Since my appointment as Governor of Darfur, I have been engaged in warfare with Sultan Haroun and Dud Benga, and when the revolution, caused by Mahomet Achmet broke out, I was left in Darfur without officers; some of them had been killed, some had been dismissed by the Government, and the few remaining ones were not fit to take a command. At the first outbreak, even of hostilities which were simultaneous with those of Achmet el Arabi in Egypt, I was compelled personally to take a command. After several battles, all more or less unsuccessful, the Arabian officers who bore me a grudge and firmly believed in the victory of Achmet el Arabi over the Europeans, gave out among the soldiers as their opinion, that the cause of my defeat lay in my being a Christian. In order to stifle these injurious opinions, I gave out that I had for some years already practised the Mahomedan religion and now publicly proclaimed my conversion. By this step I had regained the confidence of my soldiers, inspired them with hope, had given them a happy confidence, uprooted malicious intrigues and conducted several successful battles until the annihilation of the army in Kordofan commanded by Hicks.
Whether by my conversion I committed a dishonourable step is a matter of opinion—it was made more easy to me because I had, perhaps unhappily, not received a strict religious education at home.
I commanded in Dara against the tribes known to your Excellency as Razagat, H. L., &c., and in spite of great loss of life and want of ammunition, we were full of glad confidence in Hicks’ reserves, but after the annihilation of the latter the demoralised troops refused to fight any longer. I had now at my disposal about 700 soldiers, counting sick and wounded, and for each gun ten to twelve dozen cartridges. Officers and men demanded capitulation, and I, standing there alone and a European, was compelled to follow the majority and compelled to capitulate. Does your Excellency believe that to me, as an Austrian officer, the surrender was easy? It was one of the hardest days of my life.
By submission and obedient behaviour I have attained a certain degree of confidence amongst the local magnates, and have thus received permission to write to you, because they are of opinion that by these lines I am requesting your Excellency to surrender.
Should your Excellency not despise my feeble services and small knowledge of tactics, I beg to offer you my help, with no desire for a higher post of honour only from devotion and friendship for your Excellency and the good cause. I am ready with or under you, for either victory or death. My few faithful ones here, my fortune, &c., all—all will I gladly desert to die, if God so please, an honorable death.
Should you accept my services, I beg your Excellency to write me an answer to these lines in French, but in Arabic the following letter:
“Seek to obtain the permission of Seid Mohamed Ebn Seid Abdullah,[276] to come to Omdurman in order to discuss with you the possibility and conditions of surrender.”
By showing this letter I hope to obtain permission and opportunity to come to Omdurman and to unite with you. It now remains with your Excellency to accept or refuse my services.
May God give you the victory.
Your Excellency’s