Osman Digna, the Mahdi's lieutenant on the sea-coast of the
Soudan, has suffered a total defeat. He had given from Tokar so much annoyance to Suakim, that Colonel Rolled Smith resolved to dislodge him. On the 19th inst., accordingly, three battalions of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, all Egyptians and Nubians under English command, moved to Tokar through the bush, and, being too quick for the dervishes, seized some ruins in Tokar, a village in the little oasis of that name. Osman Digna, with four thousand men, attacked them there ; but only two thousand were actually engaged, the rest, with their chief, remaining i reserve. The Arabs charged with their usual splendid courage, and once, it is clear from the telegrams to the Times, completely surrounded the Egyptians, who, however, sustained a hand-to-hand encounter with a stubbornness most creditable to their discipline. After an hour and a half of close fighting, the heavy fire of the Egyptians prevailed, and the Arabs fled, leaving more than a third of their number—seven hundred men—on the plain. The two thousand in reserve, seeing the defeat, dispersed ; and Osman Digna, with only a few mounted followers, fled, intending, it is believed, to reach Kassala. Tokar will be retained, apparently because it can feed a strong dervish force ; but Sir J. Fergusson assured the House of Commons on Monday that the troops would advance no farther. The attack seems to have been unavoidable, and certainly was not desired in England.
