hawsers held, a great rush of water poured over the bulwarks.  In ten seconds the Teb heeled over and turned bottom upwards.  The hawsers parted under this new strain, and she was swept down stream with only her keel showing.  Lieutenant Beatty and most of the crew were thrown, or glad to jump, into the foaming water of the cataract, and, being carried down the river, were picked up below the rapids by the Tamai, which was luckily under steam.  Their escape was extraordinary, for of the score who were flung into the water only one Egyptian was drowned.  Two other men were, however, missing, and their fate seemed certain.  The capsized steamer, swirled along by the current, was jammed about a mile below the cataract between two rocks, where she became a total wreck.  Anxious to see if there was any chance of raising her, the officers proceeded in the Tamai to the scene.  The bottom of the vessel was just visible above the surface.  It was evident to all that her salvage would be a work of months.  The officers were about to leave the wreck, when suddenly a knocking was heard within the hull.  Tools were brought, a plate was removed, and there emerged, safe and sound from the hold in which they had been thus terribly imprisoned, the second engineer and a stoker.  When the rapidity with which the steamer turned upside down, with the engines working, the fires burning, and the boilers full—­ the darkness, with all the floors become ceilings—­the violent inrush of water—­the wild career down the stream—­are remembered, it will be conceded that the experience of these men was sufficiently remarkable.

Search was now made for another passage.  This was found on the 6th, nearer the right bank of the river.  On the 8th the Metemma arrived with 300 more men of the 7th Egyptians.  Three days were spent in preparations and to allow the Nile to rise a little more.  On the 13th, elaborate precautions being observed, the Metemma passed the cataract safely, and was tied up to the bank on the higher reach.  The Tamai followed the next day.  On the 19th and 20th the new gunboats Fateh, Naser, and Zafir, the most powerful vessels on the river, accomplished the passage.  Meanwhile the Metemma and Tamai had already proceeded up stream.  On the 23rd the unarmed steamer Dal made the ascent, and by the 29th the whole flotilla reached Abu Hamed safely.

After the arrival of the gunboats events began to move at the double.  The sudden dart upon Abu Hamed had caused the utmost consternation among the Dervishes.  Finding that Mahmud was not going to reinforce him, and fearing the treachery of the local tribes, Zeki Osman, the Emir in Berber, decided to fall back, and on the 24th he evacuated Berber and marched south.  On the 27th General Hunter at Abu Hamed heard that the Dervish garrison had left the town.  The next day he despatched Abdel-Azim, the chief of Irregulars, and Ahmed Bey Khalifa, his brother, with forty Ababda tribesmen, to reconnoitre.