had, in fact, been little better than
slaves; and their condition, as soldiers in the Egyptian Army, was
immeasurably superior to that which they had before occupied.

Broadwood, with nine squadrons of Egyptian cavalry, was already on the
western bank of the river opposite Atbara; and was to be joined at
Metemmeh by the camel corps, and another squadron of horse from Merawi.

On the 3rd of August the six Soudanese battalions left Fort Atbara for
the point of concentration, a few miles below the cataract. To the
sides of each gunboat were attached two of the steel barges; behind
each were two native craft. All were filled as tightly as they could be
crammed with troops. They were packed as in slavers, squatting by the
side of each other as closely as sardines in a box. The seven steamers
and the craft they took with them contained six thousand men, so
crowded that a spectator remarked that planks might have been laid on
their heads, and that you could have walked about on them; while
another testified that he could not have shoved a walking stick between
them anywhere. White men could not have supported it for an hour, but
these blacks and Egyptians had a hundred miles to go, and the steamers
could not make more than a knot an hour against the rapid stream, now
swollen to its fullest.

While they were leaving, the first four companies of the Rifle Brigade
arrived. Every day boats laden with stores went forward, every day
white troops came up. Vast as was the quantity of stores sent off, the
piles at Atbara did not seem to diminish. Ninety days' provisions,
forage, and necessaries for the whole force had been accumulated there,
and as fast as these were taken away they were replaced by others from
Berber.

Like everyone connected with the transport or store department, Gregory
had to work from daybreak till dark. Accustomed to a warm climate,
light in figure, without an ounce of spare flesh, he was able to
support the heat, dust, and fatigue better than most; and, as he
himself said, it was less trying to be at work, even in the blazing
sun, than to lie listless and sweating under the shade of a blanket.
There was no necessity, now, to go down the line to make enquiries as
to the progress of the stores, or of the laden craft on their way up.
the telegraph was established, and the Sirdar, at Atbara, knew the
exact position of every one of the units between Cairo and himself; and
from every station he received messages