g the Black Watch. Lieutenant Montresor, R.N.,
Lieutenant Almach, R.N., and Lieutenant Houston, R.N., with seven of
their men, were killed at their guns. The enemy's force was estimated
at 15,000 and their loss at over 5000.

THE EXPEDITION TO KHARTOUM--1884 AND 1885.

The fighting around Suakin in 1884, though successful as to its
immediate result, namely, the defeat of local levies of the Mahdi, had
no beneficial effect upon the position of Gordon in Khartoum; rather, it
would appear, the contrary. The defeat and terrible slaughter of the
Arabs at El-Teb and Tamai seem to have been taken as an earnest of the
intention of the British to reconquer the Soudan, and so to have decided
many hitherto friendly, or at least neutral, Sheikhs to throw in their
lot with the Mahdi. Whether this view is correct or not, the fact
remains that up to March Khartoum was open, and by the end of the
operations it was besieged. Our purpose being rather to relate
achievements of "Our Soldiers" than a history of the events which
preceded them, we will not attempt to state the cause which led to the
seclusion of Khartoum and the isolation of the heroic Gordon and his
companions, Colonel Stewart and Consul Power, nor the causes which
rendered the splendid engagements at Suakin fruitless, and led to the
fall of Berber. It is enough to say that at length the people of Great
Britain could bear the spectacle no longer, and the force of public
opinion compelled the Government to take steps in the summer of 1884 to
achieve, if it were not too late, the relief of Khartoum. What was a
possible task a few months before had now become an exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, one, and it was thought that, under the
circumstances, the route which was the most feasible would be by the
Nile.

In the early part of October news arrived that Colonel Stewart and Mr
Power, the special correspondent of the _Times_, who had also acted as
Vice-Consul at Khartoum, had been murdered on their way to Dongola.
They were proceeding down the Nile in one of Gordon's steamers in order
to open communications with the British expedition under Lord Wolseley,
which was then advancing up the river, and with them were some
forty-five other people, including the French Consul at Khartoum. The
steamer struck on a rock, and the whole party had to disembark. They
were hospitably received by the Sheikh, who promised no harm should
happen to them if they came unarmed.