[Footnote 401:  For details, see Letters from Khartum, by Frank Power.]

[Footnote 402:  Journal, p. 35, etc.]

On September 10 he succeeded in sending away down stream by steamer Colonel Stewart and Messrs. Power and Herbin; but unfortunately they were wrecked and murdered by Arabs near Korti.  The advice and help of that gallant officer would have been of priceless service to the relieving force.  On September 10, when the Journals begin, Gordon was still hopeful of success, though food was scarce.

[Illustration:  MAP OF THE NILE.]

At this time the rescue expedition was mustering at Wady Haifa, a point which the narrowing gorge of the Nile marks out as one of the natural defences of its lower valley.  There the British and Egyptian Governments were collecting a force that soon amounted to 2570 British troops and some Egyptians, who were to be used solely for transport and portage duties.  A striking tribute to the solidarity of the Empire was the presence of 350 Canadians, mostly French, whose skill in working boats up rapids won admiration on all sides.  The difficulties of the Nile route were soon found to be far greater than had been imagined.  Indeed many persons still believe that the Suakim-Berber route would have been far preferable.  The Nile was unfortunately lower than usual, and many rapids, up which small steamers had been hauled when the waters ran deep and full, were impassable even for the whale-boats on which the expedition depended for its progress as far as Korti.  Many a time all the boats had to be hauled up the banks and carried by Canadians or Egyptians to the next clear reaches.  The letters written by Gordon in 1877 in a more favourable season were now found to be misleading, and in part led to the miscalculation of time which was to prove so disastrous.

Another untoward fact was the refusal of the authorities to push on the construction of the railway above Sarras.  It had been completed from Wady Haifa up to that point, and much work had been done on it for about fifteen miles further.  But, either from lack of the necessary funds, or because the line could not be completed in time, the construction was stopped by Lord Wolseley’s orders early in October.  Consequently much time was lost in dragging the boats and their stores up or around the difficult rapids above Semneh[403].

[Footnote 403:  See Gordon’s letters of the year 1877, quoted in the Appendix of A. Macdonald’s Too Late for Gordon and Khartum (1887); also chap. vi. of that book.]

Meanwhile a large quantity of stores had been collected at Dongola and Debbeh; numbers of boats were also there, so that a swift advance of a vanguard thence by the calmer reaches farther up the Nile seemed to offer many chances of success.  It was in accord with Gordon’s advice to act swiftly with small columns; but, for some reason, the plan was not acted on, though Colonel Kitchener, who had collected those stores, recommended it.  Another argument for speedy action was the arrival on November 14, of a letter from Gordon, dated ten days before, in which he stated that he could hold out for forty days, but would find it hard to do so any longer.