WRECK OF THE STEAMER. THE MAHDl S MESSAGE. I 1 3 in going up, and the captains and reises were promised considerable rewards if they succeeded in getting safely to Abu-Kru. The usual small causes of delay, however, detained the boats, and the conduct of Abd-ul-Hamid and of Khashm-el-Mus, neither of whom could be roused to action, and the first of whom gave some signs of revolt and bad faith, was an additional trouble. On the 29th, at about noon, the reises declared that the cataract which they were then approaching must be passed by each boat separately and with their united aid. This was done without accident, and it was expected that the gorge might be passed before night; but at half-past four the Talahawiyeh, which was ahead, struck on a sunken rock and began to go down. The "accident" seemed to have been caused by a disagreement between the captain and the reis, who gave different directions, and the helmsman, not knowing what to do, kept straight on and struck the sunken rock.

Perhaps not for the first time there was a suspicion of treachery; but there was no immediate proof to justify such a charge; and none of the Soudanese seemed to care whether they were wrecked or not. Wrecked they were, for the steamer filled and went down, though not before Captain Trafford and Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley managed to transfer to the large nuggar the men with the two guns, arms, small ammunition, and rations, and then to overtake the Bordein.

In the evening, when the natives from the Talahawiyeh had bivouacked on the island, and the Sussex men and the officers had sone on board the Bordein, the same man who had come down to the bank at Omdurman, waving a flag of truce, was seen signalling that he wanted to be taken on board. He had come all the way on his white camel, and brought a letter addressed to the British and Shagiyeh officers summoning them to surrender, telling them that Khartum was taken and Gordon killed, promising a safeconduct to anyone who chose to go and see for himself, inviting the English to become Moslems if they wished for peace, and promising protection to Khashm-el-Mus and his men if they would submit to the Mahdi.

Vol. IV. 61