Awaan (Stewart’s friend, the secretary of Arabi) is behaving very badly in prison; he was put in chains by mistake and released, but it has had no effect: he abuses the soldiers. I expect he wrote to the Mahdi and told him of Stewart’s departure and of the “Journal.” His arrest is said to have been of great effect in the town; he is said to have preached for a long time in favour of the Mahdi.
October 29.—To-day, year 1301 a.h., is said to be about the date of Hicks’s disaster; it was on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd November, but with the Arabs it was the 12th, 13th, 14th Moharrem. The news was known in Cairo three weeks after the event occurred; since that date up to this date nine people have come up as reinforcements—myself, Stewart, Herbin, Hussein, Tongi, Ruckdi, and three servants, and not one penny of money.[172] Of those who came up, two, Stewart and Herbin, have gone down: Hussein is dead, so six of the reinforcements alone remain, while we must have sent down over 1500 and 700 soldiers, total 2200, including the two Pashas, Ibrahim Hardar, and Hussein Cheri, Coetlogon, &c. The regulars, who were in arrears of pay for three months when I came, are now only owed half a month, while the Bashi-Bazouks are owed only a quarter month, and we have some £500 in the treasury. It is quite a miracle. We have lost two battles, suffering severe losses in those actions of men and arms, and may have said to have scrambled through, for I cannot say we can lay claim to any great success during the whole time. Things apparently went against us when we thought we were getting the best of it.
I believe we have more ammunition, Remington (though we have fired three million rounds at the Arabs), and more soldiers now, than when I came up. We have every reason to thank God for His protection. We had many untoward and unexpected misfortunes; the death of Berzati Bey[173] at Gitana; the almost unprofitable first trip of steamers to Sennaar, and their useless delay; our defeat (after El foun victory), by which we lost the active part of our troops, and our fighting Pasha, Mahomet Ali; the surrender of Saleh Pasha and 1500 men, with the capture of the Mahomet Ali steamer; the fall of Berber, with two steamers lost. It is really very wonderful that, with such few successes and so many heavy disasters, we should be in the position we are now. Of the reinforcement, Stewart and Tongi got wounded. We have lost three steamers, two at Berber and one at the Blue Nile, and we have built another, the Husseinyeh, and hope to have another finished in a fortnight, which makes our loss only one. The defeat near El foun brought about the arrival here of the Mahdi, which might have been very serious, but his arrival has been apparently rendered innocuous. We have £40,000 in Treasury in paper, and £500. When I came up, there was £5000 in Treasury. We have £15,000 out in the town in paper money. When I came, we had two Pashas, Ibrahim Hardar, Hussein Cheri; we have now two, Ferratch and Nutzer Pasha. Two women, wives of the men who escaped yesterday (with another very small brown baby), came into Omdurman to-day. They say the Arabs are very angry about the desertions; also a boy came in. It would seem, looking over the past months, that, if taken in detail, events have been very much against us; while, if taken generally, we have been most successful. I always had an idea we would not be allowed any success which we could impute to ourselves; that events would be so ruled that we should just scramble through and have nothing to boast of. Mahomet Ali Pasha’s defeat was owing to his and his men and the people of Khartoum’s desire to loot Sheikh el Obeyed (the man, not the city). It was against my grain, for I wanted to capture Berber, which was the proper military operation to undertake; it was only because they were so anxious, and represented the affair as so easy, that I consented to it. Perhaps, if we had taken Berber, Her Majesty’s Government would have said that no expedition was necessary for the relief of the garrisons; but it would not have been correct to reason thus, for, though Berber might have been taken, we could not have garrisoned it; and it would have been a barren victory, and not have done much towards the solution of the Soudan problem or withdrawal of the garrisons, while it might, on the other hand, have stopped the expedition for their relief.
It is the Mahdi’s men who have made the station at Kokoo on right bank of the Blue Nile opposite Giraffe, not the men of Waled a Goun; I expect it is to overawe the Sheikh el Obeyed.
The Baggaras on the north side captured this morning three of the Arabs (one is brother of the writer whose things were found on the bank, and whom we supposed to have been murdered); they were stealing three horses belonging to Saleh Pasha. A slave came in from the Arabs at Omdurman; he says the Mahdi says, the Moharrem being a sacred month, he does not mean to fight; he did not act on that view in re Hicks; but then Hicks attacked or tried to attack him.
Doubts are thrown on the veracity of that boatman, for he told some few lies about how he went to Berber in a Government boat, which is not true. However, his report cheered us for a time. Some one (Talleyrand?) said, “If a lie got currency for twenty-four hours, it did its work.” I am still of opinion, however, if the season was not so far advanced, and the Nile on the fall, that the route by the Nile for a covering force was a correct one, but it ought to have been undertaken in July with a rising Nile.
The three men caught to-day say the “expeditionary force is still at Debbeh,” and I expect this is the truth, for the eight steamers coming up the Nile is scarcely possible now, since the Nile is falling. The distance direct from Kartoum to Debbeh is nearly 250 miles, and if the Kababish are friendly, the road is not a bad one; however, I think Ambukol to Metemma (could the force know I had the five steamers at Metemma) would be better, for it is only 150 miles, and from Debbeh to Ambukol there is water transport. The road from Ambukol to Metemma does not plunge so deeply into desert; indeed, Merowé to Berber, 150 miles, with water transport from Debbeh to Merowé, would be best of all, if the force could cross the Nile at Berber. The only enemy the force will meet with, on any of the three roads, are camel-men and horsemen, till it arrives on the banks of the Nile.