Chapter XXXV: Appendix: R (249)

From Slatin Bey.

His Excellency Gordon Pasha, Governor-General of the Soudan.

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

I have sent two letters, one by George Calamatino and the other by my servant, without having received an answer from your Excellency, neither has Consul Hansall answered me.

Your Excellency, I have fought twenty-seven times for the Government against the enemy, and they have beaten me twice, and I have done nothing dishonourable, nothing which should hinder your Excellency from writing me an answer, that I may know what to do.

They have taken the little steamer at Dar-Djumna, after it passed the Sehelal of the Robatat, and they have brought the whole of the letters from Kartoum for Cairo here. In order to assure you that they have taken the steamer they have sent your Excellency some letters, and I have done all that I could to send your Military Journal,[342] because it may be, perhaps, of some value for your Excellency.

I hope that Consul Hansall has made a translation of my letter, in which I place all my feeble services to your Excellency’s disposal, and I have been obliged to write in German, because they have burnt my French dictionary, believing that it was a prayer book.

His Excellency Stewart Pasha, with nine men, is dead. They have taken the others to Berber.

When you have a letter for Dongola I beg you to send it me, and I will find means of sending it on.

Your scribe has written a dispatch in cipher, half Arabic and half cipher, so badly, that they have been able to decipher it, and so they have found a key to your despatches, and have also deciphered your Excellency’s despatch to his Excellency Towfik Pasha. If there are letters from Europe for me at the post I beg you to send them me, because it is almost three years since I have had any news of my family. I entreat your Excellency to honour me with an answer.

Your devoted and obedient servant,

SLATIN.

I and Seid Gjoma, Mudir of Fascher, are seeking occasion to enter Omdurman to remain with you. Pray, Excellency, do your best to give us permission, because we are always in fear of spies. I pray God that He may give you success in the siege.

P.S.—If your Excellency has perhaps understood that I have done anything contrary to the honour of an officer, and if that hinders you from writing to me, I pray you give me a chance of defending myself, and judge according to truth.