In discussing this question I have entirely put my own peculiar views out of the question: to give up countries which are to some degree civilised, which, if properly governed, are quiet and orderly, to the Turks or to Zubair, and to allow of the slave trade to flourish again in tenfold intensity, is not a very high rôle, but quoi faire? We have not the men to govern these lands, we cannot afford the money; consequently, I advise what I have said. When I left the Soudan it was quiet and covered its expenses, and there was no bother to have continued to have governed it. Now it is different, and would need an outlay which our Government will not give. (It is because the cloth is short I recommend the shape of coat to be such.)
It would be nobler to keep the Soudan, but it is too much to expect our taxpayers to agree to (and besides which, ‘Plutarch’s Lives’ are no longer in vogue, and “you must pay me well ere I go to the Soudan” is the idea). The Soudan could (if cut off from excrescences) be made to pay its expenses, but it would need a dictator, and I would not take the post if offered to me.
October 26.—Three women came in from Waled a Goun. The idea is gaining ground that the Mahdi is dead, and that his Vakeel is acting his part. The Arabs are thinking of placing a station at Kerowé.
Yesterday week was the anniversary of Hicks’s defeat, 1st November, 1883, though I believe it went on for three days, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd November.
The Arabs have brought a gun nearer Bourré to-day, probably emboldened by absence of the steamers. Two lieutenants, one sergeant-major, two serjeants, one soldier, and one slave came into Omdurman from the Arab camp. They say the Mahdi is alive; with him are Saleh Pasha, in chains, Hussein Pasha Khalifa, Elias Pasha, and all the Europeans. They heard a report (now some days old) that the Expeditionary Force was two days distant from Berber. The two lieutenants were with Hicks; they say the army died of thirst, and scarcely fought at all. With the Mahdi are 5000 men, of which 1000 are black troops, 150 are Egyptian troops. What little weight do engineers place on the existence of populations in fortresses, yet this existence is all-important; more so than the works. Malta and Gibraltar are weak, because of their civil population.
The Arabs have a big tent at Giraffe this evening. The lieutenants who came in say the Mahdi will try and place a station in the place we drove them out of—on the North Front—in August last, just before our defeat at El foun. Goba, with the exception of Mahomed Seyd Osman’s house and the Mosque, is destroyed. Salaam Pasha’s is nearly so.
8 p.m.—Two slaves have come into Omdurman. They say “the regulars in the camp of Mahomet Achmet, the Mahdi, went this afternoon to the Dem, or camp of Faki Mustapha, and looted it, firing on the soldiers of Faki Mustapha, who resisted the plundering.” I fear it is all fudge.
October 27.—One sergeant-major and two slaves came into Omdurman this morning. Sent out two spies towards Shendy.
One thing which (although spiteful) would cause me intense pleasure if the “rapid retreat” is carried out, is that the English would just walk into those Shaggyeh and Bashi Bazouks, and bundle them all out, and thus pay them out for the worry they have given me, and for their meanness.
If the Turks come here, you would have scarcely anyone to send down, and you would hand over the Shaggyeh and Bashi Bazouks to the Turks, and all the Divans, &c. Nothing then could be better for you than to get the Turks here. You would get off all responsibility of Kassala and Sennaar, and you would let the Turks and the King of Abyssinia settle about the Hewitt Treaty. You would also get off the bother of the Equator and Bahr Gazelle, if it has not fallen.