The latest telegrams from Kosheh point to an immediate move
on Dongola. The seven gun-boats have now all been got through the Cataracts, and have been armed with Maxims and quick - firing guns, and the steamer, which has been brought in sections by the railway, is rapidly being put together. When she is complete the flotilla will, no doubt, advance, as the Nile has risen sufficiently to make the advance to Dongola by water an easy matter. Meantime the garrison of Suardeh, under Major Macdonald, has advanced and occupied Absarat in anticipation of the general move- ment. Colonel Hunter, who conducted the difficult operation of getting the gun-boats through the Cataracts, is to be con- gratulated on the successful completion of his difficult task. The risks attending the operation are shown by the accident which nearly overtook the steamer Akasheh ' while she was being hauled up the Gemai Cataract. One of the hawsers snapped at a very critical moment, and it was thought she must heel over, but the one thousand five hundred soldiers hauling at the two remaining cables stuck to their work, and with a great effort got her into a place of safety. If an official of one of the Pharaohs, who held the Soudan even above Khartoum, could have stepped out of his rock-tomb and seen the one thousand five hundred men straining at the ropes, he might have remarked how little the world has changed in four thousand years. Then, as now, he would reflect, the best motive-power is plenty of men and good ropes.
