CHAPTER V GUNBOATS AND GAALIN O account of the recent campaign could be in any way complete if it did not include some mention of the valuable assistance rendered to the Sirdar and the Anglo-Egyptian forces by the gunboats and the Friendlies. | have thought it better to keep this portion of the narrative distinct from the rest, and to mould the present chapter more or less into the form of a diary.

The Sirdar’s fleet at the end of the campaign consisted of the following gunboats :—Sudtaz, Shetkh, Melk, Fatteh, Nasr, Hafir, Tamat, Metemmeh, and Abu Klea. In addition to these were the old unarmed £/ Zahra and, up to 25th August, the gunboat Zaphir.

The navigation of the Nile was full of difficulty. The river charts were bad or nonexistent, and no vets, or native captain, could