nine in the morning
Lyttleton 's brigade started , at five o'clock A.M. on the 25th , the gunboats and other steamers moving parallel with them along the river . At five in the afternoon the first brigade followed and , two days afterwards , the camp was entirely evacuated , and the whole of the stores well on their way towards El Hejir . On the previous day , two regiments of Wortley 's column of friendly natives also marched south . The Sirdar and headquarters , after having seen everything off , went up in a gunboat , starting at nine in the morning . As usual , the Soudanese troops had been accompanied by a considerable number of their wives , who were heavily laden with their little household goods , and in many cases babies . They trudged patiently along in the rear of the columns , and formed an encampment of their own , half a mile away from the men 's , generally selecting a piece of ground surrounded by thick bush , into which they could escape , should Dervish raiders come down upon them . The stores arrived in due course .