BOUND FOR KHARTUM. THE RED COATS. 97 responsible position with the force, and so he was temporarily, at all events, converted into a naval ofificer, the only one beside Beresford who was to be left at Abu-Kru. Perhaps Beresford would have left him there and persisted in accompanying Sir Charles Wilson, but he was already the worse for his short voyage down the river. He offered to go to Khartum, but it was thought better that he should remain, as there was no telling whether an attack on the camp might make it necessary for the steamers left behind to join in a fight; and he was even now so ill that he had to lie in hospital, and could only give the assistance of practical advice and instruction, which two of his artificers, who were to go with the expedition, helped to carry out. Sir Charles Wilson decided to take only the two largest steamers, the Talahawiych and the Bordcin, which were better protected against the fire that would have to be encountered from the batteries. Khashm-el-Mus was to command the Bordcin and Abu-ul-Hamid the Talahawiych, with crews and soldiers from the Soudanese taken from all the four boats and the two best pilots among them, for passing the cataracts. This work of manning the vessels was superintended by Lieutenants Stuart Wortley and Gascoigne and took several hours, even under pressure of the intimation that in another twelve days the cataracts would not be passable at all. It was hard work to get the two steamers ready and to complete the necessary repairs, especially as a good deal of the work had to be done by natives; but at eight o'clock on the morning of the 24th they started, some difficulty having been experienced in putting the escort into red coats, as Gordon had expressly desired should be done, in order, probably, to impress the people at Khartum and outside it that an English force had really arrived. Red coats had been specially sent out, but they had been lost or looted, and it was found necessary to borrow those of the guards and heavy draeoons, which were sufficient in number and rather too much as regards dimensions when they were donned by the men of the Sussex. Sir Charles Wilson did not feel that he could take more than one officer and twenty men of this corps as an escort, and there were so many wounded at the hospital that he did not think Vol. IV. 60