I had to send down ten barges for those creatures at 10 p.m. last night. (See p. 185.)
No spies in this morning; people will begin to believe Awaan’s statement, that he it was who wrote the letters (I pretended to have had) from the English.
A woman just in says there is a report with the Arabs that the English are at Dongola; that a steamer and four nuggars, with English, are at Berber(?) (I expect she has mixed up Stewart’s steamer and boats with her story); that the Arab chief of Berber has sent for help, which has not yet been sent him.
One of those large shells was blown up by a boy treading on it; it does not appear to have hurt him; it was in the group of date palms opposite to the Palace.
I confess the shells do not seem so very destructive. Perhaps they are too deeply buried; however, they have frightened people.
A small boy and five men escaped from the Arabs and came in. The Mahdi, with Europeans, is at Schatt; he means to come to Omdurman. They corroborate that some troops went back to Obeyed to put down the rising of tribes.
The boiler has been successfully put in the small steamer.
It is odd how quick the blacks, by instinct, know how to avoid the effects of the shells, by throwing themselves on the ground when they hear the fizz of the quick-match; they all do it, and thus have escaped. Of course it would not do in an assault. The little black chap never ran so fast as he did when he got up after the explosion, never looking behind him. He went to two black sluts, who had been alarmed at the noise, and explained the opening of the ground, &c., with a good deal of gesticulation. They had a sort of Medgliss[105] on the subject whether it was not time to return home, and pick no more grass, after such dreadful things had happened, and which ended in their doing so, carefully avoiding the scene of the accident.
I expect these improvident people killed over 1000 sheep and goats at their Bairam; the report is that it exceeds that number.
There is no doubt there will be a fearful famine in this country next year, for there are vast districts lying desert which were formerly cultivated.