THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ^^H m ' '- PI; H ; I UNDER CRESCENT AND STAR BY LIEUT. -COL. ANDKEW HAGGAKD, D.S.O. ' AUTHOR OF 'DODO AND I," TEMPEST -TORN,' ETC. WITH PORTRAIT WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCV DT 107.3 TO ALL MY OLD COMRADES WHO FOUGHT OR DIED IN EGYPT. ANDREW HAGGARD. NAVAL AND MILITARY CLUB, November 1895. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE " Learning Arabic The 1st Reserve Depot Devils in hell "- " " " Too late for the battle We don't want to work The dear old false prophet" The mosquitos' revenge on the musketeers . 1 CHAPTER II. Cairo The domestic ass Security in the city The Khedive on Tommy Atkins Bedaween on the road Parapets and pyramids Alexandria . .14 CHAPTER III. Old Egyptian army worthless How disposed of under Hicks Pasha and Valentine Baker Baker's disappointment Sir Evelyn Wood to command Constitution of the new Egyp- tian army Officers' contracts Coetlogou The Duke of Sutherland Medals and promotions Sugar-candy . 23 CHAPTER IV. Formation of the new army How officered Difficulties of lan- guage and drill The music question We conform to Ma- homedan customs Big dinners The Khedive's reception Lord Dufferin's pleasant ways . .39 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. The Duke of Hamilton and Turner His kindness to the Shrop- shire Regiment The Khedive at Alexandria The officers visit him on accession day Ramadan begins Drilling at night We make cholera camps and cholera hospital Win- gate's good work Turner's pluck and peculiarities The epidemic awful in Cairo Death lists at dinner Devotion of . Army Hospital nurses . .56 CHAPTER VI. Conscription done unjustly Tours of investigation Eastern ladies Their love of intrigue The Special Recruiting Commission Dinner with a Turkish mudir Proceedings at Beni Soueff Pretty fellaheen girls in court Lying witnesses Coptic conscripts The picnic of the indus- trious fleas ....... 73 CHAPTER VII. Lying evidence to escape military service Venality of the sheikhs Diseases of the eye and head among the young men The Pasha furious A woman with four husbands Village girls in the corn-fields Strange ideas of modesty Unexpected descent upon Boush Marattils and kanda- llfts The price of a false certificate Mutilation of fore- fingers Fikis and muezzins Great changes in the Egyptian military service ...... 95 CHAPTER VIII. The Mahmal or Holy Carpet British troops salute it A won- derful pageant A native rising expected News of the destruction of Hicks Pasha's army Weakness of British policy in Egypt . .110 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IX. Sir Samuel Baker's letter He opposes the abandonment of the Soudan Gordon Pasha goes to Khartoum Duncan assists refugees Gordon's motives Movements on the Red Sea G. D. Giles Baker's defeat at El Teb 117 CHAPTER X. The second battle of El Teb . .144 CHAPTER XI. The battle of Tamai . .163 CHAPTER XII. More about Tamai Wounded Arabs shamming death A night scare ... 174 CHAPTER XIII. The road to Berber Dinner with the Admiral He makes me a governor The town of Massowah . .187 CHAPTER XIV. A journey to Senheit An Abyssinian robber at home . .199 CHAPTER XV. The Mission at Keren Amiable sisters Attractive Abyssinians The naughty girl and the nuns Back to Massowah The " " robber's wife To Aden on the Sphinx . 235 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. To Aden A lady dons the sword To Cairo To Suakin again David Gregorie The town attacked A gruesome break- fast My brother officers Pigott and the cavalry Captain Lloyd and his big gun ..... 249 CHAPTER XVII. The Albacore's search-light A good deal about mines A disas- trous flood . 266 CHAPTER XVIII. Gregorie's little ways Land-torpedoes Poor Askwith's fate Excellent results of mortar fire 280 CHAPTER XIX. A reconnaissance Arrival of the Italian war-ships Their sub- sequent occupation of Massowah .... 303 CHAPTER XX. The cavalry entrapped Gregorie's bravery Khartoum fallen Commencement of a new campaign My brother's arrival Back to Cairo . 315 CHAPTER XXI. The Effcndi miz salute Visit to the Khedive Fight at Hasheen Battle of Tofrek Leave to England Back to Egypt and up the Nile on service The Khedive says good-bye . 323 CHAPTER XXII. The stars fall down Dendera Browning and Blodgett Ruins of Karuac and Esneh Above the cataract Wady Haifa . 335 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XXIII. Christmas Day Akasheh The desert railway Across the desert by day and night Sarkametto Firket Mograkkeli 356 CHAPTER XXIV. Kosheh Giuness Moving into action The battle Hares in action The 2d Brigade take the village Egyptians with the 1st Brigade to the front Fighting among the houses Up comes Quirk, just when he wasn't wanted ! . 365 CHAPTER XXV. No advance on Dongola Gregorie stalks geese Baker Pasha visits us Mograkkeli abandoned Recouquest of Soudan, aided by Italy, desirable ..... 389 CHAPTER XXVI. Wady Haifa the frontier Farewell to the 1st Battalion Part- ing with the Khedive His story of the Turkish lady , 400 UNDER CRESCENT AND STAR, CHAPTEE I. LEARNING ARABIC THE 1ST RESERVE DEPOT "DEVILS IN HELL" TOO LATE FOR THE BATTLE " WE DON'T WANT TO WORK 1 ' "THE DEAR OLD FALSE PROPHET" THE MOSQUITOS' KE- VENGE ON THE MUSKETEERS. ALTHOUGH I was always one of those unfortunate people who found it easier to begin learning a lan- guage than to acquire it, I shall never regret the noble impulse which induced me, when quite a lad with my regiment" at Aden, to commence the study of Arabic. I was serving with the 2cl battalion of the old 25th Eegiment, the King's Own Borderers, and the days were hot and the time was long. I had already studied Persian and Hindustani until I was sick of them, and therefore, although my brother-subalterns laughed at me for taking the trouble to learn a lan- A 2 UNDER CRESCENT AND STAR. guage which they said would never be of any use to me, I fell tooth and nail upon Arabic the pure- Arabic of the Hedjaz or Holy Land of Arabia. I studied it grammatically, learning the verbs with all their inflections and I used to out ; purposely go day after day with the Arab fishermen to practi- cally learn the proper pronunciation of the gutturals, which are to many a stumbling-block almost impos- sible to surmount. After all, I did not learn the language at all well, for I never had the time before the regiment sailed for England in March 1876, and I thought that I had entirely forgotten it when I went out to the Egyptian campaign of 1882. But there I was fortu- nately mistaken. My Hedjaz Arabic came back to me after a few days in Ismailia, but I soon found that it was too pure for the Egyptians, who could not understand a word of it. I found, however, that it was comparatively easy for me to pick up the bastard Arabic spoken on the west of the Eed Sea, and to that fortunate fact I owe the Egyptian ex- periences which have formed the most interesting features of my life. My first experiences of Egypt in 1882 were by no means exhilarating. I had been appointed adjutant of a body of men drawn from the Army Reserves and called the 1st Reserve Depot. It was commanded by a full colonel and officered in every way as a regiment, but with officers who were volunteers from various corps. The men did not know the officers, and the HUSH EESEKVE-MEN. 3 officers did not know each other. The 1st Eeserve Depot was, in fact, a heterogeneous mass which would have required a certain amount of time to weld into an efficient fighting machine as one integral battalion with one interest and one aim. The original idea had been to send this fine body of men, numbering some 900 or 1000 strong, to Cyprus : but this was in two we changed ; and, sailing vessels, made for Egypt direct. The headquarters of the bat- talion, with which of course I was present as adjutant, for Ismailia the on arrival at made straight ; remainder, Malta, received orders to go to Alexandria, and there they remained we never saw them at all. They had a colonel in command, and formed to all appearance a separate battalion at that seaport until broken up and drafted to different regiments. The Eeserve-men in the ship with the headquarters were composed half of Irishmen and half of English- men. The former were, although they had originally served in various other Irish corps, all called out to join the colours of the 18th Koyal Irish Regiment and of the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers : the latter were wearing the uniform of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry that is to say, the old 32d and 46th Regi- ments amalgamated. From their behaviour on board ship, and again on shore after we reached Ismailia, I can honestly say that of all the unruly and insubordinate scoundrels it has ever been my lot to meet wearing the British uniform, those Irish Reserve-men were the worst. I could easily 4 UNDER CRESCENT AND STAR. understand the feelings of the wretched captain of the 87th who had experienced the delights of bringing these gallant soldiers from Clonmel and Armagh respectively, when he said that they were not men that he was in command of, but that they were either wild beasts or devils from hell. From the relation of what he had gone through during his few days with them before he had got them to Portsmouth, it is really a wonder that his hair had not turned perfectly white.