94 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TOILERS OF THE NILE.

On August the 14th the Nile route was adopted ; on November the 4th it was telegraphed, “ The expedition may now be said to be fairly under way.” During this interval little of any interest touching the relieving force occurred.

On August 28th Lord Wolseley was appointed to command; on the 10th of the following month he arrived at Cairo. There was a very great deal to be done : 800 boats to be built; the preparation and transport of immense quan¬ tities of stores; steamers, nuggars, and Nile craft of all kinds to be collected or repaired; coal to be stored; camels to be purchased; and the million and one other things that are required between Aldershot and the battlefield. There was bustle everwhere, from Pimlico to Cairo, from Cairo to Assiout, and from Assiout on to Wady Haifa. Thousands of packages of stores, arms, ammunition, accoutrements, rations, medical appliances, and what not, were daily being landed and sent on towards the front; steamers were hauled over cataracts ; detachments of troops arrived one after the other ; and altogether it seemed to one at Cairo that England had shaken off her apathy, and with her heart in the work was setting out in real earnest to achieve success. Delays of course occurred. Lord Wolseley was summoned to Eng¬ land before his final departure south; supplies failed to arrive as punctually as expected ; coal ran short at certain stations ; and unforeseen obstacles occasionally thwarted the eager desire for haste. Meanwhile the railways were all but succumbing beneath the unprecedented amount of traffic, and the Nile from Assiout to Dongola was alive with boats, all with their prows turned southwards. Yoyageurs, Kroomen, blue-jackets, heavy dragoons, infantry, and camel corps, officers and privates, not to mention Arabs and Soudanese, Egyptian soldiers, negro bearers and Dongolese pilots, all had their share of work, and toiled beneath blazing sun or chilly moon with an energy worthy of the aim in view. Detachments go off as soon as means of transit can be pre¬ pared for them in steamers, launches, nuggars, whaler-gigs, or on camels and horses.

Life on the nuggars,* though toilsome, was by no means unrelieved bypleasure, excitement, and adventure. It has been graphically described by one who took part in it :— *The nuggar is a rough but strongly built boat, some 40 ft. in length, and in shape to be compared to the half of a walnut shell. It is open in the middle with a few feet of deck fore and aft. One heavy mast, 30 ft. high, rises from the centre.