November 3.—Two women and one boy came in to Omdurman from the Arabs; also seven cows walked into the same place. To-day is our anniversary of Hicks’s defeat. I have let out several of the men whom I had arrested as adherents of the Mahdi; they have had a good warning.
4 p.m. Bordeen in sight: I have let out the Sheikh el Islam, Cadi, and the old Mudir. A soldier came from the Arabs to Omdurman; he says Slatin is a prisoner for the last three days. With this man came in a spy from the Mahdi, whom I put in prison. The Mahdi has sent regulars to the rear. I shall send down the Bordeen the day after to-morrow to Metemma, and shall send the débris, Tongi & Co. down with the steamer, and you can send them on to Cairo. I think this is noble on my part, for you get their boats and they use your camels. The post has come in from Bordeen. Kitchener’s letter, saying “Abbas was captured” was a terrible blow (I send back the letters sent to Stewart in envelope).[184] Kitchener asks who were on board: Stewart, Power, and Herbin, the French Consul, and the Greeks named in the margin on the other side.[185] I cannot understand it, for the general opinion was that the route was quite safe for the Abbas, which had a mountain gun and some fifty soldiers in her. I can only put it down to some treachery on the part of the Arabs pretending to be friends.
I cannot decipher Lord Wolseley’s telegram,[186] for Stewart took the cipher-books. (Please inform Foreign Office of this, for if he [Stewart] is killed, and Abbas captured, they, the cipher-books, are in the hands of the Mahdi.) I think cipher-messages are in some countries, like this, a mistake.
The Shendy steamers sent back ten wounded from Shendy, one seriously; and I hear they had five killed. For goodness’ sake do not send back any Egyptians, now in steamers, to Kartoum; I include Pashas, officers, men, and exclude the sailors, engineers, and captains of steamers.
If Abbas is lost, I hope a Court of Inquiry will be held on the departure of Col. Stewart and Messrs. Power and Herbin; for when they left we had no news of an Expedition of Relief—vide my journal; also it was generally believed that the passage of the Abbas down was an absolute certainty without danger. I also add that Stewart, Herbin, and Power left of their own free will, and without any order from me, as the papers captured would show, if ever available. I refused to order, but I said, “If you like to go, I will assist you to go. It is at your own risk. The service you will perform is great, and you can do no good here.” I wrote this to Col. Stewart, in an official letter.
November 4.—I received private letters from Stanley, dated Congo, 5th May, and from Sir S. Baker, 1st June. I like the official note written on the envelope of Sir Samuel Baker’s letter to me—“Communications avec la Soudan interrompées.” I should think the communications were interrompées!!!
The Arabs have one gun at Shendy and one gun at Metemma; they struck Mansowrah four times.
I looked upon the descent of the Abbas as a certainty. I looked upon the relief of Kartoum as most uncertain; hence I sent down the cipher-books of the Foreign Office. Perhaps the Abbas got wrecked on the cataract. It is very sad. There is a report that the Sheikh el Obeyed is dead; if true, it will simplify that vexed question with Foreign Office of the man and the city. Arabs fired five shells at the Lines to-day; we answered with two, and they retired. If the capture of steamer is corroborated, tell French Consul-General that the Mahdi has his cipher, which was with Herbin. If Abbas was captured by treachery, then I am not to blame; neither am I to blame if she struck a rock, for she drew under two feet of water; and fifty boats (sailing) used to go down yearly to Cairo, with high Nile; if they were attacked and overpowered, then I am to blame, for I ought to have foreseen the chance, and prevented their going. But when they left we knew nothing of the Expedition, and I passed them under escort through Berber, which was the apparent only danger they had to meet. The Mahdi, if it is true that he has captured the Abbas, found two of his own seals,[187] which we had forged but did not use, also all his letters to me, and the journal was in most careful detail, hour by hour, so to say. Steamer leaves at daybreak, 5th November, 1884.
C. G. Gordon.