WARS OF THE NINETIES. 182 brought down to the bank with every expression of delight, the women being particularly demonstrative,especiallywhen theband waslanded andplayed some well-knownSoudanese air.

tingencies, and how absolutely determined it was to resist the attempt of the French or the Abyssinians to seize territory on the Upper Nile. In pursuance of this policy General Hunter was sent up theBlue Nile in command of a smallexpedition. The story of the voyage up to the Cataracts beyond Rosaires on the Abyssinian bordermay be best told by quoting the narrative of one of the British officers,publishedby theDaily Graphic.

" On arriving at Senaar thebarge which thus far the gunboat had been able to tow was detached, and the Tamaiproceeded with ten men of the Irish Fusiliers and ten of the Soudanese— infact, all that there was room for on the gunboat— the remainder being left behind at Senaar in charge of Bimbashi McBean. Rosaires was weathered without incident on the 30th, and with a salute of twenty-oneguns from the gunboat the standards were hoisted. The same ceremonywascarried out at Senaar onthe journeyback, and onOctober 2nd the expedition returned to Omdurman, having done the whole distance— 425.miles— from Rosaires to Omdurman in fifty hours,including stoppages.''

"On September 10th," he writes," seventeen days after the fall of Omdurman, the gunboat Tamai, flying both British and Egyptian flags, Lieutenant Talbot, R.N., in command, left Khartoum, having on board twenty non-commissioned officers and men of the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers, with two Maxim guns, Captain D. Churcher in command, and 220 men, including the regimental band, of the 10th Soudanese battalion,Bimbashi McBean in command. The whole of this little expedition was under the supreme command of Major-General Hunter, Egyptian Army, with Major Kincaid, R.E., as Assistant-Adjutant-General,and Bimbashi Smyth,Egyptian Army, as orderly officer.

The only daily excitement,beyond the occasional sight of a hippopotamus or a crocodile, was The expedition was remarkable, because it had carried the Britishflag into aregion where it had never yet been seen. It had the satisfactory result of proving that up to the frontier, which we werewilling to concede to Menelek in this direction, the country was clear both of Dervish bands and of Abyssinian raiders. The White Nile expedition,conducted by theSirdar in person, had more exciting experiences and morefar-reaching results. when thegunboat halted at oneof thenumerous villages to get wood, which the inhabitants NILE STEAMER TOWING CAMEL BARGES,