We hear the Arabs are perplexed, because the other day, when they bombarded us, we did not answer. This was my doing to save ammunition. The Arabs asked the regulars with them, “why we did not answer?” and said they were sure the regulars were in communication with us. We are now weighing the pros and cons for not answering the artillery fire of the Arabs, which do us no harm and uses up their ammunition. By not doing so we do not lose the sympathies of the regulars, whereas if we do so we exasperate and render desperate those regulars. We had an instance of that at Bourré, where at first the regulars were well disposed towards us, and came over in numbers; whereas after we had killed a lot of them they ceased to come in, and used to fight us with viciousness.
The woman says, beyond the captured regulars, Arabs have no fighting force. These captured regulars are mostly all blacks.
Another plot? In town a man was discovered taking out a note couched in mysterious language, from one of the clerks in a Government office. With the note was £34, supposed to be a present to the Mahdi from Sheikh el Islam (the blind man) here. The efforts to square the circle are extraordinary. The people here, I expect, have all hedged. I am going to make a sort of general arrest to-night (similar to that made by Napoleon III. on the night of the 1st December) of all who are supposed to be in communication with the Mahdi. I shall not hurt them, but shall send them out to the Mahdi. Query, was it on the night of the 1st and 2nd December Napoleon took his foes prisoners, or on the night of the 2nd-3rd December? I think it was the night of the 1st-2nd December, and the so-called massacre happened during the day of the 2nd December. (Vide Kinglake in ‘Coup d’étât.’)
I shall not send out the Sheikh el Islam[124] although he is a disgrace. I asked Mahomet Edrees, my servant, “to become a Christian.” He said “he could not.” Then I said, “Why ask me to become a Mussulman, when your Sheikh el Islam is prepared to acknowledge Mahomet Achmet as the Mahdi?” 5 p.m.—The arrests are out. Sheikh el Islam, Cadi, and a host of swells are to be kept in their homes—sixteen in all! A good swoop; among them the Mudir Achmet Bey Jelaba. I have made Moussa Bey Mudir. There will be quite a scare about it. I have not sent any away to the Mahdi. The band boys are all armed, and are quite ferocious. It would be a great mistake to come up here and think to find soldiers in extremis; they are as cocky as possible. They strut along as if no one was their equal. The blacks are a stubborn race; and if one sticks to them, they will stick to you. Towfikia has left for Metemma at last.
A mouse has taken Stewart’s place at table; she (judging from her swelled-out appearance) comes up and eats out of my plate without fear.
The turkey-cock has become so disagreeable that I had to put his head under his wing and sway him to and fro till he slept. The cavasses thought he was dead, but he got up and immediately went at me. The putting the head under the wing acts with all birds, but it is the cock alone who gets mesmerised by the chalk lines drawn in front of his beak. How do you account for this?
I believe that a good recruitment of blacks and Chinese would give England all the troops she wants for expeditions, mixed with one-sixth English. As for those wretched Sepoys, they are useless. I would garrison India with Chinese and blacks, with one-sixth English, and no army could stand against us. The Chinese in Shanghai had the greatest contempt for the Bombay Sepoys, and used to knock them about. Beloochees and Sikhs are a different class. I have the greatest contempt for the pure Indian Sepoys. Chinese, or blacks, or Goorkas, or Belochees are far better. The moment he (the pure Sepoy) is off parade, he puts off all uniform that connects him with Her Majesty’s Government, and puts on his dish-clout. I hate these snake-like creatures. Any man accustomed to judge by faces sees that they hate us.
I would back the Mussulmans of India against the lot of those snakes. India, to me, is not an advantage; it accustoms our men to a style of life which they cannot keep up in England; it deteriorates our women. If we kept the sea-coast, it is all that we want. It is the centre of all petty intrigue, while if our energy were devoted elsewhere, it would produce tenfold. India sways all our policy to our detriment. Lord Cardwell replied (when I asked him the question as to the benefit we got from India), “that we could not get out of it,” and I suppose that is the answer that must be given.
October 13.—Cavalry sortie this morning from Bourré; captured fifteen slaves and killed thirteen men who resisted. This sortie was under Abdoul Hamid, the Sandjak of the Shaggyeh. We lost none.
The Arabs on Omdurman side have spread out their huts in a semicircle (but at a considerable distance) around Omdurman, on the left bank.