Admirable treaty, let us think—yes, spread of Christianity, regular missionary movement, ancient Christian Church and people...! get me up a précis of this history of Abyssinia, but not that part of Bruce which speaks of ravages committed by the Abyssinian army on the march. Hewitt, charmed with His Majesty, calls the Queen his mother, &c. Now, if we can only get that Mahdi to make a treaty we are safe for six months. Enough for the day is its evil. I declare I am becoming a missionary myself with my quotations and acts.
Graham would be angry if I criticised his despatch, which Slatin sent me. The Raumer[144] seems an excellent weapon.
October 22.—It is suspected that the two men who came with letters from Saleh Bey of Galabat are spies of the Mahdi, into whose hands has fallen the letter King John wrote to me; these men came in a very circuitous way from the direction of the Mahdi’s camp.
Another soldier and a slave came in from the Arabs just now.
King John and the Mahdi both force men to change their religion; both cut off lips of smokers and noses of snuffers; both are fanatics and robbers.[145]
If the Mahdi has got King John’s letter to me, he knows all about the famous, or rather infamous, Hewitt Treaty, which is a trouble. Slatin’s letter mentions the ‘Rapport Militaire’; it seems odd he should have known it was on board, unless the Abbas was captured; yet we have two men who declare she passed down. Perhaps the captured Greeks knew of the existence of this famous journal, and told the Arabs of it, or Awaan may have written it; it is odd he (Slatin) says nothing of Power and Herbin.
House of Lords ... in answer to questions put by the ... of ... replied that the noble marquis seemed to take a special delight in asking questions which he knew he ( ... ) could not answer. He could say he had given a deal of time and attention to the affairs of the Soudan, but he frankly acknowledged that the names of places and people were so mixed up, that it was impossible to get a true view of the case (a laugh). The noble marquis asked what the policy of Her Majesty’s Government was? It was as if he asked the policy of a log floating down stream; it was going to the sea, as any one who had an ounce of brains could see. Well, that was the policy of it, only it was a decided policy, and a straightforward one to drift along and take advantage of every circumstance. His lordship deprecated the frequent questioning on subjects which, as his lordship had said, he knew nothing about, and further did not care to know anything about.
... to ... Why, I did my best to keep the Hewitt Treaty secret from him. It is no use blaming me. I knew from his telegram he would make a noise about it, and I told Kitchener not to say a word about it. It is that brute Mitzakis who let the cat out of the bag.
A man came in from the Mahdi’s camp, who left this fourteen days ago with my permission to go to the Arabs. He now comes back to see his family in Kartoum. I have told him,—once out, there is no return! He is a cool fellow.