I have mentioned that Stewart’s journal contained all events from 1st March, 1884, to 10th September, and if lost there is only the journal of the Doctor, which begins 7th March, 1884.
I wish the correspondent of the Times to know this, and to be told that the Doctor has promised me that the Times shall have the first offer of that journal. Stewart was wounded near the Palace, at 6 a.m. on Sunday, 25th May, in the arm (flesh wound). If Sennaar has beaten back the Arabs a second time I cannot see how it is possible to abandon the garrison, and if they are to be relieved, I see at least a delay of four months; all this could be avoided by handing the Soudan over to the Sultan with a subsidy. When Stewart left we were at the lowest ebb, the Arabs from Kordofan had arrived with their guns, and our three steamers were just in from Sennaar, with seven shot holes in them.
Hansall, the Austrian Consul, has a daily journal; Power and Herbin had one also.
I have captured[192] all the European telegrams which we sent and which we received. I shall hand them over to you, as they are in cipher, and as you may have the F. O. cipher books, you can peruse them. Stewart (as I have said) carried off the cipher books with him; he had two copies of the journal, but I did not like to ask him to leave one here, as I said, have bolted—they are his best horsemen—also that “you can send one home, while you keep the copy to refer to.”
I send with this the Firman of Towfik and the letters[193] respecting the troops withdrawing, which I received at Cairo on the 23rd January, 1884, and which have not been promulgated.
If Stewart, Power, and Herbin died because they would not change their religion, they are as much martyrs as Peter or Paul.
A black boy of ten years was caught by the Arabs outside of the Lines this morning, collecting grass, and he escaped from them this evening and came back to the town; he is a smart boy.
If the Abbas is taken, the Mahdi has the small seal I used in my former time, and he captured at fall of Berber my large seal, so he has both. If it is true, the Abbas must have been captured between Abou Hamed and Merowé, on or about the 18th September. Now, on the 18th September the Arabs must have known of Kitchener being at Debbeh, since he wrote to me from that place on 31st August. Probably Stewart was lulled into security in feeling himself so near Merowé, and on account of the news the Sheikh gave him of the advance of the expedition.
Abou Hamed is one hundred miles from Merowé, which, with the current, the Abbas could do in twelve hours, and there is only one small cataract to pass, which is, by all accounts, an easy one. Stewart had a supreme contempt for the Soudanese people, and for their courage, which I do not share. That our men are not heroes, I agree, but we had against us the feeling that the Arabs were ten times our numbers, while we had received no reinforcements whatever.[194] If he (Stewart) has fallen, it is because he was carried away by the idea the Arabs would not dare to do anything. Power had the same defect, viz., over-rashness in not considering the material they had to support them. You may be very strong yourself, but your strength is of no avail if you are supported by weaker vessels. The rate of progress of a fleet is decided by the speed of the slowest vessel, so up here one ought to work as if the whole mass was as cowardly as the greatest coward in the force. If the Abbas went on a rock she had two boats (which I expressly mentioned to Stewart were to be taken in case of such an accident), and they could have got into them, and, with the current, got down easily. I sent, in 1878, a boat with a large tank, in which were four hippopotami (infants); it got down to Cairo in fifty days from here, and Stewart had the Reis, or pilot of that boat, in the Abbas. Humanly speaking, when Stewart left here the condition of Kartoum was desperate; while, on the other hand, when once the Abbas passed Berber, which we escorted her past, the certainty was she would reach Dongola, and even we discussed whether Dongola might not have fallen, and agreed that the Abbas even in that case could have got down to Wadi Halfa, in which case I told Stewart to go on with her to Cairo. Men may not remember the case of Captain ..., who took a middy up against Taepings with him, which middy was killed. Middy’s father ... made a great row about this. Why did ... take the middy up, &c. I say, in defence of my letting Stewart go, that both he, Power, and Herbin felt our situation here was desperate after the defeat at El foun—that I had, over and over again, said it was impossible for me to go, physically impossible, because even my servants would have betrayed me (even if I had felt inclined to leave), and I would die here (even going so far as to have two mines brought to the palace with which to blow it up if the place fell). These three men’s ideas were that it was shabby to leave me, but when I showed them they could do no possible good by being prisoners, and when I said I shall send the Abbas with the journal, then, first, Herbin, then Stewart, and then Power, said they would go in her. A long conversation took place between me and Stewart, he wishing me to order, I declining to do so, on account of eventualities which might arise: it ended in my writing the letter I alluded to in former pages of the journal. I avow I was glad they went, 1. because I thought it was quite safe; 2. because I knew if Europe knew of the state of affairs the Government would be shamed into action.