Il8 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

occupy the island, was to send word to the camp at Gubat for steamers to come to the rescue, and at about seven o'clock in the evening Stuart-Wortley, who had manned the small boat with a crew of four English soldiers and eight natives, rowed steadily down till they were close to the battery at Wad Habashi, past which they allowed the boat to float in silence and so close that those on board could hear the enemy, who were on the look-out, discussing whether the dark moving object on the river was a boat or not, a point that was decided when the moon rose, by which time the men on board were rowing again, having passed below the battery, and, unhurt by the volleys fired at them, were quickly out of rancje, thoucfh their comrades on the island did not know this as they stood and watched the flashes of the guns.

The distance to Gubat was forty miles, and the rowers on the boat worked with such a will that the journey was accomplished in about eicfht hours. " No member of our small force as longr as he lives will ever forget this morning," wrote Lieutenant Dawson on the 1st of February. "Just at dawn I was woke by some one outside our hut calling for Boscawen. I jumped up and went out to see who it was, and then made out, to my surprise, Stuart-Wortley, whom we all thought at Khartum. I looked towards the river, expecting in the faint light to see the steamers; then seeing nothing, and observing by his face that there was something wrong, I said, ' Why, good heavens, where are the steamers—what is the news?' He said, 'The very worst.' Then it all came out, and how in the wreck he had left in a small boat and arrived at 3 a.m.

I went at once for Barrow, who had been for some time staff officer to Boscawen, and told him, and he set himself to consider the situation. The first necessity was of course to get Sir Charles Wilson off his island, and also to be ready at any moment for an overwhelmingforce cominsf down from Khartum and cutting; us off. The Mahdi was now free to move his whole force, numbers impossible to estimate, and besides was largely reinforced by guns, many bigger than ours, and 15,000 stand of rifles.

It was decided to start off the convoy that night with every available camel to bring up reinforcements, and that Beresford in