Ten thousand times better for us to perish than for you to run the risk; and besides that, I have a confident belief we will not (D.V.) perish. The usual hammer and tongs fusillade will go on, but they will not attack the place, and we will not go out against them; while you will creep on quietly and safely, and send out your feelers, making raids upon these Arabs. I would let Buller have full swing for all these little biting expeditions. I believe he is well off (and I think not married, which is an enormous advantage); and he and his subordinates will learn scouting, &c., in a good school. It is this very same warfare we will have to exercise if ever we would oppose Russia in her advance on Afghanistan—i.e., of going up and landing in the Persian Gulf, and cutting in on their flank. So it will be a good school for him and his.
The wretched peasant, with that filthy cloth, which you see, is a determined warrior, who can undergo thirst and privation, who no more cares for pain or death than if he were of stone. The young fellows even have a game by which they test who will bear the lash of the hippopotamus’ whip best. They are in their own land; the pains of war are their ordinary life; and they are supported by religion of a fanatical kind, influenced by the memory of years of suffering at the hands of an effete set of Bashi Bazouks. No; if our Kentish or Yorkshire boys are to come up to help me, it is not with my wish, unless with the greatest precaution. Thank God we have few Europeans here, and those I can (D.V.) care for, and you need not fear for our retreat; and if we die, why, when we entered the army we sold our lives at so much a day. I verily believe no merchant would give me £200, which, to me, is the current value of the man in this world.
It is the most extraordinary thing, quite incomprehensible, that with only one exception, that of Zubair’s man who came from Cairo (with Egerton’s famous despatch about contracts), not one single messenger has entered this place on the proper initiative of outsiders. It has been invariably my messengers, who were sent out by me, from Kartoum, who did bring me any news. It would seem as if those outside seemed to think it was my duty to send out and bring in news for myself, and that they had nothing to do with it. Either these officers outside do not care to spend a sou in spies to give me information, or else they think it is a matter of supreme indifference, whether I know what is going on or not; and I must say when my messengers do come back, they bring me scarcely any information of import. There is a lot of “I hope you are well,” &c.; men like Kitchener and Chermside might be expected to have more brains than that.[84] If I had not exerted myself in the spy business, we never would have had a word, I verily believe. I never saw such a poor lot as these outsiders. Even if they had had to pay £20 out of their own pockets, one might have expected them to do it, considering the circumstances. They might have been paid back. But neither Her Majesty’s Ministers in Cairo, nor these men have seemed to care a jot to inform us. Silly foolish questions are all we ever have got from them, and it is not to be wondered at, that I am indignant with such unpatriotic conduct, and not inclined to be over civil beyond my duty. I never saw such a feeble lot in my life! One has only to compare the telegrams, &c., we sent down, with the rubbish sent in by our own messengers I paid for.
Two children and three escaped soldiers came in to-day from the Arabs, but had no news.
Read “Floyer’s” telegram, with Kitchener’s note to Stewart on same paper—it perfectly exasperates one. Kitchener asks Stewart “what he can do for him”—nothing of what has gone on with respect to the Soudan since Graham’s expedition. Of course men are not obliged to write at all.
I altogether decline the imputation that the projected expedition has come to relieve me. It has come to SAVE OUR NATIONAL HONOUR in extricating the garrisons, &c., from a position our action in Egypt has placed these garrisons. I was relief expedition No 1. They are relief expedition No 2. As for myself I could make good my retreat at any moment if I wished. Now realise what would happen if this first relief expedition was to bolt and the steamers fell into the hands of the Mahdi: this second relief expedition (for the honour of England engaged in extricating garrisons) would be somewhat hampered. We the first and second expeditions are equally engaged for the honour of England. This is fair logic. I came up to extricate the garrisons and failed. Earle comes up to extricate garrisons and (I hope) succeeds. Earle does not come to extricate me.[85] The extrication of the garrisons was supposed to affect our “national honour.” If Earle succeeds the “national honour” thanks him and I hope rewards him, but it is altogether independent of me, who for failing incurs its blame. I am not the rescued lamb, and I will not be.
Had Gessi dared to have communicated with me like these men have, he would have heard of it; but he never did.
The Towfikia steamer went up and saw no Arabs at Giraffe to-day.
Look at this: I send down a spy, A. Kitchener and Co. send him back with answer. If Kitchener and Co. thought, they would know that A., being seen passing to and fro, must incur suspicion; however, A. happily gets through with risk (not having, by the way, had one penny from K. and Co.); then all communication stops till I send down B. What is K. doing at Debbeh? that he could not write a better letter than to tell me the names of the generals and regiments—a matter of the most supreme indifference to Kartoum.