You would know exactly what sum you had to pay, and save no end of expense and time and vexation with regard to the settlement of claims. Remember that Baring authorised me to draw more than £100,000; indeed, he said, “Such sum as you need.” So you are responsible for paper-money issued.
You would make up with the Sultan, and, as for giving up Suakin and Massowah to the Turks it is nothing; for those ports are useless, except as ports of the Soudan, and would be a bother to you to keep, if the Mahdi has the Soudan. You would be always in strict blockade on land side.[165]
The more I think of it the more the Turk solution appears Hobson’s choice. I can see no option, unless, ere you arrived at Kartoum, Kartoum fell, and then, even, it would not look well to go back from Berber, while that even would be dangerous to some degree; for the Dongola people would see you meant to evacuate, and would be hostile. You have gone so far and spent so much that I cannot see anything for it but to go on. And the Turks are the only solution which affords the certainty of being able to stop. I get out of all my troubles if the Turks come, for I shunt them on the Turks, and so do you. The idea is that when the English come here the Arabs will bolt.
Stewart’s servant, Macktar, must needs go and marry another wife. How they can go on like this, marrying and giving in marriage, when one can never say, that to-morrow is our own, is wonderful. Tangi has taken two wives up here!
The Government shall not get out of the desertion of Kassala (if they take cover under the Hewitt Treaty and say, “we arranged with the King of Abyssinia to look after that country”), if they do desert it, for the King will never move, and all who have ever known anything of Abyssinia must know he can never move. There is a report in town that Slatin has been put in chains. I should not be at all surprised.
The sergeant-major, soldiers, and two men, Shaggyeh, who came in to-day, say that Slatin is not a prisoner. The sergeant-major states that one of our soldiers escaped from Omdurman three days ago. On inquiry, I find that it is true, and the officer in command never reported it. The sergeant-major says the Arabs meditate an attack on Omdurman, in consequence of what the deserter told them. This is the fourth desertion since March that I know of, and it is the first desertion among the soldiers (with saving clause) that I know of. Arabs fired on the Santels[166] at the end of the lines on the White Nile, and struck one. The Arabs fired fourteen times with Krupp guns; they retired when we fired twice on them; they fired from their old battery near the Tree “el Sheddarah.” Some time ago I gave Ferratch Pasha £100 a month, and I afterwards made him a Ferile, or General of Division, for political reasons. He had the cheek to ask me to give him £150 a month (the sum I used to give the Seraskier or Commander-in-Chief in the Soudan in old times, but which was £50 beyond regulation). He put in an application a few days ago for the £150, and forage for eight horses! Quite ignoring the state of the Dhoora exchequer, I said, “Wait.” He was foolish enough to renew the application, which I tore up. He may go to the Arabs if he likes. The Arabs appear to be passing the Blue Nile at Giraffe, they may be going to place a post at Halfeyeh, the Sheikh el Obeyed refusing to send his men there, we shall see to-morrow. It is not from any feeling of respect to the people up here that I urge their relief, but it is because they are such a weak selfish lot, and because their qualities do not affect the question of our duties to them. The Redemption would never have taken place if it had depended on our merits.
I must say I rather revel at the thought of the dismay which will attend the reduction of salaries to quarter their present rate, they have been so very selfish about these things. I believe if the Mahdi would only give them half the present rate, they would go to the Mahdi, but the Mahdi’s service is gratuitous, so there is no fear of that. I go out, a black Bashi Bazouk addresses me on the inadequacy of his pay and rations. I whisper to him, “Go to Sheikh el Obeyed,” he grins and evaporates. I do not care a bit now. We must either be relieved, or fall, before the end of November, or at the end of November. I am meditating the sending down of “Husseinyeh” with this post; if the Arabs come to Halfeyeh I then cut off all hopes of our escape, for the Ismailia steamer would not be fit to go down to Berber. The financial affairs up here will be a precious job.
It amuses me to find people here holding on to the delusion that the old state of affairs is likely to come back as to the Government, and saying, “You are going to stay with us as Governor-General, and things are to be as of old.” I answer, “I would not take you again at any price after your meanness.” They say, “Oh, yes, the people are not well behaved, &c., &c., but you will stay for the glory of God” (i.e. our interests). They are an amusing lot: Allah on lips, self interest at heart, and such self interest, as is positively naked, and they even laugh at it.
A soldier and a slave came in to-night to Omdurman. They say the Mahdi is undecided what to do. The regulars with the Mahdi have been robbing the Arabs, so the Mahdi has taken away their arms.
Spy in from Sennaar fifteen days ago with letters,[167] which say Sennaar is all right. This was in answer to a letter I sent to Sennaar saying, “Expedition was on its way to relieve the garrisons, so Sennaar depends on me to see after it.”