“I should have to leave large stores, and nine steamers which cannot go down. Eventually, some question would arise at Berber and Dongola, and I may utterly fail in getting the Cairo employés to Berber.
“If I attempt it, I could be responsible only for the attempt to do so.
“Once the Mahdi is in Kartoum, operations against him will be very arduous, and will not serve Sennaar and Kassala.”
“Kartoum, March 9, 1884, 11.40 p.m.
“If the immediate evacuation of Kartoum is determined upon, irrespective of outlying towns, I would propose to send down all the Cairo employés and white troops with Colonel Stewart to Berber, where he would await your orders. I would also ask Her Majesty’s Government to accept the resignation of my commission, and I would take all steamers and stores up to the Equatorial and Bahr Gazelle Provinces, and consider those provinces as under the King of the Belgians.
“You would be able to retire all Cairo employés and white troops with Stewart from Berber to Dongola, and thence to Wady Halfa.
“If you, therefore, determine on the immediate evacuation of Kartoum, this is my idea. If you object, tell me.
“It is the only solution that I can see if the immediate evacuation of Kartoum, irrespective of the outlying towns, is determined upon.”—Ibid.—Ed.
[110] “I have received your telegram of the 9th inst., informing me that you have received a letter from General Gordon from which it appears that that officer contemplates proceeding to Bahr Gazelle and the Equatorial Provinces. I have to state that Her Majesty’s Government are of opinion that General Gordon should not at present go beyond Kartoum.—Earl Granville to Sir E. Baring, Feb. 11th, 1884. Egypt, No. 12 No. 4.—Ed.
[111] Romulus Gessi, who was formerly employed as interpreter at the headquarters of the army before Sebastopol, and who did such excellent work against the slave-hunters in the Soudan as General Gordon’s lieutenant in 1878. Gessi was subsequently appointed Governor of the Bahr Gazelle, but was obliged to retire owing to the intrigues of Raouf Pasha. He died at the hospital at Suez in 1881.—Ed.