GENERAL GRAIIAM's LETTER. 6 J his youth and good constitution enabled him quickly to recover from it and to go to Korti as a special correspondent that he might join the desert column, which at the moment of his death—its commander seriously wounded, its men falling under the fire of the enemy then closing round it—was again forming in square, a small, but fearless, body of grimly earnest men, determined to fight their way to the Nile or die in the attempt.

In England it was considered probable that General Stewart's plan would be, if he found the Arabs in force in an intrenched position at Metammeh, to abstain from attacking them, and to form a fortified camp on the banks of the Nile a short distance lower down the river, a position which he would probably be able to hold against the attacks of any number of the enemy. General Graham, who had returned from Suakim to London, wrote a letter to the Standard, dated the 26th of January, in which he said : " At a time when all minds are anxiously straining for any intelligence from the gallant little band under General Stewart, the following suggestion may, in default of any certainty, tend somewhat to alleviate our fears. Should General Stewart on approaching Metammeh have found the rebels strongly intrenched, he may have wisely declined attacking, but leaving them on his left, have struck the Nile, and then followed the left bank, with the intention of making EI Hadju, above the Sixth Cataract, where he would have the best chance of meeting with Gordon's steamers, as the river will probably no longer permit of their going below that point. By following the river Stewart would have his left flank protected, and would no longer have to carry a water supply.

El Hadju is about fifty miles above Metammeh, and Stewart may have reflected, that besides being the boldest this would be the most prudent course, as his position at El Hadju, in co-operation Avith Gordon's steamers, would be in every respect vastly stronger than if beseiged in an intrenched position below Metammeh. He would, by holding El Hadju, also turn one of the most formidable passes of the Nile whence the rebels can most seriously threaten the navigation.