As for Kassala, it must be relieved, by a separate expedition from Massowah and Senheit. Supposing the evacuation, and non-establishment of a regular government (under Zubair or the Turks) is determined upon, the Mahdi would, on taking Kartoum, think twice of moving on Egypt, if I was on his rear at Equator, with all the steamers.
No one can feel more strongly than I do, that January must see any British troops, who may come up on their way down to Egypt, coute que coute. This must be so, therefore I keep on, about giving the country to Sultan, or installing Zubair, with subsidies.
In the serail, we have a Turkey cock and five Turkey hens. They were all very tame, but having put the Turkey cock’s head under his wing, and swung him into sleep, on one occasion, he is now shy to come near me; however, if one goes to his wives and scratches them he is furious, and comes up with his neck of all colours, but keeps out of range. I am sorry to say that one of his wives, having sat with patience for three weeks on eggs, and brought forth two chicks, he killed them; such is the accusation lodged against him by the cook. I think a Turkey cock, with every feather on end, and all the colours of the rainbow on his neck, is the picture of physical strength; his eye is an eye of fire, and there is no doubt of his being angry when he sees his wives touched. I am one of those who believe in the fore and future existence of what we call animals. We have the history of man, shaped in the image and likeness of God. He had breathed into him the breath of God, and became alive, while the waters and earth were told to bring forth animals that had life already (Gen. i. 20). “That hath life.” Take Psalm viii. “What is man, Thou hast put all things under his feet.” What a fall there is in the next verse, “All sheep and oxen” and turn to Hebrews ii. 8, where the same Psalm is quoted, and where all things are subject to Him. All principalities, powers, and every existence are under Him. Why did the Psalmist go out of his way to quote “sheep and oxen,” unless they were (so to say) the incarnation of those powers and principalities? Man, however much he has fallen, has the grand pre-eminence over all creatures, he was shaped (the word is the same as is used for a potter making a clay vessel) in God’s image and likeness, and it is only God who could have so shaped him, as it is only God who knew His own likeness. Also when our Lord took our form (which he still keeps) as man, in Him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead, so that there is no doubt (as he differed only from us in being sinless) that man is capable of containing the fulness of the Godhead. Our belief is that as man our Lord governs heaven and earth, not a sparrow falling without His permission; this being so, the capacity of man must be such as to allow of his being so endowed as to rule all events in heaven and earth, for it is distinctly said our Lord was incarnated in a similar body to ours, except without sin. Our Lord, who is now man for ever and ever, is not likely to have taken a form which contained any hindrance to His fulness of His Godhead, therefore the form He took must be perfect, and as our difference between Him and us is our sin (which He has taken away), we, in our turn, must be capable of realising His fulness of Godhead, and my belief is that our future happiness is in being finite intelligences. We will keep on to all eternity, grasping the infinite knowledge of God which we are so formed as to be able to do, but which will last for ever inasmuch as He is infinite. When one gets on these subjects, and has to come down to this dreadful Soudan question, it is depressing; so also is the thought that misery here is our lot, for if we will be with our Master, we must be like Him, who from His birth to His death may be said to have been utterly miserable, as far as things in this world are concerned: yet I kick at the least obstacle to my will.
I certainly will, with all my heart and soul, do my best if any of Her Majesty’s forces come up here or to Berber, to send them down before January, and will willingly take all the onus of having done so. Truly the people are not worth any great sacrifice, and we are only bound to them because of our dubious conduct in Egypt, to which bond there is a limit, which I fix in January. As for the Kordofan Europeans, with one exception, they have denied their Lord, and they deserve their fate in some measure.
September 19.—The ex-Khedive always said that the great difficulty of governing the Soudan, was the want of means of easy access, so he went into a great scheme of railways; he always said that the Government was bad, because of the immunity which Governors enjoyed, owing to his being unable to control them. The Soudan, if once proper communication was established, would not be difficult to govern. The only mode of improving the access to the Soudan, seeing the impoverished state of Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so, without an outlay of more than £10,000, is by the Nile.
Take this section to be the bed of Nile from Kartoum from Assouan, a b c d e f g the cataracts; place steamers on the open spaces between cataracts, build small forts at cataracts, and a sure and certain road is open for ever.
The same crews would do for these steamers, for a weekly service would suffice. Camels should be placed at the cataracts for the transhipment of goods from steamer to steamer.
After the first outlay, which certainly would not be more than £10,000, for we have the steamers (I think £5000 would be enough), the thing would pay itself. Of course, it would be better to make loop tramways worked by animals, than to keep camels at the cataracts. I worked at this idea quietly for the time[57] I was in the Soudan before. Colonel Mason went down and examined the cataracts between Hannek and Wady Halfa, and he found one space of open water forty miles in length. The Wady Halfa railway might be produced some nine kilometres, and brought down to river bank. The mass of the misfortunes of the Soudan arose from this idea of utilising the Nile not having been carried out, but one had to work at it quietly, for Cairo was bent on the Wady Halfa railway over which such sums had been spent. I even took one steamer up from Wady Halfa to Dongola (i.e., Mr. Baird, C. E., did so), to begin the chain of steamers.
No church parade to speak of; Arabs are now visible only on the south front, four or five miles distant. Arabs did not bring their gun down to the Blue Nile to-day, and no escaped prisoners came in. To-day is the Muslim Sabbath, and there is no office work. (Not that there is much on other days; however, one never sees anyone from morning till night).