302 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

looking fit on leaving Dongola, I had no idea he would be so altered so weak he couldn't sit up, so thin you could almost see through him, and his complexion a ghastly dark blue. His grave had already been dug for him ; but he happened to hear of this interesting fact and vowed he wouldn't fill it, and he 'didn't. He gradually mended, and is at this moment in one of the crack native Indian Cavalry Regiments.

Eventually we got off in our dahabiehs, being tugged down stream by a steamer ; but we didn't get far. Two hours after starting the big dahabieh stuck on a sand-bar, and no efforts on our part could get her off again. So there we lay all night, and next morning sent our steamer back for a dahabieh which would draw less water. As our boat drew seven feet, and most of the sand-banks were only four feet below water, it is not surprising that we stuck. It was tiresome being stopped like this, for the 75th Gordon Highlanders were close behind, and, as there were very few steamers to take all the troops down, it was a case of first come first served.

For the next fortnight we bumped down-stream,