GUNBOATS AND GAALIN 219 inhabitants — men, women, and_ children, dragging after them camels, horses, and donkeys laden with goods and chattels—all this confused stream of human beings and animals was pressing madly forward in panicstricken flight. Orders were given to fire upon the fugitives, and as the artillerymen on the gunboats, from their raised position, could see well over the walls, a deadly fire was opened upon the crowded thoroughfares, One street especially, which led down to the river, was swept by a frightful hail of Maxim bullets, which mowed the poor wretches down in scores.

After taking part in the battle and the subsequent destruction of fugitives, the gunboats proceeded, on the night of the 2nd, about one hundred miles farther up the river, and returned to Omdurman on 5th September with the report that they had seen no more Dervishes.

During the fighting off Omdurman on the Ist, two of the Khalifa’ss gunboats were destroyed. There was a pathetic interest attached to old vessels like the Bordezn and Ismailia, as they had formed a part of Gordon's