7.30 a.m.—Fight still going on, steamer coming up the river. 8.30 a.m.—Steamers went up and drove the Arabs off the right bank of the Blue Nile, who were enfilading our lines. The firing, which has been continuous for four hours, has pretty well ceased. Up to this we have had no killed or wounded, I am glad to say. During the night the Arabs on the left bank of the White Nile (Mahdi’s camp) fired three shells against the lines ending on right bank of the White Nile. A soldier fellaheen is thought to have deserted to the Arabs last night. 9 a.m.—The Arabs have collected in the vicinity of Omdurman Fort a heap of cows, who seem drawing down towards the fort. I have ordered Ismailia to go down. I expect they will drive the cows on to the fort, and try and explode the mines. The Arabs on the White Nile are firing on the lines with their Krupp. 10 a.m.—Arabs are leaving the vicinity of Bourré, and going back to their Dem near the White Nile. The Arabs near Omdurman village are firing across the river towards Mogrim.
The Austrian Consul when taking his morning ride was surprised at seeing two balls strike the water near, and so he returned. 10.45 a.m.—The battles are over, and all is quiet. What a worry all this is! The rockets from Omdurman drove back the advance of the cows; it was an ingenious attempt, if meant.[208]
I expect the Arabs fired away 30,000 rounds to-day. We had one man killed in small steamer, and one wounded; in the fort we had two wounded, and one man was wounded by bursting of rocket tube at Omdurman. I hate these rockets with sticks. Hale’s are the only decent ones; not that the sticks have anything to do with their bursting. The composition in these climates shrinks away from the case, and the fire flares up the whole of the exterior and interior of the rocket. I expect we are going to have a series of these festivities, which are so wearisome. In the Abbas there was a heap of money orders, &c., connected with the merchants here, so sure did they think she would get down. Six soldiers came in from the Arabs, also four slaves, who report the Arabs are thinking of putting a post at Halfeyeh. (I hope they will not.) The Mahdi has about 8,000 men of sorts with him. Slatin is in chains, also Saleh Pasha. Hussein Pasha Khalifa is great friends with the Mahdi. Omdurman captured sixteen cows when they came near the fort, also one slave. They killed one Arab. The men who came in say the Arabs mean to continue this day’s festivities every day. They do not seem to care much about the advance of the expedition, or are uncommonly confident or ignorant. I do not at all enjoy the thought of these daily festivities, they are “abrutissant,” as the Austrian Consul says.
It is very curious what a very little effect all our immense preparations at Dongola, &c., has had on the course of events; one may say they have not had up to the present the least, while I have weakened myself by sending down my steamers[209] and four hundred men (not, however, of the best quality). I expect we will have the festivity to-morrow on the White Nile end of the Lines, which is our weakest part. I must not be blamed at looking forward to a repetition of the past miseries; we truly have had a wearisome time for 241 days! Another soldier has come in; he says the Mahdi thought Kartoum could be bombarded from his new camp, but finds it cannot be done. If Lord Wolseley did say he hoped to relieve Kartoum before “many months,” he must have a wonderful confidence in our powers of endurance, considering that when he is said to have made this utterance, we had been blockaded six-and-a-half months, and are now in our ninth month. I am quite sure of one thing, that the policy followed up till lately (and the policy which may be carried out, of abandoning Sennaar, etc.) is one which will act detrimentally on our army; for what officer, if he was in a fortress, could have any confidence that it might not be thought advisable to abandon him. Her Majesty’s Government told me, or rather my friend Baring told me[210] I was not to leave Kartoum for the Equator until I had permission. I have his telegram (so that if it was possible, or if I could do it) if I did leave Kartoum, I should be acting against orders. This Soudan business will cost me £3000[211] beyond my pay, at least, which I will not ask them or allow them to pay. I shall get it from others, and I shall get another £1000 to buy Stewart’s journal, if he has been killed or captured.
Another soldier is in from the Arabs at Omdurman which fort has captured four more cows, that is twenty to-day (a cow is worth £20 in town!) £400! There is one thing which is quite incomprehensible. If it is right to send up an expedition now, why was it not right to send it up before? It is all very well to say one ought to consider the difficulties of the Government, but it is not easy to get over a feeling, that “a hope existed of no expedition being necessary, owing to our having fallen.” As for myself, personally, I feel no particular rancour on the subject, but I own I do not care to show I like men, whoever they may be, who act in such a calculating way, and I do not think one is bound to act the hypocrite’s part, and pretend to be friendly towards them. If a boy at Eton or Harrow acted towards his fellow in a similar way, I think he would be kicked, and I am sure he would deserve it. I know of no sort of parallel to all this in history, except it be David with Uriah the Hittite, and then there was an Eve in the case, who, I am not aware of, exists in this case. Remember, also, that I do not judge the question of abandoning the garrisons or not: what I judge is the indecision of Government. They did not dare say “abandon the garrison,” so they prevented me leaving for the Equator, with the determination not to relieve me, and the hope (well! I will not say what their hope was) (“March, April ... August, why! he ought to have surrendered, he said, six months”)—there is my point of complaint. The second is the FICTION that it is the Egyptian Government which governs Egypt; it is a silly story, for every one sees through it. Can one imagine a greater farce, than Lord Northbrook asking Towfik for the “assistance of Egyptian Government to carry out this, or that.” I expect the two roared with laughter over it (sorry I cannot manage a sketch of the scene). (Baring would never laugh, it is too serious, like jesting in church). The third grievance is that Treaty with Abyssinia, under the screen of the “FICTION,” (if it is true it has been made); however it is a dead letter, I am glad to say.
November 9th.—Four soldiers, five slaves, of whom two are women, came in, from the Arabs to-day. Desultory firing on and from the Arabs at Omdurman, and the White Nile Lines.
Of the men who came in, one is a slave of Slatin Bey. The Mahdi does not mean to fight direct; the Khalifas[212] and the Arabs want to fight direct. Omdurman killed some of their men; the Arabs have munitions; Slatin is in chains. These men brought in their rifles. The Arabs lost at Bourré heavily, some bodies came floating down the river to-day. A soldier came in from the Arabs. A few Arabs came and fired on the fort at Omdurman, and wounded a slave in it.
The people up here would reason thus, if I attempted to leave: “You came up here, and had you not come, we should have some of us got away to Cairo, but we trusted in you to extricate us; we suffered and are suffering great privations, in order to hold the town. Had you not come we should have given in at once and obtained pardon; now we can, after our obstinate defence, expect no mercy from the Mahdi, who will avenge on us all the blood which has been spilt around Kartoum. You have taken our money and promised to repay us; all this goes for nought if you quit us; it is your bounden duty to stay by us, and to share our fate; if the British Government deserts us that is no reason for you to do so, after our having stood by you.”[213] I declare positively, and once for all, that I will not leave the Soudan until every one who wants to go down is given the chance to do so, unless a government is established, which relieves me of the charge; therefore if any emissary or letter comes up here ordering me to come down, I will not obey it, but will stay here, and fall with the town, and run all risks. These remarks are produced by the extraordinary confidence of the Arabs, combined with the Abyssinian Treaty and other significant remarks in the newspaper Kitchener sent me—Gordon Relief Expedition—who, I expect knows more than I do, and that “that more is that the Expedition has come up for me personally.” I hope, if things do come to the worst, and that the Expedition goes back, my steamers (after abstraction of the Fellaheen troops) will be sent back to this place, with £150,000 which Baring promised me! (or as much as I wanted), and as much provisions as can be possibly spared; also a gun to replace the one lost (or said to be lost) in the Abbas trying to communicate with Europe and Cairo. Unless Zubair is absolutely required at Cairo, I would also like him to come up, or (to save appearances) allowed to escape. I hope that Stewart’s supposed death, if by treachery, will be avenged in a signal way, on the way down.[214]
A boy was captured, during the cow business at Omdurman, but he said his father was with the Arabs, so I let him go back.