Perhaps their intention was, by driving us out of the river, to utilise its position for torpedo attacks.
I have explained that Sulina was surrounded by sea and vast marshes.
Along the seashore there was a narrow causeway of sand, on which ten men could march abreast.

The only other approaches were by sea and by the river, the latter, at about ten miles distance, being in the hands of the Russians.

As a defence we had placed on the beach, at about a gun-shot's distance, several torpedoes, buried in the sand, and connected by electric wires with the batteries of Sulina.

A simultaneous movement was made by three or four Russian gun-boats descending the river, and two regiments of troops accompanied by artillery were sent along the causeway.

Suspecting something in regard to torpedoes, they drove before them as a sort of advance guard about two hundred and fifty horses without riders, it being the duty of the poor animals to take the shock of the explosion should torpedoes be placed on the beach.