“He is always with me. May our Lord not visit us as a nation for our sins, but may His wrath fall on me, hid in Christ. This is my frequent prayer, and may He spare these people and bring them to peace.”
The ill-fated Abbas was wrecked, her passengers and crew were murdered, her papers were taken to the Mahdi, who now knew exactly how long Khartoum could hold out against famine.
On the 21st of September Gordon first heard the news of a relief expedition being sent from England, and three days later he resolved to dispatch armed steamers to Metemma down the Nile to await the arrival of our troops. They started on the 30th, taking with them many of Gordon’s best men; but Gordon went on, drilling, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, writing hopefully, and sometimes merrily, in his journals. For instance, writing of an official who had telegraphed, “I should like to be informed exactly when Gordon expects to be in difficulties as to provisions and ammunition,” Gordon remarks:
“This man must be preparing a great statistical work. If he will only turn to his archives he will see we have been in difficulties for provisions for some months. It is as if a man on the bank, having seen his friend in a river already bobbed down two or three times, hails, ‘I say, old fellow, let us know when we are to throw you the life-buoy. I know you have bobbed down two or three times, but it is a pity to throw you the life-buoy until you are in extremis, and I want to know exactly.’”
On the 21st of October the Mahdi arrived before Khartoum, and Gordon was informed of the loss of the Abbas and the death of his friends. To this Gordon replied:
“Tell the Mahdi that it is all one to me whether he has captured 20,000 steamers like the Abbas—I am here like iron.”
On the 2nd of November there were left provisions for six weeks, and he could not put the troops on half rations, lest they should desert.
On the 12th an attack was made upon Omdurman, a little way down the river, and on Gordon’s steamers Ismailia and Hussineyeh. The latter was struck by shells, and had to be run aground. In the journal we read:
“From the roof of the palace I saw that poor little beast Hussineyeh fall back, stern foremost, under a terrific fire of breechloaders. I saw a shell strike the water at her bows; I saw her stop and puff off steam, and then I gave the glass to my boy, sickened unto death. My boy (he is thirty) said, ‘Hussineyeh is sick.’ I knew it, but said quietly, ‘Go down and telegraph to Mogrim, “Is Hussineyeh sick?”’”
On the 22nd of November Gordon summed up his losses. He had lost nearly 1,900 men, and 242 had been wounded. And where were the English boats that were to hurry up the Nile to his rescue?