What a fearful row there will be. I know one man who will write: “Better, my dear Gordon, far better! to have died, than have so very far departed from the right path; nothing, no nothing can explain it away. A happy Christmas to you.” ... “This news from the Soudan is very satisfactory; I call it a great triumph, for it not only delivers us out of a dilemma, but it effectually settles our friends, and vitiates anything he[259] may say as to the Delay.” Any military operations undertaken after the proclamation of Zubair will be put down “as measures necessary to be undertaken to secure the return, unmolested, of the expeditionary force.” 5 p.m. Artillery duel going on between our two guns and the Arab gun; our practice is very bad. The shells the Arabs fire from their Krupp gun reach the Palace Garden, but the report of their gun is not to be heard. The Arab shells from Goba fall just about 200 yards short of the Palace; but in its line there is just the second of suspense (after seeing them fire), while one hears the soft sighing of their shells coming nearer and nearer, till they strike. 7 p.m. Another battle! (the third to-day). The Arabs came down to the river and fired on the Palace; we could not stand that. 7.10 p.m. Battle over; we are as we were, minus some cartridges. 7.20 p.m. Battle begun again, because the buglers played “Salaam Effendina,” the Arabs wasting ammunition. 8 p.m. The Arabs are firing from the south at the Krupps on the Palace; they (i.e. the Arabs) are at least 4000 yards distant; one hears the shells burst, but not the report of their gun; they reached the river close to the Palace.
December 4.—Omdurman Fort all right. They had a man wounded yesterday. There was a small battle at Bourré this morning. The Arabs at Goba are quiet after the exertions of yesterday. Firing was heard (on north) towards Shoboloha last night. Report in town says the steamers are near there.
Should the Zubair arrangement be accepted, then comes the question of the military action during two months, at end of which time the expeditionary force should be wending its way back. The driving away of the Arabs from the Dem at the north of the Palace will be immediate on the arrival of the troops; the Arabs will then hold on to El foun and to Giraffe. They will vacate the vicinity of Omdurman Fort; 1000 men will deal with El foun and Giraffe, supported by our tag-rag. First Giraffe, then El foun; but at the same time as this takes place, the retreat of Arabs ought to be cut off at Gitana from Kordofan by the steamers and another 1000 men; the Mahdi will return to Schatt, and the town will be free, and all the troops defending the lines will be available. Then comes the question of going inland and attacking the family of the Sheikh el Obeyed’s son, two and a half hours inland, or else going on and attacking Mesalamieh. I think Sheikh el Obeyed’s family will give in as soon as the Arabs are driven from El foun (an affair of an hour, D. V.). I tried to entice the Arabs at Goba into a fight this evening, but they would not be drawn, and only replied by two shells, which fell in the river. We played on them with the mitrailleuse, and made them move their gun, and then they fired two more shells, one which fell near the Palace in the river. With a good mitrailleuse, and a sharp operator, with telescope sight, no gun could be served with impunity at 2000 yards range, though it could be served against artillery fire, for at that range there is plenty of time to dodge under cover after seeing the flash ere the shell arrives. The band, principally of small boys, the men being on the lines, went on to the roof of the Palace to play (they always come on the eve of their Sabbath, the Friday). The Arabs heard them, and fired a volley at them; they, furious, threw down their instruments, and flew to arms, and a regular fusillade went on for some moments, the other places supporting the fire. The buglers are bugling now “Come to us, come to us,” to the Arabs. (The Egyptian Government have the French calls, and can converse by bugle; I do not think we have.) Last night a renegade Dervish bugler in the Arab ranks replied, “Come to us, come to us.”
December 5.—Small church parades. Three caravans of some size came in from the north to Mahomet Achmet’s camp this morning. Two deserters came in from the Arabs. Fort at Omdurman all right. In store 737 ardebs of dhoora, 121,300 okes of biscuit.
We are going to make an attempt to relieve Omdurman Fort (really things are looking very black). The men who came in say the Mahdi is short of ammunition. The Arabs fired three shells at the palace this afternoon, which fell in the river. A soldier deserted to-day to the Arabs. 5 p.m. The Arabs fired two shells at the palace, which fell into the water (if they only knew! that if they sank the trail they would touch us up! their line is quite correct). 6.30 p.m. Since 3 p.m. we have been firing on them, and they on us, only wasting ammunition, for though our bullets reach them, few of theirs reach us. According to the men who came in from the Arabs, it is the pet detachment of the Mahdi who are opposite the Palace; they do not number more than one hundred, and are principally our Soudan soldiers. I have almost given up all idea of saving the town; it is a last resource, this attempt we make to open the route to the Omdurman Fort.
December 6.—(Certainly every fortified place ought to be provided with a hundred good telescopes.) The steamers went down and fired on the Arabs at Omdurman. We have £150 in cash in the treasury. In the affair to-day we had three killed and thirty-six wounded in the steamers, and Ferratch Ullah Bey reports he had five wounded at Omdurman Fort. The Arabs came down in good force, and must have lost.
I have given up all idea of landing at Omdurman; we have not the force to do it. The Arabs fired forty-five rounds from their guns at Mogrim and the steamers. We had two men wounded at Mogrim, and one killed. This is most distressing to have these poor fellows wounded and killed. To-morrow it will be 270 days 9 months that we have endured one continuous misery and anxiety. The Greeks who were at Mogrim say at least 300 or 400 Arabs were killed and wounded in to-day’s engagement. The Ismailia was struck by four, and the Bordeen by two shells, but not in vital parts. I visited the steamers, and had weariness of heart at hearing the complaint of the men as to the robbery of their rations by the officers.
December 7.—The 270th day of our imprisonment. The Arabs fired from their guns at Goba 8 shells, one of which fell in the town near Palace, but did no harm. Omdurman reports the fort all right, one more man wounded there. A great force of Arabs strayed down near Omdurman last night, and left at dawn. The cock turkey has killed one of his companions, reason not known. (Supposed to be correspondence with Mahdi, or some harem infidelity.) Report in town that Berber surrendered, “sans coup férir.” I hope so. We are going to send the steamers down again to attack the Arabs at Omdurman at noon to-morrow. The Arabs fired nine shells at Bourré, and begun again their practice on the Palace, firing five shells, one of which came close to the roof of Palace.
A soldier escaped from the Arabs and came in; he says the Expeditionary Force has captured Berber. Two soldiers deserted to the Arabs to-day! The Arabs at Goba fired three shells this evening at the Palace; two fell close to it, one fell in the water. One shell from the Arabs at Bourré fell in the hospital. One of the shells of the Arabs this evening struck the building next the Palace, and stuck in the wall, about 9 feet from the ground. A man came in from the Arabs, who says the Expeditionary Force is approaching. I saw a body of horsemen going north to-day, very fast, from El foun. In the Ismailia were eighty bullet holes on the water line of her hull; in the Bordeen there were seventy-five bullet holes, ditto in the last engagement!!! These holes were stopped by screws made for the purpose. As for the bullet marks elsewhere they are not to be counted.
My belief is that the Mahdi business will be the end of slavery in the Soudan. The Arabs have invariably put their slaves in the front and armed them; and the slaves have seen that they were plucky, while their masters shirked: is it likely that those slaves will ever yield obedience to those masters as heretofore?