A is one mile from river; camp D and E are three to four miles from the river. Of these numbers perhaps there are 3000 to 4000 fighting men, and 600 horsemen to 800 horsemen in the whole lot. There is nothing like being precise in these days, and it saves a deal of talking if one knows a man’s ideas beforehand. If the Expedition comes here before the place falls (which is doubtful), and if the instructions are to evacuate the place at once, and leave Kassala and Sennaar, &c., I will resign, and have nothing more to do with the Government of the place, or of the Soudan; and this I have a perfect right to do, and no one, not even the Soudan troops or people, could say one word. It will depend on circumstances how I shall act in re my commission in Her Majesty’s service (which I do not hold too fast to, seeing any future employment would not be accepted, even if in the very improbable case of its being offered); but I consider that every officer has a right to resign, and if he resigns he is no longer subject to military orders, and is free to go when and where he likes. It may be argued I was named Governor-General “in order to carry out the evacuation of the Soudan, and that I am bound to carry that out, which is quite correct, but I was named for evacuation of Soudan” (against which I have nothing to say), not to run away from Kartoum and leave the garrisons elsewhere to their fate.[245] If it is positively determined on not to look after the garrisons, and not to establish some sort of provisional Government in the Soudan, then the course to pursue is to name a Governor in my place on day of arrival, and carry out with that Governor that policy which, I have already said, is one of very great danger (putting all the other considerations aside). Personally, looking at the matter from a very selfish point of view (and seeing I have done my best to prevent this policy being followed, and am impatient to oppose it), I should be much relieved at this denouement, for I should be in Brussels on 20th January.
I have given 6,000 lbs. of biscuit out to the poor (I expect half will be stolen), and I shall sell to-morrow 90,000 lbs. to the townspeople. I am determined if the town does fall, the Mahdi shall find precious little to eat in it. Two soldiers got hold of the head of a shell-rocket fired by Arabs, and, having nothing better to do, they set to work to open it. It burst, and has nearly killed one, and wounded the other—the effects of curiosity!
November 23.—A soldier came in at the North Fort from the Arabs; he says the Expedition has captured Berber, and are advancing on this, and the Arabs want to attack Tuti Isle.
The Arabs, this morning, fired from Goba on breastwork of Tuti. The soldier says my noble friend, Nutzer Pasha, kept safely all the steamers at Shendy, and never aided in any way at Berber. The Arabs are (so says this soldier) collecting at Halfeyeh to receive the expedition, but I do not think it.
Three women came in last night from the Arabs to North Fort; they had been captured during the raid the Arabs made on the Shaggyeh some days ago.
The soldier who came in brought two rifles and two belts of ammunition.
Ferratch Ullah Bey, of Omdurman Fort, reports “he is all right,” by signal.
A report has come in that the Expedition had arrived at Metemma, and had encountered the Arabs twice; that a steamer had been sent up to inform me, but the Arab guns had forced her to return; they say that this report has come into the town by men who have friends in the Mahdi’s camp, and who had seen some of the Arabs wounded. This news is five days old. Very few Arabs in the camp on the North of the Palace. The Shaggyeh came and asked me to let them go up and pillage the Arab camp as there were so few in it; they knew well that I knew if I did give them leave they would not go, so it was a safe volunteer on their part. A caravan of Arabs came from the North to the Arab camp this morning. The Arabs have only one gun on the Omdurman side now; I expect the rest are taken down against the Expedition. We have only 541 rounds of Krupp ammunition left for our two Krupps. I went to Mogrim, and practised on the Arab House where their gun is, 1600 yards range; we put three shells into it, upon which the Arabs left. I am still apprehensive of an attack on Omdurman Fort, and have the Ismailia steamer ready. I have sent down thirty rockets (sky) to Mogrim to be fired off; this will bother the Arabs, who will not know what to make of it, and will think we have got some very important news. I know if this happened when I was meditating an assault, I should hesitate before I made that assault after the fireworks.