Chapter VI: Book I: On outside wrapper (a glass-cloth) (2)

A man has come in who says Stewart and his steamers have captured a large convoy of two hundred camel-loads of stuff belonging to the Arabs. They had passed Shendy, and had not been fired upon.

The Mahdi will be furious.

I do not think the resources of this place are known. We can turn out 50,000 rounds of Remington ammunition a week, there are some 10,000 rounds of mountain-gun ammunition in store, and if the Mahdi takes Kartoum (which will entail the fall of every town in Soudan) it will need a large force to stay his propaganda. According to the Greek he meditates an invasion of Egypt and Palestine, where they are all ready to rise.[54] All the steamers on the Nile, even below Assouan, are but crockery, if struck by a mountain-gun shell; consequently, if the people rose at Esneh they could, by the Mahdi sending down two guns, stop the river. The further the Mahdi is off from the people who rise, the stronger he is; here we are near him, and hear all about his festivities and pepper business; at Esneh this would be lost in the mists of distance, still more so at Cairo and in Palestine. What have we done in Lower Egypt to make them like us? Not a single thing. We have foisted Europeans on them to the extent of £450,000 a year; we have not reduced taxes, only improved the way of extorting those taxes. The Mahdi says, “I will take one-tenth of your produce, and I will rid you of the ‘dogs’”—a most captivating programme! If well led, and once he takes Kartoum, the combined forces of France and England will not be able to subdue him, unless they go at his nest. From a _professional military point of view_, and _speaking materially_, I wish I was the Mahdi, and I would laugh at all Europe. Query (believing all the above as I do)—would I be justified in coming to terms with Mahdi, on the understanding that he should let down all refugees (on the Egerton contract arrangement), while I should give over to him, unhurt, all warlike material in Kartoum?

Certainly, according to the letter, I would be justified in so doing; and _then_ what! of what I feel sure will happen, _i.e._, a rising in Egypt occurs, what will my nation say? (for Egerton will disappear by some appointment in Chili) they will say it is my fault; but (_D. V._) they shall not say so, for I will not give up the place except with my life. It cannot be too strongly impressed on the public that it is not the Mahdi’s forces which are to be feared, but the rising of the populations by his emissaries. I do not believe he had four thousand men when he defeated Hicks. We have to think what would a garrison of ten thousand men do in Cairo if the population rose.

Had Zubair Pasha been sent up when I asked for him, Berber would in all probability never have fallen, and one might have made a Soudan Government in opposition to the Mahdi. We choose to refuse his coming up because of his antecedents _in re_ slave trade; granted that we had reason, yet as we take no precautions as to the future of these lands with respect to the slave trade, the above opposition seems absurd. I will not send up A. because he will do this, but I will leave the country to B., who will do exactly the same.

* * * * *

_September 18._—Men came to Halfeyeh from Shendy, and report in further detail, the attack on the market of Metemma,[55] and capture of a lot of things. They report also the arrival of troops at Dongola, and their advance towards Berber (saying that a reconnaissance was just pushed out to ascertain if Kartoum had fallen or not). Three escaped soldiers came in from Arabs; they report that a lot of troops are at Fashoda.[56] I suppose those from Equator or Bahr Gazelle; it appears they have been at Fashoda some little time, and have lots of cows, &c. They did not like to come on, for they did not know if Kartoum existed.

10 A.M.—A fight is going on between the _Towfikia_ steamer and five hundred of our men and the Arabs, near Giraffe. The Arabs are retiring towards the White Nile. I sent out the men to get wood, &c. The Arabs did ditto, thence the collision.

The three men who came in to-day, say the Arabs, seeing the numbers who desert them, take the rifles from the men at night, and give them out by day.

These men say the Mahdi knows of the advance of the troops on Berber, and is in a way about it.

Yesterday, previous to hearing the news of to-day, I had arranged for the departure of the Greek Consul and subjects to the Equator, and then their retreat, _viâ_ Zanzibar, but it will now be held in abeyance, till we see the corroboration or not, of this advance of troops to Berber.

The following meditations as to the future, may save a good deal of talking: therefore I write them. Supposing it to be true, an expeditionary force comes to Berber, composed of partly British troops. What will result? The Mahdi’s people will retire still further into the interior, and some of his people will come in. The chief of the expeditionary force will say “Now the road from Kartoum to Berber is open, retire the garrison.” He may say, “I will give you three months to do it in.” Well, we send up steamers to the Equator and Bahr Gazelle, and the garrison of Kartoum marches on Sennaar and we get down the refugees, and garrisons from those places. Of course the moment it is known we are going to evacuate, we drive all neutrals, and even friendlies of the country into the arms of the Mahdi, for they will calculate “We are going to be left, and consequently we must, for our own interests, do something for the Mahdi, in order to hedge our position.” This means that arrayed against our evacuation will be the mass of those living in our midst, and who are now with us. This is disagreeable, but one cannot help seeing that it is quite impossible to keep British troops after January. Therefore I maintain we must install Zubair with a subsidy or give over country to the Sultan with a subsidy. There is no option. If it is determined to do neither, but to evacuate purely and simply, then when the Sennaar garrison is brought down, give me the steamers, and the black troops, who are willing to go, and let me take them up to Equator, while the expeditionary force goes down to Berber. I must say I think this will be a mistake, to leave the prisoners in Obeyed, and to let the Mahdi gain Kartoum.

As for Kassala, it must be relieved, by a separate expedition from Massowah and Senheit. Supposing the evacuation, and non-establishment of a regular government (under Zubair or the Turks) is determined upon, the Mahdi would, on taking Kartoum, think twice of moving on Egypt, if I was on his rear at Equator, with all the steamers.

No one can feel more strongly than I do, that January must see any British troops, who may come up on their way down to Egypt, _coute que coute_. This must be so, therefore I keep on, about giving the country to Sultan, or installing Zubair, with subsidies.

In the serail, we have a Turkey cock and five Turkey hens. They were all very tame, but having put the Turkey cock’s head under his wing, and swung him into sleep, on one occasion, he is now shy to come near me; however, if one goes to his wives and scratches them he is furious, and comes up with his neck of all colours, but keeps out of range. I am sorry to say that one of his wives, having sat with patience for three weeks on eggs, and brought forth two chicks, _he killed them_; such is the accusation lodged against him by the cook. I think a Turkey cock, with every feather on end, and all the colours of the rainbow on his neck, is the picture of physical strength; his eye is an eye of fire, and there is no doubt of his being angry when he sees his wives touched. I am one of those who believe in the fore and future existence of what we call animals. We have the history of man, shaped in the image and likeness of God. He had breathed into him the breath of God, and became alive, while the waters and earth were told to bring forth animals _that had life already_ (Gen. i. 20). “That hath life.” Take Psalm viii. “What is man, Thou hast put _all things_ under his feet.” What a fall there is in the next verse, “_All sheep and oxen_” and turn to Hebrews ii. 8, where the same Psalm is quoted, and where _all_ things are subject to Him. All principalities, powers, and every existence are under Him. Why did the Psalmist go out of his way to quote “sheep and oxen,” unless they were (so to say) the incarnation of those powers and principalities? Man, however much he has fallen, has the grand pre-eminence over all creatures, _he was shaped_ (the word is the same as is used for a potter making a clay vessel) _in God’s image and likeness_, and it is only God who could have so shaped him, as it is only God who knew His own likeness. Also when our Lord took our form (which he still keeps) as man, in Him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead, so that there is no doubt (as he differed only from us in being sinless) that man is capable of containing the fulness of the Godhead. Our belief is that _as man_ our Lord governs heaven and earth, not a sparrow falling without His permission; this being so, the _capacity_ of man must be such as to allow of his being so endowed as to rule all events in heaven and earth, for it is distinctly said our Lord was incarnated in a similar body to ours, except without sin. Our Lord, who is now man for ever and ever, is not likely to have taken a form which contained any hindrance to His fulness of His Godhead, therefore the form He took must be perfect, and as our difference between Him and us is our sin (which He has taken away), we, in our turn, must be capable of realising His fulness of Godhead, and my belief is that our future happiness is in being finite intelligences. We will keep on to all eternity, grasping the infinite knowledge of God which we are so formed as to be able to do, but which will last for ever inasmuch as He is infinite. When one gets on these subjects, and has to come down to this dreadful Soudan question, it is depressing; so also is the thought that misery here is our lot, for if we will be with our Master, we must be like Him, who from His birth to His death may be said to have been utterly miserable, as far as things in this world are concerned: yet I kick at the least obstacle to my will.

I certainly will, with all my heart and soul, do my best if any of Her Majesty’s forces come up here or to Berber, to send them down before January, and will willingly take all the onus of having done so. Truly the people are not worth any _great_ sacrifice, and we are only bound to them because of our dubious conduct in Egypt, to which bond there is a limit, which I fix in January. As for the Kordofan Europeans, with one exception, they have denied their Lord, and they deserve their fate in some measure.

_September 19._—The ex-Khedive always said that the great difficulty of governing the Soudan, was the want of means of easy access, so he went into a great scheme of railways; he always said that the Government was bad, because of the immunity which Governors enjoyed, owing to his being unable to control them. The Soudan, if once proper communication was established, would not be difficult to govern. The only mode of improving the access to the Soudan, seeing the impoverished state of Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so, without an outlay of more than £10,000, is by the Nile.

Take this section to be the bed of Nile from Kartoum from Assouan, _a b c d e f g_ the cataracts; place steamers on the open spaces between cataracts, build small forts at cataracts, and a sure and certain road is open for ever.

The same crews would do for these steamers, for a weekly service would suffice. Camels should be placed at the cataracts for the transhipment of goods from steamer to steamer.

After the first outlay, which certainly would not be more than £10,000, for we have the steamers (I think £5000 would be enough), the thing would pay itself. Of course, it would be better to make loop tramways worked by animals, than to keep camels at the cataracts. I worked at this idea quietly for the time[57] I was in the Soudan before. Colonel Mason went down and examined the cataracts between Hannek and Wady Halfa, and he found one space of open water forty miles in length. The Wady Halfa railway might be produced some nine kilometres, and brought down to river bank. The mass of the misfortunes of the Soudan arose from this idea of utilising the Nile not having been carried out, but one had to work at it quietly, for Cairo was bent on the Wady Halfa railway over which such sums had been spent. I even took one steamer up from Wady Halfa to Dongola (_i.e._, Mr. Baird, C. E., did so), to begin the chain of steamers.

No church parade to speak of; Arabs are now visible only on the south front, four or five miles distant. Arabs did not bring their gun down to the Blue Nile to-day, and no escaped prisoners came in. To-day is the Muslim Sabbath, and there is no office work. (Not that there is much on other days; however, one never sees anyone from morning till night).

This has given me time to think over the outburst of indignation _in re_ the slave circular. We did not see the papers, so can only guess what they said, but expect that this diabolical fact caused upraised hands in horror, “Was the world coming to an end?” What complete rubbish! Was it not announced openly that the Soudan was going to be abandoned, and consequently that the Soudanese were to be allowed to follow their own devices (which are decidedly slave-huntingly inclined)? What possible influence could my saying that that feeble Treaty of 1877 was not going to be enforced, have on people who were going to be abandoned? The sole and only object of my mission was to get out the garrisons and refugees without loss of life. And in saying what I did I merely told the people a platitude.

Baring deigned to say he would support me! Of course, that was an enormous assistance, to have his approbation. I expect that my asking for Zubair to come up was the last drop in the cup, and henceforth I was a complete pariah, yet, in reality, if the Soudan was to be abandoned, what difference could it possibly make whether Zubair or the Mahdi carried on slave-hunting, for, according to all accounts, the Mahdi is most active in this direction (so says the Greek). We had decided to abandon the Soudan, and to leave it to its own devices; the only obstacle to this were those _horrid_ garrisons; once we could get them out, then chaos might reign, for all we cared. The Arabs, foolishly, would not let us return, consequently the present position. Zubair’s coming up, when I asked for him, would have, I think, saved Berber, and greatly facilitated the getting down of _those_ garrisons, which we only care for, because it is a _palpable_ dishonour to abandon them, “they ought to have surrendered at once, troublesome people that they are, giving so much bother!”

Stewart will bear witness that my whole efforts have been, and will be, directed to carry out my instructions, viz., the withdrawal of the garrisons and refugees, and had it not been for the defeat of Mahomet Ali Pasha, I should have got out at least two-thirds of those at Kartoum and Sennaar. I was engaged in a certain work, _i.e._, to take down the garrisons, &c. It suited me altogether to accept this work (when once it was decided on to abandon the Soudan), which, to my idea, is preferable to letting it be under those wretched effete Egyptian Pashas. Her Majesty’s Government agreed to send me. It was a mutual affair, they owe me positively nothing, and I owe them nothing. A Member of Parliament, in one of our last received papers, asked “whether officers were not supposed to go where they were ordered?” I quite agree with his view, but it cannot be said I was ordered to go. The subject was too complex for any order. It was “Will you go and try?” and my answer was, “Only too delighted.” As for all that may be said of our holding out, &c., &c., it is all twaddle, for we had no option; as for all that may be said as to why I did not escape with Stewart, it is simply because the people would not have been such fools as to have let me go, so there is an end of those greatcoats of self-sacrifice, &c. Place before men the chance of success by holding out, and the certainty of death, or miserable captivity, if they give in, there is not much credit in holding out. I must add _in re_, “the people not letting me go,” that even if they had been willing for me to go, I would not have gone and left them in their misery. I think I say truly, I have never asked for a British expedition. I asked for two hundred men to be sent to Berber at a time when, Graham having beaten Osman Digma, one might have supposed there was no risk for those two hundred men, and I asked for Zubair.[58]

Baring offended Cuzzi, who revenged himself by betraying Berber. Baring _openly_ announced “that no troops would come up to Berber,” which was a gratuitous act on his part. We may be sure Cuzzi (who loves Baring) did not fail to tell this to the Mahdi, yet Baring pitched into me for indiscretion in asking _openly_ for Zubair,[59] which I did on _purpose_, in order to save Her Majesty’s Government the odium of such a step! As for Zubair’s refusing to come up (as Cuzzi says he did), I put it down to some palace intrigue, and consider (if it is true) he was forced into saying so. If any Expedition comes up, I am grateful _officially_ for the people’s sake, but I consider that it is a _right_ they possess, for, had not Egypt been interfered with, somewhat more than seven persons would have come up here, as reinforcements, between 21st November, 1883, when Hicks’ defeat was known, and 19th September, 1884. _I_ am grateful _personally_, because, as surely as the chief of that expedition comes up, I will put on him the burthen of the Government (doing what I can to help him). I am unable to forget the sufferings of these peoples, owing to our want of decision _in re_ Zubair, and no soft words will obliterate those sufferings from my memory. It is not over praiseworthy if one holds out, when, if you do _not_, your throat is cut.

I am deeply grateful to those who have prayed for us.

Any expeditionary force that may come up comes up for the honour of England, and England will be grateful, and I can hang the yoke of Government on some one else, for the solution of the problem.

Any one reading the telegram[60] 5th May, Suakin, 29th April, Massowah, and _without_ date, Egerton saying, “Her Majesty’s Government does not entertain your proposal to supply Turkish or other troops in order to undertake military operations in Soudan, and consequently if you stay at Kartoum you should state your reasons,” might imagine one was luxuriating up here, whereas, I am sure, no one wishes more to be out of it than myself; the “_reasons_” are those horridly plucky Arabs.

I own to having been very insubordinate to Her Majesty’s Government and its officials, but it is my nature, and I cannot help it. I fear I have not even tried to play battledore and shuttlecock with them. I know if _I_ was chief I would never employ _myself_, for I am incorrigible. To men like Dilke, who weigh every word, I must be _perfect poison_. I wonder what the telegrams about Soudan have cost Her Majesty’s Government? It has been truly a horrid question. There is the TOWN El Obeyed and the SHEIKH El Obeyed; there is the Haloman of Cairo and the Haloman of Kartoum. Sanderson must have a hard time of it. “The _city_ moves about!” “Why, if Haloman is attacked, Cairo must be in danger! Send for Wolseley! Kartoum forces defeated by Sheikh el Obeyed! Why, the town must have moved! Is not El Obeyed the place Hicks went to take? Most extraordinary! Send for Wolseley!”

“Eureka, I have found it out; there is a _man_ called _El Obeyed_ and a _town_ called _El Obeyed_. When a movement occurs, it is the _man_, not the _town_, which has moved!” After _this_ I shall hesitate to ask for any appointment from Foreign Office, and I shall get no more crisp bank-notes, as I used to do from old Cunnynghame in 1858-59 (when Alston was a boy, so to say), in those dingy rooms in Downing Street, now pulled down. One can fancy them saying “That brute of a Mahdi!” “That horrid resurrection of Stewart, Power, and Herbin at Dongola!” It will destroy all the _well earned repose_ of Her Majesty’s Government. As Sir Wilfrid Lawson (he is an _irregular_) said, “One day you will groan when you hear of Tel el Kebir.” I think of _all_ the pusillanimous _businesses_ which happened in 1882 the flight of the Europeans from Alexandria before these wretched fellaheen troops, was the worst. Why, had they barricaded their streets, they would have held Alexandria against 50,000 of these poor things (like Abbot did his hotel and the Egyptian bank their offices). A more contemptible soldier than the Egyptian never existed. Here we never count on them; they are held in supreme contempt, poor creatures. _They_ never go out to fight; it would be perfectly iniquitous to make them. We tried it once, and they refused point blank to leave the steamers. We are keeping them in cotton wool to send down to Baring (if he has weathered the storm?)

“Blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of the _scornful_” (Ps. i. 1). I own it is not right to scoff at one’s superiors, but I do not do it in malice, and I hope those who are remarked upon will not be offended. Life is a very leaden business, and if any one can lighten it, so much the better. Because I criticise Baring, Egerton, and the Foreign Office, it is not that I think I am their superior, but because I would like them to see how others, outside themselves, view things. Because I may differ with them it is no reason why they may not be right, and acting uprightly, and I may be utterly wrong. I am sure the “Siren” Malet is conscientiously sure all he did in Egypt was right; if visited in Brussels one will see, at a glance, he is plainly content.

One of the most amusing things which struck me in Palestine, exemplifying how little worth the world’s praise is, was an article in the _Times_ describing the making of a D.C.L. at Oxford. Sir Charles Wilson received this honour. The _Times,_ in remarking on the affair, mixed Wilson, R.E., up with Rivers Wilson of National Debt Office, and spoke of his “financial capacities” in Egypt. Of course Wilson, R.E., could not help thinking he had been robbing Wilson of National Debt Office of his renown, while Rivers Wilson felt hurt at being robbed of it. Two people were accordingly put out; while the innocent writer in the _Times_, when penning his article, was thinking how he could meet his rent (this is pure supposition). We may be quite certain, that Jones cares more for where he is going to dine, or what he has got for dinner, than he does for what Smith has done, so we need not fret ourselves for what the world says. The article in the _Times_ was a Mordecai to Wilson, R.E., and quite destroyed the pleasure of receiving the D.C.L.; yet the writer in the _Times_ did all he could to exalt Wilson, R.E. I think the Press is first-rate, to ventilate articles; but when “we” come out, and praise or blame, I do not care a bit for “we”; for I have seen the “We’s,” and found them much as myself. I would never muzzle the press or its correspondents; they are most useful, and one cannot be too grateful to them (I own this more than any one), but I certainly think, that their province does not extend to praising or blaming a man, for by praising, or blaming, an assumption is made of superiority, for the _greater_ only can do that, to the _inferior_; and no newspaper can arrogate that its correspondent is superior to the General (though I declare I think, sometimes, it may be the case).

Take for instance our defeat here, on the 16th March, which is put down to the treachery of the Pashas. Ten thousand articles in the _Times_ will not make me think that their execution was not a judicial murder, yet probably the _Times_ may say, I was justified: it alters not the affair with me, it is simply my intelligence against that of their correspondent; if the _Times_ saw this in print, it would say, “Why, then, did you act as you did?” to which I fear I have no answer.

* * * * *

_September 20._—Six escaped soldiers came in this morning with their arms; they say that the others meditate a general rush for the lines to escape, that the Arabs are quite astonished at our being so quiet, and believe a mine is being driven under them. The men who came to-day said the Mahdi is still at Rahad! _not_ at Schatt. One of these men was a perfect peacock with the patches on his dervish dress. Yesterday evening, while a gale was blowing, Waled a Goun took out the Krupp, meaning to bombard us, but he then took it back on Abou Gugliz’ remonstrances, who said that we had stayed quiet for months, that he had made splendid fortresses, and that on one day we had burst on him, and broken him up.

A curious letter[61] was found written, just before Hicks’ forces perished, by a high officer; it is in the terms, “Stranger, go tell the Lacedemonians we lie here, in obedience to their laws.”

I have in a previous page abused the Egyptian soldier, but it is not just, for what possible interest can they take in warlike operations in the Soudan? The English beat them in Egypt, and then sent them up here to be massacred in detail. One may say the massacred ten thousand of Hicks’ army, at any rate, showed they could die, if they could not fight.

When we got hemmed in, a lot of slaves belonging to masters in Kartoum got cut off. They have been coming in in driblets ever since, and we made the men soldiers, and the women were freed; this of course bore hard on their masters, who thus lost their slaves, so I have determined to compensate these masters, at rate of £7 per man, £5 per woman, being an inferior article. Certainly I would make ‘Plutarch’s Lives’ a handbook for our young officers; it is worth any numbers of ‘Arts of War’ or ‘Minor Tactics.’

Some accounts in the _Gazette_, describing reasons for giving the Victoria Cross, are really astounding, such as a man who, with another, was sent out on a reconnaissance, this other was wounded, and his companion waited for him, and took him on his horse, saving his life! What would we have said, had he left his companion? Lots of these cases pass by unheeded, which, if read by ‘Plutarch’s Lives,’ would be simply a man’s duty. A soldier is bound entirely to his work as a soldier, he can never do more than his duty, and his _métier_ is the Field; therefore he deserves nothing, for he is already paid for that _métier_, and not for garrison or home life. The original idea of the Victoria Cross was to give the subaltern officers, non-commissioned officers, and men a decoration, which would take the place of the Bath, to ranks below that of Major, which by the statutes of the Bath could not be done; then came the mistake to give the Victoria Cross for deeds of _éclat_, and so now it is. I like that old Iron Duke with his fearful temper: he told a friend of my father, who was bewailing his long and meritorious service, “That he ought to be —-- glad the country had kept him so long.” I wish Wolseley would take up this line, and get some quixotic chivalry into us: that it is possible I feel sure, for we are the same men as before. In three campaigns, out of four of late years, no officer or soldier has gone through such privations or dangers, as are gone through by our naval officers and sailors in gunboats, in various parts of the world, yet these latter would be scoffed at if they pleaded these privations, in order to get reward. A man defends a post, if he loses it his throat is cut; why give him a Victoria Cross? and if given, why not give it to all who were with him? they equally with him defended their throats. The men I should like to see cross-questioned on the country they are in are our Generals, whose whole time is taken up in their offices with courts-martial, &c., &c., an occasional day being devoted to moving men about in formations, which are never put into execution in the Field? The _métier_ of a General is the Field, not the office; it is as if all their time is to be taken up with the horse in the stable, not in the country, whereas the latter is the most important. I should like to see Wolseley trot out the generals over their districts; ask them the routes, their proposed distribution of men in case of attack, and water-supply to Forts. I do not think it is generally known that if a gunboat cut the sea-wall near Cooling on Thames, the Cliffe and Shornemead Forts are cut off from main land, and that the Thames would come up to high lands, and be ten miles wide. There is one man only that I know who has the gift of questioning, because he knows every part of the coast, Sir W. Jervois; and if Wolseley has not the time, he would do schoolmaster. Of course, this is all fearful treason and presumption.

Spy in Halfeyeh states Stewart’s steamers have recaptured the two steamers I had lost at Berber, and had no fighting to speak of; that the English troops are advancing on Ambukol,[62] half way between Debbeh and Merowé, and had defeated the Arabs.

A young black soldier has just escaped from the Arabs; he was pursued by three horsemen and some footmen, and he kept blazing away at them till he got into the lines. He says he killed two of his pursuers.

I wrote a letter[63] to Abdel Kader, the old sheikh on South Front, and sent him a packet of soap with the letter, as he had lamented to one of our men, who had escaped, that he had none. I daresay he will think the packet is a mine!

I have ordered the sale of five hundred ardebs of Government dhoora: no one family to purchase more than two ardebs.

The capture of the steamers at Berber cuts off the Arabs of Berber from those on other side.

With the young soldier who escaped were three others, but their hearts failed them, and they were recaptured. I fear they will suffer, but no physical suffering will change the heart, hence I do not believe in purgatory.

The _Towfikia_ steamer went up to Giraffe, and as the Arabs had a sort of sneaking affection for the place, we put down twenty self-exploding mines, to deter them from going there. The worst of it is, our domestic matches have run out, and we cannot make any substitute, so we have to fall back on the powder-hose, connecting groups of ten. I think good wire entanglements, with mines, will defend any place, if one has anything like moderate troops behind the parapet. Wire entanglement ought to be twenty yards in depth, mixed with it the earthmines. No field artillery will neutralize their effects, and only a continuous bombardment of days would destroy them.

A man has come in from Shendy, who corroborates the advance of the expeditionary force and the defeat of the Arabs. Another came in, who says the _Abbas_ passed down safely, and that the steamers _Mansowrah_ and _Saphia_ are on their return, but says nothing of capture of the two steamers at Berber.

Another escaped soldier came in.

The Arabs took the man with the flag of truce (I sent out with letter to Abdel Kader, the old sheikh) into their lines; he took a _letter_ from the Ulemas to the Mahdi.

Tolerably good information says that the Mahdi has written to the tribes about here, telling them to submit to our authority, and to fight no more, to pay taxes, &c.; that if he is the Mahdi, then Turks and all men will eventually acknowledge him, without any more fighting, &c. We have this from two separate sources. I think he feels that to fail here would lead to his fall, and so he will come to terms in order to keep Kordofan, as I originally proposed to him.

Faki Mustapha (the man who commanded Arabs on left bank), has sent in to say he never wrote the impertinent letter E,[64] to which his seal was not.

The doctor took a stone as big as a swan’s-egg from a man to-day.

There is nothing like a civil war to show what skunks men are. One of my greatest worries are the Shaggyeh, who are continually feathering towards me, or towards the Mahdi. I expect both sides despise them equally. According to history, the same thing went on during the reign of James II. When William of Orange landed, Queen Anne’s husband the Prince of Denmark did not show well in the affair, and I expect that the Empress Eugenie could say a good deal for “Rats,” during her time. I must say I cordially hate them, and if I had my way, I would smite the Shaggyeh, but policy says “give them rope.” I have told them distinctly, that I know it is self-interest alone which rules them, which however is a platitude, for it governs most of us.

* * * * *

_September 21._—Six more escaped soldiers came in with their rifles to-day. They say the Arabs are furious at losing their Peacock dervish (who was one of their officers) yesterday, and also at the constant desertions, and have written to the Mahdi to ask whether they are to kill these blacks or not. The Mahdi hired one thousand camels at $3 a head, to bring dhoora to the Arab camp, but the people who engaged to do this, bolted with the money and the camels into the interior. The Mahdi is at Schatt.[65]

Messengers have arrived at Omdurman, saying that mixed force of British and Indian troops at Debbeh, on the Nile, north of Dongola, and that they had defeated a party of dervishes.

The Greek, who came in a few days ago from the Arabs, said the Mahdi had given Cuzzi an ointment to rub on his body, which would keep him in odour of sanctity!

Halfeyeh reports a foraging party of Arabs between Halfeyeh and Shoboloha.[66]

The three messengers from Dongola came in with two cipher telegrams from Egerton of same import, not legible, for want of cipher, which Stewart carried off. Some photograph letters which I could only partially make out, and notes from Floyer,[67] and Kitchener[68] saying forces were coming up. Letter from Mudir Dongola saying he had beaten the Arabs four times before the British advance! I have made him Pasha, and asked for the Order of St. Michael and St. George for him from the Khedive. I have ordered _three_ guns to be fired from all the guns at 4 P.M. as a salute, and to warn the Arabs something is up. I shall send down spies to-morrow. I gave the _three_ £50, and gave them each £10, with promise they will be paid £10 more when they get to Dongola. They say they had nothing given them on starting! which is curious if true.

Three more escaped soldiers came in this afternoon. They say the Arabs have disarmed all the black troops, and have told them to go where they liked, so I expect we will have a lot in to-morrow.

We fired a salute of three rounds from each gun on lines, to let the Arabs know of the advance expeditionary force. The men who came in say the Arabs were fully expecting an attack, and were in a great way.

I send down to-morrow a telegram to Cairo, which will settle the business as far as I am concerned. It is thus couched: “If you remove me from being Governor-General then all responsibility is off me; but if you keep me as Governor-General then I will, _at the cost of my commission_ in Her Majesty’s Service, see all refugees out of this country.”

The Arabs in reply to this salute of three guns fired nine shots against the lines to-night, two of which passed over our lines—a sort of revenge for our salute.

The man who went up with the letter came back with two letters[69] and the soap, _which was refused_.

Our salute, which was replied to by the Arabs by shotted guns, made us fire shotted guns in reply; and the “man who came in with the soap” says our guns killed twenty men, which I fear is an exaggeration. This man says the Arabs are in a bad state, with little food. They threatened to kill him. I sent out letter[70] in answer.

* * * * *

_September 22._—One escaped slave came in to-day. The Berber steamers are said to be coming up river. Sent out two hundred men from Halfeyeh to drive off foraging parties of Arabs investing roads from that place to Shoboloha.

The _Saphia_ and _Mansowrah_ have returned from Berber. _They passed the Abbas_, that is about all, and I am grateful for that. They carried out my orders. Colonel Stewart’s letter reports in detail. The steamers lost three killed, and had four wounded. They saw the two captured steamers under the bank.

N.B.—When self-acting mines are placed, it is as well to connect them with twine to facilitate taking them up.

_September 23._—The men who went out to drive back the marauders between Halfeyeh and Shoboloha have come back. They drove back the Arabs and captured a lot of things.

During the blockade here, viz., from say March 12th till to-day September 22nd we have expended—

3,240,770 Remington }
1,570 Krupp gun } cartridges.
9,442 Mountain gun}

Of the Remington cartridges perhaps 240,000 may have been captured by enemy, so that we fired 3,000,000 away; and I expect the Arabs lost perhaps 1000 in all. Each Arab killed needed 3,000 cartridges. We have left here—

2,242,000 Remington }
660 Krupp gun } cartridges.
8,490 Mountain gun}

and we turn out 50,000 Remington cartridges a week.

Fifty Arab horsemen came down on our foraging party who were outside Bourré, but the steamer drove them back.

No escaped soldiers came in to-day. I expect they are all close prisoners.

There are fifty nuggars at Berber with the Arabs.

I am sure I should like that fellow Egerton. There is a light-hearted jocularity about his communications, and I should think the cares of life sat easily on him. Notice the slip in margin. He wishes to know _exactly_ “day, hour, and minute” that he (Gordon) expects to be in “difficulties as to provisions and ammunition.”[71]

Now I really think if Egerton was to turn over the “archives” (a delicious word) of his office, he would see we had been in difficulties for provisions for some months. It is as if a man on the bank, having seen his friend in river already bobbed down two or three times, hails, “I say, old fellow, let us know when we are to throw you the life buoy, I know you have bobbed down two or three times, but it is a pity to throw you the life buoy until you really are _in extremis_, and I want to know _exactly_, for I am a man brought up in a school of exactitude, though I did _forget_(?) to date my June telegram about _that Bedouin escort contract_.”

Turn to page 59, “Send for Wolseley,” &c. I see that they did send for him just a month before; “nasty moving cities, and _very_ nasty Soudan.”

Egerton’s cipher telegram,[72] which I cannot decipher through Stewart having taken the book, is short, but I feel sure is weighty, and I regret deeply I cannot get at its contents, which I think would afford matter for amusing comment.

The Mudir of Dongola sent me a telegram which is on other side.[73] He tells me of the extreme anxietude which pervaded Cairo (when they heard Berber had fallen, and it was rumoured Kartoum had ditto), for the retirement of the Dongola people. “Throw things into the river,” &c., “but come away,” “we are very fond of you,” “useless to stay,” &c., &c. The Mudir laughs over it, I think, and saw the kind instruction, “raise barrier on barrier between Kartoum and its sister beleagured cities and Cairo; let us hear the last of these moving cities and Halomans.” What awful disgust at this resurrection! I made the Mudir a Pasha; he was an old officer of mine. When I came up I ordered him down, as my orders were to _organize country with Soudanese employés_, not that he was bad. Cairo (how they must wring their hands over it now) remonstrated and asked me to leave him, which I did, and he saved Dongola, and indirectly Kartoum, for had I put a native in he would have gone over to the Mahdi, like Hussein Pasha Khalifa did, and then I really think that the tomb would have been securely sealed, and R. I. P. to all of us. When one thinks that _Cairo saved us_ by interfering with my removal of this man, it must add bitterness to the cup they have to drink! The telegrams about this man’s reinstatement, and my answer, are in Stewart’s journal about the month of March.

I am arranging attack on Berber with four steamers and Krupps, as soon as steamers come from Sennaar.

Spies with letters started for Dongola yesterday.

I hope Stewart will get hold of all copies of telegrams sent to us from Cairo for his journal, and which the Arabs captured (lovely reading!), also that he will find out result of Hewitt’s Mission to King John, and of Baring’s negotiations for opening of “the road from Suakim and Berber,” he spoke about on the 29th of March! which caused hilarity up here, and which led to his angering Cuzzi, who, idiot-like, questioned the sagacity and success of the step, and, getting turned out, paid us both (in all probability) by betraying Berber to the Arabs.

Egerton is a statistician, he evidently is collecting material for some great work. What earthly use is it to us for Egerton “to know exactly our want of provisions,” when he is 1500 miles away! I am vexed at not getting at the pith of his cipher telegram, all I can see is that 7775 (Zubair’s name) is _not_ in it.

I am preparing to clear out of the palace, _in toto_, leaving the telegraph only, and go into the Mudiriat, so there will be plenty of room for the staff, if they come up, which is even now a question to me.

From Lord Northbrook coming out, I infer that Baring has returned to Cairo, and that my friend Egerton has gone back to the Acropolis. I hope he will say a good word to the King of Hellenes in favour of Leonidas, the Greek Consul here, who has behaved worthy of his ancestor of Thermopylæ, on a small scale.

I have a firm conviction we will not do anything in Egypt that will succeed, unless we fall into accord with France, which would not be difficult to do.

Arabi Pasha’s private secretary, who even Stewart with all his Job-like patience had to give up as a bad job, came to-day to say “he was starving,” so I have given him £10 a month again. How he ever got on with Arabi is a wonder; he and Stewart used to spend hours, hob and nob, translating Arabic letters, and then Stewart found out that the man had just exercised his own imaginations and taken not the least pains to give the sense of these letters’ contents.

The Shaggyeh are breaking my heart with their family quarrels. I shall go to Halfeyeh (_D. V._) to-morrow to see after them. They captured five men who had been pardoned, and had gone back to the Arabs, and want me to kill them, which I refuse to do, for who are the rebels? we or the Arabs. I am responsible for the judicial murder of the two Pashas; beyond this I have put no man to death.

I think Colonel Stewart is hard on our men as to their cowardice; they are not heroes, I grant, but they are not, to my mind, entire cowards; “they do not see it,” that is all; but if they are put in a position where there is a chance, a _fair_ chance of success, they will take advantage of it and be plucky. The Chinese are of the same temperament. “No two piecey man can stay one place, supposing you come, I must go.” This is an acknowledged maxim in the East.

A spy came in, and says that Sheikh el Obeyed has news in his camp _that Abdel Kader Pasha_ (what a bother for Sanderson all these Abdel Kaders who he may mix up with the one of Algier) _is with troops at Kassala_.

Two more mines exploded at Omdurman when they were being taken up to renew the fuses, but did no harm.

I saw the Shaggyeh chief Abdul Hamed to-day. He says that Said and Ibrahim Hassan Pashas[74] were _not guilty_, and that the Arabs looted their houses when they heard they had been killed by me, which they would not have done had they been really in communication with them. I shall send for their families and give them each £1000, which is all I can do.

The _Towfikia_ went up and had her usual fight with the Arabs.

Report is that a soldier has taken the breech pieces of the two Krupp guns with the Arabs, and has run away, rendering them useless.

If Abdel Kader is at Kassala what on earth are our people about not to tell me, for of course I could help him. We seem to have lost our heads in the Intelligence Department, though it costs enough money.

As for “_evacuation_,” it is one thing; as for “_ratting out_,” it is another. I am quite of advice as to No. 1 (as we have not the decision to keep the country), but I will be no party to No. 2 (this “rat” business), 1st, because it is _dishonourable_; 2nd, because it is not _possible (which will have more weight)_; therefore, if it is going to be No. 2, _the troops had better not come beyond Berber till the question of what will be done is settled_. So I will end this book.

C. G. GORDON.
_23 Sept., 1884_.

N.B.—To be copied and read by Colonel Stewart, if he likes, and extracts given Mr. Power (as by promise). Afterwards to be given to Miss Gordon, Southampton, if not wanted by the Foreign Office.