GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 91 estimate, was at that time invested by 16,000 men, and was still being vigorously defended.

Mr. Power mentions that General Gordon had protected allhis steamers withlayers of sunt woodandiron, rendering them bullet proof, and that,on six armoured barges he had raised turrets twenty feet high,with a double line of fire. The steamers presented a curious sight. Four of them were about the size of large river steamers, and wereof iron. Their sides and the bridge betweenthepaddle-boxes wereboardeduplike a London street bill-hoarding. In place of thin pine boards, however, there were heavy sunt wood timbers, two or three inches thick, as impervious to riflebulletsas steelplates. Inthe forward part of each vessel a raised wooden fort had been built, the inside plated with old boiler iron. Projecting through a port-hole,closed against bulletsby auironplate whennecessary, wasashortbrass rifledgun, 4in. bore, such as arc used in the Egyptian army. On the main deck another gun was also placed. Gordon lavishedhours and days ofhardlabourto getthe material together for making these four steamers into iron or wooden clads so strong that they could safely run the gauntlet of the rebelcannonandrifle fire.

During May and June, these vessels, commanded by Saati Bey, sallied forth almost daily from the beleagueredcityandsucceededincapturinga quantity of cattle. On June 25 Mr. Cuzzi,the formerEnglishconsul atBerber, whowaswiththe rebels, cameto thedefenders' lines,and confirmedthe news of the fall of Berber. Mr. "Cuzzi was thensent on to Kordofan. OnJune 30 Saati Bey, in one of his expeditions, captured forty ardebs of com from the rebels,and killed200 of them. Ten days later the same officer,having burnt Kalakla and three villages,attacked Gatarneb, but wasunfortunately killed with three ofhis officers. On this occasion eight Arabs withspearscharged 200 Egyptians armedwith Remingtons. The soldiers fled at once, leaving Saati and his Vakeel to be killed. A black officer cut down three of the Arabs while the other five chased the Egyptians, ;seven of whom were killed by a horseman, who rode through the flying mass. Colonel Stewart, who was 'unarmed, got off by a fluke, the Arabs not having seen him. " With such men as these," wrote Mr. Power, referring to the Egyptian infantry at Khartoum, " we can do nothing. The negroes are the only men we can depend upon."

one. For eight hours we engaged these forts, and with theKrupp 20-pounder disabled their twocannons. The Arab fire wasterrific,but owing tothe bullet-proofarmour on all the vessels ourloss was only threekilledand twelve or thirteen wounded. Towards theevening we drove the rebels, who were in great numbers, out of the forts." General Gordon, on his side, wrote in a subsequent despatch, (dated August 24):" We have had a scries of petty fights with the Arabs from March 12 to July 30, when we were able, thank God! to drive them back and open road to Senaar."

Referring to the situation, generally, at the end of July, Mr. Power remarked, " Our losses in all, at the very outside, are not 700 killed. We have had a good many wounded, but as arule the wounds are slight. Since the siege General Gordon has caused biscuit and corn to be distributed to the poor, and up to this time there hasbeenno case of anyone seriously wantingfood. Everything has gone up about 3000 per cent, in price, and meat is, whenyou can get it,8s. or 9s. an ober. The classes who cannot accept reliefsuffer most. Allhopeof reliefby our Government is at anend, so whenourprovisions, which we have at a stretch for twomonths, are eaten we must fall, nor is there any chance, with the soldiers we have,and the great crowdof women, children, ■tc, of our beingable to cut our way through theArabs.

We have not steamers for all, and it is only from the steamers we can meet the rebels." GeneralGordon confirmed this last statement when he wrote in his usual characteristic style: " Our steamers are blinded and bullet-proofand do splendid work, for, you see, whenyou have steam on, the men cannot run away and must go into action." On July 31, the General wrote as follows to Sir EvelynBaring:— " " Retreat is impossible, unless weabandon civil employes and their families, which the general feeling of troops is against. Ihave noadvice to give. If we open Senaar and clear Blue Nile, we will be strong enough to retake Berber, that is, if Dongola still holds out.

We want £200,000 sent toKassala;the expenses of these garrisons must be met. Khartoum costs £500 pet* diem. Ifroute gets open to KassalaIshall send Stewart there, with journal, that is, if he will consent to go. You mayrely on this, that if there was any possible way of avoiding this wretched fighting, Iwould adopt it, for the whole war is hateful to me;the people refuse to let me go out on expeditions owing to the bother which would arise if anything happened, soIsit on tenter-hooks of anxiety. If Icould make any onechief, here,Iwould do it, but it is impossible, for all the good men were killed with Hicks. To show you that Arabs fire -well, two "f our steamers which areblinded, received 970 and 860hits in their hulls respectively. Since our defeat on March 16, we have had only 30 killed, 50 or 60 wounded, which is verylittle. Ishould think we have tiredhalf amillion cartridges. The conduct of the people and the troops has been excellent. Iwas thinking of issuing aproclamation liberating the slaves of thoseiu arms, buthavedeferred doing so for fear of complications. Ihavegreat trust that God will bring us out triumphantly, and with no great loss on either side. We have queer stories asto the fall of Berber. The Arabs captured there all Stewart's hussar uniform, and mymedals, &c. &c. Itmay be bad taste to say it, butif we get out of this, give Stewart aK.C.M.G. and spare me at all costs. You will thus saveme the disagreeableness of having to refuse, butIhate those things. If we get out it is in answer to prayer,and not by our might, andit is a true pleasure to have beenhere, though painful enough at times. "Syud Mahomet Osman, of Kassala, ought to be theroute for your despatches, and youought to give him a present, £500, for he saved Kassala. We have made a Khartoum decoration with three degrees— silver gilt, silver, andpewter— withinscription, "Siege ofKhartoum," with a grenadein the centre. School children and women have also received one;consequentlyIam verypopular with the black ladies of Khartoum. We have issued paper notes to the amount of £26,000, andborrowed £50,000 from merchants, which you will have to meet. Ihavesent in addition £8,000 paper notes to Senaar. Of course, we onlv get taxes paid in lead, so you are running up a good billhere. The troops and peopleare full of heart. Icannot say the same forall the Europeans. Iexpectit will end in a terrible famine throughout theland. Spy yesterday stated the " Queen of England" hadarrived atKorosko;perhaps it is a steamer. The only reinforcements the The fighting went on during July, and at the end of the month someimportant engagements took place. In si letterdatedJuly 30 anddispatched via Kassala, which route ofcommunication hadbeenadopted" since allhopes ofmen getting*through to Berberhad ceased," Mr.Power recordedthat" the attack madeby the Soudanese troops under MehcmetAli Pasha on the 2Sth was most successful;the Arab loss beingveryheavy. As GeneralGordon has forbiddenthe soldiers to bringin the heads of rebels theykill, it is now hard to knowthe exact number. We captured that day sixteen shells and cartouches for mountain guns, aquantity of rifle ammunition,seventy-"eight Remingtons,anumber of elephant and other rifles, nearly 200 lances, sixty swords, and some horses. Our loss was four killed and some slightly wounded. This action has cleared away the rebels, who day and night had been firinginto ourlines at Buri,on the Blue Nile. The following day,July 29, a flotilla of five armoured steamers andfour armouredbarges,withcastles onthem, went up to Gareff, on the BlueNile. Iwentwiththem," wroteMr.Power. "On the waywe cleared thirteensmall forts,but at Gareff found two large strong earthworks riveted with trunks ofpalm-trees,and withtwo cannonsin