The Arabs from Omdurman side of the river have kept up a desultory fire of guns and musketry all day; but at sundown the fire was much heavier, and if the Arabs go on like that for many days, they will be out of ammunition, both gun and rifle.
It has turned out a benefit for us the Husseinyeh going aground, for the attention of the Arabs is devoted to her, and they fire scarcely at all on the fort at Omdurman; even if we had her, she could do little good: the other little steamer will be completed in twelve days.
I think I have been rather unjust towards the fellaheen soldier, for though he is not brave enough to take the field, he has done good work on board the steamers, and a good many of their officers and men have been killed and wounded (thanks to the policy that has been followed elsewhere) in a quarrel which does not concern them. These remarks are produced by a visit I made to the hospital to-day, when I saw the mass of the wounded were fellaheen soldiers, whom I put in the steamers, because, when in action, they could not run away, while I kept the blacks for the defence of the Lines. As I was leaving the hospital to-day, a dead man was carried out by four men in chains (convicts) on a stretcher, accompanied by two soldiers with fixed bayonets—to be buried as a dog! This is part of the glory of war! According to the demands for ammunition, we are firing away 40,000 rounds per diem; the officers ask for fresh Remingtons, as by the constant firing those they have are out of order. I feel quite indifferent, for, if not relieved for a month, our food supply fails, and even at the above rate of expenditure of ammunition we have fifty days’ cartridges. I like to go down with our colours flying. The Arabs are quite equalling us in expenditure, and they have no reserve of ammunition, or means of repairing their arms. I am going to call the new steamer the Zubair, after Zubair Pasha Rahama;[233] the town wanted it called after me, but I said, “I have put most of you in prison and otherwise bullied you, and I have no fear of your forgetting me.”
November16.—The Arabs quiet, little firing at Mogrim; I expect the Mahdi has found out that his men have been making away with his ammunition too fast, even as I have found it out. A small fantasie or church parade is going on near the Mahdi’s camp this morning.
The Arabs at the Mahdi’s camp have moved the camp further inland; they did this at sundown yesterday. It is on the tapis that they may retire altogether; if so it will be glorious. The camp opposite the Lines on South is much diminished, not more than five or six tents. The Arabs there have gone to Giraffe and El foun on the Blue Nile. With the exception of the Arab guns firing on Mogrim, and our guns answering, everything is quiet to-day. In a couple of hours the Arabs fired sixteen shells without the least effect. Their gun ammunition must be nearly expended. A woman was slightly wounded at Bourré this morning. The Arabs work on a regular principle with the captured black troops. They know that they will escape to us if they can, in the first instance, so they keep them on short rations, and promise them full rations if they fight us. They then force them into contact with us for (at first) appearance sake and to get the full rations; when in contact with us we fire on and kill some of them, then their black blood gets up, and they retaliate en bonne volonté, and are egged on by the Arabs, who say to them, “Now you have fired on the Government troops you are in for it; the Government will never pardon you,” and so thus we get no more deserters. It was the same way at Bourré, before we fired on the Arabs we got plenty of deserters, but when once we gave them a slating no more came in; they are compromised with the Mahdi’s cause, and afraid of us if they come in. The Janissaries were the children of Christian parents captured when young, and they fought with vigour against the Christians when they grew up. Scarcely ever is the true Arab in the front, so they say.
We have ninety men in hospital at present, of which fifty-four are wounded. We had one man killed, and one wounded at Mogrim to-day. A woman was wounded in the town yesterday. Report in town says seventy of our captured soldiers have deserted and have entered the fort at Omdurman.
Having been assured by my officers that it was a most terrible risk even to go along the bank near the Husseinyeh, even by night, owing to the Arabs’ rifle fire, and being extremely sceptical of the past (putting down the information given me as an excuse for doing nothing towards taking off the Husseinyeh the first night she got aground; and also as an effort to enhance the danger and daring of those men who did take off the ammunition, &c., the night before last), I went down to-night at 11.30 and found it was all a myth, and that if I wished I could take her off without any risk. However, as she is a target and occupies the attention of the Arabs, who leave the fort at Omdurman alone in consequence of her, I shall leave her as she is. Of course, needless to say, I found all the officers in charge absent; they had gone home to bed! However, I am not put out at it. They are, as a rule, the very feeblest of the conies, and nothing will change their nature. The Husseinyeh lies close to the junction of the White and Blue Niles, and one may say is within our lines.
I daresay this is a repetition, but if we do get out of this mess it is a miracle, for I do not think a slacker lot of officers ever could be found, but a bad workman always complains of his tools. A good workman turns out good work however rotten his tools may be.
November17.—It is really amusing to find (when one can scarcely call one’s life one’s own) one’s servant, already with one wife (which most men find is enough), coming and asking for leave for three days, in order to take another wife. Yet such was the case, a few days ago, with one of my servants.