Show FIRKET IS TAKEN i First Engagement of the Nile Cnni imigrn Gives Great Satisfaction FIRICET Egypt June 7This point was taken by Egyptian troops at an early hour this morning and their manner of acquitting themselves in this the mst engagement of the Nile campaign has given great satisfaction to the British officers in command of them The Egyptian forces left i I Akasheh last evening June 6 The i i movement was a surprise a it seemed to have been determined to hold Akasheh as an outpost until the season sea-son was passed and the period arrived for the advance upon Dongola in the latter part of August or in September The force responded promptly to orders however and was soon underway under-way for this anQ The distance is twenty miles and it took the whole night to accomplish the march THE GREATEST SECRECY has been maintained a to l the arrangements ar-rangements and precautions were taken to prevent the news of the advance ad-vance from leaking out The long night march was pursued in absolute silence in consequence of which the arrival of the Egyptians at the Dervishes Der-vishes camp took the enemy completely com-pletely by surprise They quickly rallied ral-lied however and rushed to their arms Far from being routed il the first skirmish of the attack they stood to their positions and made a stubborn deense of the camp for an hour and a half during which there was hard fighting Tha Dervishes were finally put to rout by a flank movement executed by j e 1 < J I < the cavalry Seeing themselves m danger dan-ger of being surrounded the forces of Khalifa took flight to the southward toward Suarda pursued by the cavalry Suarda is nearly 100 milss south of here but i strongly held by a force of several thousand Dervishes Reports received indicate that the LOSS TO THE DERVISHES will amount to a thousand men Among those killed is the Emir Ham muda who was their commander besides be-sides many important chiefs Ham muda was In command of the largest force at Suarda He was of the tribe of Habbania and was well known to Stalin Pasha while the latter was a captive of the Khalifa in the Soudan Slatin Pasha was a great favorite with the Khalifa who promoted him to the rank of emir because he left his own tribe when the insurrection first broke out to serve the Khalita personals 1 is believed the taking of Firket was decided upon oWingto the double strength nf Akasheh a an outpost surrounded as It is by low hills the taking of which would make Akasheh a death trap The finishing of the railroad road line from Arras has been rapidly pushed since the expadition was decided de-cided upon By extending I to Firket the worst cataract will be turned and early advantage can thus be taken of the rise in the Nile at the end of July for water transport to Dongola The officers in command of the Egyptian force express GREAT GRATIFICATION at the conduct in this mornings fight of the Egyptians about whom Egyptans abut some doubts have been felt and the Soudan ese who have been depended on for good fighting They displayed great steadiness and dash The Egyptian loss in the fight was twenty killed and eighty wounded Hundreds of Dervishes Der-vishes were taken prisoners |