We do not want to be told the steamers are dirty, for we know it.
If coming up, see beforehand that Arabs have not a gun or guns at the Shoboloha Pass, and if wood has to be looted, loot those people on the left bank of the Nile, not those on the right.
I do not care much to have Wood’s men here; there will be sure to be rows between them and our blacks, and they are not favourites in the Soudan. Still less do I want to see Bashi Bazouks, or tribes who have been taken into our pay, for they will rob right and left.
I have prepared the beads, copper rods, uniforms, &c., to send up to the Equator as soon as it is possible. Report says the garrison of the Equator is at Fashoda.
The sister steamer to Abbas will be finished in twelve days. We made, or rather Hassan Bey made, a first-rate crank.
Remember, we have very few dollars here, and gold is depreciated in value. We have only £1,000 in the treasury.
It would be as well to tell the Greek creditors, who may be coming up, that there is not the least probability that the Government, whatever it may be, will look at any of their claims until at least a year has expired.
We have painted the steamers up; they are whited sepulchres.
I hope Ibrahim Tongi and Moussa Beys, who will come down with the first lot, who leave this (after the hoped-for capture of Berber), will be sent on to Cairo at once, and not given appointments, on any consideration, at Berber or elsewhere.