A DIFFICULT SITUATION. II 7 Mernat with Ibrahim the interpreter, a small active, goggle-eyed Egyptian, who had beena friend of Arabi and yetremained thoroughly loyal, and used not only his persuasive tongue, but his remarkable power of noticing everything, and being here, there, and everywhere when least expected, to control the savage Soudanese and to check the symptoms of treachery. Trafiford and Gascoigne returned to the islet to get the men ready to move. But the natives and their officers would not move. Even the kourbash was ineffectual. The black fellows were too deeply engaged in lighting fires and cooking all sorts of messes. The disasters of the expedition had demoralized them. Both they and their officers were in the collapse which is characteristic of the natives under adverse conditions, and it was possible that they might not remain loyal.

It was a difficult situation to have to deal with such a strange divided crew and their different commanders, and especially with one like Abd-ul-Hamid, who was evidently contemplating desertion. It must be remembered, too, that there were not only men, but women (female slaves) and children. Sir Charles Wilson recounts how, at the time that the steamer had struck,—one of the black Shilluk soldiers seized a child of four or five years old and flung it into the river; whether under the influence of some savage superstition, intending to appease the river god, or in mere wild insanity could not be discovered, though some of the Sussex men who saw the deed at once pinioned the fellow and kept him prisoner. Several of the female slaves it seems belonged to Abdul-Hamid, who sat and sulked in their company, and to one of whom he seemed so much attached that it was thought he would not be likely to desert her, a conclusion afterwards proved to be quite unfounded, for he contrived to get away with his company of Shagiyehs a day or two afterwards, and left the girl behind apparently without the least remorse. Though he was a good riddance the event added much to the anxiety of our officers, who, even after they had done their best to prepare against an attack on the island, were liable to be overcome by numbers and had no means of escaping.

Of course the first thing to be done, even before moving to