ht back, and the causeway being very narrow,
dashed amongst the advancing troops, causing the greatest confusion, so
much so that the whole party had to retreat and we saw them no more.

It is true that one of the small ironclads had about got the range of
the advancing enemy along the sea-beach, so making their position rather
precarious, but I believe that the real cause of the failure was the
action of the horses.

In the meantime, the light draft Russian gun-boats came down the river,
and began to fire shell and shot at a long range at the small town and
fortifications of Sulina. This was answered by the temporary batteries
alone, the ships being out of range. Desultory fighting went on for
about twenty-four hours, when the Russians, finding the hopelessness of
the enterprise, especially now that the troops had retired, gave it up
as a bad job and steamed up the Danube again. This was the only serious
attack made upon Sulina, which Russia could never have taken and held
till she had destroyed the Turkish fleet. After this I went to Batoum,
which place Dervish Pasha was gallantly holding against Russia. He was
sadly in want of naval help, as the Russians had advanced by the
sea-shore to within six miles of that much-coveted port. On arriving
there I took the command of eight Turkish ships of war, besides
transports that were constantly coming and going between Constantinople
and Batoum with provisions, ammunition, &c., for the army and navy.
Here, again, if the Russians could have disposed of the Turkish fleet
they would have easily taken Batoum. By commanding the sea, even with a
couple of vessels, they would have prevented supplies being sent. It
must be remembered there was no way of supporting the soldiers and
sailors except by sea. My first object was to drive the Russians, by the
fire of the ships, more inland. This was easy enough, as of course the
enemy had no guns with them to compare in range with those on board the
ironclads. Some time after my arrival, however, they brought down two
fifteen centimetre Krupp guns from Ardahan, guns that had a considerably
longer range than our twelve-ton Armstrongs. They gave us some trouble;
however, the position of the attacking camp was changed so as to be out
of range of our guns, a move in every way satisfactory to the Turkish
military commander. This action of our fleet gave great annoyance to the
enemy, and it was determined if possible to make our lying at Batoum a