CHAPTER VI.
From the moment of my election I had determined that our only hope of safety lay in flight. I had seen enough of the morale of our citizens to know that any attempt to engage in conflict with the enemy could only end in disaster. The flight must be an orderly, well-organised exodus, and above all I must persuade each and every man that salvation was only possible by union and combination. As I proposed to remove every man woman and child in the city it seemed to me that the river offered our sole chance of escape. A cross-country journey in waggons would be so replete with hardships that putting aside the terrible risk of total annihilation by the foe, a large proportion of our caravan would inevitably perish on the road. Where again should we obtain a sufficient supply of horses to remove even our diminished population?
I reckoned that at the least six large river steamers would be required to convey us, allowing sufficient
