else may have done so, that he was
betrayed, he sent off Colonel Stewart in a steamer for a pretended
purpose which imposed upon him, his real object being to save his friend
by getting him out of the way when the attack, which he expected from
day to day, came.

"Nothing would have made Colonel Stewart leave Khartoum if he had
suspected this, but he did not, and he set out in the firm conviction
that his going would really be useful. So say those that should know.
What is certain is that he went, and that his steamer struck on a rock
in the Wad Gamr country, for I myself have seen it. I was with the
Sheikh Omar at Berti at the time. Sheikh Omar had a nephew Sulieman Wad
Gamr, a very bitter enemy of the Turk, and of any one who supported the
Turk, but a man with a double face, who promised most and smiled the
sweetest, when he had the dagger concealed in his sleeve.

"Colonel Stewart did not like the look of him when he came to offer his
services, but Hassan Bey, who was with the Englishman, thought that
Sulieman was to be trusted, and so a conference was held, and Sulieman
undertook to find camels to take all the shipwrecked travellers on to
Merawi if he could. Afterwards he came and said that he knew of camels,
but the people who owned them were afraid that they would be taken from
them by force, and if those who came to conclude the bargain had arms in
their hands, there was no chance of any camels being brought forward,
but if those who were to bargain for them were unarmed, it was very
certain that as many as were necessary might be got. And when, seeing
no other way than to trust Sulieman, Colonel Stewart agreed to this, he
was directed to go at a certain hour to the house of one Fakreitman, who
was blind, but to be sure to take no weapons, neither he nor any of the
party. They went to Fakreitman, the blind man's house, accordingly, and
Sulieman met them there with the men that he had instructed to carry out
his secret, and others who were not entrusted. I was in the courtyard
with others serving under the Sheikh Omar, and we wondered where the
camels were, for we saw none in the neighbourhood, and yet the
bargaining was going on. Then suddenly, at a signal from Sulieman Wad
Gamr, the appointed men attacked Colonel Stewart and his companions, and
there was such a scuffle as is possible when there are sharp swords and
daggers on one side and no weapons at all on the other.

"Colonel Stewart and others we