11.30 a.m. The Arabs on the right bank of the Blue Nile have moved towards the north, and, from the number of porters, I expect they are going to form a camp to the north.
It may be turned as one likes; three prominent undeniable facts exist. Her Majesty’s Government refused to help Egypt with respect to the Soudan, refused to let Egypt help herself, and refused to allow any other power to help her: this cannot be disputed or explained away. Lord Dufferin’s despatch was “hands off.”[239] The resignation of Cherif was the prohibition of allowing Egypt to help herself. This tardy succour under pressure, and Baring’s despatch, establishes the unwillingness to help.
The Arabs have settled down in the old Dem they occupied in March last!! opposite the palace, and which they evacuated in August; their vicinity will give us more spies, which we have lacked hitherto; this proceeding does not show as if they were much appalled at the advance of the expeditionary force. On the 12th March they pitched their tents on the very spot they are pitching them now—251 days ago—during which we have night and day been in hostilities with them, and been obliged to keep on the alert “because of?” “because of?”—“What?” The answer has been worn threadbare.
The Arab guns on Omdurman side firing 1.30 p.m. on Mogrim. They have expended a lot of gun ammunition in last few days. 3.30 p.m. They are still firing; one can distinguish the Nordenfeldt. I remember how, when Hicks left for the Soudan, papers wrote of the great effect that the Nordenfeldts were to have upon Arabs, like the French before the Franco-Prussian war with their mitrailleuses. At 4 p.m. they fired for a quarter of an hour quickly. This was caused by five cows which approached the Fort, the men of which killed three (so to-night they will have meat). The Arabs fired fifteen shells one after the other against the Fort, for the outrage on their property. I shall have to move these superior troops (the Shaggyeh) out of the North Fort, for the approach of the Arabs has filled them with dismay. I have kept moving them from every place the Arabs came near. It is really absurd that one should have to pay and keep such troops. I will say Ferratch Pasha (however irritating he is in some ways) is always the gentleman, which I am sorry to say I am not, with the fury I get in on state occasions. A woman came in from the south front; she says they were all my old soldiers who are fighting on the left bank of the Nile, and that they lost heavily on the day Husseinyeh got aground. I am moving these Shaggyeh to the lines; it is no use exposing them to be attacked. The Arabs now on the north front opposite the palace are the men of the Mahdi, not as before the men of the Sheikh el Obeyed, who do not seem to have entered cordially into the second blockade of Kartoum. We had to-night the Arab forces all around us, and are regularly hemmed in, but the town does not care a bit, and are fighting questions of pay with me, for I am paying in paper the three months’ backsheesh I promised them.
The major who was shot when lying on his angarep, and who died of his wound, was 3,000 yards distant from the Arabs. We do not know yet the effect of the rifle in a dropping fire. I offered, in paying the three months’ backsheesh to the troops, to give orders for bulk sums £120, £130, but they refused to accept them; they want the regular paper money, so I have issued £10,000 more in £50 notes. In this paper money notes I am personally responsible for the liquidation, and any one may bring an action against me, in my individual capacity, to recover the money, while in the orders it might be a query whether they (the authorities of Cairo) might not decline to pay the orders. Paper money now cannot be bought at a discount. People have tried to buy it up, but they failed.[240] I consider this is very satisfactory for one’s credit. Her Majesty’s Government, as well as the Soudan people, will not need to name a vessel after me in order to remember me, even if they felt so disposed, which I very much doubt. We shall get lots of spies in now the Arabs have hemmed us in. In these deserts, if you leave a space unguarded you see at once any one moving over it; but if you surround it entirely, there is the usual going to and fro, and thus a spy slips in. I do not think it is realised what happened in Hicks’ defeat a year ago. 10,000 soldiers, including 2,000 cavalry, 4,000 camp-followers, 7,000 camels, perished in two days from thirst;[241] 1700 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds Remington ammunition, were captured; 7 Krupps, 6 Nordenfeldts, 29 mountain guns, with 500 rounds each, were captured (perhaps 300 men were spared out of the host). Eight Englishmen and 8 Germans were killed, and, according to all accounts, they were so exhausted that they were unable to move. Stewart took great pains to get all the details, and wrote them in his journal. The Arabs have made a pyramid of the skulls. The major who was wounded at Mogrim was sleeping in the telegraph station in the Fort. He found it hot, and went out and got struck and died. If you went to the Fort at Mogrim you would (on seeing the position whence the Arabs fire) say you were as safe there as in Regent Street. This man was a very timorous man, and had avoided every service of the least danger. It is of no use fighting against your destiny. The doctor described to me to-night the state of the town a year ago, when they heard of the defeat of Hicks; and one compares it to our present state, when one may say perfect confidence exists in the town, and every one has gone comfortably to bed—it is a lesson to man to never despair.
November 19.—The Arabs came down, 7 a.m., to Goba, opposite the Palace, and fired, but did no harm; they are pulling down Seyd Mahomet Osman’s house, which was spared. Ferratch Ullah did not dare to go out for the three cows killed last night. The Arabs had a bugler of ours with them at Goba; he bugled a call “1st Regiment!” and then was apparently stopped, he then bugled “We are strong! We are strong!” I have packed up and addressed to the chief of staff, Soudan Expeditionary Force, “all European telegrams sent from and received in the Soudan for years 1883-84,” and send the box with this portion of the Journal.[242] The Arabs have put a gun in the breastwork on the left bank of the White Nile below Omdurman Fort, so as to bar the entrance to Kartoum on the north.
We have communicated with Omdurman Fort with flags, it is all right. The Arabs are not firing to-day (since 8.30 a.m.). Twelve days have to elapse ere the month’s rations become due; this evening it is reported to me that those utterly useless troops—some fifty Bashi Bazouks—began crying that they had nothing to eat, and even went so far as to throw down their arms; now this is rather too much, considering that they are receiving the full rations of soldiers, and also the pay of men who are supposed to find themselves, so that it is a perfectly gratuitous gift to give them rations at all, or if I do so, I should cut their pay; the best of it is, that I have given them full rations for the month, which has twelve days yet to run ere that month is out. I do not know if ever the expeditionary force will come here, and I do not know the policy which will be pursued; but there is one thing I think I am justified in demanding, that is the disbandment of these brutes, to whom only yesterday I gave a gratuity of fifty dollars to erect their breastwork—a totally unnecessary proceeding on my part. Of course if I can hand over the government to the Expeditionary Forces’ Leader I have nothing to say; he can do as he likes. What irritates me is, that a row like this is aided and abetted by every officer, inasmuch as it is to me the row is brought, they daring not to decide; of course, it must be seen, that situated as we are, if one corps can take rations for a month and eat them in a fortnight, and then get more, it is virtually giving double rations to the troops, for if you gave to one part, all the rest would want it.
November 20.—A caravan of 300 men and twenty camels came up the left bank of the White Nile, from the direction of Metemma. 7 a.m. A soldier who came in from the Arabs, says, “The Mahdi sent 2,000 men down towards Metemma on account of the advance of the Expedition, who are near Berber.” Also “reports the advance of King Johannes” (which I doubt). I expect the caravan seen to-day is a caravan with the money from Berber. Report in the town says the Arabs have been repulsed three times by the Expeditionary Force. The Arabs are very quiet to-day; their Nordenfeldt kept on grunting at intervals this morning. Four of those precious troops the Shaggyeh (one a Bashi Bazouk), have deserted to the Arabs; it was never reported to me. I have a suspicion that more have gone. We communicated with Omdurman Fort by flag-signals; they are all right. The Arabs fired from their guns on the White Nile, and from the Omdurman side, a few rounds this evening.
It is rather astonishing to find that the row about the rations the night before last, was made by the Cairo Bashi Bazouks, who are completely at one’s mercy, for the Arabs would never look at them;[243] they even went so far as to throw down their arms! A volley of lies was told about this affair, trying to prevent me hearing the truth. However, I got at the bottom of it, and have noted my friends. A merchant here had a partner in business, who went to the Arabs eight months ago with £3,000 belonging to this merchant, who coolly asks me to pay the £3,000!!!