Great female squawking under the window of the Serail, approaching to yells. On examination I find the noise comes from a black female fighting the cavass. On enquiry I find my lady had gone down to buy dhoora with two dollars in her hand, and had been pushed by some ungallant fellow, and the dollars fell into the river. Though I do not see that the responsibility was upon me, I gave her the two dollars, and comforted her black soul. It would be a comfort if all the troubles of life were got rid of so cheaply.
Having undergone considerable anxiety owing to the Shaggyeh tribe in our lines during the blockade, we got rid of them to Halfeyeh as soon as we could.[90] But when they got to Halfeyeh, and met their brethren who had been with the Arabs, and who had come over to us, the former were seized with distrust of the latter, and so we are obliged to bring these latter into Kartoum. I do not think it any risk, for the Shaggyeh have lied so very much to the Arabs that nothing would ever make peace between them, so I do not feel any discomfort about them.
It is not comfortable to see your steamers with a hole in them through which you could push your head and shoulders, and that not a foot above the water-line. The Bordeen had that, the shell came in on one side and burst on penetrating the other plate of the other side.
To my mind, these Egyptian mountain guns are far preferable to those steel guns of ours, with their wretched small calibre, and I would prefer a smooth bore howitzer to an Armstrong for these wars.
I made Nutzer Bey a Pasha for his Sennaar trip, and send him down with Cassim el Mousse to Metemma to await advance of Her Majesty’s forces. Ibraham Tongi and Mousse Beys refused, or rather declined to go unless also made Pashas, which I did not see, so these worthies stay here.
B. to A.—“Well you know I had to send on the telegram, and I added I hoped Stewart was well. That fellow G. takes exception to this, and says va sans dire, that I could not have wished that Stewart was ill. Most unjust. Had I added anything to this telegram, I might have got into a row, which would never do, but what was the use of pampering to inordinate curiosity?”
A. to B.—“Well he pitched into me for asking Stewart to tell me if I could do anything for him (the communications being so easy), and for telling him the names of the Generals (to my mind a most important matter, for it would strike terror among the Arabs), he says he does not care who the Generals are (which is sheer heresy and perfectly sickening). I shall write nothing more to him except the purest official documents. It is very clear his liver is out of order, to go and attack officers of his own corps like that. It is atrocious!”
September 28.—Two women and a man came in to-day; they say the Mahdi is not at Schatt, but at Rahad. Hussan Effendi and another directed the guns against the steamers. The women say the Arabs had three guns, not five. The Arabs did not lose many from their people’s accounts. Among the three guns there was a Krupp, they say.
Say for a moment that the object of Her Majesty’s Government is simply to enable me to retreat, and is irrespective of the retreat of the garrisons—then all the loss of life in this neighbourhood on both sides was thrown away, inasmuch as if I had not come there would have been a speedier collapse, without the loss of life (at least such is probable). The Government may say that they had reasonable hopes that I would succeed; I will neither say I gave them such assurance or that I did not give it. I think I was neutral in giving or in not giving such assurance.
When the steamers get to Shendy, they will be only 150 miles from Ambukol, which is a little higher up the Nile than Debbeh (35 miles). Three more slaves came in from the north; they had run away from their master, and will enter the army. I expect we shall have lots of this sort of thing.