Gordon's successes. 165 order to get out garrisons, and to put some ephemeral government into position, in order to get away."

At the end of July Gordon had lost 700 men, but he had driven the rebels out of Buri, had captured quantities of rifles and ammunition, and had cleared the Arabs out of thirteen zeribas which they had constructed on the river banks.

On the 24th of August, in letters which he sent to the officer commanding the royal naval force at Massowah, he said : " We have had a series of petty fights with Arabs from the 12th of March to the 30th July, when we were able, thank God, to drive them back and open the road to Sennar, and we are now relieved from the immediate pressure of Arabs. We are going to attack them to-morrow, and meditate a raid on Berber in order to let pass to Dongola a convoy which accompanies Colonel Stewart and English and French consuls. We shall (D. V.) destroy Berber and return to our pirate nest here. . . . WTe are going to hold out here for ever, and are pretty evenly matched with the Mahdi.

He has cavalry and we have steamers. We are very cross with you all, for since the 29th March we have had not one word from outer world. I have paid as much as 140 for a spy, and you gave that poor devil (so he says) 20 dollars to go from Massowah to Khartum. However, I have given him ,£20. One of our steamers has 970 bullet marks on her, another S50 ditto.

We have provisions for five months, and hope to get in more."

This letter was continued by another on the 26th August wherein he said: "We have (thank God!) succeeded in taking Arab camp and killing Arab commander-in-chief (R.I.P.). I do not know our losses yet. This victory clears our vicinity on three parts of circle. . . . There is one bond of union between us and our troops; they know if the town is taken they will be sold as slaves, and we must deny our Lord if we would save our lives. I think we hate the latter more than they hate the former.

D.V. we will defeat them without any help from outside. Spies from Kordofan report advance of Mahdi with twenty-six guns towards Khartum. I have always thought this is probable, and that the question will be solved here; but I trust he will not