CONCENTRATION AT HAMDAB. 1 37 sent with a letter from Lord Wolseley to Gordon. It was he who brought back the letter of three words, " Khartum all right," and it was he who delivered the verbal message for the relieving troops to go quickly, by the right bank and to take Berber without dividing the force. This messenger had to be sent on to Korti in the same picket boat which carried the vakeel, and the naval officer in charge had no little difficulty in keeping them apart, in obedience to his orders.

On New Year's Day the Staffords finished the work of transferring to the left bank supplies from the government store on the right bank, and General Brackenbury, Major Slade, and Captain Beaumont rode forward for about eight miles to Belal at the foot of the so-called Gerendid Cataract, a name not known to the natives, and chose that spot for a bivouac. At night they ate their New Year's dinner outside Colonel Colville's hut, and fared well on eggs, chickens, a plum-pudding, a melon, a bottle of champagne, and a little whisky, the pleasure of the feast being enhanced by the arrival of the mail from England bringing home news and Christmas cards. It was late when the officers of the river column lay down to sleep on the soft yellow sand, and on the following morning they were up early, for the advance was made to Belal, where the Staffords in their boats, covered by the Hussars on the bank, arrived in the afternoon, and found a good supply of dates, milk, and bread brought for sale by the natives, the Kasheef Mohammed Wad Kenaish providing wheaten cakes, honey, melons, and milk, a good deal of which was the sour milk preferred by the Arabs.

Before leaving Abu-Dom there had been symptoms of hostile neighbours, for the telegraphic line to Korti had been cut about eio-ht miles from the camp, and the engineers and Hussars who went out to discover what had caused the communication to be broken, saw traces of camels on the way to the desert; and now Major Slade, who went out with an escort from Belal to Hamdab to choose the ground for the camp where the troops of the column were to be concentrated and the expedition finally organized, heard that there was a force of 600 rebels at Birti, commanded by