yS EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

round it to the south; but it would have been with the loss of 50 or 60 men, and it must be remembered that the column had already been much reduced, and we had, at all events, established a position on the Nile. The houses and villages which lay between the camp and Metammeh were burned, to prevent their being occupied by the enemy, and in accordance with the opinion of Sir Herbert Stewart the wounded were moved down to the river, where they were placed under canvas.

The four steamers which had come down from Gordon were the Talahawiyeh, commanded by Nashi Pasha; the Bordcin, by Abd-uI-Hamid Bey; Es Safia, by Mahmud Bey; and the Tewfikiyeh, by Khashm-el-Mus Bey. They had been fired at on their voyage, and the Bordein had been hulled by shot. The Tewfikiyek was quite a little steamer, and into this Sir Herbert Stewart was afterwards moved just before Sir Charles Wilson made the start for Khartum. The first thing to be done after the return of the column and the removal of the wounded was to prepare at once for the next step in the enterprise, and Sir Charles Wilson had now in his hands the letters which Gordon had sent down at various times ; two of them being addressed to the officer commanding her Majesty's troops, and dated in October, when he first sent the steamers, expecting the arrival of the column at Metammeh. He had on the 19th of October written in his journal:— " I hope it will be remembered that with respect to white troops (fellaheen) on board the now four steamers at Metemma, I make you a handsome present of them (officers and all), and request that if you use the steamers you will disembark those men and take them on your list, for we never wish to see them (and to have to feed them) up here again. You will be canying out Ihc evacuation policy I ! I If you do not use the steamers, please send them back empty of these fellaheen troops, but send me their rifles. You will soon have a fine contingent? for I have everything ready for a general discharge of Cairo dibj'is (Bashi-Bazouks, &c. &c.) the moment I hear you are really at Berber. I shall not wait to ask your leave, for I have had enough of the debris up here, and you can feed them better than we can; at anyrate they will be off