now THE "TENNY steamers WERE FITTED. lOI had been pi-epared by Colonel Stewart under Gordon's directions.

Rough, and apparently make-shift as they were, they had been admirably adapted for the purpose for which they were to be used.

Sir Charles Wilson gives some further details of them which are very interesting, as they refer particularly to the aspect and arrangements on board, at the time that he embarked with his escort and the native soldiers and Egyptians under the commanders sent by Gordon.

" The two boats were fitted in much the same way: at the bow a small space was left for the cable, and then came a rude turret of baulks of wood fastened together with iron pins, and built up from the deck so as to give a firm platform to fire over the bulwarks. The turret was not round, but splay-shaped, to fit the bows; it was bullet-proof, but not shot or shell proof, and it was open at top. In this turret there was one gun firing right ahead through a port-hole. At the foot of the turret was the cooking place, where all day long the slave-girls were baking dura-cakes for the soldiers and sailors. How they never set the ship on fire was always a mystery to me. Behind this hatchway was the fore-hold and a gangway on each side for landing; then the foremast, to which a bird-cacre was slunsf for a look-out man— a sort of iron bucket; next followed, on each side, small dirty cabins at either end of the paddle-boxes; and between the paddle-boxes the midship turret—a square box built, like the other, of baulks of wood pinned together. The floor of the turret was just high enough to enable the one gun in it to fire well over the top of the paddle-boxes: it had a port on each side, and was reached from the after-part of the ship by a ladder which led to a small square hole, through which it took a moment or two to squeeze one's self From the ports one could get out on to the top of the paddle-boxes. Thus any one going to the turret in action was unpleasantly exposed. Within the turret, shot, shell, and cartridges were lying about in a way that would soon have put an end to a boat not manned by orientals. After the turret came the funnel with many a bullet-hole through it, and the boiler, partly above deck, but protected by logs of wood placed over it. Then came the hatchway