[JOURNAL.]
EVENTS AT KARTOUM.
November 5.—Steamer Bordeen left this evening for Metemma. According to all accounts the presence of the steamers at Shendy and Metemma cause the Arabs great annoyance, for the Arab chief of Berber keeps calling for them to come down and help him; while they say, “If we do, then the steamers will pillage our houses.” I cannot get out of my head the Abbas catastrophe; that the Abbas (with her 970 bullet marks on her, her gun, and her parapets, which were bullet-proof), could be captured by force, seems impossible; that she ran upon a rock seems unlikely, for she had her sides defended by buffers, sunk one foot in water. I also had warned them against ever anchoring by the bank, also to take wood from isolated spots; in fact, as far as human foresight goes, I did all my possible. Why did you let them go? The matter was thus. I determined to send the Abbas down with an Arab captain. Herbin asked to be allowed to go. I jumped at his offer. Then Stewart said he would go, if I would exonerate him from deserting me. I said you do not desert me. I: I cannot go; but if you go, you do great service. I then wrote him an official; he wanted me to write him an order. I said “No, for though I fear not responsibility, I will not put you in any danger in which I am not myself.” I wrote them a letter, couched thus: “Abbas is going down; you say you are willing to go in her, if I think you can do so in honour—you can go in honour, for you can do nothing here, and if you go you do me service in telegraphing my views.” You will notice the number of Greeks. They were a bodyguard I ordered and paid highly, to prevent any treachery on the part of the crew. Thus the question of treachery was duly weighed by me and guarded against, as far as I could—both on the part of the crew and on the part of the inhabitants—and I told them to anchor mid stream, and not to take wood except in isolated spots.[188]
I escorted them by two steamers past every place where danger could be apprehended, viz., Berber and Shendy. They appear to have been captured in a comparatively thinly populated place, below Abou Hamed. I feel somehow convinced they were captured by treachery—the Arabs pretending to be friendly—and surprising them at night. I will own that, without reason (apparently, for the chorus was, that the trip was safe) I have never been comfortable since they left. Stewart was a man who did not chew the cud, he never thought of danger in prospective; he was not a bit suspicious (while I am made up of it). I can see in imagination the whole scene,[189] the sheikh inviting them to land, saying, “Thank God the Mahdi is a liar”—bringing in wood—men going on shore and dispersed. The Abbas with her steam down, then a rush of wild Arabs, and all is over! A spy said something of a chief having pretended to be friendly, and when the Abbas was near, rushing on her, but then he said the Abbas turned on them, and killed seventy-two or seventy-three (see back page of this Journal).[190] It is very sad, but being ordained, we must not murmur. I look on it as being a Nemesis on the death of the two Pashas.
I do sincerely hope you will have a strict examination into the question of Stewart, Power, and Herbin going down. What makes me think so much of the capture being by treachery is, that the two sailing-boats which went with the Abbas have not arrived at Debbeh, for if the Abbas struck on a rock, why could not the boats come on? I expect they were all caught at one coup. 11 p.m. last night Arabs fired twelve shells into the town from their Krupps on the South Front, they did not frighten us and did no harm. At midnight they fired two or three volleys of musketry with no effect. Four soldiers came in from the Arabs at Omdurman. They state the Mahdi sent a party of Arabs to Sennaar, the garrison sallied out and killed nearly all of them. Also that the Baggara Arabs, under pretence of getting better pasturage for their cattle, asked the Mahdi to let them go from his camp some distance, he agreed, and they the people no longer regard the Mahdi as before. Hussein Pasha Khalifa is good friends with the Mahdi. The Arabs came near Bourré and fired a few shots, and then went back. I expect that the Arabs sent the regulars out, and go through this as a mere form, one of these men[191] was with Slatin Bey when he surrendered, and says he did so when he had plenty of food and ammunition, and that he (Slatin) is on the best terms with the Mahdi. We shall not know the truth until the other Europeans get out of the Mahdi’s clutches.
Stewart had about £60 in gold with him, and every paper connected with our mission. I purposely kept none here, for one did not know what one day would bring forth; when he left on the 10th of September we had lost over 800 men killed, and 978 Remingtons, with a lot of ammunition on 4th of September, only six days before he left. Baker tells me news, he says Clifford Lloyd has left on account of row with Nubar, and that China and France have come to terms.
One shell from the Arabs went over the town and fell in the river.