GENERAL STEWART'S ADVANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 58, 10 February 1885, Page 2

GENERAL STEWART'S ADVANCE.

THE PERILS OF A DESERT * MARCH.- ;-•><*

BRAVEBY OF THE IIEN.

(Per San Francisco -Mail.) JK> , London, J^n, 10. The Standard's correspondence sends the following from Howdnjafct : — " We are experiencing the difficulty of a desert march. The immense column started at £ a.m., and the march continued the whole day. We are going to Gakdul, via Abukalfa Wells^ where we hope to get, .sufficient water for men and camels. A small party left at Hpw, enjatt was fifed into one night, but otherwise we have not been molested. Small parties of Arabs . wearing the MahdiV colours are roaming the desert, yet some sell us sheep, and assert there are only a few. rebels at Metemneh. The heat is very trying.- The camels go sixty hourg without water, and' the men are allowed only two pints daily. The water resembles pea-soup m thickness! ' The' soldiers freely offer & crown for a tumbler full, if the Arabs had been m active hostility, i they would have rendered the desert i roiitft inrtnnagihlp anr\ it gnnlJ I»<»itj»

been necessary for us to carry every ounce of food and water for both men and animals. A'>Bespatch from Gakdiil,- receiv-< ed London, January 16th, says: — Thirty camel&df dipped; dead, on the inarch from Rowenjatt. Tlie troops , suffered. '6eYer,ely. . A majority of the' water-skins baked, aiid the men y iejding.,,t<j l their 'tlilrst, exhausted their rations ', of .water prematurely; Very fewi". however, fell Tout of line, ans tHe^condition of the soldiers under"die. circumstances was splendu!. AlJ^pr^ thq^r hardships bravely, as is evidence^; by' ; their singing as cheerily as their parched " throats wQDId permit, They, are keenly an^ufijMk fight.;, , ;! .- „ , ;