The Command Of
The Whole Motley Force Was Given To Major Stuart-Wortley, Lieutenant Wood
Accompanying Him As Staff Officer; And The Position Of These Officers Among
The Cowed And Untrustworthy Arabs Was One Of Considerable Peril.
While the infantry divisions were marching round the heights of Shabluka
to the camp opposite Royan island, the steamers and gunboats ascended the
stream and passed through the gorge, dragging up with them the whole fleet
of barges and gyassas.
The northern end of the narrow passage had been
guarded by the five Dervish forts, which now stood deserted and dismantled.
They were well built, and formed nearly a straight line - four on one bank
and one on the other. Each fort had three embrasures, and might,
when occupied, have been a formidable defence to the cataract.
Threshing up against the current, the gunboats and stern-wheelers
one after another entered the gorge. The Nile, which below is nearly a mile
across, narrows to a bare 200 yards. The pace of the stream becomes more
swift. Great swirls and eddies disturb its surface. High on either side
rise black, broken, and precipitous cliffs, looking like piles of gigantic
stones. Through and among them the flood-river pours with a loud roaring,
breaking into foam and rapids wherever the submerged rocks are near the
surface. Between the barren heights and the water is a strip of green
bushes and grass. The bright verdant colour seems the more brilliant by
contrast with the muddy water and the sombre rocks.
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