FIGHTING AGAINST DELAY. IO7 that no further relief could reach the place before the second week in March, that the force that was waiting at Gubat had been diminished by hard fighting, wounds, and fatigue, and that, as the few men who had come as an escort must return to camp, all that might be possible was to help in making a sortie as a kind of demonstration that would alarm the Mahdi's forces and (equally important) obtain provisions for the beleaguered and starving garrison.

At daylight the steamers were on their way again, for it was a race not only against time, but against the fast-falling Nile, and already there would be some difficulty in passing the cataracts. Then there were stoppages for wood, a large quantity of which was burned by the steamers, and to obtain which it was necessary to land men to pull down the houses of the deserted villages. The friendly natives, a few of whom were met here and there, reported that the victories of the English had produced a great effecc, and it was known that another English army was coming up the Nile and across the desert, the numbers being, of course, much exaggerated. At Jebel Tanjur, a small isolated hill near the bank, and at Wad Habashi, a strong position where the steamers had before been fired at from a battery, it was found that Feki Mustafa had removed the guns, and all went fairly well, as beyond that place there was a good stretch of water for three or four miles. But the captains wanted to draw up at the head of it, as there the cataract commenced, and they declared they could reach no safe place to haul up at before dark. An hour and a half of daylight remained, which it would be folly to lose, and by dint of violent language and as violent gestures the captain of the Talahawiyeh consented to enter the Shabloka Cataract followed by the Boi'dein.

" Open stretches of water with dangerous rapids in which there are many rocks," writes Sir Charles Wilson. " I could not help thinking of Gordon's 'praying up' the nuggars on the Upper Nile."

The Talahawiyeh went on, and passing the last rapid got 500 yards ahead to Hassan Island, where there was a safe berth for the night; but it was near sundown, and just before coming to the