This gentleman declares that the vessel never brought up alongside of the dock at which she is accused of having taken on her cargo. He says she was laden with coal, which she took on board at a pier on the New Jersey shore, either Hoboken or Weehawken, that she sailed down the bay and out at the Narrows under her own canvas, and never employed any tugboat. The agent states positively that the _Silver Heels_ did not go up the Sound, and declares that if a mysterious vessel did take on a cargo and slip up the Sound, it was not the _Silver Heels_. There the matter rests for the present. * * * * * We hear from the Soudan that General Hunter is steadily advancing up the Nile. By his orders gunboats were sent ahead of the army as far as Metemneh, which is the present stronghold of the Mahdists, and lies between Khartoum and Berber. The object of sending on the gunboats was to find out whether the city was very strongly fortified, and what were the nature of its defences. Under cover of a heavy fire from their guns, these boats were able to reach the city and take all the observations they needed, and then, having treated the city itself to a brisk cannonading, they retreated to report. A sad story has been telegraphed of the cruel revenge taken by the Mahdists upon a tribe of natives who refused to join them in their war against the British and Egyptians. This tribe lived on the banks of the Nile between Berber and Metemneh, and were a quiet and industrious people, who, not wishing to mix themselves up in warfare, declined to join in it. The Mahdists, infuriated at their refusal, descended on their villages, killed every male member of the tribe, burned the houses and destroyed the property of the offenders, and carried their women off into slavery. The British were horrified when they heard of these dreadful deeds, and vow to take a summary vengeance on the cruel Mahdists when they catch them. It seems, however, as if they were going to have a good deal of difficulty in catching them. As yet they have not been able to come up with the enemy. Osman Digna, the Mahdist general, steadily retreats before the British and Egyptian troops. It is supposed that it is his intention to draw the army as far as possible from its base of supplies, and then to give battle, hoping to have it completely at his mercy. If this is his hope, he will find himself very much mistaken. We told you in a recent number about the railway that the troops were laying across the desert. With the aid of the iron horse--as the locomotive is often called--the dreaded desert can be crossed with ease, and the invading army can have all the supplies it needs following it wherever Osman Digna leads. * * * * *