10 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

The light-house has holes in it visible at two miles’ distance. Powder magazines have been blown up, and where were once trim fortifications, are

now masses of ruins.

But what is it all about ? What is England doing in this part of the world, smashing forts, shelling soldiery, and doing damage that will cost some

millions of dollars to rebuild 1 To answer this I must trouble you, my reader, with a few dry facts. We shall not linger over them. Blit before it is possible to know why England is now in Egypt, why she is warring against the Mahdi, why she has voluntarily spent £3,000,000, been content to lose

some of her bravest generals, and risked the lives of thousands of her soldiers in a foreign country that does not belong to her and probably never

will belong to her, it is necessary to go beneath the surface, and to inquire into a few things not quite so interesting as the destroying of forts.

Note.—Arabi’s own version of the bombardment, as given in his newspaper, El Taif, is very interesting reading :—

“ War news.—On Tuesday, 25 Sbaban, 1299, at 12 o’clock in the morning (July 11, 7 a.m.), the English opened fire on the forts of Alexandria, and we returned the fire. “At three o’clock (10 a.m.) an ironclad foundered off Fort Ada. “ At 5 o’clock (noon) two vessels were sunk between Fort Pharos and Fort Adjemy. “At half-past 6 (1.30 p.m.) a wooden man-of-war of eight guns was sunk. “At 10 o’clock (5 p.m.) the large ironclad was struck by a shell from Burj-ez-Zefr, the battery was injured, and a white flag was immediately hoisted by her as a signal to cease firing at her, whereupon the firing ceased on both sides, after having lasted 10 hours without cessation. Some of the walls of the forts were destroyed, but they were repaired during the night. The shots and shells discharged from the two sides amounted to about 6,000, and this is the first time that so large a number of missiles have been discharged in so short a time.” And so on.