AFTER THE BATTLE 241 in wild disorder, but so tightly wedged together that it was impossible to move about when one had finally secured one’s berth in this casual ward! A friend’s boots gently reposed upon my pillow all night, while my own feet were thrust against the ribs of a transverse form below.

When the sun rose next morning we saw that the incompetent vezs had run us right on to a sandy island which ‘is submerged when the Nile is in full flood. The whole of that day was spent in endeavouring to drag the gunboat and the barges off the sandbank.

The Nasr, under the command. of Lieutenant Hon; H. L. A. Hood, happened to come along, and did her best to help us, but the only hawser available snapped like a thread from the strain put upon it, and the Masry departed. The troops were then ordered to get into the -shallows and try to push the barges off. What had been foreseen by several of us happened ! The soldiers managed to shove one of the barges into deep water, and then several of them, unable to check their movements, found themselves out of their depths in the strong current. One poor fellow was drowned _ under 16