254 Seven Years in the Soudan.

soldiers, and a half-battery of cannon. On the 19th January T received from Rumbek twenty thousand cartridges for the Remington rifles, and five thousand for the common guns. On the 21st and 26th we Avere again bombarded.

On the 27th I was advised that troops were coming to our aid ; but later on we found that they were not for us, but for Suleiman.

After the defeat of the 14th January there was great consternation in the enemy's camp, and Suleiman sent letters to Shakka and Darfour to his ex-chiefs, who had accepted service under the Grovernment, telling them that if they allowed him to be beaten, they themselves would all fall, and promising them everything if they would only join him.

The effect of these letters was that a revolt took place in Sliakka. All the chiefs who had sworn fidelity to the Government came to join the rebels. The very Governor of Shakka was suspected, and taken in chains to Khartoum. His brother had joined Suleiman, who was now able to fill up his losses with more than one thousand six hundred men.