV. The Battle of Omdurman XVI. The Fall of the City XVII. 'The Fashoda Incident' XVIII On the Blue Nile XIX. The End of the Khalifa APPENDIX

________________________________________________________________________
THE SOUDAN >>> to illustrate the military operations <<< 1896-1898

|* Wady Halfa / (The Nile) / _/ | \_ / | __* Abu Hamed | _/ \ Dongola *\ _/ \ Suakin * \ Merawi / \ \ */ \ \_ _ / \ Berber \* /\__ (The Atbara River) _/ \_ Metemma */ \ / | Omdurman */ Khartoum /*\_ | \_ | \_ (The Blue Nile) \ \ KORDOFAN \ |
(The White Nile)
________________________________________________________________________


CHAPTER I
: THE REBELLION OF THE MAHDI

The north-eastern quarter of the continent of Africa is drained and watered by the Nile. Among and about the headstreams and tributaries of this mighty river lie the wide and fertile provinces of the Egyptian Soudan. Situated in the very centre of the land, these remote regions are on every side divided from the seas by five hundred miles of mountain, swamp, or desert. The great river is their only means of growth, their only channel of progress. It is by the Nile alone that their commerce can reach the outer markets, or European civilisation can penetrate the inner darkness. The Soudan is joined to Egypt by the Nile, as a diver is connected with the surface by his air-pipe. Without it there is only suffocation. Aut Nilus, aut nihil!
The town of Khartoum, at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, is the point on which the trade of the south must inevitably converge. It is the great spout through which the merchandise collected from a wide area streams northwards to the Mediterranean shore. It marks the extreme northern limit of the fertile Soudan. Between Khartoum and Assuan the river flows for twelve hundred miles through deserts of surpassing desolation. At last the wilderness recedes and the living world broadens out again into Egypt and the Delta. It is with events that have occurred in the intervening waste that these pages are concerned.
The real Soudan, known to the statesman and the explorer, lies far to the south--moist, undulating, and exuberant. But there is another Soudan, which some mistake for the true, whose solitudes oppress the Nile from the Egyptian frontier to Omdurman. This is the Soudan of the soldier. Destitute of wealth or future, it is rich in history. The names of its squalid villages are familiar to distant and enlightened peoples. The barrenness of its scenery has been drawn by skilful pen and pencil. Its ample deserts have tasted the blood of brave men. Its hot, black rocks have witnessed famous tragedies. It is the scene of the war.
This great tract, which may conveniently be called 'The Military Soudan,' stretches with apparent indefiniteness over the face of the continent. Level plains of smooth sand--a little rosier than buff, a little paler than salmon--are interrupted only by occasional peaks of rock--black, stark, and shapeless. Rainless storms dance tirelessly over the hot, crisp surface of the ground. The fine sand, driven by the wind, gathers