GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 122 treatthem well,Ichargeyou. BeholdIhavekeptallthese for fourmonths;try how you willlike doing so for one month." The Daily News' military correspondent at Korti,to whom we are indebted for this information, states that he derived it from several sources. One of his informants, theEgyptian soldier whosenarrativehas beenfrequently quoted,added that the Mahdi accepted these oldmen and women,"and they are with him to this day."

Judging from a letter which Gordon wrote at this juncture to a military friend in Cairo, his patience was sorelytiredbythenon-arrival ofthe reliefcolumn. "My dear " he wrote, o_iNovember 26,"Thanks for your letter, whichIreceived yesterday. The steamer which broughtit had to run the gauntlet of no end of rifle fire and of six guns. She was struck three times by shells, but onlyseven were wounded. IhopeyouandMrs.

are well. Iam not ill-treatedIconsider, but the Cairo people up here, they are the ill-used. Iwill accept nothing whatever fromGladstone's Government. Iwill not evenlet them paymy expenses. Iwillget the King to paythem. Iwillneverput foot inEngland again,but will (D. V. if Iget out) go to Brussels, and so onto Congo. How is 1 Igreatly fearforStewart,Power, andHerbin,French Consul. With kindest regards, believeme, yours sincerely, with kindest regards to Mrs. ,C. G. Gordon." Lord Wolseley's arrival at Korti on Dec. 16 was followedby that of the South Staffordshire men, who had come by boat from Wady Haifa. Telegraphing at this period to Lord Harrington the Commander-in-Chief said,"The English boatshave up to this point fulfilled allmy expectations. The men are in excellent health, fitfor any trialof strength, as resultof constant manual labour. The work in the boats against current is very hard, but is borne most cheerfully, withouta grumble." On the whole, the result of the Nile trip wascertainly satisfactory, although several casualties had naturally enough occurred. Oneboatcontainingacoupleofnewspapercorrespondentsanda partyof soldierscapsized some seventeen miles from Korti, but fortunately enough, althoughthe baggage waslost,allthe occupants wererescuedby thepinnace of theInflexible. Onthe other hand, two companies of the Cornwall regiment lost nine out of sixteenboats before theyreached Hannek, where the remaining ones suffered so muchdamage thatthey had to bepatchedwithtinto preventthemfromsinking. Many of themen were described at this period as being in a deplorable plight, withouteither boots or trousers;and the correspondent of the Standard newspaper writing from Korti remarked;— " The troops arriving in the boats present anabsolutely ludicrous appearancein their tornandragged garments,the conditionof which testifies to the utterunsuitability of the clothes servedout toour soldiers for a hard campaign. There is literally not a sound garment in the whole column, which resembles Falstaff's ragged regiment rather than abody of British troops. The tartan trews of theBlack Watch have been patched with old sacks, with native cloth from the bazaars, and evenportions of biscuit tins have been sewn onto the trousers to repair the wear and tear made by rowing. What the appearance of the troops willbe by the time the expeditionhas finished its workwe cannot evencontemplate."

CAMEL CORPS IN SQUARE TO RECEIVE ENEMY S ATACK.

Somelittledelayoccurredin the arrivals, as the navigation of the river was daily becoming more difficult, owingto the shifting of the sand. On Dec. 22, however the last companies of the South Staffordshire reached the front, with part of the Sussex regiment, and these