I 1 6 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

sinking before the guns, ammunition, and stores could be got out of her. The hole in the side of the steamer was too large and too far under water to be stopped, and an hour's hard work with the pumps and a line of men with buckets failed to diminish the depth of water in the hold. The Boideiii was a wreck; and to add to the confusion, the sight of the various articles which were being dragged out of the corners where they had been stored, and especially the belongings of the officers in the cabin, was too much for some of the black fellows in the nuggar, who walked up to the spit close to the stern cabin, and made a rush on board for loot. The servants who were getting the things together were being thrust aside when Sir Charles Wilson ran down to the spit and, pistol in hand, threatened to shoot the next man who tried to board the steamer. Then the nuggar sheered off a little, the men on the Bordein were landed with the guns, ammunition, and as much provision as could be saved.

It is almost necessary to pause for a moment to consider the difficulties of the situation. The sandspit on which everything had to be landed was the end of a little wooded islet about fifty yards from the larger island of Mernat and completely commanded by it, so that it was obviously necessary to occupy both places until the stores and the men could be moved and a seriba formed on the larger island, which is about three quarters of a mile wide and some miles long, covered with long grass and containing trees scattered at various distances. It was first occupied by a picket of the Sussex, and in a small village in the centre were a few women, who, at the approach of the strangers, fled to that side of the island which was only separated from the mainland by about 300 yards of water, easily crossed in a boat which appeared to be kept in readiness for the passage. There was so little protection on the island that Sir Charles Wilson proposed to march down the right bank that same night by moonlight with the Sussex and the Soudanese soldiers; Khashm-el-Mus and a number of his men having already been sent across from the small island in the nuggar to take them out of the way of temptation while the stores were lying in a heap on the sandspit. Wilson remained on