I06 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

Mustafa, which was to have attacked our camp at Metammeh; but Feki did not relish fighting with those who had made such short work of the onslaughts of Abu-Klea and Gubat, and so had halted about twelve miles from the camp. He was one of the Jalins of Zebehr's tribe, and a relation by marriage to Khashm-el-Mus, and had commanded the Arabs on the Omdurman side. A few shots were fired from the left bank as the steamers went on, till at mid-day wood had to be procured, and the blacks were landed at a deserted village to obtain it, but at once disappeared in search for loot instead of pulling down the houses for the sake of the timber, which had to be chopped and sawn into convenient lengths for the furnace, or split into firewood. The kourbash had to be pretty freely applied by the native officers before these wild fellows could be prevailed upon to leave a camel which they had found and killed, and the carcass of which had been slightly scorched or half cooked, at fires lighted on the ground. Curiously enough, one of them had gone up to Sir Charles Wilson as he was sitting watching them some time before and had inquired whether he wanted a camel, as they had found one. On his replying " No," they of course concluded that they could appropriate it for their own larder, and the object of their landing was entirely neglected.

Even after the kourbash, they bolted off to the steamers with their joints of half-raw camel flesh and then returned to their work.

The steamers went at a slow pace, for they were heavily laden, and the water was so low that it was difficult to avoid the sandbanks, so that night had fallen when they reached a place on the right bank, where they could make fast and land the black fellows to cook and eat their dinners, while the officers all dined together, the two Mohammedans sharing one great dish which was placed upon the floor.

It was an enterprise of forlorn hope, not to the officers, who were sanguine of success, but to their commander. Colonel Wilson, who, even should he be able to make his way to Khartum with those twenty British soldiers with their borrowed scarlet tunics, would reach there long after the time that he had first been expected, and then could take no better message for Gordon than