122 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

They said that many Shagiyeh had been slaughtered after the fall of the town, and that they had now determined to join the Mahdi.

Constant activity was necessary, for there was plenty to be done; and though the men who had come to the island to see Khashm had only a small boat {a sampan) which held but four persons, and Khashm assured Sir Charles Wilson that there were no larger boats below the cataract, as he, in obedience to Gordon's orders, had destroyed them all, watch had to be kept night and day to guard against attack, and the English officers had to explore the other side of the island to find a place where the men might be taken across to the mainland on the riofht bank. Then there was the small boat to caulk and repair, and oars had to be made from wood taken from the Bordein, for Stuart-Wortley had been obliged to take all except the broken oars with him to get to Gubat. There was a good deal of uneasiness in consequence of Khashmrel-Mus going out from the seriba and the place where he was stationed to speak to the Shagiyeh who came to endeavour to persuade him to return to the Mahdi; but, on the other hand, it was from these people alone that any tidings could be obtained of the real fate of Gordon and the state of affairs at Khartum. At last some men brouofht a messare that the sister of Khashm-el-Mus had come from Halfiyeh and wanted him to go down to the edge of the island to meet her and some other people. He was permitted to go, accompanied by Bakhit and Ibrahim and five of the Soudanese regulars, who were to remain in sight but out of earshot, while a picket of Shagiyeh was placed between them and the seriba. The party on their return to the seriba repeated that a man on the bank had told them that two steamers had left Gubat; and Khashm's sister had confirmed the story of the treachery of Farag Pasha, who gave up Khartum to the Mahdi. She also said that Gordon had been killed while coming out of his room, and that there had been a general massacre of Shagiyeh, Turks, Egyptians, and Europeans; but as there might be some survivors she wanted money to ransom them. Sir Charles Wilson gave Khashm i lo for this purpose in case any of his family or that of Abd-ul-Hamid were still alive; and Khashm, accompanied by Bakhit and Ibrahim, went out again