COMMUNICATIONS INTERRUPTED. THE SIMPLE QUESTION. l6l Graham considered that the security of the Berber road would be thereby ensured.

There seemed to be no accurate information, nor could communications be made in time to keep Gordon at Khartum, Graham at Suakim, and Baring at Cairo en rapport. On the 22d of March (18S4) General Graham telegraphed to Lord Hartington, that thirty-five pilgrims from Central Africa, who had been already two years on their journey, arrived at Suakim via Berber, which place they had left fourteen days before, when the road between Berber and Khartum was quiet and people were gathering in their harvests. They had not been molested on the road to Suakim, where they saw camels and sheep, and only a few unarmed men. Graham added that caravans with merchandise had not yet attempted to travel that road, and that on that day a cavalry reconnaissance would be made fourteen miles further, on the Suakim- Berber route.

Two days afterwards (March 24) Sir E. Baring had received a telegram from Mr. Cuzzi at Berber, saying that both banks of the Nile were in the hands of the rebels, and that no boats were coming down the river, so that it had been necessary to forward the letters and telegrams to General Gordon by land, some having been sent the day before, concealed in the dress of Arabs, who would attempt to reach Khartum by a circuitous route. On the 24th Sir E. Baring had not heard from Gordon, and tel< graphed to Earl Granville: — " It appears to me that under the present circumstances he will not be able to carry out your lordship's instructions, although those instructions involve the abandonment of the Sennar garrison on the Blue Nile, and the garrisons of Bahr-Gazelle and Gondokoro on the White Nile.

The question now is how to get General Gordon and Colonel Stewart away from Khartum. In considering this question it should be remembered that they will not willingly come b; without bringing with them the garrison of Khartum ami the government officials." Communication between Khartum and Berber had then been interrupted.

Vol. 111. *7