88 PRISONERS IN THE SOUDAN. sustain a siege, and for nineteen days its gallant little garrison, composed entirely of negro soldiers under Soudanese officers, maintained a resistance. At last, coming to the end of their resources, they made a desperate dash, and breaking through the line of the besiegers, succeeded in effecting a retreat into the Makraka country. In recounting this feat of arms, thus valorously accomplished by negroes, Emin Pasha wrote to his friend, Dr. Robert Felkin, in Edinburgh:— “ Ever since the Arab occupation of the Bahr-el- Ghazal—I will not say its conquest, since every thing that has been gained has been gained by treachery—we have been most vigorously attacked; and I feel that I cannot give you an idea of the admirable devotion of my black troops throughout this long war, in which for them at least there can be no advantage. Destitute of the barest necessaries of life, and with their pay long in arrears, they fought most resolutely, and when at last, after nineteen days of hardship and privation, weakened by hunger—the last shred of leather, the last boot having been devoured—they forced a gap in the enemy’s ranks and made good their escape.