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GENERAL GORDON.

. .- ■ - _'"^- -r- -«■■ -^j^

I-

THEE

WAR IN THE SODDAiN

AND

THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT,

WITH SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE
PRINCIPAL PERSONAGES ENGAGED.

T. ARNOLD HAULTAIN, M.A.

XIL.XiTJSTIi-A.TEID.

PUBLISHED BT

THE GRIP PRINTING and PUBLISHING CO., TORONTO.

1885.

ff 7

DT I in

•y^V ' '' "

3SKZ:

.5 U.M^Z

J-/6ui7/)/U T,/9,

Entered aooording to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eigfht hundred and

eighty-flve, by The Grip Printinq and Publishiko Company, Toronto, in the

Office of the Minister of Agriculture.

CONTENTS.

Pkitaoe

Chap. I.— Thk First Shot

II.— Why England is Fightinq
III.— Tbl-el-Kebik

FAOK

rv.— Internal Reforms 19

v.— The Soudan

VI.-Thk Mahdi

VII.— Slain in the Desert

VIII.— More Disasters

IX.— The Call for Gordon

X.—" I Will Save the Honour of Egypt " .

XI.— At Khartoum ,

XII.— Still Further Reverses

XIII.— El Teb

XIV. —What Gordon is Doing

. 46

XV.— Problems 57

XVI.— England Roused 58

XVII.— A Medlrt 62

XVin.-"WHAT Shall We Do?" 66

XIX.— How TO Get There 71

XX. —The Votageurs 76

XXI.— The Camel Corps 80

XXII.— The Beleaguered Citt and Its Three Defenders 86

XXIII.— Relative Distances of Important Places 89

XXIV.— The Toilers of the Nile 94

XXV. -Lei't Alone 100

XXVI.— Thk Horrors of the Desert 103

XXVII.— Abu Klea and Abu Kru 107

XXVIII.— Too Late 115

XXIX.— The Journey Back 118

S:XX.~What Now ? 120

Bioob^phioal Sketches 121-137

-^r

PREFACE.

The historia/n of contemporary events labours under a two-fold
disadvantage: the unfinished state of the period he attempts to depict
precludes the possibility of representing it in artistic form ; the incom-
pleteness of the circ^imstances with which he deals, and the inability
accurately to gauge their residts, make it impossible to indulge in any
philosophical generalizations. Added to this, the want of perspective
that obtains in treating of events still in progress, makes it dijfficult
to rightly judge tJmr relative importance. This account of the toar
in the Soudan and the causes which led to it, must, therefore, be
regarded as a narrative rather than as a history.

T. A. H.

University Colleqe,

Toronto,

Canada.

* !

[

THE

WAR IN THE SOUDAJNT,

CHAPTEK I.

THE FIRST SHOT.

Let u8 imagine ourselves, you and me, my reader, at Alexandria on the
night of the 10th of July, 1882. We shall not sleep ; the whole town is in a
state of suspense and excitement. Outside there, in the harbor, are thirteen
great ships of war, England's ironclads, prowling about within gun-shot
of us. This morning, at seven o'clock, the Admiral in command. Sir Beauchamp
Seymour, gave notice that if work on the fortifications lining the shore did
not cease, twenty-four hours from that time he would open fire. No wonder
nobody sleeps. With the muzzles of those 81 ton guns peering at us throu<»h
the iron walls of the gieatest naval force in the world who could lie down un-
concerned ? No one knows what is going to happen. Arabi Pasha has sent
two of his officers to the Admiral to make terms. But the electric light from
the fleet which has been silently pouring its searching rays on the Arab gun-
ners in the forts, shows that the work is still going on. Now the sun rises
and shows the great ships ready for action. Seven o'clock strikes, — boom ; a
puflf of smoke from Her Majesty's ship Alexandra shows what is meant. Four
minutes' grace is given, then up goes the signal from the Invincible, " Attack
the enemies' batteries," immediately the Monarch, Penelope, Invincible,.
Sultan, Superb, Tem6raire, Inflexible, and Alexandra, pour in shells which
weigh some 1,500 lbs., the cost of firing of each of which would buy a com-
fortable lot in a country town.

For ten mortal hours the deafening thunder is kept up. One by one the
great forts are silenced. The largest of the Egyptian cannons are turned on
end like pop-guns. The solid masonry of the parapets yawn with great holes.

THK WAR IN THK SOUDAN.

The light-houae has holes in it visible at two miles' distance. Powder
magazines have been blown up, and where were once trim fortiticationH, are
now masses of ruins.

But what is it all about 7 What is England doing in thin part of the
world, smashing forts, shelling soldiery, and doing damage that will cost soma
millions of dollars to rebuild ? To answer this I must trouble you, my reader,
with a few dry factn. We shall not lioger over thtim. But before it is
possible to know why England is now in Egypt, why she is warring against
the Mahdi, why she has voluntarily spent £3,000,()0(), been content to lose
some of her bravest generals, and risked the lives of thousands of her
Boldiei'S in a foreign country tlxat does not belong to her and probably never
will belong to her, it is necessary to go beneath the surface, aud to inquire
into a few things not quite so interesting as the destroying of forts.

Note. — Arabi'a own version of the bombardment, as given in his newspaper, SI
Taif, is very intoresting reiuling: —

" War news.— On Tuesday, 25 Shaban, 1209, at 12 o'clock in the morning (July 11,
7 a.m.), the English o{)cned fire on the forts of Alexandria, and we returned the fire.

'* At three o'clock (10 a.m.) an ironclad foundered off Fort Ada.

" At 6 o'clock (noon) two vessels were sunk between Fort Pharos and Fort Adjeray.

"At half-post 6 (1.30 p.m.) a wooden man-of-war of eight guns was sunk.

"At 10 o'cl(x:k (5 p.m.) the large ironclad was struck by a shell from Burj-ez-Zefr,
the battery was injured, and a v/hite flag was immediately hoisted by her as a signal
to cease firing at her, whereupon the firing ceased on both sides, after having lasted 10
hours without cessation. Some of the walls of the forts were destroyed, but they were
repaired during the ni^ht. The shots and shells discharged from the two sides
amounted to about 6,000, and this is the first time that so large a number of missiles
have been discharged in so short a time." And so on.

■k;>

WHY KMQIiAND IB FIQHTIKO.

THB LION S SHARK.

CHAPTER n.

WHY ENGLAND IS FIGHTING.

This is by no means an easy thing to find out. Every nation and every
country will give us a different answer. France will probably tell us that we
are a nation of shopkeepers, and that we are merely fighting for money. Ger-
many, perhaps, will say we are fighting to keep up our prestige — whatever
that may mean. Russia says we are aggressive. The Conservatives think
we are not fighting half enough. Gladstone does not know whether we are
or not, but enigmatically says that we must not " merely secure tranquility
for the moment, but must obviate future perturbations."

Perhaps the truth lies in a mixture of all these.

I shall not trouble you, my reader, to go into details ; we will keep clear
for the present of all such phrases as condominium, entente cordiale, nnified
debt, Daira estates, Domain lauds, caisse, dual control, protocol, finance
adviser, procureur-g^neral, etc., etc. Let us put the events that led up to

12 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

England's taking the responsibility of helping Egypt to govern herself (for
that is what she is really doing) in the form of a fable.

In a great street where rich and powerful merchants were wont to con-
gregate stood a large shop. This shop was owned by a man who lived far
away, and who took little interest in the business as long as his share of the
profits was regularly sent to him. The proprietor was called by some people
the sick man. This shop of his was very badly managed. The head clerk
cared as little as did his master as to how matters stood. He was very extra-
vagant, ho spent enormous sums of money, presumably in the management
of the business, and his subordinates did the same. The consequence was
that both the customers and the wholesale merchants were very harshly
treated. The former did not get the worth of their money ; the latter were
never paid. The whole affair naturally soon became insolvent.

Behind this shop stood a great warehouse. It was a very grand one-^
so grand that the lady ms ho owned it (for it was a lady at the time I speak of)
called herself by a title specially on its account. This title was " Kaiser-I-
Hind." Unfortunately the only way worth speaking of to get into this ware-
house was through the shop I spoke of a moment ago. There was a back
way, but it was very round about. Amongst the clerks of another merchant
was one clever one who proposed that people should go through the shop
into the warehouse. The lady jumped at the idea at once and gladly pnid
an enormous sum of money (she was very rich) for the right to go through
the sick man's premises whenever she wished.

Well, as I have said, the shop was in a bad way. The great lady, seeing
how useful, in fact necessary, it was to her that tho business should be kept on,
lent the managers money, more money probably than all the other merchants
put together felt inclined to do. The consequence was she became the chief
creditor — aud i-his is a very important point. The merchant to whom the clever
clerk belonged certainly had great claims too, but he did not seem to take any
very great interest in matters. He had no warehouse in the rear, you see.

Matters instead of getting better grew worse. The hands employed in
the shop — and there were very large numbers of them — were harshly treated.
But they had no redress. The head clerk pocketed as much money as he
could, every other clerk did the same, the expenses were tremendous, the
money spent in stationery alone being something fabulous.

Amongst the subordinates was a bold man. He saw the disaffection
which existed amongst the shop-boys. He made friends with them, and
defied the chief manager, the real proprietor, and the great lady — all three.
The down trodden shop-boys, and indeed many in higher positiona also,
flocked to him ; the managers were powerless ; he seized the shop — and tho
greatest tumult arose.

WHY BNOLAND IS FIOHTINQ.

There are some who think, in fact, I dare say they are very few who do
not think, that the sick man connived at what the rebellious clerk was doing.
At all events he made no attempt whatever to put a stop to the uproar. He
ought, one would have thought, to have upheld the chief manager at all
hazards, and to have helped him to quell the rebellion. But this he did not
do. What wa8 to be done ? Things could not go on in this way. The interest
on the loans must be paid, and while the shop was in this state this was out
of the question. Nobody in the C'^tablishment seemed to have any wits about
them except the bold man, and his hand was turned against every one. It
would never do to let him go on in this way, for what would become of the
right of way through the shop to the warehouse 7 In this extremity the great
lady asked a friend — the same merchant in whose employ was that clevci'
clerk who proposed the shor*^ ^ut — the great lady asked this friend to join her
in putting a stop to the rebellion. The friend higgled and haggled a groat
deal but finally refused. So there was nothing for it but to do it single
handed. The other merchants who lived in the neighbourhood did not object i
and so it was determined to send some good strong men down at once to take
possession of the premises, and to put an end to the doing:) of the recalcitrant
clerk and his followers.

This brings us to The First Shot.

This fable needs scarce any explanation. The great lady is Her Majesty
Queen Victoria ; her warehouse is India, the short-cut to which is the Suez
Canal ; the shop is Egypt, with its proprietor the Sultan of Turkey, and its
chief clerk the Khedive ; the clever proposer of the short-cut is M. de
Le'^seps ; his merchant is France ; and the rebellious clerk is Arabi.

I have, perhaps, laid scarcely sufficient stress on the vast mass of corrup-
tion which existed in the internal administration of Egyptian affairs, for this,
it appears to me, is the secret of England's presence in that country. If
Egyptian officials were honest, if they nad a keen sense of justice, if they
cared more for the well-being of the lower classes than for the filling of their
own pocijets, the fertility of the soil and the industry of its tillers would
suffice, not only to pay off the debts with which Egypt is now burdoiied, but
to bring the country into a high state of commercial efficiency. But as it is,
this was the very remotest of all possibilities. It is not saying too much to
assert that as little reliance could be placed in the integrity of the highest as
in the integrity of the meanest of the dignitaries employed by the govem-
m nt. Bribes were known openly to be the key to all favours. The taxes
were farmed. As long as the requisite sum was paid into the treasury what
cared any governor of any province how he obtained the remainder ? Corrup-
tion existed in the veiy heart of administrative affairs. The London Timet
correspondent tells us that the expenditure in Cairo for one year on stationery

. k

I-I _IJU«U. I

THK WAR IH THE SOUDAN.

alone amounted fco upwards of $240,000. The fellaheen were ground down.
The insolence of their superiors was as intolerable as their taxes. A system
of forced labor existed, from which there was no relief. Under these circum-
staiices : with the bulk of the working-classes groaning under irremediable
wrongs, their spirits broken, their intelligence stunted, their self -respect
nowhere, their industry fruitless, their property and even their lives (owiig
to the detestable character of the Cadi courts) in jeopardy, what could be
expected of poor Egypt if left to herself 1 Only ruin more complete. With
an indifferent and apathetic suzerain who never visited his tributary state,
who only proved his authority over it by drawing a yearly income and occa-
sionally uttering a weak protest against the actions or demands of interested
powers, and who openly connived at anarchy ; with a powerless Khedive, an
extravagant ministry, and a merciless executive, no wonder that the poverty-
stricken natives rallied round Arabi Pasha as their deliverer. No wonder
that his fame spread ; that the ranks of his followers were joined by thou-
sands. Loyalty there was none, and patriotism in such a country was a
misnomer. No wonder then, again, that even from the so-called army his
numbers were augmented.

But such a state of affairs could not be allowed to exist. If the Sultan
would not, and the Klhedive could not, interfere — even if — and there were
such rumours — even if these both sided with the rebel, he must be put down ;
and if France will not lend a helping hand , England will do it alone.

This it was that led to the bombardment of Alexandria, and, in process
of time, to a'l those events which it is the object of thia narrative to record.

TBL-EL-KEBIB.

CHAPTER IIL

TELEL-KEBIR.

We left Alexandria with its forts dismantled, its gnns dismounted, and
its fortiflcationa generally abandoned. The events which followed need noii
be described in detail. Arabi and his army left the city, which was now in
the hands of marauding hordes, many of them composed of released convicts.
The larger portion of the town was burnt, and wholesale depredations and
murders continued for two days, after which they were checked by the land-
ing of a body of marines and blue-jackets.

England now decided to send troops into Egypt to reconquer the country
for the Khedive. A vote of credit was passed (July 27), and three days after-
wards the Scots Guards sailed for Alexandria, followed at short intervals by
tri'ops amounting in all to 1,010 officers, 21,200 non-commissioned officers
and men, 54 fie!d guns, 5,600 horses, and 500 mules. But this force was in
a short time swelled — including contingents from India, Cyprus, and else-
where—to 40,560.

Sir Garnet Wolseley took command, arrived at Alexandria on August
the loth, and was immeiliately empowered by the Khedive to undertake
operations and occupy the country.

The campaign against Arabi was destined to witness some notable and
successfully carried out surprises by this general. The first wa^' the occupa-
tion of Port Said. The fleet sailed, cleared ready for action, from Alexandria
as if with the intention of seizing Aboukir, but when night fell, the order to
" 'bout ship " was given, and the ships steamed back and took possession of
Port Said. Several minor actions took place at Tel-el-Mahuta, Kassassin,
etc. , but by a wonderfully accurate prophecy of General Wolseley's the spot
on which the whole campaign was settled was Tel-el-Kebir. To this we will
at once proceed.

The body of the troops was now stationed at Kassassin. The intentions
of the General were kept secret in the extreme ; aiid it was not till within
twelve hours of the premeditated attack that orders were given to leave the
camp. At sundown, on the evening of Tuesday, September 12th, every tent was
struck. The men bivouacked on the ground, taking a rest of five or six hours.
At midnight, the order was given to march, and in a few moments the men
were noiselessly moving over the ground in the direction of the enemy's
entrenchments. "Never," says the London Staiidard'a correspondent, "did

16 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

a body of 14,000 men get under arras more quietly ; the very orders appeared
given in lowered tones, and almost noiselessly the dark columns moved off,
' their footfalls being der«daued by the sand. The silence broken only by the
occasional clash of stee,, the certainty that the great strui^gle would commence
■with the dawn, and the expectation that at any inomynt we might be ohal-
lenged by the Bedouin horsemen far out in the plain in front of the enemy, all
combined to make it an imp'.essive march, antl one which none v7ho shared in *

it •will ever forget.

" There wei ^ fj" queut halts to enable the regiments to maintain touch, and
to allow the transpoi' ; waggons, whose wheels crunched over the sandy plains
with a noise which to our ears seemed strangely loud, to keep up with us."

This silent march across from Kassassin to Tel-el-Kebir has been most
graphically described. The night was pitch dark ; not a word was uttered ;
and when nearing the enemy not even a match to light the longed-for cigar-
ette was allowed. The line of march was followed by means of the stars, a
young lieutenant of the navy leading the way. At times, however, incidents
occurred which were within an ace of bringing about the most disastrous re-
sults. For instance, the force moved in two divisions, and it sometimes hap-
pened that the outer part of the wings moved faster than the centre, thus
bringing the men partly opposite and within ear-shot of each other. In the
pitch darkness that prevailed, relieved only by starlight, it waa quite possible,
nay probable, that each wing might mistake the other for the enemy, and
without command open fire. Such a catastrophe was indeed once narrowly
averted.

'* By early dawn the troops had arrived within a thousand yards of the
enemy's lines, and halted there for a short time to enable the fighting line to
ijlj be formed, and other preparations to be made.

"A perfect silence still reigned over the plains, and it was difficult to credit
the fact that some fourteen thousand men lay in a semi-circle round the
enemy's lines, ready to dash f<jrward at a signal at the low sand heaps in front,
behind which twice as many men slumbered, unsuspicious of their presence.

'' Swiftly aud silently the troops moved forward to the attack. No word .

was spoken, no shot fired until within 300 yards of the enemy's earthworks, »

nor up to that time did a sound in the Egyptian lines betoken that they were
^ aware of the presence of their assailants. Then suddenly a terrific fire flashed

along the line of sand heaps, and a storm of bullets whizzed over the heads
of the advancing troops. A wild cheer broke from the troops in response,
the pipes struck shrilly up, bayonets were fixed, and at the double this splendid
body of men dashed forward.

" The first line of entrenchments was carried, the enemy offering scarce any
resistance, but from another line of entrenchments behind, which in the still

TEL-EL-KEBIR. 17

dim light could be scarcely seen, a buret of musketry broke out. For a few
minutes the troops poured in a heavy fire in exchange ; but it was probably
as innocuous as that of the unseen enemy, \ihose bullets whistled harmlessly
overhead. The delay in the advance was but a short ore. Soon the order
was given, and the brigade again went rapidly forward. Soon a portion of the
force had passed between the enemy's redoubts and opened a flanking fire
upon him.

" This was too much for the Egyptians, who at once took to their heels
and fairly ran, sufiering, as the crowded masses rushed across the open, very
heavily from our fire, being literally mown down by hundreds.

"The fight was now practically over, the only further danger arising from
the bullets of our own troops, who were fixing bayonets in all directions
upon the flying enemy, as with loud cheers our whole line advanced in pur-
suit. The Egyptians did not preserve the slightest semblance of order, but
fled in a confused rabble at the top of their speed.

" It is stated that from the time our men gathered for the first rush at the
trenches to the time when Fort Galeis fell into our hands it was but fifteen
minutes. "

The Morning Post^a correspondent states that the whole of the action
occupied exactly one hour and forty minutes.

The Times correspondent says : — The Egyptians were panic-stricken ;
they crouched and threw themselves down, and multitudes fled across their
fortified plateau, now strewn with their mangled bodies, or through the lux-
urious station filled with camels and bales of cloth, fresh fruit, and stores of
every description.

The surprise of the Egyptians (the Times correspondent says) must have
been complete. Breakfasts are left spread in some tents, and some wretches
lie dead in the midst of food and cooking utensils. Several shammed dead,
and I saw one young Nubian revived in a marvellous way. The soldiers are
carefiU to ascertaiu the fact of death before passing recumbent Arabs.
"I went to help one man, and he fired after me," said an indignant
sergeant.

The sprvices of the Indian contingent, which hitherto had played but a
subordinate part, were now called into use. Pressing rapidly over the battle-
field, they made straight for Zagazig, which was occupied in the course of the
day. The bulk of the cavalry and mounted infantry, seized upon Beilbeis.
From this place they were again soon astir,, and by a forced march of 39 miles
under a blazing sun, they reached Cairo on the evening of September 14th,
captured Arabi, and preserved the city from the dangers of a repetition of
the Alexandria horrors. On the following day Sir Garnet Wolseley entered
the capital.

THB WAR IN THB SOUDAN.

Thus, in reality, in an engagement lasting some twenty-five minntes was
the rebellion crushed ; the loss of life on our side being as small as the battle
was short — amounting, in all, to 64 killed and 342 wouu.led.

Events after this are comparatively uninteresting. Wiih the fall of Cairo
and the capture of Arabi the "national" movement, as it wat. called, com-
pletely collapsed. The re-embarkation of the British troops ac once com-
nienced. Arabi Pashi was tried and condemned, although he put Lito the
hands of his counsel documents which implicated the Sultan, Ismail, the
ex-Khedive, and numerous Egyptian officials. Lord Duflferin was sent to
suggest reforms, and the last day of 1882 saw the first instalment of his much-
praised scheme for the regeneration of Egypt.

Ex-Khedive Ismail Pasha sums up Arabi's character thus : "I remember
Arabi well. He became a Lieutenaut-Colonel when very young, and, in the second
or third year of my Administration, was tried by Court-martial for breach of
trust. He shovdd have been broken, but one of my Generals persuaded me to
pardon him, and I did so. He was then transferred to the Commissariat, and only
quite recently returned to active service in the army. Arabi can be painted in a word —
he is what the French call a ' blageur. ' He can talk and do nothing else. He is the tool
of Mahmoud Fehmy and Toulba, about both of whom I have nothing good to say.
Arabi is, and always was, an arrant coward. I always said he would run away, and he
certainly decamped very quickly at Tel-el-Kebir. The only brave men in his party
are All Fehmy and Adelal ; they are soldiers, but I would defy Arabi himself to define
either 'patriotism ' or ' national feeling.' He certainly has neither one nor the other,
although half Europe seems inclined to regard him as the would-be saviour of his coun-
try. The truth is that the Egyptian people must lean on something and follow some
one. The Egyptian Government was hopelessly weak, and Arabi and his friends knew
it. He and his partisans achieved three visible and striking successes, and the Egyptians
saw this, and saw, morever, the representatives of great Powers practically in treaty
with him. Arabi pointed triumphantly to these facts, and told the Egyptians he could
and would restore Egypt to the Egyptians ; and it is not surprising in the circumstances
that the Egyptians clung to him as the stronge;' vessel. The movement he headed
was from the first actively encouraged at Constant nople, but it is very improbable that
either the Sultan himself or any of his responsible Ministers were ever in direct com-
munication either with him or his associates. Direct communication is not a feature
of Turkish intrigue, as the desired effect can be produced without it. Arabi and his
accomplices must be severely punished. An example should certainly be made of the
leaders of the revolt, and half-measures will only be a premium to future disturb-
ances. They may give to Eg^pt a succession of Arabis. Arabi himself should be treated
as a vulgar mutineer and rebellious soldier ; to look on him as an Egyptian Garibaldi
is a capital mistake, and one which augurs ill for the future."

INTERNAL REFORMS.

CHATTER IV.

INTERNAL REFORMS.

TsL-rL-KEBiR fought, and Arabi safely shut up in Ceylon, nothing of any
very sensational character occurred for some months. The murder of Pro-
fessor Palmer (Professor of Arabic, at Cambridge), Captain Gill and Lieuten-
ant Charrington, who had been sent to various Arab tribes by the English
Government ostensibly for the purpose of purchasing camels, but in reality
probably to learn the attitrle and gain the good will of the Bedouins, was
avenged on the 28th of February by the execution of five prisoners who were
convicted of the crime ; and many of the pillagers of Alexandria and the per-
petrators of the atrocities that followed its bombardment were tried and
punished. An army of occupation was still retained in Egypt, a measure
which evoked muclj criticism in Parliament and some comment from foreign
powers. The attitude of these latter towards England has been described as
*' one of acquiescence tempered by expectancy." There was no denying the
rapidity and success with which the rebellion had been quelled, and the
declared purpose of England had been to uphold the then existing regime.
Few, however, conceived it either likely or possible that the status quo ante
bellum would be restored, and the announcement of England's intentions was
awaited with some anxiety. The suspense was speedily relieved by a circular
note issued to the Great Powers by Lord Granville early in January of 1883.
Lord Granville first proposed various measures to secure at all times the
freest possible navigation of the Suez Canal, its strict neutrality in time of
war, and equal rights therein to all nations ; second, the attainment of greater
economy in the management of the Daira estates ; third, the treatment of
foreigners on the same footing as natives with regard to taxation ; fourth, th*.-
continuance for the present of the system of mixed tribunals for civil suits
between natives and foreigners ; fifth, the formation of a small Egyptian
army, with British officers, lent for a time; to fill the higher posts, and of a
separate force of gendarmerie and police ; sixth, some new arrangement in
lieu of the dual control ; seventh, the prudent introduction of representative
institutions in some form adapted to the present political intelligence of the
people, and calculated to aid their future progress. {See Aivrmal Register for
1883.)

Lord Dufferin was now sent out to elaborate a scheme of administrative
and social reform. With the usual astuteness with which this famed diplomat

20 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

grasps the general character of a country, Lord Duflferin recognized at once
the lamentable state into which Egyptian politics had nunk, and advocated
■weeping reforms. He proposed amongst other innovations the ostablishraen^J
of an Egyptian army of 6,000 men, a semi-militaiy constabulary of 5,600,
both officered to a small extent at first by Europeans ; an urban police force
of 1,60U, to maintain order in the large towns of the Delta ; representative
institutions comprising village confitituencies, provincial councils, a legislative
council, a general assembly, and eight ministers responsible to the Khedive ;
a thorough revision of the codes ; the organization of new tribunals ; reassess-
ment of the land tax ; assistance to the fellaheen in relieving themselves from
the heavy debt encumbering their lands ; a national system of education ;
reform of the civil service; and the eO'ectual suppression of the slave trade.

The document containing these schemes of the noble Lord's is already
famous, but to practically carry out its details was a task perhaps beyond
human power. It is hard to conceive of the character of the Egyptian people.
One ludicrous example of their blunted intelligence and indomitable apathy is
seen in the fact that when asked to vote for the election of representatives,
they displayed a wide-spread desire to pay a sum of money rather than cease
their work to attend the polling, although it had been distinctly pointed out
to them that the measures of reform undertaken were for their exclusive
benefit.

Now come upon the scene two English names of merit — that of Colonel
Valentine Baker, now called Baker Pasha after his services in the Turkish
army, and that of Colonel Hicks. Both deserve some mention. Colonel
Baker, a dashing cavalry officer of great popularity in the army, will perhaps
on this side of the Atlantic be best remembered as having been the object of
an unpleasant accusation. Although the charges were not wholly substantiated
Col. Baker was forced to quit the army, and he was soon after heard from as
having obtained a commission under the Sultan.

Colonel Hicks was one of those brilliant In lian officers, who having
retired while as yet in the prime of life, discovers that a life of inactivity at
home, separated from all the associations which have grown almost a neces-
sity of existence, find it impossible to abstain from volunteering to under-
take any expedition of novelty and danger which may be opened to them.
He was typical of his class : proud, high minded, imperious, yet withal gen-
erous and tender to a degree ; hating sham and cant, but willing to take any
trouble to benefit those in whom there is no taint of these. He was English
to an extreme. A somewhat ludicrous incident has been told of his reply to
a young German officer who introduced himself to him in a lall room. He
was ignorant of the permissibility of this proceeding at a German military
ball, and the young gentleman who with a nice bow remarked that " he had

INTERNAL RUFURM8.

the honour to be von So-and-So," wuii rather astonished to be answered by
" Indeed 1 Glad to hear it. Good name," as the Colonel turned on his
heel.

Colonel, now General, Baker, was charged with the formation of a gen-
darmerie for the prot^ection of Egypt along the deseii borders. Colonel
Hicks undertook to attack the Mahdi at El Obeid (to the south-west of
Khartoum), and was killed at the battle of KashgUl. But of this more here-
after.

22 TUB WAR IN THB 80UDAN.

CHAPTKR V.

THE SOUDAN.

Wb now come to the true field of war, that terrible region in which has
been spilt acme of England's noblest and bravest blood — the Soudan. A few
remarks are necessary to explain its position and its relations and connections
with Egypt proper.

The population of the Soudan Provinces is estimated at 12,000,000, three-
fourths of them of pure or mixed negro descent, mostly pagans, but including
many thousands of Mohammedan natives, some of whom were, at last accounts,
making war under the direction of the Mahdi's agents upon the Egyptian
garrisons in the Bahr el Ghazal Province. The remaining millions ere Arabs,
whose ancestors entered the country centuries ago by way of Egypt and the
Nile, and the indigenous peoples north-west of Abyssinia and in the Nubian
Desert, from whom Osman Digna's army is recruited. They are not Arabs,
though commonly called so, but they equal the Arab tribes of Kordofan and
Darfur in ferocity and fanatical zeal. Lieut. -Colonel Stewart, in his report
two years ago on the Egyptian Soudan, gives an interesting account of the
nomad Arabs of Kordofan and Darfur, who are the mainstay of the Mahdi.
He says they are bom robbers, hunters, and warriors, who leave manual
work to their women, and, after caring for their cattle, devote all their time
and energies to slave hunting and war. They are all large owners of cattle,
camels, horses, and slaves. The Nile for 600 miles from Khartoum to the
Sobat River is held by cattle-raising Arab tribes, and it was estimated ten
years ago that there were 6,000,000 beeves, besides an immense number of
sheep, in the Egyptian Soudan.

Two years ago Egypt was about to divide its Soudanese possessions into
four administrative districts, when the Madhi ruined the Khedive's project.
The proposed districts, Western Soudan, Central Soudan, Eastern Soudan,
and Harrar, all have their distinctive geographical features. Western Soudan,
including Dongola, Kordofan and Darfur, is strikingly uniform in the steppes-
like character and partial aridity of the country. Many Arab tribes live in
these regions, each wandering with its herds within certain well-known limits.
Southern Darfur, however, is very fertile, and supports a population estimated
at 600,000 people. The Bahr of Ghazal region on the south is also rich in
resources, and Lupton Bey, its Governor, sent word late in 1883 that, though
he was fighting with four tribes that had espoused the Madhi's causo, his

THE SOUDAN. ' SS

revenues for the previous year, if he could get his ivory, gums, and other
collections north, would exceed the expenses of his province by £60,000.
The proposed district of Central Soudan is the flower of the Egyptian pro-
vinces. It includes the Provinces of Khartoum, Sennoar, Foshoda, and the
equator, and the magnificent subtropical region east of the Nile, embracing
the basins of the Aznk and Atbara Rivers. It is the rich sediment from the
Atbara that annually renews the fertility of Lower Egypt. Prof. Keano says
the basin of the Atbara is a succession of dense woodlands, rich pastures, and
well-watered arable tracts. The country is healthful, and is said to contain
many millions of acres of unsurpassed cotton lands. This country, according
to Sir Samuel Baker and many others, needs only transportation facilities to
make it a region of great commercial importance.

The proposed district of Eastern Suudau includes the well-known country
along the Red Sea littoral and a part of Nubia.

Though the Egyptian Soudan is a region of great ethnical complexity,
Arabs, negroes, and negroids fusing here and there, and forming a great
variety of clans and tribes, nearly all the people, except the pagan Soudanese,
are united in religious fanaticism and in their hatred of Egyptian rule. The
time has come when civilization must gain the mastery in their land, or be
content to abandon its immense resources, and the millions of poor blacks who
live in and around it, to a horde of slave-hunting semi-barbarians, who will
perpetually menace the white settlements south of them and the peace of
northern nations as well. — New York Sun.

The region in central Africa, known as the Soudan, extends from Assouan
on the equator, and from Massowah on the Red Sea, to the western limits of
Darfour, a territory 1,650 miles long by 1,200 broad.

The name Soudan is from the Arabic aswad, plural suda, black, and
Beled-es-Soudan, as the Arabs call it, means literally the Land of the Blacks.

Of the desert General Colston thus writes : — " All the vast spaces ejust
and west of the Nile valley between the fourteenth degree and the Mediter-
ranean (over eight hundred thousand square miles) are The Desert. It would
seem at the first glance to be absolutely unfitted for the habitation of man.
He who has never travelled through the desert cannot form a just idea of that
strange and marvellous region, in which all the ordinary conditions of life are
completely changed. It is essentially a waterless land, without rivers, creeks,
rivulets, or springs. Once away from the Nile, the only supply of water is
derived from deep wells, few, scanty, and far apart. Long droughts are
frequent. When I explored the great Arabian Desert between the Nile and
the Red Sea, it had not rained for three years. Between the twenty-ninth
and the nineteenth degree of latitude it never rains at all. Water becomes
precious to a degree beyond the conception of those who have never known

S4 TUB WAR IN TUB 80UDAK.

its scarcity. Members of the Oatholic mission at El Oboid, where water is
much mure plentiful than in the deserts, assured me that, the summer before,
water had been sold as high as half a dollar a gallon by the proprietors of the
few wells that had not dried up. As tu the quality, desert water is generally
bad, the exception being when it is worse, though long custom enables the
Bedouins to drink water so brackish as to be intolerable to all except them-
selves and their flocks. The atmoor, as the Arabs call it, is truly the ideal
desert, consinting mainly of hard gravel plains diversified by zones of deep
sand, rocky ridges, sometimes of considerable altitude, and rugged defiles.
It is absolutely destitute of all vegetation, and consequently of animal life,
only the ostrich and hyena cross it swiftly by night, and the vulture hovers
over the canvvans by day. Not a tree, not a bush, not a blade of grass re-
lieves the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow sand. No one can resist the
solemn impression of deep silence and infinite space produced by the desert.
Whenn:ght has come, and the soldiers and Bedouins are asleep in their
bivou8«8, walk away under the unequalled African moon beyond the first
ridge of sand or rocks. Around you stretches a boundless sea-like horizon.
The sand gleams almost as white as snow. Not a sound falls upon the ear,
not the murmur of a breeze, not the rustle of leaf or grass, not the hum of the
smallest insect. Silence — only silence — as profound as death, unless it is
broken by the howl of a -prowling hyena or the distant roar of the king of
beasts. Within the limits of Egypt and the Soudan these desolate atmoors
extend over three-quarters of a million of square miles, never trodden by the
foot of man. Only a few caravan trails cross them in their narrowest parts, with
scanty wells at long intervals ; and the necessities of trade can alone account
for their being penetrated at all. They are oceans, where caravans pass each
in haste, like vessels at sea. The marches are perfectly terrible, and yet it is
worse to halt during the day than to keep in motion, for the heat makes sleep
or rest impossible, even under canvas. With the burning sand under your
feet and the vertical sun over your head, you are as between the lids of an ' '
oven. In June the thermometer rises to 150" and 160®. The air that blows
feels as if it had just passed through a furnace or a brick-kiln. Over the
plains it quivers visibly in the sun, as if rising from a red-hot stove, while the 4

mirage mocks your senses with the most life-like image of lakes, ponds, and
rippling waters." — {Century, March, 1885.)

The dress of the Soudanese women if not voluminous is simple. They
attire themselves in dark blue calico, which they wrap round the waist, and
which covers them down to the knees. Besides this they wear a white muslin
veil, which covers the head and the face, leaving only the eyes exposed. They ,
are very fond of ornaments, especially of beads, which they wear not only
round their necks, but also round their vpaists, and their wrists. They further

\ I

TUB SOUDAN. 25

decornto tbcmBelvos with nocklncos of '• sauineet," or pieces of ajjftte an inch
thick, with alturnatoil colourd of black, bruwn and white. They wear ear-
rings and nose-rings of gold. Those- in the car weigh half an onnco oiioli, and
that in the nose i» so large as to cover the mouth. It is worn on the right
side of the nose. When they cannot atlord the gold rings they put a piece of
coral through the nose. Not only are the neck, ears and nose ornamented,
but the ankloH also. Strings of glass beads, or fili>freo ornaments fastened
with a silk tassel, generally red, above thick-soled brown leather Hiindals,
adorn the feet of the Soudanese girls. The girls themselves are thus
described in Petherick's interesting book, Egypt : —

" Their colour partakes of various shades, from light to brown, almost
black ; and although they scarcely ever wash — using the " dilka," dough and
oil, instead of water — their skin appears clean and fresh. The hair, which
never reaches below the shoulders, an<l inclines to be wooll>, is plaited into a
variety of forma, but genemlly closely to the head, fitting like a skull-cap, and
hanging down in thick masses of innumerable small plaits all round the side
and back of the head. Another form is to plait the hair so as to adhere close
to the top of the head, as in the former case, but the ends, instead of being
plaited, are combed out and stiffened with a solution of grease, forming a
thick bushy circle around the head. With this head-dress, as the lady only
arranges her hair once or twice a month, she cannot recline upon a pillow, for
which she is obliged to substitute a small wooden stool, hollowed out to tit the
neck, upon which she reposes."

The houses of the people in the Soudan are as simple as their dress, and
more simple than their ornaments. They are built of sun-burnt bricks,
plastered with a composition made of manure and grey sand. There is gener-
ally only one large room in the kouse, which is used both for living and Bleep-
ing in, and a small one used as a lumber-room. Often there are no windows,
but if there are any, they are placed in very high positions.

The children are never dressed until they are eight or nine years old, and
they are very young when they are married. A mother carries her baby on
her left hip : the baby is always naked, and sits aatride.

The following extract from a letter from one of the Canadian Voyageurs,
descriptive of this region, will be read with interest : —

Meeawi, 31st January, 1885.

I know not but I may have convoyed a wrong impression in some of my
former letters respecting the fertility of the Soudan, which certainly improves
vastly as we go south. The banks of the river from Abbafatma, where not
encroached on by the sterile desert, are very fertile.

36 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN,

Here we come upon patches of well-tilled soil filled with the vegetable
productions of the country. There may be seen on the right or left bank
beautiful groves of date palms alternating with thorn trees with lovely green
spray and yellow blossoms, a strong contrast with the white thorn ; and every
now and then a lawn-like expanse strikes the eye, the ground looking as if it
was rolled, so even and smooth is it — fields of barley in all stages of growth,
the castor oil plant, cotton, corn and beans of various kin Js, many of the
latter having a beautiful purple and white flower. To the eye, tired and sun-
scorched with the glare of the desert sand just left behind, it is indeed a
vision of the Elysian fields.

On the 28th, we passed an island of exceeding fertility and beauty — a
very Arca^lia — where one might fancy that they had found a haven of rest
and peace, that the desire of their soul and their longings for the beautiful
and the " Rest for the weary " had at last been attained, were the scene not
marred with the miserable mud huts and filthy corrals of the natives, which
are surrounded by such an atmosphere that any description of it would so
taint the paper on which it was written that you could not get near tnuugh
to read it.

I cannot by any description that I can give do justice to Merawi.
Stretching tack from the river about a quarter of a mile, the clififs rise boldly
and assume quite a castellated form. Huge blocks of white, grey and pink
freestone seem to have been laid together like built masonry. But nature
haa done a work that man with all his ingenuity and education could only
faintly imitate. The impress of the Master hand is there, stamped with the
Maker's name from everlasting to everlasting. Right from the foot of this
wall of rock to the river edge, a lawn level a: you could imagine slopes
gently, dotted with groups of palm and thorn and fringed as it were here
and there with crops of young barley, with the odd-looking caustic plant with
its broad leaver, very like those of the cactus, interspersed, and ne irer the
bank of the stream a belt of grass looking very like our Canadian foxtail, and
close on the water edge a broad belt of the bean plant, making a most charm-
ing scene. But delightful as all this is, it has only the effect of making me
sigh for the green fields, the forest glades and the lovely lakes of dear Canada
my home.

The tribes up this way are slightly different from those below, the men
are certainly better and more indeprndent looking, better clothed also and
altogether more manly.

The women wear their hair in the form of a fringe, each strand about a
quarter of an inch in diameter, plaited and well greased, rings in their noses
and their ears, with bracelets and anklets. As a general thing this is " full
dress for the belles of the Soudan."

THE SOUDAN. 27

" Though the middle and doubtful aged ladies wear a plaited fringe of hair,
something after the fashion of a Highlander's kilt, but — ' rather shorter.'

" A race of negroes, very thick-lipped, are scattered thickly among the
natives, and I fancy these are slaves — in fact, I saw one poor devil with a
heavy ankle lock on the other day.

" All traffic is conducted by convoys c.r caravans of camels and donkeys,
and there seems to be a very fair share of trade going on."

The population of the Soudan, north of 11 N. lat., consists chiefly of
Mahommedan Arabs, whilst south of that line, negro tribes, mostly pagans, are
scattered more or less densely. For centuries past the former have found
among the latter supplies for the slave markets of Cairo, Damascus and Con-
stantinople. Egyptian rule was first extended to these dihtricts by Mehemet
Ali, under whom Ibrahim Pasha carried it as far south as Kordofan and Sen-
naar. The Arabs sullenly acquiesced in this invasion so long as their slave
trade was not interfered with. When, however, Ismeul Pasha, under Euro-
pean pr<'ssure, was induced to issue his proclamation against slavery ^ he
alleged the necessity of extending Egyptian rule to the parts whence the
traders drew their supplies. Sir Samuel Baker's expedition in 1870 thus led
to the conquest of the equatorial provinces, of which, in 1874, Colonel
("Chinese") Gordon was appointed Governor-General. In the foUowinj^
year Dai-four was added to the Egyptian possessions. Two years later Ismail
Pasha brought all his Central African provinces under one Government, and
this he entrusted to Colonel Gordon. The induence of the just rule of
such a Governor-General can be imagined. By treating his subjects on prin-
ciples of absolute justice, by listening attentively to all their little grievances,
by mercilessly repressing all those who defied the law, "Chinese" Gordon
accustomed the Soudanese to a much higher standard of Government than they
had ever yet seen. But alas ! on the fall of Ismail, economy necessitated the
recall of their exemplary ruler, and he gone, a whole horde of Turks, Circas-
sians, Bashi-Ba^ouks were once more let loose to harass and oppress the un-
fortunate Soudanese.

Now arose a deliverer, by name Mahomet Achmet, self-called El Mahdi.

Carlyle believes the great man is heaven-sent. To say that the time calls
forth the man he declares is "melancholy work." "The great man," he says,
" with his free force direct out of God's own hand, is the lightning. His word
is the wise healing word which all can believe in. All blaze.s round him now,
when he has once struck on it, into fire like his own. The dry mouldering
sticks are thought to have called him forth. They did want him greatly ; but
as to calling him forth — ! — Those are critics of small vision, I think who cry :
* See, is it not the sticks that made the fire V "

Bo THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

This sounds very nice ; but Thomas Carlyle's "great man" is so great
that Carlyle can see nothing else. He forgets that the dryness of the sticks
is one factor in the creating of a great man. If there were no dryness there
were no need perhaps of a great man. It is the seeing the dryness and then
holding to them a lighted torch that makes the man great.

The sticks were very dry indeed in the Soudan, and there was a man
there who knew it. Of him let us now take notice.

:■ I

V.'> '

THE MAHDL

•'

CHAPTBH VI.

:= ^

THE MAHDI.

In many Mussulman countries there existed a belief that on the com-
pletion of twelve centuries from the Hegira, the Mahdi, or new deliverer,
would appear. The twelve centuries were reckoned to come to an end on
12th November, 1882. But one who would not await for that eventful day
had already arisen, and declared himself the Mahdi. This was a man about
thirty years of age, who is described as being tall and slim, and having a
light brown complexion. His name was Mahomet Achmet, and he was the
son of a carpenter. He was apprenticed to his uncle, who one day gave him
a beating, which so enraged him that he ran away and went to a free school
kept by one of the dervishes at Hoghali, a village near Khartoum. This
school is attached to the shrine of the patron saint of Khartoum, and is
greatly venerated by the natives. From this school he went to another at
Berber, where also there is a shrine ; and he there seemed to be a religious boy.

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

In 1870 he became the disciple of Sheikh Nur-el-Danoi, a name which
means " continuous light," and he ordained him a faki or sheikh. After this
he went to live in the ialand of Abba, on the White Nile, where he dug a
cave for himself, which he called a retreat, and into which he went constantly
to worship. He began to be known as a very pious man, greatly given to
fasting and incense-burning, and prayers. After a time he was joined by
followers, who gave him presents, so that he became very wealthy. He
married as many wives as he was allowed to have, and airways took them from
wealthy families, by which means, of course, his own wealth and influence
were increased. In May, 1881, he began to write letters declaring himself the
Madhi whom Mahomet had foretold. He said that he had been sent to
reform Islam, that he would bring a new state of things into the Mahom-
medan world, that he would establish the equality of man, and make tlie
rich share with the poor. A great many people at once believed in him and
followed him. Then he went further, and said that those who did not receive
him should be destroyed, whoever and whatever they were.

The world had been so occupied with Arabi Pasha in Egypt, that very little
notice was taken of the Mahdi for some time ; but on the 19th December,
1881, news came that there were troubles in the Soudan. The False Prophet,
at the head of one thousand five hundred men, totally annihilated an Egyptian
force of three hundred and fifty men, who were led against him by the Gover-
nor of Faahada. The Governor himself was among the killed. The Governor-
General of the Soudan at once sent for reinforcements, and the Black Kegiment,
under the command of Abdallah Bey, was ordered to advance. But the
Egyptian forces were very half-hearttd in the matter, and were beaten again
and again.

In July, 1882, the Mahdi brought his followers and made them surround
the Egyptian soldiers under Yusef Pasha. The Egyptians were without food,
and were easily overcome, the entire army being massacred by the Mahdi.

On the 8th of September, he attacked Obeid and was repulsed. He made
a second and a third attack with the same result ; and on the last occasion
10,000 of his men were slain.

On the 8th of December, a man arrived on the scene who was likely to
make things better if it were possible, and that was Colonel Stuart ; but in
the beginning of January, 1883, both Bara and Obeid surrendered to the
Mahdi, who at once entered the latter town and took up his residence there.

The Daily News published a very curious letter from an EflFendi, which
had been forwarded by its special correspondent, Mr. O'Donovan, and which
shows how some of the Mahdi's followers regard him: — "The Mahdi seeks
nothing but God. He is kind and speaks civilly to all. He abhors falsehoods,
and his pride is to spread the glory of our religion. He fights in the path of

THE MAIIDI.

God, and only with those who refuse to obey him. Hia daily life (peace be
unto him 1) is quite opposed to worldly matters, nor does he care for its enjoy-
ments. He is simple in his diet and plain in dress. Kisaret dourra (millet)
steeped in water is all that he eats. A plain shirt and trousers made from the
native cloth is all that he wears. He is always smiling, and his face is as
resplendent as the new moon. His body and form is of the sons of Israel,
and on his right cheek is a mole (khal), and also other marks which are written
in the books of the holy law are stamped upon him. He neither honors the
rich for their riches, nor does be neglect the poor on account of their poverty.
All Muslims to him are equal. Like a kind father to his children, so
much is his kindness towards us. Had he punished us for what we have done
none of us would be saved, but he forgave us on our repentance. We all
received a sufficient sum from the treasury for the support of our family, but
do not get any fixed pay. If I were to describe to you all the good qualities
of the Mahdi, it would take a long letter to do so. He is following in the
footsteps of his grandfather (ancestor ?) — peace be to his bones ! — and if you
are Muslims and the sons of Muslims, banish worldly affairs, and follow not
the inclination of sinful souls, which leads its possessor to destruction, but look
to the end and to Paradise."

Such is the man whom England is now doing her best to crush.

It would be interesting here to discuss the Tightness or wrongness of so
doing — indeed this is a question which not a few of the journals on this side
of the Atlantic have already more than once touched upon. On the one side
it may be said : His followers, if not he himself, believe him to be the true
Imam Mahdi who was to appear ; they are fighting against oppression and a
government which they abhor ; and they believe they are doing Ood'a service
by exterminating the feringhees or infidels sent by the British and Egyptian
Governments to conquer him. The following letter sent to Admiral Hewett
and General Graham, signed and sealed by the sheikhs of twenty-one tribes,
describes accurately their belief : —

*' In the name of the most merciful God, the Lord be praised, etc. — From
the whole of the tribes and their sheikhs who have received your writings,
and those who did not receive writings, to the Cum nandant of the English
soldiers, whom God help to Islam. Amen. Then your letters have arrived
with us, and what you have informed us in them — to come in — then know
that the gracious God has sent his Madhi suddenly who was expected, the
looked-for messenger for the religious and against the infidels, so as to show
the religion of God through him, and by him to kill those who hate him,
which has happened. You have seen who have gone to him from the people
and soldiers, who are countless. God killed them, so look at the multitudes."
Here follow verses from the Koran. "You who never know religion till after

32 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

death hate God from the beginning. Then we are sure that God, and only
Ood, sent the Mahdi, so as to take away your property, and you know this
since the time of our Lord Mahomet's coming. Pray to God, and be con-
verted. There is nothing between us but the sword, especially as the Mahdi
has come to kill you and destroy you unless God wishes you to Ii^iam. The
Mahdi's sword be on your necks wherever you may escape, and God's iron be
round your necks wherever you may go. Do not think you are enough for
us, and the Turks are only a little better than you. We will not leave your
heads unless you become Mussulmans and listen to the Prophet and laws of
God, and God said in His dear book those who believe Him tight for Him, \

and th'ise who do not believe in Him shall be killed." Here follow many
verses from the Koran referring to permission to kill intidels. " Therefore
God has waited for you for a ling time, and you have thought that He would
always go on waiting for you ; but God said He would wait for you as you
were bad. People but know that during the time of the Mahdi he will not
accept bribes from you, and also will not leave you in your infidelity, so there
is nothing for you but the sword, so that there will not remain one of you on
the face of the earth, therefore Islam.

On the other hand it may be said : He is no prophet ; he is deceiving his
disciples ; even the Mussulmans of India declare he is noMohammedan ; the just
rule of England will be superior to any Oriental government ; he is iu revolt
against the rightful powers ; Egypt under England is better able to judge
what is best for the Soudanese ; and his defeat will lead to the rapid spread
of civilization.

Some of the former of these considerations, added to the extreme diffi-
culty which, it was felt, attended any attempt to bring the whole of the
Soudan provinces completely under subjugation, seem to have had great
weight with the British Cabinet. The instructions issued to General Gordon
on the occasion of employing him as the pacificator of these regions show
this. "Her Majesty's Government," said Lord Granville, "are desirous
that you should proceed at once to Egypt, to report to them on the military
situation in the Soudan, and on the measures which it may be advisable to
take for the security of the Egyptian garrisons still holding positions in that
country, and for the safety of the European population in Khartoum. You
are also desired to consider and report upon the best mode of ejfecting the
evacuation of the interior of the Soudan, and upon the manner in which the
safety and the good administration by the Egyptian Government of the porta
on the sea coast can best be secured. In coanection with this subject, you
should pay especial coi sideration to the question of the steps that may use-
fully be taken to counteract the stimulus which it is feared may possibly be

) i

\ 1

THB MAHDI. 33

given to the slave trade by the present insurrectionary movement, and by
the withdrawal of the Egyptian authority from the interior."

However, public opinion is now less soft-hearted, and the intention seems
to be at all hazards to — " smash the Mahdi."

What a Mahdi is.

The ordinary reader is perhaps satisfied to think that el Mahdi signifies nothing
more than "the prophet" — or, in the case of Mahomet Achmet, the rebel of the
Soudan, " the false prophet. " But the word Mahdi has a deeper meaning, and con-
tains a whole history in itself.

At the risk of being tedious, not to say '* dry," a few remarks may be here inserted
on the origin and growth of the true notion of the Mahdi.

On the death of Mahomet, no successor having been appoir ' ed, and uncertainty
existing as to whether the succession should be elective or hereditary, three different
parties put forward pretensions: first, the Mohadjirs, or early converts; second, the
Ansars, who had powerfully contributed to the prophet's success ; third, the prophet's
near relations. This last party gained the succession, but personal rivalries led to a
long and bitter conflict between the partisans of Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-
law, and the 8upi)orters of Moawia, a more distant relative. In the long run the latter
were successful, Ijut the adherents of All's descendants continued to regard Moawia
and his successors as usurpers, and held that the true line would some day again be
looked upon as tho proper successors of Mahomet, and the personage who would soon
appear to demand and seize the succession would be— the Mahdi.

This, in briwf, is the history of the idea, but it is invested with many metaphysical,
theological, and mystical doctrines. A renegade Jew, by name Abdallah-ibn-Saba,
preached that Ali was an incarnation of the divine essence ; that he had disappeared
from tho world for a time, and would reappear as Mahdi. The object of this Abdallah-
ibn-Saba was to overthrow the Abbaside dynasty (tha successors of Moawia) ; he cared
little for consistency, and explained the Mahdi theory under various forms : to the
Jew he represented him &a the Messiah, to the Christian he identified him with the
Paraclete.

In all ages it has been believed that the Mahdi would have both a political and a
religious mission. It is in this sense, probably, that the simple people of the Soudan
have received Mahomet Achmet. They think little— probably know little — of his
presumed descent from Ali, of his being an incarnation of the divine essence ; they
have heard naught of the mystical and theosophical dogmas with which the office is
encompassed. " It ic enough for them to know," says a Constantinople correspondent,
"that Allah has sent a prophet and a deliverer who is to drive unbelievers and tax-
gatherers out of the country, and to give his followers abundance of opportunities for
obtaining plunder. So long as he continues to accomplish successfully this holy mission
his pretensions to being something more than an ordinary mortal will not be too closely
scrutinized, and the fetwahs of learned sheikhs in Cairo, Mecca, or elsewhere, declaring
him to be an imposter, will produce very little effect upon his followers. The followers,
on their part, need not know anything of the early history of Islam, or be capable of
understanding pan-theistii 'octrines. All they require is to be brave and enduring,
and to be capable of a cei ii enthusiasm for the cause which they have espoused.
That they possess these rec^ i sites in a very high degree they have abundantly proved."

34 THE WAB IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER VII.

SLAIN IN THE DESERT.

To give some of the reasons of the Mahdi's astonishing progress and the
successes he achieved, as well as to record the sad fate of Colonel Hicks and
his 11,000 men, it will be well to say something of the expedition led by this
splendid officer against the forces of the false prophet.

The Mahdi's influence was spreading. All the country about Khartoum
and El Obeid was ablaze with rebellious and furious fanaticism. The Egyp-
tian authorities became seriously alarmed, and it was resolved to send troops
immediately for the purpose of quelling the rising. The disbanded soldiers
of Arabi's shattered army were sent to the south, and Colonel Hicks, having
been created a Pasha, was given the virtual command. He left Cairo accom-
panied by several British officers early in February, 1883, and proceeded to
Suakim ; from thence they made for Khartoum via Berber. At Khartoum
no time was lost in obtaining reinforcements and organizing an army. From
March to October various reverses and s.tccesses were recorded. Amongst
the latter being the battle of Assalia, fought on April 29th.

The desperate way in which the Arabs rushed fearlessly to certain death
in this engagement has been described by Colonel Colborne. "With t5e
greatest sang froid," he says, " they came up within a few paces. Those
whose horses were killed advanced on foot. One Arab coolly walked up to
within ten yards of us, and when told to lay down his spear brandished it in
defiance. Call this valour, infatuation, madness, or what you will, such cool
determination and such utter disregard of certain death has seldom been
equalled on the battle-field." This reminds one strongly of the recklessness
of the Zulus, who rushed frantically, armed perhaps only with a spear and
an ox-hide shield, upon the ranks of their foes. Or of the Moplahs in the
south-west of Hindustan, who, it is said, even when transfixed by the bayonet i

strive to reach their opponent by drawing themselves up the musket.

The last telegram received from Hicks was on the 17th of October, and
not till the last week in November was it known that he and his army had
perished in the desert, fighting doggedly for three days against countless
numbers of the enemy.

The most authentic accounts give the following particulars : —
In September, Hicks Pasha set out from Duem on the Nile for a two-
hundred-mile maroh across the desert with the intention of capturing El

(•

SLAIN IN THB DESERT. 36

Obeid. His army bore the character more of a mob than of disciplined
soldiers, and although consisting of some 11,000 men it seemed to all a sort
of forlorn hope to attempt to vie with the hosts of the Mahdi, especially
in such a country.

Worse than all, they could never be sure that they were free from
treachery. Indeed, as the sequel will show, this it was that brought on the
almost unparalleled disaster of which I am about to speak.

On November 3rd, the army entered a sort of defile. Unsuspecting
danger they entered fearlessly, but when fairly enclosed, suddenly they found
themselves absolutely surrounded by the enemy. It was an ambuncade. The
guide had deceived them. And now alone in the desert, encompassed by
thousands of wildly fanatical rebels, scarce of water, and with no path by
which to advance or retreat, there was nothing for it but to stolidly fight it
out to tlie bitter end. And this they did. For three days did that army
under the inspiring valour of their magnificent leader, repel the onslaughts of
their foes. Day and night they fought though parched with thirst and with
aching limbs. Night only brought fears of surprises, and dawn only showed
the numbers of the enemy augmented with fresh and vigorous reinforcements*
Ammunition ran short ; the foe pressed closer. A third of the Egyptian troops
surrendered; and the remainder, with the courage of despair, resolved to die
in a last charge upon the foe. The last cartridge was fired. Bayonets were
fixed, and recklessly they threw thfemselves against the dark wall of men
before them. It was useless. The bullets of the opposing forces mowed them
down by hundreds ; and of that army of eleven thousand men it is said that
one man only escaped to record the dauntlessnesa of his fellows. Hicks Pasha
himself was found dead, a bloody sword grasped in one hand, and in the other
a pistol. With him fell Mr. O'Donovan, correspondent of the Daily News,
famous for his adventures in Merv ; AUa-ed-Deen Pasha, Governor-General
of the Soudan, and several British officers, pashas, and beys.

Such a victory naturally set the whole Soudan in a blaze. The fiction of
the Mahdi's divine mission required no further confirmation, and additional
thousands rallied to his standard.

The history of the events which led up to the war in the Soudan would
have been incomplete without special mention of this expedition and its sad
' termination This, more perhaps than any other success achieved by the

Mahdi, tended to spread his fame far and wide. The consternation even at
< Cairo was profound. If the false prophet continued upon his path of victory

what hindered his marching on the very palace of the Khedive ? He had
myriads at his beck, and the fate of those sent against him showed the com-
parative uselessness of the Egyptian soldiery when pitted against men fighting

86 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

for their liberty, their country, their prophet, and their God. The rebellion
of Arabi was, as compared with thia, as a momentary blaze to a vast and rush-
ing prairie fire. So useless did the British Government consider it to oppose
this new-arisen Soudanese spectre, that it earnestly advised the Khedive to
leave that country to its own fate, and not to attempt further the reconquest
of those distant provinces. Reluctant as the Egyptian Government evidently
was to act upon such advice, there seemed but little possibility for anything
else to be done.

Fre^h troubles sprang up. The Soudanese spectre of fanaticism and
revolt h&< ' atherto haunted the deserts of the west ; now it stalked through
the east also. Sinkat was surrounded by the exasperated foe ; Tokar was
surrounded ; the high road between Berber and Suakim was seized ; Suakim
itself threatened ; a relief force for Tokar was cut to pieces ; 760 men out of
800 fell in cue day at Sincat.

MORE DI8A8TEB8. 37

CHAPTER VIU.

MORE DISASTERS.

To the civilian and to the ordinary reader the chief business of the soldier
aeems to be to fight : to form square when the enemy appears ; to put a cart-
ridge into his rifle and fire it off ; to charge at the sound of the bugle ; to kill as
many men as he can ; and to avoid being killed himself. People do not think
of the long, long marches with heavy knapsacks ; the getting up to start per-
haps across a waterless desert, at half-past one in the morning ; the looking
after jaded horses and unruly camels ; the going without water under a terrific
sun for hours and hours ; the dragging of guns over, commonly speaking, im-
passable ground ; the hard fighting for long weiirying hours, at any time of
day or night, with or without meals ; the glaring sun ; the intense heat ; the
parched throat ; the aching legs and arms ; the likelihood of surprises ; and,
not least, the absence of all news from home : no letters, no newspapers, no
word at all from the longing wife and the loving children ; really quite alone
in the horrible desert ; behind — a thousand miles to the nearest seaport ; in
front — three hundred miles of desert, and two hundred thousand black savages
waiting for blood. These are some of the things that make up war. Perhaps
the fighting is the best part of it. There is excitement in that, there is some
tangible evidence of the result of hard work ; there is the chance of being
mentioned in despatches ; there is the praise given in the general orders.
But before the battle — what hardships ! and after it — what agony often ! If
one hundred men die on the battlefield, how many people, think you, weep at
home ? Too many poets ting the " pomp and circumstance of war ; " too few
poets weep the pain cf wounds, the pang of loss.

Wounds and loss now followed in thick succession.

Elated by the grand defeat of the gallant Hicks the rebels grew bold.
Tokar is surrounded, Sincat is surrounded. The latter place cannot be reached,
and brave Tewfik Bey, the commander of its little force, is left to die. The
black hordes come up to the walls and shout curses at its gallant defenders.
There is no food ; the last dog even is killed to keep off starvation. Half a
pound of grain in the twenty-four hours is all the fighting men get now. And
at last there is but one sack of this left. They make up their minds. The
guns are spiked ; the stores burned ; the magazines blown up, and the six
hundred men who are left to defend Sincat resolve to cut their way through
the enemy. They fill their pouches with cartridges and sally forth. Osmau's

38 THE WAR IN THE HOUDAN.

men at once rush down. The six hundred fomi square and fighb, — it ia true
fighting this, but it is useless. One side of the square is burst in and that
brave little band is masnacred to a man. Sincat is oapturod. Five men and
thirty women are spared — that is all, and when the news reaches Suakim there
are streets filled with weeping women and — yes — weeping men.

Sincat fallen and Tokar surrounded, something must be done. In this
dilemma the Khedive turned to Baker Pasha, now at the head of a creditable
body of gendarmerie. This general managed to get together 3,000 troops of
an utterly nondescript character, and with these attempted the relief of Tokar. m

His men were perfectly useless. In the first battle, about 10 miles from
Trinkitat, they fell on their knees and begged for mercy from the rebels. It
was not a battle, said a correspondent, but a butchery.

Soon Graham is ordered to take 4,000 men and fight for Tokar. He does
so, and the battles of El Teb, in which he was victorious, did a little to damp
the ardor of the rebels.

It is necessary now to go back a little and speak of the causes which
broUj^ht the groat Gordon on the scene.

TU£ CALL FOK UUUDOIf. 39

CHAPTER IX.

THE CALL FOR GORDON.

MBANWHiiiB the cry went up from all sides •' Send Gordon." Every one
who had heard his name and knew of his popularity as Govemor-Genorul of
the Soudan cried out for him. Why not sent Gordon? said newspaper
correspondents ; whore is Gordon 7 said natives who had experienced his
beneficial rule. Above all, the Pall Mall Gazette urged his employment.

" Why not send Chinese Gordon," it wrote, '• with full powers to Khar-
toum, to assume absolute control of the territory, to treat with the Mnhdi, to
relieve the garrisons, and do what can be done, to save what can bo saved
from the wreck in the Soudan ? There is no necessity to speak of the pre-
eminent qualifications which he possesses for the work. They are notorious,
and are as undisputed as they are indisputable. His engagement on the
Congo could surely be postponed. No man can deny the urgent need in the
midst of that hideous welter of confusion for the presence of such a man,
with a bom genius for command, an unexampled capacity in organising
' Ever- Victorious Armies,' and a perfect knowledge of the Soudan and its
people. Why not send him out with carte-blanche to do the best that can be
done ? He may not be able, single-handed, to reduce that raging chaos to
order, but the attempt is worth making, and if it is to be made it will have
to be made at once. For before many days Gonoral Gordon will have left
for the Congo, and the supreme opportunity may have pissed by."

The cry was echoed and re-echoed till it became the voice of public
opinion. The Government recognized it, saw the cogency and force of the
appeal, and at once decided to act.

On Wednesday, January the 16th, Gordon had started for Belgium on
his way to the Congo, which region ho had undertaken to administrate for
the King of the Belgians. On Thursday he received a telegram from the
British Government asking him if would undertake the pacilication of the
Soudan. He returned to London at once ; and Friday evening saw him
e)i route for Cairo.

This, as it proved, the most momentous errand of his whole life, was
commenced in the simple, quiet way in which this truly wonderful man was
accustomed to conduct all his affairs. Accompanied only by Lieutenant-
Colonel Stewart, of the 11th Hussars, he left Charing Cross Station by the
evening train for Dover. The Duke of Cambridge, Lord Wolseley, Colonel

'iHE WA\. IN THE SOUDAN.

Brocklehurst, and Lord Hartington's private secretary, were the only ones to
see him off. The Puke got the ticket ; the hero of Tel-el-Kebir carried the
portmanteau, and Coloiiel Brocklehurst opened the carriage door for th?
quiet gentleman who was going away never to return. Who does not envy
the men who were able to render to him the last little services England could
do ? It was the last London saw of him. For one year and eight days there
were thousands in England who watched and waited anxiously for any, the
minutest piece of, information they could obtain about him. At the end of
that lime there arrived the news that he was no more. A grand history his ;
full of infinito sadness, inexpressible nobility. — Are they ever separable ? — !

"I WILL SAVE THE HONODB OF EGYPT."

CHAPTEB X.

♦'I WILL SAVE THE HONOUR OF EGYPT."

"Bvx what definitely is the object of Gordon's mission ? Briefly, the paci-
fication of the Soudan. But how to be accomplished ? This it is not easy,
even with the light of after events, accurately to determine. We have seen
that the British Government at one time recommended Egypt to give up the
southern provinces. We have seen that notwithstanding this she permitted
or allowed Generals Hicks, Baker and Graham to march against (a part at all
events of) the foe that was menacing these southern provinces. One thing,
however, is clear : a resort to arms will be the last resort ; that is r<:-solved
upon, and a man is sent whose chief influence lies in his known distaste for
an appeal to the sword. General Gordon is to use his friendship with the
Sheikhs and his popularity with the people, not his power as the representa-
tive of a belligerent intruder. " You will bear in mind," writes Sir Evelyn
Baring to him, "that the main end to be pursued is the evacuation of the
Soudan. This policy was adopted, after very full discussion; by the Egyptian
Government on the advice of Her Majesty's Government. It meets with the
full approval of His Highness the Khedive and of the present Egyptian Min-
istry. I understand also that you entirely concur in the desirability of
adopting this policy, and that you think that it should on no account bo
changed. You consider that it may take a few months to curry it out with
safety. You are further of opinion that the restoration of the countrj' should
be made to the petty Sultans who afisisted at the time of Mehemet Ali's con-
quest, and whose families still exist ; and tliat an endeavour should be made
to form a confederation of those Sultans. In this view the Egyptian Govern-
ment entirely concurs. It will, of course, be fuUy understood that the
Egyptian troops are not to be kept in the Soudan merely with a view
to consolidating the power of the new rulers of the country. But the
Egyptian Government has the fullest confidence in your judgment, your
knowledge of the country, and of your comprehension of the general line of
policy to be pursued. You are, therefore, given full discretionary power to
retain the troops for such reasonable period as you may think necessary, in
order that the abandonment of the country may be accomplislied with the
least possible risk to life and property."

This was written after a long and earnest conversation with General
Gordon himself, his own phrases being occasionally inserted.

asa

42 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

It will be well if we enter into this intricate subject at some little length,
seeing that on the solution of this problem depended (indeed wo may say
depends) the whole of the future conduct of affairs in Egypt.

The state of the Soudan at the time of Gordon's arrival at Cairo was
this : The Mahdi's power had swelled to gigantic proportions. It now
extended from beyond El Obeid to within a few miles of Suakim. His troops
were elated with successes, and having been promised a certain and immediate
entrance into paradise by death on the battlefield, they fought with a reck-
lessness that might truly be called supernatural. They were consequently to
be dreaded. Sincat was in their hands ; the battles of El Teb (which to a
slight extent decreased their ardour) had not yet been fought ; Tokar was
not yet saved. Osman Digna was rivalling his master in daring. The Egyp-
tian garrisons were faltering, and the rebels were correspondingly exultant.
Every day added fresh numbers to the foe. Years of oppression had done
their work but too well, and it might be said without exa<i;geration that the
whole Soudanese were clamouring for ' home-rule.' Deeply impressed with
this, the British and Egyptian Governments decided to bring about a sort of
compromise. The Mahdi was not to be considered as an integral part of the
problem at all. The people were to be won back by assurances of kind
Ijovernment ; their estates were to be deeded over to them ; their debts for
unpaid taxes were to be repudiated — they were, in short, to be coaxed into
loyalty — not to any hated power, but to governors of their own choice — from
among their own families. To bring this about the man was chosen whom
they knew, whom they could trust, who had trusty friends amongst their
chiefs, and to whose rule they had been already accustomed.

I cannot do better than to append here the memorable memorandum of
General Gordon, which gives in his own words his views of what lay before

him.

" Memorandum by General Gordon.

" I understand that Her Majesty's Government have come to the irrevo-
cable decision not to incur the very onerous duty of securing to the peoples of
the Soudan a just future Government. That, as a consequence, Her Majesty's
Government have determined to restore to these peoples their independence,
and will no longer suffer the Egyptian Government to interfere with their
affairs.

" 2. For this purpose Her Majesty's Government have decided to send
me to the Soudan to arrange for the evacuation of these countries, and the
safe removal of the Egyptian employes and troops.

" 3. Keeping Paragraph No. 1 in view — viz., that the evacuation of the
So'idan is irrevocably decided on, it w^ill depend upon circumstances in what
way this is to be accomplished.

"I WILL SAVE THE HONOUR OP EGYPT." 43

" My idea U that the restoration of the country should be made to the
diflferoni petty Sultans who existed at the time of Mehemet All's conquest,
and whose families still exist ; that the Mahdi should be left altogether out of
the calculation as regards the handing over the country ; and that it should
be optional with the Sultans to accept his supremacy or not. As these Sul-
tans would probably not be likely to gain by accepting the Mahdi as their
Sovereign, it is probable that they will hold to their independent positions.
Thus we should have two factors to deal with — namely, the Petty Sultans
asserting their several independence, and the Mahdi's party aiming at
8u jremacy over them. To hand, therefore, over to the Mahdi the arsenals,
etc. , would, I consider, be a mistake. They should be handed over to the
Sultans of the States in which they are placed.

" The most difficult question is how and to whom to hand over the arsen-
als at Khartoum, Dongola, and Kassala, which towns have, so to say, no old
standing families — Khartoum and Kassala having sprung up since Mehemet
All's conquest. Probably it would be advisable to postpone any decision as
to these towns till such time as the inhabitants have made known their
opinion.

" 4. I have, in Paragraph 3, proposed the transfer of the lands to the
local Sultans, and stated my opinion that these will not accept the supremacy
of the Mahdi. If this is agreed to, and my supposition correct as to their
action, there can be but little doubt that, as far as he is able, the Mahdi will
endeavour to assert his rule over them, and will be opposed to any evacuation
of the Government employes and troops. My opinion of the Mahdi's forces
is, that the bulk of those who were with him at Obeid will refuse to cross the
Nile, and that those who do so will not exceed 3000 or 4000 men, and also
that these wiU be composed principally of black troops who have deserted, and
who, if offered fair terms, would come over to the Government side. In such
a case, viz. , ' Sultans accepting transfer of territory and refusing the supremacy
of the Mahdi, and Mahdi's black troops coming over to the Government, re-
sulting in weakness of the Mahdi,' what should be done should the Mahdi's
adherents attack the evacuating columns 1 It cannot be supposed that these
are to offer no resistance ; and if in resisting they should obtain a success, it
would be but reasonable to allow them to follow up the Mahdi to such a
position as would ensure their future safe march. This is one of those difficult
questions which our Government can hardly be expected to answer, but which
may arise, and to which I would call attention. Paragi-aph 1 fixes irrevocably
the decision of the Government — viz., to evacuate the territory, and, of
course, as far as possible, involves the avoidance of fighting. I can, therefore,
only say that, having in view Paragraph 1, and seeing the difficulty of asking
Her Majesty's Government to give a decision or direction as to what should

THE WAB IN THE SOUDAN.

be done in certain cases, that I will carry out the evacuation as far as possible
according to their wish to the best of my ability, and with avoidance, as far
as possible, of all fighting. I would, however, hope that Her Majesty's Gov-
ernment will give me their support and consideration should I be unable to
fulfil all their expectations.

" 5. Though it is out of my province to give any opinion as to the action of
Her Majesty's Government in leaving the Soudan, still I must say it would be
an iniquity to reconquer these peoples and then hand them back to the Ej^yp-
tians without guarantees of future good government. It is evident that this
we cannot secure them without an inordinate expenditure of men and money.
The Soudan is a useless possession, ever was so, and ever will be so. Larger
than Germany, France, and Spain together, and mostly barren, it cannot be
governed except by a Dictator, who may be good or bad. If bad, he will
cause constant revolts. No one who has ever lived in the Soudan can escape
the reflection — * What a useless possession is this land.' Few men also can
stand its fearful monotony and deadly climate.

"6. Said Pasha, the Viceroy before Ismail, went up to the Soudan with
Count F. de Lesseps. He was so discouraged and horrified at the misery of
the people, that at Berber Count de Lesseps saw him throw his guns into the
river, declaring that he would be no party to such oppression. It was only
after the urgent solicitations of European Consuls and others that he recon-
sidered his decision. Therefore, I think Her Majesty's Government are fully
justified in recommending the evacuation, inasmuch as the sacrifices neces-ary
towards securing a good government would be far too onerous to admit of
such an attempt being made. Indeed, one may say it is impracticable at any
cost. Her Majesty's Government wUl now leave them as God has placed
them ; they are not forced to tight among themselves, and they will no longer
be oppressed by men coming from lands sf» remote as Circassia, Kurdistan,
and Anatolia."

Thus he wrote oflBcially ; but in his speeches to the people, in his private
correspondence, and in hi-- jemi-official communications, the thoroughly whole-
hearted manner in which he seemed to be eaten up with the zeal of his
project continually shows itself. As probably it has been with all truly great
conquerors, clemency was, if not his salient characteristic, by no means a
secondary one. The wrongs which the poor, wretched, down-trodden
Soudanese had so long borne seemed to pierce him to the heart. He was on
an errand of mercy. It was a labor of love in the truest sense. This he be-
lieved ; this he expressed. His last words to Nubar Pasha on leaving Cairo
were : " I will save the honour of Egypt."

▲T KHARTOUM. 46

CHAPTER XI.

AT KHARTOUM.

" Khartottm is a city numbering between fifty and sixty thousand people.
Several European consuls reside here. The European colony in small and
continually changing ; Khartoum is a perfect grave-yard for Europeans, and
\n the rainy season for natives also, the mortality averaging then from thirty
to forty per day, which implies three thousand to four thousand for the season.
Khartoum is the commercial centre for the Soudan trade, amounting alto-
gether to sixty -five million dollars a year, and carried on by one thousand
European and three thousand Egyptian commercial houses. There are large
hagans, in which is found a much greater variety of European and Asiatic
goods than would be expected in such distant regions. In the spacious
market-place a brisk trade is carried on in cattle, horses, camels, asses, sheep,
as well as grain, fruit, and other agricultural produce."

Here General Gordon arrived on the morning of February the 18th, 1884.

The telegraphic despatches reporting his actions and movements on
reaching the seat of government are at this date sufficiently full to quote : —

" Khartoum, Feb. 18, 3.30 p.m.

" General Gordon's arrival here this morning led to a wonderful demon-
stration of welcome by the people, thousands of them crowding to kiss his
hands and feet, and calling him the * Sultan of the Soudan.'

" His speech to the people was received with enthusiasm. He said : —

" 'I come without soldiers, but with God on my side, to redress the evils
of the Soudan. I will not fight with any weapon but justice. There shall be
no more Bashi-Bazouks. '

" It is now believed that he will relieve the Bahr Gazelle garrisons with-
out firing a shot.

" Since they heard that he was coming the aspect of the people has so
changed that there are no longer any fears of disturbances in the town. They
say that he is giving them more than even the Mahdi could give.

" He is sending out proclamations in all directions.

" Such is the influence of one man that there are no longer any fears for
the garrison or people of Khartoum.

" Feb. 19, 4.30 p.m.

"Yesterday was one series of acceptable surprises for the people of
Khartoum.

46 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

" General Gordon's proclamation preceded him, and immediately on his
arrival he summoned the officials, thus preparing the people for some aalutory
changes. He next held a levee at the Mudirieh, the entire population, even
the poorest Arab being admitted. On his way between the Mudirieh and the
Palace about 1,000 persons pressed forward kissing his hands and feet, and
calling him ' Sultan,' * Father,' and ' Saviour of Khordofan.'

" General Gordon and Colonel Stewart at once opened offices in the
Palace, giving to every one with a grievance admittance and a careful hearing.
The Government books, recording from time immemorial the outstanding
debts of the over-taxed people, were publicly burnt in front of the Palace.
The kourbashes, whips, and implements for administering the bastinado from
Government house were all placed on the blazing pile. The evidence of debts
and the emblems of oppression perished together.

" In the afternoon General Gordon created a Council of the local notables,
all Arabs. Then he visited the hospital and arsenal. With Colonel Stewart,
Coetlogon Pasha, and the English Consul he visited the prison, and found it
to be a dreadful den of misery. Two hundred wretches loaded with chains
lay there. They were of all ages, boys and old men, some having never been
tried, some having been proved innocent, but forgotten for over six months,
some arrested on suspicion and detained there more than three years, many
merely prisoners of war, and one a woman, who had spent 15 years in the
prison for a crime committed when she was a girl.

"General Gordon at once commenced to demolish this bastille. All the
prisoners will be briefly examined, and if it be advisable set at liberty. Before
it was dark scores of wretches had had their chains struck oflF, and to-day Col.
Stewart is continuing this work.

' ' Last night the town was in a blaze of illumination, the bazaar being hung
with doth and coloured lamps and the private houses beaui;ifully decorated.
There was even a fine display of fire works by the negro poptUation, who in-
dulged in great rejoicings till midnight.

" The people are devoted to General Gordon, whose design is to save the
garrison and for ever leave the Soudan — as perforce it must be left — to the
Soudanese.

"By private advices from Cairo we learn that surprise is expressed at
General Gordon's proclamation. Here the Europeans hail it with delight,
and agree that it is the only means of saving the lives of themselves and the
garrison.

" The Mahdi is proclaimed ruler of Kordofan, it is true ; but he is already
its virtual ruler, and the official recognition of the fact will prevent his advance
upon Khartoum. The slave trade is not to be interfered with ; but the Gov-

LT KHARTOUM.

emment is already powerless to interfere with it, and the General is, therefore,
only making a virtue of necessity. Half of the taxes are remitted, because
the people are totally unable to pay.

"General Gordon is evidently determined to carry out his orders to

' effect the evacuation of the Soudan, without risking the lives of another ten

thousand men. The Egyptians and Europeans have the utmost confidence in

him and his measures, and foresee that he will spare the useless effusion of

blood."

'<\

«8

TUE WAB IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTBR Xn.

STILL FURTHER REVERSES.

After Gordon'ti arrival at Khartoum, while he was exerting his utmost en-
deavi lurs to avert warfare and bring about a peaceful solution of all difficulties,
affairs elsewhere wore a threatening aspect. On February the 21st, Tobar sur-
rendered to the rebels. This in itself was a loss of the first magnitude, for, in
addition to its important position being on the littoral and within a short
distance of Suakim — a port of inestimable value, the effect upon the rebels
was much to be dreaded. The way in which it was given up also added to its
ill efiects. There was no valid reason for its surrender : there was an abun-
dance of provisions ; the garrison truly numbered only 300, but there were
46,000 rounds of ammunition, and the authorities were perfectly aware of the
fact that British forces were hastening to their rescue.

Bad news came also from Massowah further down (south) the coast.
And it was said that the insurrection was spreading everywhere even amongst
the Government oflBcials. Suakim also was reported to be in a disorganized
condition. One thing saved Tokar's garrison from the sad fate of that of
Sinkat, viz. : the presence of an English regiment at Trinkitat. Sinkat was
helpless, and no terms wo'ild the rebels make. Tokar was within reasonable
distance of aid, and the life of its garrison was spared. " Possibly too, " says
the Cairo correspondent of the London Times, " because the prestige of
General Gordon had reached the eastern tribes." On this subject this writer
waxes warm. "Mr. Gladstone," he says, "despises prestige. So do many
less able men despise prestige — as well as sugar-plums and children's toys.
But if by one or the other we can save valuable lives and restore peace, why
not employ them ? The other day the adhesion of some powerful Sheikhs
was gained at Suakim by presenting them with some squeaking dolls.
Because such gifts would not influence the Premier, there is no reason why
we should not employ them with savages. And it is the same with prestige.
What else but prestige enabled General Gordon to cross the desert and create
peace as if with a magic wand ? It may be foolish to fight solely for prestige,
but, having it, it is more foolish to refuse to use it in order to obtain
valuable ends. Had the policy accepted a week ago been adopted a fortnight
earlier, it would have saved Sinkat. A month earlier it would have saved
Morico Bey and his companions ; six months earlier it would have saved
Hicks Pasha, Colonel Moncrieff, and 10,000 Egyptians. If it had been adop-

STILL FURTHER REVERSES. 49

ted two years earlier the massacre at Alexandria, the ruin of that town, the
battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and all the attendant waste of life and treasure would
never have occurred. Let us not be content with this one feeble use of a
valuable and bloodless weapon. Other garrisons remain. Shall we wait until
they are beleaguered before we attempt to save them from their fate ? Shall
we tempt Providence by leaving all on the broad shoulders of one man 1 No ;
let us appoint General Gordon British High Commissioner in the Soudan,
placing at his disposition not only the force now commanded by his old friend
and school-fellow, Major-General Graham, but a supplemental body of Indian
cavalry. Let such a force be used only when and where he directs, and it
may march unopposed through the (vhole of the Soudan. Then, when all the
beleaguered garrisons are free, when the accursed rule of the Turkish- Egyptians
over a people who are their superiors is destroyed, let us withdraw once and
forever from the Soudan, accept our responsibilities in Egypt, strangle the
slave trade where it can alone be reached, trust to time bringing the Soudan
voluntarily under the civilized rule of a regenerated Egypt, and receive the
gratitude of the millions inhabiting the Nile Valley !"

Many other towns were either in the hands of the rebels or were sur-
rounded by them ; amongst others : El Fasher, Darra, Masteri, Foga, Om
Shanga, and ThashL

60 TUE WAR IN THE SOUDAN

CHAPTER XIII.

EL TEB.

The last day of February, 1884, witnossed a long expected battle — that
of El Teb, in whioh General Graham inflicted a severe lesson upon the rebels. '*

An eye witness gives the following account : —

" At 10 o'clock in the morning the scouts feit the enemy and fire was
opened on the mounted infantry, who covered the right flank. Shortly after-
wards we neared the old battlefield and saw the enemy in considerable
numbers on a small hill, which they had ftirtified and where they had two
Krupps. The hill was dotted with numerous flags and seemed to be the rebel
headquarters. As we approached the rebels hid, but occasionally we could
mark heads popped up out of holes watching us. We marched to within a
quarter of a mile of the hill to its right and then halted. Directly we had
done so the enemy opened a tremendous shell and rifle fire. The bullets for-
tunately went high ; but it was evident that, if the enemy had had more time
and practice, they would have made good shots. The shell practice was very
good, the shells bursting in the square, but fortunately doing no damage, only
causing a stampede among the mules and horses. At this moment General
Baker was wounded under the eye by a shrapnel buUet^ and lost a great deal
of blood. He refused to dismount, but was finally persuaded, re-mounting,
however, as soon as the wound had been bandaged.

" Most of the men shot were hit about this time ; but soon the artillery
drove the rebels from the two guns in the first fort.

"About 11.40 we advanced Again, inclining to the left, which brought us
to the rear of the enemy's position. As we advanced. Lieutenant Eoyds, of
Her Majesty's ship Carysfort, received a ball in the stomach ; the wound is
very dangerous. When about a thousand yards in rear of the enemy, towards
Tokar, we halted, changed front, bringing the 42nd in the front and the Gor-
don Highlanders in the rear, and advanced on their position. Then they
tried to pass us, and while the men in the forts poured a heavy fire from rifles
and guns, a vast number more encircled us, coming down on all sides at once.
Our men lay down and waited till the enemy were within 160 yards, when the
fire from the hill ceased. Then the Gatlings and Gardners got to work, and
a deadly fire poured forth from all sides of the square. In spite of our fire,
however, which every second knocked over hundreds like rabbits, the rebels
oams on, rushing up to meet their death in our very ranks. Their courage

EL TEB. 61

was incredible. I saw men rushing wildly on singly, all their comrades for
yards around having fallen, and in spite of the hail of bullets, roach the square
and throw their ppear, or stab, before despatched by the bayonet.

" But no courage or determination could avail against the steadiness of
our men, and after half an hour's struggle to break the square, the rebels were
obliged to retire, leaving numbers killed on the ground, and more dropping
at every step as our men sent volley after volley after them, till they sought
shelter behind the hill to the right rear of the first fort. As the enemy retired
a wild cheer broke from our men, who, taking advantage of the momentary
check, advanced rapiiily towards the first works. The rebels, however, were by
no means beaten yet. Behind tlie hill they stopped, apparently to concentrate
their forces and to concert measures for another rush. From all sides fresh
bands of them hastened up. The ground about here was greatly broken and
very difficult. The formation became consequently slightly irregular in
places, and gaps were left here and there. A halt was, therefore, called to
re-form and distribute fresh ammunition to all needing it. After a few mo-
ments the rebels, thinking we were hesitating, came on again in greater
numbers than before, and had another three-quarters of an hour's hard fight-
ing before they retired again, baffled.

" Taking advantage of every inch of cover they hid behind each hillock
and bush, creeping towards us, and dodging the bullets, so to speak. When
sufficiently near they would start up, make a dash for our lines, stab, or
attempt to stab, and die. One moment's hesitation on the part of our
men would have caused a very serious disaster, but they never flinched or
recoiled a step. At last the enemy withdrew some 300 yards, and we advanced
upon the fort. When we got close a company of the Black Watch charged
the fort, Colonel Burnaby and some sailors being with them. Here the rebels
made a desperate stand ; Colonel Buniaby's horse was shot under him, and
he himself was wounded in the arm. Colonel Burnaby did good work with a
double-barrelled gun and slugs, finishing ten men with 20 cartridges. Another
gallant act in the fort was that of Captain Wilson of the Hecla, who, seeing a
marine closely pressed, rushed to his assistance, and while surrounded by five
or six of the enemy broke his sword at the hilt in the body of one of them.
The others closing round him, he tackled them with his fists, doing terrible
havoc with his sword hilt. He received a sword cut through his helmet,
cutting the scalp, but after having the wound dressed was at it again.

" The fort was at last taken and we halted, while the gunners turned the
captured guns on the enemy's second position, from which they were still
actively firing. We could now see the village of Teb close to ; hitherto it ha4
been hidden by high ground. Some hundred yards in front was a brick
building, in which large numbers of the rebels were concealed, while in front

09 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

of this building was a large iron boiler lying on the ground. All around,
thick afl n rabbit warren, were pita dug for the enemy to lie hidden in and
then spring up suddenly as we passed. These pits gave considerable trouble,
some of the rebels lying low, feigning to be dead, till the first linos had passed,
and then springing up and doing much mischief before they were killed. As
we advanced we shelled the building to break down the walls, but the guns
were too small to effect this. The walls were loop-holed and the rebels fired
heavily from within. Lieutenant Graham with the Naval Brigade, charged
the building, the sailors Uring revolvers through the windows while the High-
landers shot the rebels who rushed from behmd the walls. When quite close
I saw three or four men creep from the boiler, rush at us with indomitable
pluck, and meet their doom.

" Now, the cavalry, which hitherto had been idle, got to work, sweeping
round our rear, getting to tiie left, and then charging the rebels on our front.
In the plain behind Teb the rebels were thick as boes, but the cavalry were
unable to effect much, as the men dodged and lay down, rising as the horses
passed, and attacking in the rear. We charged three times through them with
little effect and losing heavily.

" The building taken, the enemy were now greatly wavering, but still
shelling us from their last position to the right rear of Teb as we advanced.
The Gordon Highlanders at once advanced on the village, where the enemy,
who were thick in the huts, attempted again to hold their own, but after a
sharp tight were put to flight, and this time for good. Thousands made off at
a great pace in the direction of Tokar and on this side the rout was now
general.

" The fight was now over, the distant plain was covered with fleeing
rebels, and ten minutes later not one was within fight, save on the distant
ridge already mentioned. Inch by inch the rebels had fought the ground for
three-and-a-half hours, with a courage that only fanaticism could give, and no
higher praise can be given our nien than that they met a worthy enemy.
That naked savages should have held their own against troops splendidly
trained and disciplined, and armed with the best aims existing, makes it easier
to understand General Baker's defeat. It is regrettable to be obliged to fight
such an enemy for such an ally. The conduct of every sin;4'e man of our own
troops was simply admirable. Officers and men, one and all, behaved with
perfect coolness, forethought and courage."

WUAT aOHDON IB DOINO. 58

CTI AFTER XIV.

WHAT GORDON IS DOING.

Let uh now go back to Khartoum and Gordon.

It is diiiicult for ns to ima^'ine what in that far off place his thoughts and
feelings are. He is almost alone — latterly quite alone. Col. Stewart and the
Timef "orrespondent are at present the only Enfilishtnon with whom he can talk
ovei lii hopes and fears. He lias no army to rely upon, and no army is within
call. Around him are vast numbers of Soudanese, some friendly, more
treacherous, still more hostile. There are conflicting interests which it seems
impossible to adjust ; there are potty wr(m<{S to be avenged, and there are
gigantic problems to be solved. There are thousands of poor, helpless, ignor-
ant blacks to care for, and there are numbers of powerful and wealthy Sheikha
to conciliate or to punish. Gordon may be said to be Governor, Mayor, Police
Magistrate, President of the Bank, Chairmau of the Board of Trade, and Chief
of Police of Khartoum all in one. What courage, what forbearance, what
calm dispassionate judgment does it require !

External influences, too, add to his difficulties. Parliament does not
hesitate to question the rightness of his doings*; the Egyptian Government,
although under the sway of England, and although pretending to place im-
plicit confidence in the man she has chosen to rule the Soudan, is watching
him with a keen eye. Once before Egypt had objected to a feringhee (an infidel)
being placed at the head of afl"uirs in tlie Southern provinces, and though now
his prt sence seems to be a necessity, it is perhaps still a distasteful one.
England herself, too, thwarted him in some of his plans. Gordon wants
Zebehr — he even goes so far as to offer him (April 16) the Assistant-Governor-
ship of the Soudan — bu". England will not allow it.

Was ever man placed in so critical a position ? The Soudan belongs to Egypt,
Egypt belongs to Turkey, Gordon undertakes to manage matters for all three ;
and France, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Italy are critically looking on to
see how he does it. The future of the Mahdi, the future of the Soudanese, of
Egypt herself, of England's relationships to Egypt, and of her relationships to
the five great powers — all may be said to hinge directly or indirectly on Gor-
don's actions at Khartoum.

•„. He and his few faithful followers too, were continually attacked by the
rebel tribes surrounding the town. Now 3000 of them fall upon a party of

* His proclamation on the slave trade, for example.

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

some 300 who are sent out to gather fire-wood ; now they draw up in long
lines under arms with colours flying and drums beating and threaten the whole
town. Worse than all, the Egyptian soldiers under Gordon are almost worth-
less. On one occasion they behaved so badly that Gordon was utterly
defeated. On March the 16th, about 2000 troops were got together composed
of Bashi-Bazouks, Egyptians, and regular Soudanese, and it was determined
to sally forth and attack the rebel lines about eight miles from Khartoum.
As Gordon's men approached, the enemy quietly slipped away, disappearing
biihind some low sand hills. On reaching these, the five chief Egyptian
officers, who were leading the for^e, suddenly wheeled round and galloped
back, breaking through their own ranks. Of course their men followed suit,
and the whole army broke up and rushed back for Khartoum. The enemy
now re-appeared and dashed after their retreating foe in all directions. One
Arab lancer, armed with a lance and sword only, killed seven Egyptians in as
many minutes. All the sword and spear wounds received by Gordon's men
were in the back. So terrified were they during the retreat that not a shot
was fired nor a bayonet fixed throughout the day. The enemy captured a
field piece, 58 roundf. of shell, and 15,000 rounds of cartridges. This was the
so-called battle of II ifiyeh. Luckily this defeat tended in no way to depre-
ciate General Gordon's influence ; the townspeople remained as staunch as
ever. An Arab on the following day came and offered to lend the treasury a
thousand guineas free of interest. Another Arab equipped, armed, and paid
200 blacks for Gordon.

Fighting now took p'ace daily. The steamers were continually engaged
in shelling the enemy, and heavy rifle firing was often continuously kept up.
The rebels became every day bolder and bolder ; they approached the town
on all sides. They fired incessantly upon the palace, Krupp ammunition was
running short in the city, Gordon's steamers were so heavily fired upon that
they were obliged more than once to relinquish the objects of their expeditions.
Fresh numbers were added daily to the opposing forces, and on April the 7th
came the telegram : " Khartoum is at present the centre of an enormous rebel
camp. The situation is now very critical."

Of the pass to which matters had come we may judge by the feeling of
those shut up in the invested town, and by the measures they were already
discussing for their relief. "The total ignorance which exists among us,"
telegraphs the Times correspondent, " as to the intentions of Her Majesty's
Government is far worse than the certainty, however bad. We have not
learned that any help will be sent from without. It is now (April 2nd) four
months since the English Government heard of Hicks Pasha's disaster ; yet,
except the sending of General Gordon, no step has been taken to relieve us.
Would it not be more honest of the Government, if it cannot carry out its

WHAT CORDON 18 DOING.

aelf-imposed duty towards us by means of British troops, to hire Turkish
regiments ? If England will not arrest the advance of the Mahdi, why not
give £500,000 to the Turks to do so ? It would not cost more. Again, if the
Government has decided to do nothing, would it not be better to say so to
the townspeople, instead of persuading them to hold out, day after day, and
thus to jeopardize their chances eventually with the rebels ? General Gordon
might tell them to make the best terms possible with thn enemy, while we
might try to get together the garrison, and attempt to escape, leaving the
townspeople to their fate. The hope deferred of Englisli intervention is
making the people heart-sick. I have jnly two sources of hope in this crisis
— first, the expectation of an English relieving column ; secondly, the plan of
a retreat across the Equator. Because I am coniident that General Gordon is
abandoned by the Government, and that without Zebehr Pasha he can never
beat the rebels, I fear that he will be driven to retreat by Central Africa.
For to-day arrived an unciphered telegram sent from Sir Evelyn Baring to
Berber, saying that no English troops would be sent to that place — in a word,
clearly indicating that General Gordon and the others who have been faithful
to the Government are thrown over. To retreat on Berber is impossible. Sir
Evelyn Baring's unciphered telegram to that place will quickly be spread
abroad, and the Arabs will learn that the members of the English Government
have turned down their thumbs while General Gordon is struggling here. A
retreat on the Congo will entail great hardships."

Still worse news comes. Hussein . Pasha Khalifa, Governor of Berber,
pathetically telegraphs that he "trusts now in Providence alone," since he
has been abandoned by the Government. The insurgents show themselves
as far north as the Cairo-side of that town ; N ubar Pusha declares he Avill not
take the responsibility of refusing aid, and hastily requests the Khedive to
summon a council. Gordon meanwhile telegraphs Sir Samuel Baker that he
is surrounded by 2,500 Arabs, and goes the length of proposing that an appeal
be made to wealthy Englishmen and Americans to advance £200,000 to enable
the Sultan to send 2,000 or 3,000 Turkisli regulars to Berber, by which to
dispose of the Mahdi. Earl Granville issues a circular note inviting a con-
ference on the subject of Egypt. At Cairo a most uneasy feeling prevails :
the stagnation is degenerating into administrative anarchy ; no one feels
secure ; credit is destroyed ; the crops are threatened j and the people show
lively signs of discontent.

Then come the following telegrams : —

No mie ivill go to Khartoum at any price.

The position is declared to be desperate.

Exasperation against England is increasing.

66 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

All the country is in a state of rebellion.

Impossible to communicate with Qordovj.

Berber seriously threatened.

Every one leaving for Cairo.

Absolute obscurity veils the fate of Khartoum.

Suddenly Sir Evelyn Baring is summoned to London.

Note. — It may cause a B'.-'.ile— especially to those given to moral reflections— to
know that while the seething ca ildron of Egypt and the Soudan was well nigh bursting
with antagonistic forces, the papers in England were quietly informing the world
that : — the Duchess of Edinburgh had been safely delivered ; primroses were worn on
the anniversary of Lord Beaconsfield's death ; the London Corporation deprecated the
Municipality-bill ; the Bell public-house, Old Bailey, took fire ; Mr. Farmer, a trades
man, swallowed ammonia for cough-mixture ; excavations had been made at San ; the
lot of a Russian Student was not a happy one ; and so on.

PROBLEMS.

CHAPTER XV.

PROBLEMS.

On the arrival of Lord DnfF rin at Cairo, two main courses were open to
the British Government : To leave Egypt to govern herself ; or to govern it
for her. England tried a compromise : she would govern Egypt through
Egyptian officials. Under the first, the Khedive wou'd have been re-
established together with the Governmpnt of Riaz Pasha, and the country
would probably have soon lapsed into the same condition in which it was
before. Under the second it is difficult to say what would have taken place
— perhaps some awkward questions might have been asked by European
powers. Under the third — the one adopted — there arose constant conflicts
between the English and the native element.

Since the rise and fall of Arabi the problem had become infinitely
involved, and the conflicthig elements still survived. First of all, the finan-
cial difficulties were enormously augmented, (I) by the destruction of
property at Alexandria, and the awards of the indemnity commission ; (2) by
the prolonged endeavours of Egypt to hold the Soudan and to suppress the
insurrection in that region ; (3) by the precautionary measures which must be
taken in view of this danger ; (4) by the excess of ordinary current expendi-
ture over revenue ; and (6) by the necessity of undertaking works of irrigation.

Then came the insurrection, and the problems became even more
intricate. England desired Egypt to relinquish the Soudan and stick to her
eastern seaports — a policy naturally most advantageous to English commerce ;
Egypt on the other hand wislied to keep the Soudan and give up the eastern
ports, for the ports monopolized the trade which would otherwise have gone
to her great cities. In this contest, however, Egypt had to give in, and it
was resolved that the Soudan should be evacuated.

But the Mahdi at El Obeid, and Osman Digna in the region of Tokar
and Sinkat, were investing Egyptian towns and massacring Egyptian garrisona
Now England gives in and adds to Egypt's feeble exertions by sending her
own troops.

But affairs look very threatening near Khartoum, so England sends help
again in the form of General Gordon.

Now Gordon is hemmed in ; the Mahdi is growing invincible ; Khartoum
is likely to fall at any moment ; and the insurrection attaining incredible
proportions. What is to be done ?

Hi \

THK WAR IN THB SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XVI.

ENGLAND ROUSED.

Wb left Khartoum invested, Gordon virtually a prisoner, the insurrection
rapidly spreading, and Sir Evelyn Baring on his way to London. What was
to be done ?

To this question the British public gave no uncertain answer.

A Blue-book had by this time been 'ssued containing the despatches
which had passed between Lord Granville, Sir Evelyn Baring, and General
Gordon. The London dailies had reprinted the best part of these. Mr.
Power's telegrams from Khartoum had given the fullest information of all
that had been going on in that town. The correspondents at Cairo and Sua-
kim had sent graphic accounts of the feeling which existed at these ports.
The public, therefore, were well competent to express a correct opinion on
the present state of affairs and the best course to be pursued. And the
opinions the public n )W began to express were strong in the extreme.

It' the English people take some time to form an opinion, they are not
backward in forcibly expressing it when formed ; but rarely has it been
expressed with such stinging force as it was on the present occasion. Sir
Samuel Baker wrote numerous vigorous and incisive letters to the Times,
denouncing the Government, mapping out an Egyptian policy, and proposing
elaborate schemes for the conveyunce of a flying column to Khartoum. A
subscription list was opened at the Times office for the rescue of the belea-
gured garrison and its heroic leader. One lady offered £10,000 towards the
equipment of a force, and hundreds volunteered their services. Political
speeches delivered throughout the country inflamed the minds of the people.
The Government was taken to task in phrases to which English ears had long
been strangers. Gordon was declared to have been " cruelly abandoned. "
The nation was said to have "forfeited its prestige." The policy of the
Gladstone ministry was characterized as a " career of madness. " "I never
remember," said Lord Salisbury, leader of the Conservative party, at a din-
ner of the London and Westminster Working Men's Constitutional Associa-
tion, " I never remember a case where the conduct of the Government in
Egypt generally with respect to those garrisons and with respect to this
unhappy and splendid hero General Gordon (cheers) has excited a deeper and
unanimous feeling in the country — a feeling of condemnation which is intense.
Men are horrified that a man who has been guided by such high motives as

ENGLAND ROUSED. 69

General Gordon should Se abandoned. (* Shame,' and cheers.) Everyone
must feel that as a matter of business nothing could be more contemptible than
the course which the Government has pursued, except, perhaps, the excuses
by which they have defended themselves. Having had all the winter to
undertake the rescue of those beleaguered garrisons they have dawdled away
the time until it is too late, and then thoy put forward aa an overwhelming
justification that it has now become too hot to move. (Laughter.) What
man of business in this city would endure such an excuse for those whom he
employed 1 (A voice — ' No one.') Then those who look rather deeper and
think of the effect of those things upon England's empire and England's repu-
tation, see how our power is gradually ebbing under the influence of this
display of indecision ; how foreign countries less and less regard our wishes,
how more and more we are sinking from our high estate, and how we are
even beginning to lose all the acknowledged superiority which is the sole
pledge to those vast multitudes of Eastern races that have hitherto submitted
to U8. (Cheers. )"

Lastly the Opposition determined to introduce a motion for a vote of
censure against the Government. The excitement rose high. Defections
from the Liberal ranks were numerous and important. Staunch supporters
of the Cabinet wavered or altogether fell away. The majority upon which the
Conservatives had all along depended was known to have dwindled appreci-
ably. How the voting would go not one could calculate, and what would be
tke outcome of either defeat or victory could even less easily be conjectured.
A change of ministry at a time so critical was a change surrounded with grave
responsibilities, and a retention of office could hardly be accompanied by the
same inaction of which, by the verdict of the masses, that ministry now stood
convicted.

Monday, May the 12th, was the day appointed for the trial. Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach, pursuant to notice, rose and formally moved a "ote of censure
on the Government " for their failure to take the necessary stepa to secure the
success of General Gordon's mission, and especially to provide for his personal
safety."

Though couched in calm and dispassionate phraseology, as befitted
Parliamentary procedure, the motion contained in it the essence of the
popular feeling. It was not so much the general policy of the cabinet, not
BO much the view they had taken of the limit to which they should go in
their interference in Egyptian affairs, not even so much the measures they
had taken for the solution of the Soudan difficulties, as it was the uncertainty
of the fate of the much-loved man who might even at this moment be in the
hands of a crafty and merciless foe, that troubled the minds of the British
public. Had no fears arisen as to the safety of their hero, had it been

)

Ik-

60 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

certain that there was no cause to doubt his ultimate extrication from his
present unfortunate position, it is doubtful if popular sympathy could ever
have been fanned into so hot a flame, even were Khartoum doomed and the
Mahdi finally triumphant.

Of all nations, perhaps the English is the most sentimental — in the true,
deep, and better meaning of the word. The stolidity of the Germans prevents
the free exercise of this feeling among those people ; amidst the frivolities of
the French it is evanescent ; in America more or less sordid influences stifle
its growth.

Of this feeling Sir Michael Hicks-Beach took excellent advantage. In
an energetic ant" closely-reasoned speech he reviewed the histo;y of the
mission, and recalled, the feeling of gratification which the country experienced
on learning that Gordon was to be untrammelled. He showed how, never-
theless, the Govemmenr. liad thwarted their envoy, had intimated that no
assistance wo\dd be sent him, and lastly had invited him to retire as best he
could. With much efiect he f ung at the Treasury benches, with a marked
stress on the personal pronoun, t.'.e sentence from Gordon's despatch — " I shall
laave to you the indelible disgrace of abandoning the garrisons." *

To this speech Mr. Gladstone rer.lied with all the exuberance of debating
power and aggressive energy of invective of which he was capable. He had
for ten days previously refused to give any detailed statement regarding
General Gordon's mission, and the means t'. be adopted for his relief, on the
ground that it waa proper to wait for the debavvi on the vote of censure. This
debate had now come. But, according to the Times, ** it is hardly too much
to say that the emptiness and irrelevance of his sp(;«ch filled the most faithful
of bis followers with consternation. . . . The impression produced in the
House of Commons was one of deep disappointment; and that feeling, we
believe, will be still stronger out of doors." This — whether or not it be a
correct estimate of Mr. Gladstone's defence, resulted in, if not a theoretical,
yet a practical, defeat of the Government. The motion certainly was negatived

* The despatch reads thus :

" (Telegraphic.) Khartoum, April 16, 1884, 5.15 p.m.
"Major-General Gordon to Sir E. Baring.

" Ab far as I can understand, the situation is this : you state your intention of not
sending any relief up here or to Berber, and you refuse me Zebehr.

" I consider myself free to act according to circumstances.

" I shall hold on here as long as I can, and if I can suppress the rebellion I shall
do 80. If I cannot, I shall retire to the equator, and leave to you the indelible disgrace
of abandoning the garri'ions of Senaar, Kassala, Berber, and Dongola, with the
certainty that you will eventually be forced to smash up the Mahdi under great diffi-
culties if you would retain peace in Egypt."

ENGLAND BOUSED.

by 28, but in addition to the extreme narrowness of this majority, the fact
that many of the strongest adherents of the Liberal policy either declined to
vote or sided with the minority, was eloquent in its significance.

The tension was over. If the Government had scored a technical victory,
they had suffered a moral defeat. Public opinion had asserted itself, and its
influence had penetrated within the gates of Westminster. Henceforth the
Ministry muat change their ways. True, they retained office ; but the con-
ditions under which they did so were now altered. To ignore that any pressure
had been brought to bear upon them was out of the question. It was neces-
sary now to allow that that pressure had driven them from their previouu
course. Deviation was forced upon them. To act antagonistically to popular
opinion was absurd. England had been roused.

62 THE WAR IN THE SODDAN.

CHAPTER XVIT.

A MEDLEY.

If the Government had determined artistically to act out a tragedy, they
could not have better arranged their materials. The last chapter has described
them going through the third act — the climax ; and the ordinary individual
would have imagined that after such rapid succession of events, involving such
tremendous influences, the end was not far off. In this he would bo mistaken.
With the skill of practised dramatists they now insert a long fourth act, keeping
their audience in the most painful suspense. Whether they over-did it or
not is a party question.

To explain : — After the very vigorous onslaught made by the Opposition
in moving the vote of censure, backed up as it was by the full force of public
opinion, people naturally expected that some decisive action regarding, at all
.'j events, the safety of General Gordon, would be taken. So confident were

II they in this assurance, that the ringing cheers with which the Opposition

jjl greeted the announcement of the bare majority by which censure was averted

jj — the insignificant (or rather extremely significant) twenty-eight — were — at

i« least mentally — echoed and re-echoed throughout the country. The Ministry

j I raust surely now definitely formulate some policy, and immediately put it into

lis execution. Even the tone of the leading articles of the great papers was re-

i|il assuring. The party in power, they took for granted, would now retrieve the

j I prestige of the nation, and so sure were all parties that the rescue of Gordon

1 1 could be safely left to their care, that for a time it was with a comparatively

light-hearted feeling that Egyptian questions were discussed.

But in reality the utmost that had been dragged from the occupiers of
the Treasuiy benches was that they considered themselves responsible for
their envoy — a phrase perhaps as vague as it was seemingly definite ; as empty
as it was seemingly full of meaning.

As a sort of episode to this terrible tragedy there was introduced now a new
element — an Egyptian conference. As an episode it did good service : it took,
for a time, the public mind oflF the main plot ; it delayed admirably the
succession of events ; it involved and made more intricate the already complex
sequence of actions ; it introduced new characters ; and made more difficult
any prophecy as to what would be the final catastrophe.

This proposed Egyptian conference caused much friction between Govern-
ment and Parliament ; it was understood that the only question to be dis-

A MEDLEY. 63

cuBBod was the financial one, but bo many rumours were afloat to the effect
that a secret treaty with France was under ministerial consideration ; that an
understanding on matters unconnected with finance was to be arrived at with
that country ; that Parliament would be kept in the dark as to all that was
done ; etc. ; that the House of Commons was goaded into a high state of irrita-
bility, and evinced the same by pertinacious and pointed questions.

So great in fact was the reticence of the Government, that riimours now
flew thick and fast. It was asserted that the co-operation of a Turkish army
was sought by the Cabinet ; that troops were shortly to be despatched to
Khartoum ; that a railway was to be built for the conveyance of a force from
Suakim to Berber ; that international control was to be adopted ; that a dual
control was again to be tried ; that British influence was to be altogether
withdrawn from Egypt ; and such like.

Meanwhile in Egypt itself British influence fell to low-water mark. Mr.
Clifford Lloyd was recalled from Cairo (May 28), on which occasion a high
Egyptian ofhcial was heard to remark, " England's paramount influence in
Egypt bej;an on July 11, 1882, and closes on May 28, 1884. I have learnt
English ; I shall now learn French."

In England affairs seemed altngothcr in a strange state. It was as if the
diagnosis of the disease under which the country sufi'ered was thought to be
a mistaken one by the consulting physicians (public opinion) who were called
in, that a new and powerful remedy had been applied, and that both the
attendant doctor and the new arrivals were watching its effects with curiosity,
and not without anxiety. A pretty strong dose had bepn prescribed by the
new-comers, which the patient, beginning to lose faith in his old adviser, took
with avidity. But unfortunately the regular practitioner kept on his old treat-
ment, and for a time perhaps the last state of affairs was worse than the first.
Dissensions, too, arose in the Conservative ranks. And altogether the public
mind was tossed about by every wind of policy.

In Egypt and in the Soudan there was no better outlook. No news came
from lOiartoura, and no news could be sent to that ill-starred town. It was
rumoured that the Mahdi had gone thither in force, and that its fall was
imminent. Yet nothing could be done. Troops were stationed at Assouan,
troops were stationed at Korosko, but the rebels over-ran the country and
excited the neighbouring tribes. Attacks were made nightly on Suakim.
What news could be gleaned of Gordon showed that he was still harassed by
his ever-increasing foes. The only welcome intelligence came from the tele-
grams of the pious Mudir of Dongola, who, "by the help of God," managed
now and again to defeat a few troublesome insurgents. A little by-play (as
though an episode were not enough) was introduced in the shape of a treaty
concluded by Admiral Sir William Hewett with the King of Abyssinia, who

64 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

undertook to more some troops in tho direction of Kassala. Then came a
cata^itrophe — the fall of Berber and the maasacre of its garrison and popula-
tion — 3,500 souls — another victory for tho rebels.*

The plight of the poor fellah became weekly worse and worse, the price
of grain foil, taxes remained as before except tliat now they were allowed
to be paid in kind. Anarchy surged over tho land like a flood, panic
was chronic, and the people cared not who ruled over them. " We possess
nothing but our shirts to defend our bodies," they said, " we are friends of
the first who brings the stick."! All was a medley : no news could be relied
on, no official could be relied ou, even the pious Mudir of Dongola began to
be suspected ; whetlier Berber had fallen no one knew ; what was the fate of
Khartoum no one knew.

In England a similar medley existed : amidst a host of internal topics
Egypt actually began to be forgotten. The Egyptian conference, with the
interminable researches of the "financial experts," for a long while dragged
out a sorry existence, then ended in nothing ; the Franchise bill and the
faujoua Reform demonstration gave the people something else to think about
beside the oppressed fellah, the unsettled finances, and the beleaguered garri-
sons. Worse than all, the fate of Gordon himself seemed for a time to have
slipped the public memory, for we find a correspondent writing on the
advance of the Mahdi and the situation in Upper Egypt actually apologizing
for his temerity and saying that "even Gordon's isolation at Khartoum and
the question as to whether an attempt is or is not to be made to relieve him
is one about which the public has apparently ceased greatly to care."^:

It seemed as if by some curious influence the public senses were dulled to
all external impr« ssions though the mind still wandered excitedly within — ^as
a man in delirium perceives no outward object yet furiously raves on ideas of
his own making. The drug, in the form of thi "ote of censure, had acted
diflTerently from the manner expected, and instead of inducing activity it
' f brought on stupor — a stupor only made more profound by the lulling influence

of tho conference.

At length this last is brought to an end. France and England cannot
agree, and the meeting is adjourned sine die. England is once more free to
act ; she has thrown off the fettering friendship of her quondam ally in Egyp-
tian affairs and henceforth will act alone. The fever is gone ; the senses

*Thi8 massacre, by the way, the Iford Leutache Zeitung calmly remarks was due
solfily to England'y Soudan policy.

t See despatch from Alexandria to the Times, dated Jime 23, 1884.

t Mr. Claude Vincent iu the Times, July 17th, 1884.

I'v

A MEDLEY.

resume their wonted aouteness ; and Parliament rises from the bed of diseased
inactivity to the contemplation of what is going on around it.

And what is going on around it is now of no mild, calming kind. A letter
from Gordon, it was known, was at Dongola in the hands of the Mudir. The
faU of Berber had been fully con6rmed. Sixteen thousand rebels sat close
round Khartoum. Debbeh had seen the fall of 5,000 of th« followers of the
prophet Something shall be done.

66 THR WAR IN THE SOUUAN.

CHAPTER XVin.

"WHAT SHALL WE DO?"

'• Enolaitd may thank God that the conference is a still-born child, and
that the miscarriage has saved us from a multiple paternity with an individual
responnibility. The question of a new birth now arises. What shall we do ? "

So wrote Sir Samuel White Baker in the week in which happened the
events chronicled in the closing paragraph of the last chapter.

We are now, my reader, approaching one of the mo.st interestini:^ of the
stages of English interference in Ey[yptian affairs. That interference may be
divided into five periods : First, from the bombardment of Alexandria to the
sending of General Gordon ; second, from the sending of General Gordon to
the investment of Khartoum ; third, from the investment of Khartoum to the
vote of censure ; fourth, from the vote of censure to the sending of a relief
expedition ; the fifth period is that in which we now find ourselves. Where
it will end who shall say ? * This tragedy — as I have already called it. — bears
a likeness more to the drama of the Greeks than to that to which Coleridge
has given the name " romantic " : the hero truly dies — dies as a hero should
die, in the midst oi his foes, never for one moment relinquishing his aim, but
there the play does not end. There is yet to follow the avengeraent of his
death. How or when this shall take place, till the curtain falls, none can say.
The play is complete in all its parts : the shelling of the Alexandrian forts,
followed by the brilliant defeat of the up-start Arabi and the sober attempt to
quell oppression and introduce reforms, was a fitting opening for a drama in
which the exhibition of determined force was linked with a moral aim.
i ,, Under-plots in the shape of expeditions against a rebellious prophet and his

doughty lieutenant only served to extend and enhance the effect of the main
plot. The episode of the Egyptian conference contributed, as we have seen,
to the further complication of the sequence of events. That dispelled, we
enter upon, of all the phases of the war, the saddest because the most
disastrous.

Already, perhaps, we have lingered too long upon a period in which so
little was done ; but we who know how fatal was the result of that inaction,

•1. July 11, 1883— January 18, 1884; 2. January 18, 1884— March 24, 1884;
8. March 24, 1884- April 12, 1884 ; 4. April 12, 1884— August 28, 1884 ; 5. August
28,1884-

■^ ^

'•what shall we do?" 67

cannot but vividly recall its history, and regretfully dwell upon its conse-
quences. Lot us rapidly recall the 8toi)8 taken for its remedy.

On Tuesday, August the 5th, the public wore first officially informed
that a "step of some importance" was contemplated by the Government in
reference to Egyptian affairs. Mr. Gladstone, when the questions for the
day had come to an end, without f::rther preface than an acknowlodgimr t of
the serious responsibility imposed on the Government by the failure of the
Conference, said that to assist the cabinet in meeting this responsibility Hot
Majesty had boon pleased t'j ap;>rove their proposal that Lord Northbrook
should proceed to Egypt to inciuire and report and advise the Government
upon the counsels they should give to the Egyptian Government, and also on
the steps which it might be necessary to take in connexion therewith. Lord
Northbrook had accepted this commission, and would proceed to Egypt in
the course of the present month. Sir E. Baring would accompany him.
Upon this the House want into committee of supply, and Mr. Glad-stone
moved a vote of credit of £300,000 to enable the Government to undertake
operuticjns for the relief of General Gordon. At the outset he reminded the
House of the pledges which the Government had given at various times,
especially of the promise of Lord Hartington, to undertake military measures
for the rescue of General Gordon if they should be demanded for his safety,
and he then canvassed the conflicting reports which had appeared in the
papers as to the position of Khartoum since there had ceased to be any official
communication with him. The general conclusion he drew was that the con-
tingency contemplated by Lord Hartington, when military measures would
be necessary, had not yet arisen, but it might arise during the recess, and
the object of the vote was to put the Government in a position to meet it if
it occurred while Parliament was not sitting. It was also desirable to make
certain preparations, the nature of which he thought it advisable not to state.
The vote, he added in conclusion, was one rather of principle than an exact
estimate of the sum which would be required, and under cover of it the
Government would be able to undertake whatever measures might be
necessary.

Gordon then was to be rescued. One would imagine that from every
heart would have gone up a sigh of relief. Yet the report ot the debate which
followed the motion for a vote of credit for the sending of an expedition to
extricate the defender of Khartoum from his perilous position is curious in
the extreme, Mr. Laboiichere opposed the vote, arguing that General
Gordon was disobeying instructions by remaining at Khartoum, and that the
expense of his relief should fall on the Egyptian Government. Sir W. Lawson,
facetiously or otherwise, objected to the vote, being oj^po-ed to the policy of
"smashing" anybody, and would prefer to vote £300,000 to the Mahdi to

J I-

68 THE .VAR IN THE SOUDAN.

put down General Gordon. If he was a Christian hero he ought not to
require military operations to relieve him. Lord Oalway expressed his opinion
that the vote was a mere electioneering trick, and that the Government did
not intend to spend a shilling of it. Sir J. Hay asked whether there was any
truth in the rumour that a portion of the vote was to be spent on subsidizing
the Abyssinians. Sir G. (Campbell decidedly objected to a " vote of principle "
which might involve the country in much larger expenditure.

On the day following the passing of the vote of credit, Gordon's letter
was telegraphed by Major Kitchener from Dongola, together with news more
accurate than had lately been obtained. His despatch reads as follows : —

" Gordon's letter, sent by post on the 2nd instant, contains the following :

" ' Khartoum and Senaar are still holding out. The bearer of this letter
will give you full news of me. Give him all the news you have, and tell him
where the expedition is that is coming from Cairo, and the numbers of the
soldiers coming. We have eight thousand soldiers at Khartoum. Give the
messenger one hundred dollars. (Signed) C. G. Gokdon.'

" It is sealed and dated 28th Shaaban.

" The messenj^er returns to-day. He says that Gordon, Stewart and
Power are quite well. The siege of Khartoum is still kept up, but the rebels
have retired from their first positions. The rebel army is composed of 5,000
men under the Sheikh el Obeid, 2,000 with Sheikh Abu Gegah, and 3,000
with Sheikh el Buseer between the Niles. On the White Nile is the Sheikh
Fadleh, with 3,000 men ; and the Sheikh Mustapha, with 3,000, is at Omdur-
man. Total, 16,000.

" Gordon possesses seven armed steamers with which he makes attacks
in every direction.

"Berber fell through the treachery of Hussein Pasha Khalifa, who let
the rebels in. The soldiers fought after the entry of the rebels, but were
slaughtered. Hussein Pasha Khalifa was not wounded.

" This account is corroborated by thirteen soldiers who have arrived at
Dongola from Berber, and who escaped after the fight.

"The people appear to want the old Government back, but are much
afraid of the Mahdi's Arabs.

" Gordon, with the help of three steamers and a part of the garrison,
seized 5,000 quarters of maize from about 11,000 of the rebftls. Gordon's
men waited till the rebels' ammunition was finished, and then landed, and
thoroughly routed the ei.jmy and carried oflf the maize."

Four facts were learned from this : The rebels had organized a system-
atic warfare ; their influence was spreading ; they centred specially round
Khartoum ; and Gordon was evidently expecting support.

"what shall wb do?"

These things being so, Gordon shall be relieved, this was now the deter-
mination of the Government — a determination not hastily arrived at, nor
blatantly announced. What was meant by the relief of Gordon must now
occupy our attention.

It is only after the lapse of a comparatively long space of time that the
facts of history can be viewed in their true light. To the foreign policy of a
government this rule especially applies, and more particularly t(j the foreign
policy of the Court of St. James. Little is known — nothing positively — out-
side the cabinet of the intentions of the Government. Even blue-books give
only facts, not motives, and refer only to particular parts of operation. We
have not come to the end of the story yet ; and till the last chapter is finished
the preface must remain unwritten. If we recognize this we shall exercise
caution in dealing with, or forming opinions on, England's present relations
with Egypt and the Soudan. We are not far enough advanced in tho history
of the contention with the Mahdi and the pacification of the Soudan to be
able to formulate accurately what is or has been the true end in view in the
determination to despatch troops for the "relief of General Gordon." We
must be careful also not to be led away by the superficial meaning which
attaches to this phrase. We know that these were the 'rords oftenest in the
mouths of all speakers on the question ; we know they were used with great
efi'ect upon the occasion of the vote of censure ; and we know that the expe-
dition the head-quarters of which are at this moment within easy reach of
Khartoum, has been denominated the "relief expedition." But we need not
therefore necessarily suppose that the fittiu'^ out of 10,000 men, and the
spending of some ^3,000,000 had only for their object the extricating of one
individual from the hands of an enemy. It must be remembered tiiat Gordon
represented at Khartoum the Egyptian Government ; that he also bore in his
own person, as it were, the concrete embodiment of English supervision — to
use no more definite language ; that the population and garrison of Khai toum
had been loyal to Gordon, and, through him, therefore, to the Khedive
as against the Mahdi ; that promises of succour and support had bee'i made
this population and garrison ; that money had been borrowed from them with
the Governor-General's endorsement and the implied security of England ;
that Khartoum was a town of unrivalled stratej^ic importance ; that if it fell,
the Soudan States would fall with it ; that unless Egypt, or England throu;;h
Egypt, held this commercial centre, no influence over slave traders could be
exercised; that the abandoment of this place would virtually mean the aban-
donment of the Soudanese to the new prophet ; and that such abandonment
would draw in its train political, commercial, Focial, and religious eniiitions
the influence and ultimate outcome of which it is utterly impossible to con-
jecture. If we bear these in mind, it will, I say, be with excessive c ution

70 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

til at we shall express any opinions on the political significance of despatching
a so-called "relief expedition." Everything points to the necessity of suspend-
ing our judgment on this point ; for, leaving out of consideration the proba-
bilities of affairs taking a new turn at any moment, the political, commercial,
social, and religious eruptions which, as has been pointed out, would in all
probability follow in the train of an evacuation of the Soudan, are in themselves
so numerous and so complicated as to baffle all analysis. This problem alone
ia infinitely involved. Politically, either the Soudanese would submit in a
body to the usurper, or individual tribes would still stand aloof. Each alter-
native contains numerous other alternatives : the connexion between Egypt
and these States, hitherto definite, would now be indefinable ; the treatment
the pretender should receive would be equally so ; and complications with the
Suzerain and with Abyssinia might occur difficult to adjust. Commercially,
the finances of the Egyptian Government would be placed on a difierent basis
— a change involving much ; the trade of the littoral ports, and, consequently,
of Upper Egypt, would be seriously aftected ; financial securities would, in all
likelihood, fluctuate ; stocks would fall, and trade relations be shaken.
Socially, the slave trade, with all its attendant influences, would once more
flourish ; change of masters, together with the changes in property, rank,
esteem, and favour, wouH bring in new elements. Religiously, the preten-
sions of the new prophet and the verdict of the authorities at Mecca would
clash ; true Moslems would regard him as an intruder ; religious sects would
split up; and fanaticism would put a torch to these highly inflammable
materials, the blaze of which it is hard to determine what could quench ; India
might receive a spark ; the Porte might interfere ; the holy green flag might
be unfurled; and Islamism might be so convulsed that its eruptions woud
eiface the entire road from England to her farthest eastern belonj^ings.

The consideration of such possibilities, even in their merest outlines,
would lead us far beyond the limits of this narrative ; and yet in dealing
with the significance of England's present position in Egypt they cannot be
altogether overlooked. It is only possible here to state the fact that England
bad at length determined to send a force to Khartoum, and to chronicle the
events which followed that determination.

HOW TO GET THEBB. 71

CHAPTER XIX.

HOW TO GET THERE.

I F^VB remarked that the Government by no means erred by any precipi-
tate or hasty arrival at their determination to despatch a relieving force, or
in blatantly announcing the same. This is very far within the truth. If
they erred at all — and there are some, as we have seen, who thought so — it
was in the opposite direction. The public were not informed, nor the enemy
through the public, that a force would immediatelji take the field ; that the
conqueror of Tel-el-Kebir would assume command ; that Gordon would be
reached, and rescued without delay ; that the Mahdi would be smashed ; and
that the last spark of insurrection would be stamped under foot. Much as
such a report might have cowed the rebels, the reverse of such a cour.-^e was
adopted. The intentions of the Ministry only leaked out by slow degrees ;
even people at home found extreme difficulty in ascertaining their true policy ;
the little phrase " if necessarj' " crept in, as a sort of saving clause, in all
their utterances ; and the frequent changes of purpose served excellently to
mystify all concerned and unconcerned. At first it was believed that the
Suakim-Berber route was to be the one adopted. There were troops at the
former place ; railway plant had been there deposited ; indeed some rails
were already laid, and two engines were already on the spot. Then great stress
began to be laid on the fact that Major Kitchener, a young officer of engineers,
— a host in himself, certainly, — was at Debbeh, and he was described as the
rocket line by which the cable was to be conveyed to the ship-wrecked vessel.
Then people learned that the Nile between Assiout and Assouan was tl:e
"scene of unwonted activity." Soon it was rumoured that the Admiralty
had ordered 400 boats for the navigation of the river, and that a contingent
of Canadian voyageurs had been telegraphed for, and that 3,000 troops were
to be concentrated at Wady Haifa. Altogether, as the leading London paper
editorially remarked, "the Government had kept the secret of their plans —
for that they had a plan it would not be reasonable to doubt — without falter-
ing, and they will be entitled hereafter to claim whatever credit may turn
out to be due to the gift of silence as contributoiy to military success."

We know now, however, what was in the minds of the authorities, and
it is needless to pursue further the details of its working out. Suffice it to
say, troops were to proceed to Khartoum, and Lord Wolseley was to take com-
mand.

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

There are three ways of reaching Khartoum. (1) There is the river
Nile, which may be followed from Cairo to Khartoum — a distance of some
1,900 milos ; (2) there is the choice of making short cuts across deserts — more
especially the Nubian Desert, from Korosko to Abu Hamad, shortening the
river route by some 500 miles ; (3) and there is the Suakim-Berber route, 245
miles. Each deserves notice.

The river route is long, tedious and has many disqualifications. The
Nile is very circuitous, is navigable only at certain seasons of the year, is in
many places shallow, and contains dangerous cataracts where the water rushes
ovef a rocky bottom. It requires, too, many embarkations and disembarka-
tions. From Cairo to Assiout the journey is usually performed by train.
At Assiout travellers take to the water. From thence, steamers towing barges
conduct them to Assouan. At Assouan is the first cataract. To obviate this
a railway has been built to Philse. From Philae to Korosko is done by
stenmers again. From Korosko we can go round the long bend of the Nile,
or take camels across to Abu Hamad. From Abu Hamad it is possible to
follow the river all the way to Khartoum, or at Korti, by means of camels,
the Bahiula Desert may be crossed to Metamneh.

The Nile itself is a terrible stream to navigate : there are great stretches
of shallow and broken water, nearly all of them impassable when the river is
low, and even when it is high too dangerous to be common. Passing the
cataracts is most toilsome work and fraught with extreme diflSculties. Great
rocks jut out, the water pours over them and between them, forming swift
rapids, and boats have usually to be towed ui> by means of ropes from the
banks.

The desert routes are far worse, that from Korosko to Abu Hamad across
the Nubian Desert being particularly bad. It has not a single well. It has
been described as " absolutely ferocious in its desolation." From Korti to
Metamneh is not so terrible : there are here a few weUs of drinkable water to
relieve the awful aridity.

The road from Suakim to Berber passes through a very different country.
In the first 195 miles there are wells at every stage. There is plenty of brush-
wood and herbage for fuel and forage, and frequently there is the shade of
t' ees. There is a good deal of grain in the country, and there are large flocks
of sheep and goats. A railway can here be built within the space of a few
months by which communication with Berber from the Red Sea may be accom-
plished in some sixteen hours. Tanks of water, it is said, ca'x be deposited at
regular intervals, and even a pipe line be laid down.

Of these three — or, in main, two — ways of reaching Khartoum, the first
was the one chosen.

Tliis choice has been made the object of severest criticism — expressed

HOW. TO GET THERE.

vehemently at the time, and since equally vehemently renewed. It will be
well, therefore, to give in full the Government's own reasons for their decision
— especially as ma ly of the arguments adduced will be interesting to Canadian
readers and those acquainted with the Red River expedition : —

" In the selection of the route by which a force operating for the relief of
General Gordon should advance into the Soudan the question of water supjjly
held by far the most important place. Putting aside for a moment the con-
sideration of th ', physical suffering produced by thirst and the rapidity with
which men in tropical and semi-tropical regions are brought face to face
with it, and applying to the question only the tests of weight and carriage, it
was calculated that the carriage of water for one man for one day would
require five times the amount of transport necessary for the conveyance of food
per head for the same time, w^hile the ditiiculties iu the way of conveying and
storing water are at least doubled by the nature of tlie Imrden oarried.

"Alone among the routes proposed, the Nile was free from this paramount
water difficulty. Whatever might be the len<^th of its water-way or the
obstacles that lay in its cataracts and rapids, the first and most important
consideration — that of an inexhaustible supply of pure and wholesome water,
in a land the climatic and physical conditions of which induced almost con-
stant thirst — was met ; and this advantage alone was considered so great,
that if the cataracts had been much more difficult than they were known to
be the certainty of an inexhaustible supply of water through the Egyptian
desert would have inclined the authorities to operate by the Nile route rather
than to commit an army of English soldiers to the intense sufferings of a
march across the practically waterless waste that for more than 200 miles lies
between Suakim and Berber. But the difficulties which the Nile i)resented
in its cataracts were not unknown in the history of the British Army ; they
were almost identical, indeed, with physical obstacles which on another con-
tinent had been successfully surmounted by British troops.

" Fourteen years ago a small expedition had followed a water-way in the
depth of the North American wilderness, where there were rocks, rapids,
cataracts, and waterfalls as formidable as those of the Nile. The boats used
in that expedition had been specially constructed for the work — quickly put
together in different parts of Canada. They had been conveyed by steamer
and railway many hundreds of miles before they could be placed upon the
waters which they were finally to navigate. They carried 10 men, with
from two to three months' supplies. They were adapted for sailing, rowing,
poling, and " tracking," and they were light enough to be lifted, in case of
necessity, out of the water, and dragged or " portaged ' along the shore.

" In the 500 or 600 miles that lay between the height of land north of
Lake Superior and the basin of Lake Winnipeg, which was the destination of

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

the Red River Expedition, there were nearly 50 interruptions from rapida
and falls over which thoae boata had to be carried. Within the space of three
months a battalion of infantry, with a small force of artillery and engineers,
traversed the double journey 1,200 miles in all, having in that time carried
their boats, provisions, stores, and munitions, on 94 separate occasions, a total
distance over rocks and through forest of 15 miles. It was a military feat
which attracted at the time less attention than it deserved, because the great
struggle between France and Germany was then at its height.

" In this Red River enterprise lay the germ of the expedition now proposed
along the Nile. If boats of a certain description manned by soldiers had suc-
cessfully ascended the Winnipeg river with its fall of 2 ft. 8 in. to the mile,
why, it was asked, should not similar craft carry troops up the Nile when the
fall was not above 1 ft. to the mile ? There did not happen to be in Egypt
any oflBcer who, from personal experience with the American expedition, was

WHALKR-GIO.

in a position to explain to the authorities in Cairo the real nature of the craft
proposed and of the methods of using them, and hence it was that the con-
sideration of the Nile route was approached both by the naval and military
authorities in Egypt from a point of view which regarded the employment of
steamers of considerable size and native craft of from 10 to 20 tons weight as
necessary to the operation. But any expedition involving the use of large
craft made high Nile an indi'^pensable factor to the success of the undertaking,
and high water in the Nile could only be depended upon during the aoonths
of August and September. For the work proposed to be done by the small
boats of the American type high Nile was altogether unnecessary, and so long
as the river had 20 inches of water in its shallowest places so long could these
boats make good their way. These different points of view from which the
question of the Nile route was regarded at home and in Egypt caused some
loM of time in the preliminary stages of decision, and it was only in the

lis
e

,11

ae
le
ne

HOW TO GET THERE.

middle of August that orders for the construction of the boats and the per-
paration of supplies could be given and the work of organization could really
begin."

The boats — called "whaler-gigs " — deserve some little notice. They are
built of white pine, and weigh each from 920 lbs. to 1,100 lbs. without the
gear, and are supposed to carry four tons of provisions, ammunition, and camp
appliances ; the length is from 30 ft. to 32 ft. ; beam 6 ft, to 7 ft. ; and they
draw only 20 inches when loaded. The crew consists of twelve men, soldiers
and sailors, the former rowing, the latter (two) attending the helm. Each
boat is fitted with two lug sails, which can be worked reefed, so as to permit
of an awning being fitted underneath for protection from the sun. On
approaching the cataracts they are transported on wooden rollers over the
sand to the next level for re-launching. The ration for the boat service is a
special one, resembling more a ship ration than a field ration. Ifc was based

WHAtER-OIO, WITH AWNINO.

on the assumption that for a considerable period the troops would be entirely
dependent on the supplies contained in the boats. Each boat carries 75
packages of food supplies, weighing, roughly, about 48 cwt., including weiglit
of packing cases. This provided 100 days' supplies for the 12 men. The
ration consisted of preserved meats of various sorts, including specially pre-
pared bacon, biscuit, cheese, pickles, preserves, flour, tea, sugar, salt, pepper,
preserved vegetables, limejuice, erbswurst, rice, tobacco, etc. Each boat also
carried a box of medical comforts for the sick, and was fitted to exist as a
separate unit during the period for which it was supplied.

These boats, piloted by the now famed Canadian voyageurs, together
with an accompanying troop of mounted infantry — mounted on the " sliip of
the desert," solved the problem of "How to Get There."

The voyageurs and the camel corps each deserve a chapter to themselves.

•

76 TUE WAR IN TUB SOUDAN.

CHAPTErt XX.

THE VOYAGEURS.

The intelligence and ability of Canadian boatmen, as displayed in the Red
River expedition, had so inspired Lord Wolscley with the fact of their value,
that he determined to make use of a Canadian contingent to aid in transporting
his troops up the river Nile.

He therefore telegraphed to Lord Melgund who forthwith communica ed
with authorities throughout Canada, and in a short space of time between 400
and 500 voyageurs — some from the Ottawa valley, some from Winnipeg, many
from Lower Canada, including Caughnawaga Indians — were got together untler
the command of Major Denison.

After being inspected by Lord Lansdowne they left Canada for Alexandria
on September 16 in the Ocean King, arriving at their destination on the 8th
of October.

Perhaps the best possible way of presenting a picture of the kind of work
done by the voyageurs will be to quote from a letter, written in diary form,
from one of themselves.*

Speaking of the passage of the Hannek cataract, Mr. J. A. Sherlock
writes : —

" It looked almost an impossible thing to take a heavy loaded boat up,
yet it was done with strained muscles helped by strong will, many a heavy dip
we met where the craft hung for tive minutes or mere, every effort to propel
her useless until a favourable gust of wind would come and give its welcome
aid, and then slowly but surely the obstacle would be overcome and the oars-
men get a short breathing and resting spell. By good steering and manage-
ment combined with the efforts of brawny arms we came to a place where
neither oars nor sails availed, and where we could not land to use the tow
rope, but with the exercise of a little judgment and ingenuity, we made a bold
effort to surmount the difficulty. A rope was attached to some osier bushes
above the fall and bound to some poles and then dropped down towards us,

* By kind permission of Mr. Lucius Sherlock, of Peterborough, I am permitted to
publish extracts from the letters of his late son, John Andrew Sherlock, one of the most
intr>^pia of the Canadian voyageurs. Mr. J. A. Sherlock was one of the 86 who from
their ability were chosen to remain with the expedition when the services of the remain
der of the contingent were dispensed with. His death was telegraphed to this country
in the interval between the printing of the letter on pages 25, 26, 27 and the one hero
quoted.

THE VOYAOEURS. 77

and as the boats pulled up in the slack water beli^w, the poles were picked up
and all hands clinched the rope (leaving the poles in the water) and pull hand
over hand to the bush above.

" My beat was unlucky in the first attempt. I caught the rope and told
the crew to catch and pull. Hesitation was worse than folly, as the boat was
running swiftly up into an eddy. But the men were too slow, and when the
boat struck the heavy water only one man and myself had hold. Round she
swung, broadside in the rushing torrent. The rope was torn out of our hands
as if a runaway locomotive was hitched on to it, and somehow Sergeant Carey

(* 'Twas in the town of nate Cloghem

That Seargeant Snap met Paddy Carey, &c. ')

f.jot tangled in the line and jammed hard against the side of the boat. This
(at his expense) broke the first shock we got when we hit the rock below, and
as the boat rebounded off the rock, the rope was slacked for a moment, only
two or three seconds, just long enough to permit one of the crew to take a
hitch round a rowlock, thus swinging us round straight into the stream, saving
us from drifting into sure destruction, and enabling all onboard to take a firm
hold on the rope, j-ou may bet your life it was a firm grip this time, and we
try the upward movement again and with greater success. Heavens, but the
strain was a terror, inch by inch we crept up to the top, hung there for a mo-
ment, touch and go, then slowly forge ahead and out of danger, for a moment
and but a moment only, out fly the oars, and pull, my hearties, for your lives !
pull ! pull ! is the word. Four oars scraping the bank, and four moving the
boat around a sharp turn just about thirty feet from the head of the heavy
])itch, where if we failed to connect it was all over with us. Boat and men
would have run their last trip, and my place would be known no more, except
in the meiunry of the home ones.

" This was the worst place on the cataract. We arrived at Abbafatma
just at dark. Here we could see, from a small eminence, miles upon miles of
river al)ove and below, and far off in the east the sky and desert meeting.
The horizon broken here and there by great conical hills, table topped,
standing out of the dreary waste of the sandy desert in sullen, solitary gran-
deur, while aloft a few stars glimmered faintly here and there, now showing
a dim light and anon holding themselves from the eye as if afraid even to look
upon so barren, so dreaiy, so heaven-cursed a ecene.

" We left ^ bbafatma on the evening of the 14th and made seven miles
against nightfall.

" 15th. A fine day's sailing and no accident.

"16th. Passed New Dongola with a grand wind blowing. Our orders
were against stopping hce as the small-pox has been raging here for some
time past and we kept the eastern bank of the rivei.

78 THE WAP IN THE SOUDAN.

*' 17th. Steady wind and good time made.

" 18th. Head wind and tx)w along the banks nearly all day. We passed
the old town of Haiidak. It is very compact looking, is situated on a hill
close to the river bank, and has every appearance of beiflg well fortified.
• *' Coming on towards the evening tlie captain and six boats got ahead of
us, and at sunset wo fancied we could see their camp on the east bank a lung
way off. The sergeant in charge of the men in my boat was anxious to catch
up with the rest, so we concluded to push on, but while towing away in the
dusk we get stuck in a shallow muddy place, and all hands had to wade out,
shove the boat off and row along the east bank in the heavy current. Hero
the bank was so steep we could not land. The men were getting quite
wearied out towing and rowing. We made two or three attempts to land, bi't
did not succeed. There was no moon and not even a dog to bay at it. No
sound broke the air, the night was close, heavy and gloomy, and the men
were silent and low spirited. A phosphoric glimmering every now and then
in the stream had rather a startling effect, the men fancying that it was a boat
drifting down with someone in it with a light, which he was trying to liide,
and I rather fancy that some of them had a sort of superstitious feeling, and
on the whole they were not very ' comfortable.' We rowed on until we
managed to reach a landing place. 1 wanted them to pitch camp, but no, they
concluded to send one of the lads ahead to see if the light we had been steer-
ing for was the advanced party's camp fire. Well, he was gone about twenty
minutes, when he came back on the run, with no more puff in him than there
would be in a slit bellows, and as frightened as a man could well be I believe.
He alarmed all hands by telling them to get out their rifles and ammunition,
as there were 500 natives encamped near the liglit we had been moving on
and that they had two Gatlin^: mhs with them he was sure as he had seen the
brass shining in the fire light. To make naatters worse while he was gone we
had noticed camp fires on the west bank, an unusual thing, as it was against
orders. Well, I think that I may safely boast that I had the smartest crew
that ever manned a boat for the time being, — in boat, out oars, ofi" shore, and
pulling like the 'deil mon,' in less time than I can describe it for the 'lights
along the other shore ' until the bowman gave warning that the water was
shoaling fast, and soon we were stuck on a sand-bank in the middle of the
river. Then they all agreed to let their voyageur have his way and get them
out of the scrape their foolish conduct had got them into. The boat was
shoved off and we ran down stream for about half a mile, pitched camp on a
small island, lighted our fires and had our kettles • singing songs of harmony
glee ' in double quick time. A good supper soon drove all gloomy forebodings
away, the laugh, the jest, the song went round for an hour, our tent spread
out on the ground and one man detailed lor guard while the rest lay down,

THE V0YAGEUR8.

clothes on, rifle at side, fully worn out with the day's toil. Many a night I am
8o weary I cannot even eat, but the morn sees me up and at work as fresh
BM ever.

"I can make pretty shrewd guess as to the water we are in from the different
shades of sand, rock or pebbles where a boat may float, and where she cannot,
sometimes so close that the keel will grate on the pebble or sand. But 1
would shfjut 'pull away boys, pull away, we'll get over it all safe'- and the feat
was accomplished. You would hear one of them say ' sure Duke but you're
the divil — how do you tell at all, at all, the way of it. Why any one would
think when we are scraping and scratching over the ground we'd never get
through, but here we are safe and sound, and more power to your elbow.' "

On the whole it will appear that the decision of Lord Wolseley to employ
Canadian voyageurs was a wise one. The Government, too, by their liberal
treatment of the boatmen on their return from active service, endorsed this
view.

80 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAl'TER XXI.

THE CAMP:L <5()RPS.

What the ocean would be without ships, Egj-pt would bo without its
" ship of the desert." Vast areas would bo absolutely impassable ; merchan-
dise could not pass from one productive spot to another; whole regions would
be isolated ; news could only with extreme difficulty cross from one locality
to another by h)ng and circuitous paths; trade would be confined; tril)e8
dwelling in habitable localities separated by sterile and waterless wastes would
learn little if anything of each other; and the country at largo would probably
1)6 made up of a number of isolated peoples kn<jwing little of each other and
nothing of the outside world.

All this the camel obviates. It is truly a most wonderful animal. It

scorns the terribleness of the desert. It can go for ten days witli(jut drinking,

and fur twenty days with(>ut eating. It will travel twenty-five miles a dny

with a weight of four hundred or live hundred pounds on its back. It will

set out for a ten days' march in which not a drop of water or a morsel of food

j • can be obtained without fear of the results. The rider must have i.is threu

i meals and his proportionate sup])ly of wiuor daily, — the animal that carries

him will ]>l<id on for a week and half and cover two hundred and fifty miles

[ without either.

I It was on these animals that Lord Wolseley proposed to mount 1,100

men, to form a corps made up of detachments from the three Household
Cavalry regiments, seven battalions of the Guards, 16 cavalry regiments, and
a part of the naval brigade. They were to travel along the west bank of the
Nile, and to form one of the principal parts of the expedition.

This important branch of the army was not without its ludicrous side.

The gigantic heavy dragoon mounted as he would be on horse-back* on the

!j restless, ill-contented, and altogether astonished camel was a sight not easily

it to be forgotten. The rider knew not what to make of his beast, and the

I beast could less easily comprehend the nature of his rider. The ordinary

i riding-school words of command fell at first unheeded upon his ears, accus-

i;i tomed only to Arabic persuasives and Arabic expletives. The blue-jackets

'\ got on better. Jack Tar takes kindly to animals and was soon on the best of

I terms with his "ship of the desert," to which he had of course given an

* The saddles supplied were quite different from those ordinarily used in Egypt,
and allowed the rider to ride astride just as on a horse.

r" -

■fx

A
O
■J

-1

I i-H

•A

82 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

appropriate pet name — often a highly amusing one. One old salt, before his
first mount, was very anxious to know which end of his beast got up first — no
useless query, for the process by which a camel rises to his feet is a compli-
cated and an uncomfortable one. His question was answered before his eyes,
for one of his messmates who had neglected to inform himself on this point,
or who had, perhaps, been misinformed by some flippant landsman, was sent
head over heels over the neck of his animal when it made the first move in
rising.

He is an extraordinary brute, the camel ; save when worn out by fatigue
he is never quiet. He is never at any time happy ; he will bite at the hand
that tends and feeds him with the same animosity that he exhibits towards
the hand that loads and bri lies him. He knows nought of gratitude, is be-
reft of any of the softer passions, and looks on whomsoever approaches him
for whatever purpose as his bitterest enemy. In spite, however, of the way-
wardness of the brute, the men sought by care and attention to improve his
health and appearance by every means in their powei". They even went so
far as to groom him, an attention to which the camel is altogether unaccus-
tomed, and which at first so filled him with astonishment as to deprive him of
the power to protest. Soon, however, it dawned upon him that he was being
cleaned, and, his resentment quickly roused, he at once filled the air with
hideous roars and groans, which he never failed to renew each time the pro-
cess was rejieated.

Lau5,hable above all things was the sight of Lord Charles Beresford, who,
mounted on a donkey, led the naval brigade towering above him on their
camels. This celebrated animal of Lord Charles's was by name, "The
County of Waterford," so called by his lordship because the second time he
contested him he lost his seat.

In their long march and frequent stoppages at the towns the river
bank, there was time for an occasional letting off of the high spirits of the
men which had by no means been damped by the difficulties of the road. At
Dongola, especially, a few festivities were indulged in while awaiting the
arrival of the main body. Am^ongst other things a camel race was arranged
for. It has been well described by an onlooker :

"The scene at the starting post was quaint in the extreme. Camels
were there of every size and hue, bellowing one and an as though in direst
agony ; some of them bestridden by English soldiers on their red leather
saddles, some by "icers who preferred the comfortable Soudan sadJle, some
by naked Bischari or Ababdeh, sons of the desert, who not unfrequently dis
dain" g saddles of any kind, Fat perched on the rump of the animal as on a
jackass, aud guided their beasts by the nc.stril string alone. Here and there
among the crowd wereBashi Baz uiks on slim-necked, slender-legged animals,

THE CAMEL CORPS. 83

whose rich accoutrements showed that their owners found war a paying trade,
and townsfoLi who, perched on their high wooden saddles, their ' 'wg robes
bound closely round their waists, intended evidently to make a desperate
struggle for victory. At last, profiting by a moment when all the competi-
tors seemed to be in line — a result to obtain which had taken some three-
quarters of an hour — the signal waa given to go, and the camels started.
Then some trotted, some galloped, some turned themselves round and round
seeking to tie themselves in knots and refusing to move forward, otlkers threw
themselves on the ground and rolled their riders oflf, and one or two, disen-
gaging themselves from tha ciowd, started off in a mad breakneck gallop to-
wards the hills, their riders, albeit wild sons of the desert, unable to do more
than cling to the beasts for dear life. Every now and then occurred a terrific
collision between two eager competitors, which flung both camels and riders
to the ground. As the beasts rounded the turning post the confusion became '

proportionate to the excitement. Many camels never got round the post at
all, but fell to tij;hting one with another on the far side of it, in which con-
flicts their riders, wheii natives, soon took part with right good will. Others
sought to cheat, diminishing the distance by a hundred yards or so, but these
defaulters were promptly 'spotted ' and hounded off the course by the watch-
ful stewards. The winner was greeted as he passed the post by such cheers
as completely disconcerted the poor brute, and had not his rider warily fore-
stalled him he would have turned back in flight from before the crowd of
spectators. The race was a good one, and one of the most interesting features
about it was the fact that, although the winning camel was ridden by a native,
the English soldiers, whose acquaintance with camels dated from but a fort-
night, seemed to hold their own very fairly against the natives, who were, so
to speak, bom and bred camel-riders. As to knowledge of the habits of the j

brute and adaptability to a long journey, the superiority of the native is, of
course, incontestible ; but at this short trial of speed the Englishmen showed
themselves not much his inferiors."

Lord Wolseley has not found himself free from criticism in the manner
in which he organized this camel corps. Major-General Sir Henry Green,
K.C.S.I., C.B., advocated the sending of a camel corps from India, — "a
proper camel oorps>" he said, "not that nondescript force with a heavy
dragoon perched on the top of the hump of a camel which Lord Wolseley has
improvised on the Nile, but a camel corps such as was raised by the late Sir
C. Napier in Scinde, and the organization of which has been elaborated ever
since. The proper camel corps is based upon one fundamental principle,
which is essential to success in dealing with camels, and that is that each
camel must be under the control of a man who understands it. There is no
more delicate brute in the world than a camel unless it is properly looked

84 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

after and well cared for by a man who understands its habits, its tempera-
ment, etc. , and hence in every camel corps that is raised upon proper prin-
ciples you must have one man to drive and another man to fight. The driver,
a light-weight, carrying a light carbine, sits in the front of the camel's hump.
! Your fighting man, equipped complete, sits behind the hump. When neces-

! sary the camel kneels down, the soldier alights, the driver takes his beast to

the rear, and you have at once an infantry force ready to resist or attack
i
I without being burdened with any sense of responsibility for the camels, which

' are left in the hands of theiv drivers, who constitute an eflScient force for

i their defence. In the nondescript corps which has been careering across the

Bahiuda desert, who takes charge of the camels when the riders dismount in

I order to go into action ? It is an axiom in all camel corps that if you don't

take care of your camel you lose him — that is to say, he will die. But with

proper care your camel will go through almost incredible hardships. In one

! campaign on the Indian frontier I had 6,000 camels under me and did not

I lose one of them. In the Afghan campaign we lost 60,000 — and why ?

; Because in the former case the camels were in charge of men who understood

'\ them, whereas in Afghanistan the camels were handed over in most cases to

i the tender mercies of those who had no more idea of a camel than they had

i of an ostrich. The result was that the poor brutes were often shamefully ill-

I used and died by thousands. It is a mistake, however, to imagine that the

i excessive consumption of what you may call transport camels in Afghanistan

I has in any way diminished the number of camels recjuired for a camel corps.

i The camels used up in Afghanistan were small beasts of burden, costing from

£5 to £10 each. The camels with which the camel corps was formed were

ihe finest camels in the world, bred in Jesulmere, and trained as riding

camels, costing from £25 to £35 each. Of these you can get plenty, if you

pay for them. The difficulty of shipping camels is absurdly exaggerated.

We carried shiploads df them to the Persian Gulf Avithout any ditfioulty.

The great thing is to entrust the job to the hands of men wIid kuuw their

business."

Nevertheless there are some sjilendid achievements 3\-t to ba recorded of

- General Wolseley's camel C(n'p3.

TUB BELEAGUERED CITY AND ITS THREE DEFENDERS. 85

CHAPTER XXn.

THE BELEAGUERED CITY AND ITS THREE DEFENDERS.

While we have been calmly talking about votes of censure, routes to
Khartoum, white pine boats, and camels, what of the three Englishmen and
their loyal band shut up in the besieged city in the midst of a hostile land
two thousand miles from help ? Ah ! what of them ? " The count of mighty
Poets is made up," sings Keats, "the scroll is folded by the Muses." Not so
the count of heroes. Brightest on the scroll of Mars will shine the names of
Gordon, Stewart, Power. Heroism the world has witnessed before ; but
heroism that never yet excelled that displayed by these brave men. It was
magnificent, and it was war, that defence of theirs — war every day, every
night ; fighting hourly for their lives, and for the lives of thousands of men,
and women and children. " Old Homer's Helicon ! that thou wouldst spout a
little streandet o'er these sorry pages." I will do my best, my reader, to tell
you what they did, these splendid men : forgive me if I fail.

On the seventeenth of April all communication between Gordon and his
country was cut off. From then till October the 1st no news came at all.
England at home went on its usual way : eating and drinking, talking and
dancing, making money and losing it, and speculating how to make more.
England at Khartoum — her three representatives there — how are they spend-
ing the time ? Enjoying themselves? Yes; they say they are happy, they
say they are hopeful, they say they are well. What are they doing / Round
them on every side are hosts of watchful savages becoming bolder every day.
They incessantly attack them, first on this side, then on that ; build forts
along the river, place in them powerful cannon and daily push the siege.
Now we hear of a heavy attack from the west, now of a strong force in a con-
tiguous village. They fight well, these savages. For whole days they will
contest a sniglo position, and armed only with spears will rush boldly upon
twenty times their number. But so do the Englishmen fight —fight right
well. The town is fortified to the la-'t extent. Broken glass, crowsfeet,
tangled wire, chevanx-de-frise, and three lines of percussion mines line the
walls. The ammunition is all safely housed ; steamers are made bullet-proof
by plates of iron ; towers, 20 feet high, are built on the barges ; and from
these the enemy is daily shelled. Up and down the river they go, driving
the opponents from this fort, blowing up that magazine, «apturing cattle,

86 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

capturing corn, killing hundreds the while. Listen to the account of these
exploits.

"April 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.— Attacks by the rebels on the Palace
from the villages opposite. Fearful loss of life to the Arabs from mines put
down by General Gordon.

"May 6. — Heavy attack from the Arabs at the Blue Nile end of the
works ; great loss of life I'rom mines.

*' May 7. — Great attack from a village opposite ; nine nn'nes were exploded,
115 rebels killed. The Arabs kept up a fire all day. Colonel Stewart, with
two splendidly directed shots from a Krupp 20-pounder at the Palace, drove
them out of their principal position. During the night the Arabs loopholed
the walls, but on the 9th we drove them out. They had held the place for
three days.

" May 25. — Colonel Stewart, while working a mitrailleuse at the Palace,
was woixnded by the rebel fire, but he is now quite well.

" May 26. — During an expedition up the White Nile Saati Bey put a shell
into an Arab magazine. There was a great explosion. Sixty shells going oflf.

' ' During May and June steamer expeditions were made daily. Our loss
was slight, and much cattle were captured.

"June 30. — Saati Bey captured 40ardebsof com from the rebels, killing
200 of them.

"July 10. — Saati Bey having burnt Kalakla and three villages, attacked
Gatarneb, but, with three of his officers, was killed. Colonel Stewart had a
narrow escape.

" July 29. — We beat the rebels out of Buri, on the Blue Nile, killing num-
bers of them and capturing munitions and eighty rifles. The steamers
advanced to El Fan, clearing thirteen rebel forts and breaking two cannon.
Since the siege began our loss has been 700 killed.

" For the last five months the siege has been very close, the Arab bullets
from all sides being able to fall into the Palace.

" Since March 17 no day has passed without firing."*

And inside the city — what is the scene ? — All through the streets are seen
poor black frightened people crouching in terror of the bullets. Young
mothers with children ; some sick, some weak with wounds ; yet all with firm
faith in the kind and brave three who are doing the best they can for them.
Food is frightfully dear. Everything has gone up 3,000 per cent. Meat —
when it can be bought — after the capture of a few cattle, perhaps, — is ruinously
expensive. There are some stores of food, but they consist of corn and
biscuits only, and of these only enough for a few months at most. Yet every-

* Telegraphic despatches from Mr. Power, dated July 30.

■. I ; '"u • i r . irnrmrrnrTTt in -~"sx

THE BELEAGUERED CITY AND ITS THREE DBFBNDE?»8. 87

one works with a will. Colonel Stewart, with arms bared, like a gunner,
himself points with good effect the guns ; General Gordon is up before dawn
— often all night — overlooking and ordering. He is as kind as he is great,
this wonderful general. And the beauty of it all is he does not know he is
either. Like Carlyle's truly great man he is perfectly unconscious of his
greatness. Let him tell you himself what he is doing : —

"April 23. — Thunderstorms in all directions at night. The rising of the
Nile will enable steamers to destroy irrigating machines along river banks,
^ and thus prevent any cultivation.

"April 24. — Rain during night. Thermometer 90 deg.

"April 27. — Usual Friday church paritde. Not many rebels in south
front. Yesterday Steamers went up White Nile and captured four cows, two
donkeys, 26 sheep and three prisoners.

"April 27. — We are all well and strong.

"July 30. — The people refuse to let me go out on expeditions, owing to
the bother which would arise if anything happened, so I sit on tenter-hooks
of anxiety. To show you the Arabs fire well, two of our steamers which are
blinded received 970 and 860 hits in their hulls respectively, I should think
we have fired half a million cartridges. It may be bad taste to say it, but if
we get out of this give Stewart a K. C. M. G. , and spare me at all costs. You
will thus save me the disagreeable n ess of having to refuse, but I hate these
things. If we get out it is in answer to prayer, and not by our might, and it
is a true pleasure to have been here, though painful enough at times. We
have a decoration with three degrees — silver, silver gilt, and pewter, with
inscription " Siege of Khartoum," with a grenade in centre. School children
and women have also receive d one ; consequently I am very popular with the
black ladies of Khartoum. We must fight it out with our own means ; if
blessed by God we shall succeed ; if not His will, so be it. All is for the best.
I will conclude in saying we will defend ourselves to the last ; that I will not
leave Khartoum ; that I will try and persuade all Europeans to escape, and
that I am still sanguine that, by some means not clear, God will give us an

issue

Let us say as was said of a great man once: "For ourselves, we feel that
there is actually a kind of sacredness in the fact of such a man being sent into
this Earth."

And is no army coming from England after all 1 the blacks are asking.
We have trusted you, lent you money, fought for you, and you have promised
to succour us. When is help coming 1 — When indeed 1 An English army is
certainly on the road, but it is a long road, and before they can travel it — ! —

* Telegraphic despatches from General Gordon to Sir Evelyn Baring.

TIIF, WAR IN THK SOUDAN.

Worse than all, before this a telegram conies all the way from England
to say that no help will be sent. Whether the three Englishmen tell this sad
news to the poor hoiiiiig blacks or not we cannot say. Let us hope not.
But they themselves ? Do they despair / Listen again:

"Since the despatch which arrived the day before yesterday all hope of
relief by our Government is at an end, so when our provisions, which wo have
at a stretch for two months, are eaten we must fall, nor la there any chance,
with the soldiers we have, and the great crowd of women, children, etc., of
our being able to cut our way ihroiij,'h the Arabs." Then some news about
successes quietly stated, and then the sentence — '* General Gordon is quite
well, and Cohjuel Stewart has quite recovered from his wound. I am quite
well and happy."*

No ; they did not despair. They were "happy ;" it was a "true plea-
sure to have been there," they say. Was there ever in all hist Ty greater
devotion to duty ? What was the Soudan to them or they to the Soudan that
they should (.lie for it ? For they died. There was no compensation ; nothing
to make death easy but the sense of having done what they ought to have
done. Ah! reader, does not your heart ache for them? Three thousand
miles from all they loved ; not even a kind message from home, fr> m a wife,
or a sister, not even a " well done " — not in this world — to cheer them. Yet
they are "happy." Thank God for that. —

Let us return to the " relief " expedition.

* Telegiaijhic despatches from Mr. Power, dated July 31,

r L <,^-^-'-^-

Wi^oZr>-.

KHARTOUM FROM THE RIVKK.

■

BBLATIYB DISTANCES OF IMPORTANT PLACES.

CHAPTER XXIII.

RELATIVE DISTANCES OF IMPORTANT PLACES.

Before we '.ommence the account of the cascent of the Nile it will be well
to obtain as clear a view as possible of the various distances to be covered by
our troops both by river and desert. The following table gives fairly accurately
the relative positions of the chief towns through which they passed, together
with short accounts of the more dangerous cataracts : —
From Cairo to Benisooef, 73 miles.

Benisooef is a large and important town, seventy-three miles from Cairo.
It is the capital of the province, and the residence of the Mudir, or Governor.
There is a railway station and a good bazaar. The population is about 5,000.
The chief industry is the manufacture of woollen carpets and warm linen
stuffs.

From Cairo to Minieh, 160 miles.

Minieh is a flourishing town, the capital of the province of the same name,
and is situated on the left bank of the Nile. The great industry is that of
sugar, the first sugar factory in Egypt having been built there. During the
sugar cane harvest, and when the mills are in full activity the town presents
a very lively appearance.

From Cairo to Assiout, 247^ miles.

Assiout is nominally within eighteen hours (336 miles of Alexandria) and
from this point steamers will, without difficulty, convey the troops 320 miles
up stream to Assouan. Assiout is the capital of Upper Egypt, contains the
residence of the governor, and has a population of 25,000 souls, of whom
about 10,000 are Christians, its trade in linen, cloth, earthenware, woollen,
and opium is considerable, and it is the starting-point of the caravans to Darfur
and Nubia. The pipe-bowls of Assiout are renowned throughout Egypt.
From Cairo to Girgeh, 341 miles.

Girgeh is chiefly interesting from the fact that it contains a large Christian
population, and that the town is manifestly of Christian origin. Formerly
Girgeh was the capital of the province, but the town is now of small import-
ance. It contains a Latin monastery — the oldest Roman Catholic monastery
now in Egypt.

From Cairo to Thebes, 450 miles.
From Cairo to Esneh, 484 miles.

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

Esneh is a great place for marketing. One of the chief features of Esneh
is the colony of Ghawdzee, or dancing girls, who inhabit a separate hamlet.

Frotn Cairo to Edf u, 514 miles.

From Cairo to Assouan, 583 miles.

At Assouan is the fir.-it cataract. There is a genei-al impression that the
Nile cataracts are species of miniature Niagaras, whereas they are really little
more than a succession of rapids, whirlpools and eddies caused l^y rocks and
islets. At High Nile all but the tallest rocks are covered with water, and
then it is possible for boats to sail up what is practically little nioi'e than a
very powerful stream. As the river falls, however, it becomes divided into
numerous narrow channels, which necessitate the boats being towed through
the rapids and falls which are then produced. The First Cataract, or Cataract
of Assouan, is from two to three miles long Both Dahabeahs and NugLjars
(smaller Nile boats) pass with their cargoes at High Nile. At Low Nile, wJien
ascending and descending, they usually dischnrge cargo. The gradient is not
more than one in fifteen. Up to this point navigation is perfectly easy.
Seven or eight steamers go up and down the Nile from Assouan to Cairo
(twelve days). Seven postal steamers ply between Assiout and Assouan (four
days), and then from Philae, above the First Cataract, to Wady Haifa (forty-
two hours). Nile steamers can pass the First Cataract from August until
January, and boats of not more than sixty tons can pass at all seasons. The
river bank has always a lively appearance as the large vessels unship their
cargo, which is transported on came! -back or by rail six miles up the river
beyond the Cataract. For this purpose there is a short railway, and by this
our men and stores, as they arrive from Siour, at Assouan, are transhipped and
forwarded to Philre, where steame s will take them to Wady Haifa, a distance
of 200 miles.

From Cairo to Korosko, 705 m'les.

At Korosko the river makes a rapid and beautiful reverse curve. From
Korosko the direct rt)ute strikes across the Nubian Desert to Abu Hamad,
the Upper Nile, Shendy, Seunaar, and Khaitoum. To Abu Hamad is
a distance of 227 miles, and a large bend in the river is thus avoided. But
the desert is almost waterless, and offers a tremendous obstacle to the move-
ment of a force of any size. It was from Korosko that General Gordon and
Colonel Stewart started on their adventurous journey across the desert to
Khartoum. Though a place of considerable traffic as the point of departure
for the Upper Nile and Xhartoum, Korosko is in itself scarcely a village. A
few scattered huts lie along the foot of the mountain, and the bank is gene-
rally lined with the tents and merchandise of traders.

From Cairo to Wady Haifa, 783 miles.

Wady Haifa is a large village lying scattered amongst a thick belt of

RELATIVE DISTANCES OP IMPORTANT PLACES. 91

palms. It is a place of much importance in connection with the Expedition
for the relief of General GordDU, us it practically forms the base of operations.
From Phila) to Wudy Haifa the troijps will be transported by boats. From
Wady Haifa a railway about thirty miles long turn'* a portion of the Second
Cataract, and strikes the Nile at Sarass. The town is somewhat picturesque,
but the surrounding country is drear and desilate. Wady Haifa is, however,
often enlivened by encampments of traders on their way to or returning from
the Soudan. Here the merchandise is transferred from camels to boats, or
vice versa. Lord \Vt)l8eley arrived at Wady Haifa on October 5th in a Nile
steamer. He took uj) his head-(iuarters in a dahabeah, and at once began to
make short tours of inspecti(jn.

The Cataract of Wady Haifa, or the Second Cataract, is from nine to
fourteen miles long. Daliabeahs cannot as a rule ascend above the Cataract.
The boat used above this is the nug,'ar. Four miles north of Watly Haifa is
the north terminus of the proposed Suiidan Railway, of which thirty-three
miles of rails are laid, the permanent way being completed some twenty-two
miles further on. At Sarass the boats of Lord Wolseley's Expedition took
the water, an i the real difficulties began.
From Cairo to Semneh, 828 miles.

The Cataract of Semneh is not difficult, and with a fair wind nuggars can
pass wi'h their cargoes. The part of the river about Semneh is called by the
Arabs Batu en Hogar, or " the Belly of Rock." On either bank are interest-
ing temples of the third Thothmes. That on the east bank consists of a
portico, a hall parallel to it, and some minor chambers. It stands in an
extensive enclosure. The river can be crossed on frail rafts, made of logs
lashed together, and pushed forward by men who swim behind it. The tem-
ple on the west side consists of only one chamber. At Semneh north winds
are prevalent.

From Cairo to Hannek, (?)

Proceeding up the Nile from Wady Haifa the following minor cataracts
are passed ; — Semneh, Ambigole, Okmeh, Dal and Kaibar. The last-named
is seven or eight miles in length. It is impassable at Low Nile, but only pass-
able at High Nile. This difficulty surmounted, the next important obstruc-
tion is the Third Cataract, or Cataract of Hatmek, which is impassable at Low
Nile, but passable at High Nile. From Wady Hfilfa to this point the Nile
is practically one series of rapids extending over a distance of 130 miles, the
passage of three of the cataracts being very difficult. From the Cataract of
Hannek onwards there is clear water for about 220 miles.
From Cairo to Abu Hamad, 1,297 miles.

From the Third Cataract to Abu Hamad the Nile makes a large right-
angle bend. Proceeding up stream, the Island of Argo is first passed, and

92 THE WAU IN THE SOUDAN.

then the town of Ordee, or New Dongola, is reached. Tt is the capital of
Lower Nubia and the residence of the Mudir, wlioso loyalty to tlie British
during the Soudan rebellion has been so repeatedly questioned. New Don-
gola is nn insigniiieant place ; and the traveller next reaches Old Dongola and
Delibeh. From Debbeh is a direct road across the desert to Khartoum, a
ten days' journey. After Debbeh the next important place is Ainbukol,
whence a desert route to Shendy cuts oft' another bend in the Nile. After
Anibuk(d comes Merawi, wlience there is a direct route to Berber. Soon after
passing Merawi there is a stretch of 140 miles, ini passable at L'.w Nile, ixnd
only passable for small boats at High Nile. There are in this district some
seven distinct cataracts, sometimes known as the Cataracts of Shakoujeh.

Frcjm Cairo to El Umas, (I)

The Fifth Cataract, or Cataract of El Umas, is impracticable at Low Nile
It lies on the stretch of river between Abu Hamad and Berbor. There
are here no mountains or even hil s, and the falls at a little distance are
scarcely perceptible. The boats used on this part of the Nile are mainly
" nuggars. "

From Cairo to Berbei', 1,400 miles.

Berber (204 miles fn)m Khartoum) is one of the most important towns of
the Upper Nile. Once at Berber, the main tlillicuhies of Lord Wolseley's
River Expedition are at an end, for from Berber to Khartoum there are but
204 miles of river, which oiler no great difHculties to navigation. Berber
itself is an insigiiiticuit and unattractive Nubian town. It is the limit of the
southern flight of the (pi.til, and between it and Khartoum crocodiles and
hijipopotami abound. About twenty miles above Berber is the mouth of the
Atbara River. The male population is about 3,000. The streets are dirty
and unpaved, the houses are of sun-dried bricks. There is a small bazaar,
government buildings and a telegraiih office. The town la protected by earth-
works, 4,500 yards in extent.

From Cairo to Shendy, 1,515 miles.

Shendy is the next town of importance after leaving Berber. In 1872 it
had a population of ;i,000. There is a bazaar and market. It is the terminus
of the desert route from Ambukol. Around Shendy the sceneiy is flat and
uninteresting.

From Cairo to Khartoum, 1,900.

At Khartoum, Half Nile occurs in the middle of July, High Nile about
the beginning of September, lasting about a month, and falling early in Octo-
ber. Half Nile occurs again about the end of October, It is High Nile at
Khartoum forty days sooner than at Cairo.

From Cairo to Dongola, 9G0 miles.

From Dongola to Debbeh, 105 miles.

RELATIVE DISTANCES OF IMPOHTANT PLACES.

From Dubbeh to Korti, 46 niilos.
From Korti to Mutaimieh (acroas desert), 185 miles.
From Suakim to IjerUer (ncroas desert), 2(>i> miles.
From Merawi to Berber (acroaa desertj, lOU miles.

A IKTrEK HOME.

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94 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TOILERS OF THE NILE.

On August the 14th the Nile route was adopted ; on November the 4th
it was telegraphed, •' The expedition may now be said to be fairly under way."
During this interval little of any interest touching the relieving force occurred.
On August 28th Lord Wolseley was appointed to command; on the 10th of
the following month he arrived at Cairo. There was a very great deal to be
done : 800 boats to be built; tlie preparatioi. and transport of immense quan-
' tities of stores; steamers, nuggars, and Nile craft of all kinds t(^ be collected
or repaired ; coal to be stored ; camels to bo purchased ; and the million and
one other things that are required between Aldershot and the battlefield.
There was bustle everwhere, from Pindico to Cairo, from Cairo to Assiout,
and from Assiout on to Wady Haifa. Thousands of packages of stores, arms,
ammunition, accoutrfments, rations, medical appliances, and what not, were
daily being landed and sent on towards the front; steamers were hauled
over cataracts ; delaclmients of troops arrived one after the other ; and
altogether it seemed to one at Cairo that England had shaken off her aj^athy,
and with her heart in the work was setting out in real earnest to achieve
success. Delays of course occurred. Lord Wolseley was summoned to Eng-
land before hie final dejiarture south ; supplies failed to arrive as punctually
as expected ; coal ran short at certain stations ; and unforeseen obstacles
occasionally thwarted the eager desire for haste. Meanwhile the railways
were all but succumbing beneath the uni)recedented amount of traffic, and the
Nile from Assiout to Dongola was alive with boats, all witii their i)row8 turned
southwards. Voyageurs, Kroomen, blue-jackets, heavy dragoons, infantry,
and camel corps, officers and privates, not to mention Arabs and Soudanese,
Egyptian soldierH, negro bearers and Dongolese pilots, all had their share of
work, and toiled beneath blazing sun or chilly moon with an energy worthy of
the ainj in view. Detachments go oflf as soon as means of transit can be pre-
pared for them in steamers, launches, nuggars, vrhaler-gigs, or on camels and
horses. .

Life on the nuggars,* though toilsome, was by no means unrelieved by
pleasure, excitement, and adventure. It has been graphically described by
one who took part in it : —

♦The nuggar is a rough but strongly built boat, some 40 ft. in length, and in shape
to be compared to the half of a walnut shell. It is open in the middle with a few feet
of deck fore and aft. One heavy mast, 30 ft. high, rises from the centre.

•

96 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

" The frequent stoppages and the necessity of towing the boats for dis-
tances varying from 400 yards to three miles afforded excellent exercise for
the men, and were looked on by them as constituting quite one of the pleasant
features of the excursion. On these occauions the different boat parties dis-
played great spirit of rivalry and some most exciting struggles for best place
animated each band of trackers. The oflScers were quite as interested in the
result as were their men, and it was amusing at more than one difficult point
in the latter part of tho voyage to see Colonel Stewart, the new Commandant
of Dongula, and the various members of his staff, with coats off and shoes full
of black mud, hauling, m the midst of the soldiers and the native crews, on
to a grass hawser, which almost invariably snapped suddenly and overthrew
the whole party. The struggle over, the first boat round the difficult point
would sail triumphantly away, the soldiers on board cheering and railing at
the less fortunate occupants of the other boats still plodding wearily on the
bank. The labour ended, and all the boats save some one laggard, well under
way again, the soldiers would sit, as Tommy Atkins will always sit when he
gets a chance, with their pipes upside down in their mouths and their legs
hanging over the sides of the boats and almost touching the water, and as one
nuggar now and again over-hauled another a volley of chatl" would l)e exchanged
between the occupants of the two crafts. Shortly before dusk the halt would
be signalled from the Major's boat, and all the crafts would, if p()8-«ible, join
and moor up to the bank. Then, as soon as guards were placed, all the men
were allowed on shore with, however, strict orders to keep out of the village
if there happened to be one near. Orders were also given to sjare the date
palms, but strict compliance with such a mandate was hirdly to be expected,
and the punishment to poor Tommy Atkins was sufficiently heavy, when, after
laboriously clambering to tlie top of a palm to till his pockets at ease, he dis-
covered that an officer or a sergeant was awaiting his descent at the foot of the
tree in order to take his name and number. Sometimes when the wind failed
altogether, or was so adverse as to render towing absolutely unpracticable, tho
halt was necessarily called (juite early in the afternoon. Then was Thomas
Atkins in his elemejit. He bathed in some shallow part of the stream, took
his tea comfortably and at his ease reclining on the tank, and then, attired in
his favourite off-duty undress, lounged about the bank enjoying the inevitable
pipe and the jokes and conversation of his friends. Comfort in costume to
the British soldier is represented as follows. His jacket and shirt are replaced
by his great coat, the cuff's of which are turned back. His trousers, unbi'aced,
are rolled up to his knees. His boots are unlaced, his pipe, of course, upside
down, and liis helmet is put on wrongside before. Has he been able to obtain
some particularly uncouth head-dreas — such as an old and mangy rabbit or rati
«kin cap, a battered tarboosch, or broken-down and brimless felt hat — he dons

THR TOILERS OF THE NILE. 97

it with pride and satisfaction, provided always it be thoroughly disreputable
— for otherwise where would be the merit — but failing this he is content with
the helmet worn as I have described. In this atthe, and with a, convenient
post or tree to lean against, or with a rail or a bank to sit on, he enjoys the
assertion of his dress of his momentary freedom from restraint, and feels
that he has for the time being retired into private life where care cannot reach
him till the next bugle call.

"Despite the good- will and spirits of oflficers and men, tiuwever, the voyage
was not wholly enjoyable. Throughout the day all were exposed, without
hope of cover, to the scorching glare of the sun. No movement among the
men on board could be permitted, for when any man stood up for a moment,
the reis or native captain called upon his gods, danced upon the tiller, and
vowed that wreck was inevitable if his view should be obstructed. These wily
natives soon discovered that implicit reliance was likely to be placed on them,
and that tliey would be humoured in any liltle whims they chose to display
regarding their own particular province. This being the case, they lost no
opportunity of harassing the men whenever occasion offered.

" After the great heat of the day the change of temperature at night was
most appreciable. The men were provided with but one blanket, which was
quite insufficient to protect them from the night air. The night can hardly be
said to be cold here, but between 4 p.m. and 4 a.m., there is a fall in the
thermometer of never less than 60 degrees, and the effect of this change of
temperature, combined with the absence of any stimuknt for the men, was a
considerable amount of coughing and huskiness in the early morning, which
continued until thf men's throats had been thawed by the sun.

" The absence of all stimulant is a very serious matter to the English
soldier. In time of peace, where his strenj^th and endurance are not tasked
in any way, he has at hand the regimental canteen, where he «an purchase a
moderate supply of liquor. But here he has no canteen, and even if he were
allowed to do so can purchase no stimulant but the horrible na ive beer, a
most undesirable beverage.

"When the boats were within two days of their journey's end, a mishap
occurred which, though fortunately without iserious result, entailed the loss of
one boat. The matter happened thus. All the difficult rapids had been
passed, and over 200 miles of river covered without mishap of any kind. The
boats had reached a place on the west bank named Kassikon, some ten miles
below the cataracts of Hannek. At Kassikon the river takes an awkward
turn and is much broken by sunken rocks and one or two small islets. The
channel runs under the west bank, and as a strong head wind was blowing it
was necessary to tow the boats for about a mile. This operation had been
tetisfactorily performed by all the boats save one, under command of Lieut.

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

Tudway, which was momentarily piled up on a sunken rocic close into the
bank. Most uf the men were on shore vvith a hawser, and the few who
remained on bi ard were labouring to pole the obstinate craft out into the
stream. Suddenly and without further warning than a fierce roar and a savage
crackling of dry twigs, the mimosa bushes and rank growth of shrubs that
lined the bank became enveloped in a mass of flame, which speedily com-
municated itself to the sail and rigging of the nuggar. The native captain
and his Batellites, after one glance at the bushes and another at the blazing
sail, promptly seized their little sleeping mats and a bag or two of dourra, which
constituted their whole interest in the concern, and disappeared over the stern
with an invocation to the prophet -and the Seyd el Bedawee — a saint of great
renown on the Nile. In this climate everything is so dry and so hot as to be
ready to bum on the smallest provocation. Thus, wherever a spark fell, and
sparks fell in plentiful showers, a little fire promptly declared itself, and
although all on board worked manfully to extinguish these ever incessant flames,
it soon became apparent that the only chance of saving the ammunition, the
men's kits and other objects on board, would be to clear the boat of all she
contained. This was promptly done. The men formed a line from the ship
to the shore, and the bales and boxes were handed to them by those on board,
whose position was rendered disngreeable by the imminence of the fall of the
two huge spars from aloft. The spars fell, and were soon followed by the
heavy mast, but, as all were prepared for the event, no one was injured.

" The fire on the bank soon burned itself out ; it extended for about
half-a-mile and was stopped by a barren nullah, the tempting trees on ihe
other side of which were wholly beyond its reach. '

" The natives came back when all was over and renewed their occupations
as though nothing had happened, being utterly indifierent to the scornful
epithets showered on them by the soldiers, which, indeed, they did nut
understand."

As will be seen, it was no pleasure trip this : the labour was toi'some and
excessive, the dangers extreme. The heat and glaring sun by dav and the
Cold and sleeplessness by iii<>ht had told a good deal on the men. All super-
fluous fat was worked ofi", and they were described as being hard as nails and
fit fur anything. But indeed their clothes 8uff"ered more than their wearers.
The constant rowing, hauling, portaging, shoving, and wading, had reduced
the former to mere rags ; "the trousers," writes a correspondent, "as might
have been expected, fared the worst. I saw a ma'i rowing the other day who
had none left, not even the waistband."

To give a succinct and detailed nccount of the passage up the Nile is im-
possible. The various regiments and j.arts of regiments started at different
times, and owing to the offer of a prize of £100 by Lord Wolseley, made the

THE TOILERS OF THE NILb.

best possible time up the river irrespective of each other. The exigencies of
the various parts of the journey also called forth all sorts of contrivances by
which to overcome obstacles. Each cataract had to be passed in a peculiar
manner, and each vessel required different handling. The skill of the
engineers was taxed to the utmost, and many ingenious devices were sug-
gested to aid in hauling boats and steamers round difficult bands or through
powerful currents. Not seldom a boat with all its stores and many of its
crew would be totally lost, and the narrow escapes which, without exception,
one and all experienced would of tliemselves make a thrilling uarrative. But
all worked with a will. Their hearts were in their work. VVaa not Khartoum
and Gordon their goal ? - '

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SRIPCO, E.NOriAVERS.

PLAN OF KHAHTOUM.

100 THE WAa IN THE SOUDAN.

CRAFTER XXV.

LEFT ALONE.

We have seen the army hurrying on to reach the three Englishmen shut
up in Khartoum. Strong arms pull vigorously at the oars. The boats are
dragged through the surging rapids. The mounted corps ride along day by
day and often far into the night. Khartoum must be reached and its de-
fenders delivered. Not an hour is needlessly wasted. Yet meanwhile what
is happening i They do not know at Khartoum that help is on the way.
They are figliting hard as well as they can by themselves. The Nile is now
high and General Gordon sends his steamers out daily ou excursions. They
go up stream as far south as Senaar, shelling the enemy and obtaining pro-
visions ; they go north too with the same errands and come back victorious —
except on one sad occasion, and it is this occasion that must now be chronicled.

No news from the outside world reaches the inveited town. There is an
opportunity now to obtain some : it is high Nile ; the steamers have shown
their ability to pass up and down comparatively unscathed ; why should they
not go all the way to Berber and from thence to Merawi ? Major Kitchener,
they know, is at Debbeh, not far from Merawi ; he will know if an army is
on its way ; he will link the exiles once more with their friends ; they will
find out from him for certain what is being done for them. It is running a
desperate risk ; but it shall be attempted.

Had they counted the cost, these three brave men 1 Did they know all the
dangers that surrounded such an expedition ? An open enemy they need not
fear. But behind these there lurked that ever-present spectre — treachery.
It dogged our General like a shadow. He could not free himself from it.
Wherever he went it followed him. Stealthy, silent, unseen. Working in
the dark. Unapproachable. Not to be grappled with. Never revealing it- 1

self till its cold deathly grip was on the throats of its victims. Now appear-
ing as a peaceful ally ; now stalking unnoticed amongst the ranks of apparently
friendly soldiers. A powerful foe. Much to be dreaded. Always to be
watched for. Already it had slain its thousands, and none could tell where
its blow would next be dealt. It was quiet in its way of working ; it waited
patiently for an opportunity to lure on its enemies to destruction, and when
the opportunity came it was remorseless. If this spectre treachery could
have been annihilated, the history of the Soudan war would have been
different.

LEFT ALONB. 101

Fearlessly, however, the expedi i m to Berber is commenoed. It is no
ordinary excursion this. Berber is more than two hundred miles from Khar-
toum, Merawi is nearly another two hundred further. Luckily it is down
stream, they have good pilots, and the steamers are well armed. It shall be
done. Ammunition in abundance is placed on board, provisions are packed,
the men are told off, and Colonel Stewart and Mr. Power undertake to bring
back news, if nothing else.

This is the boldest venture yet made. It looks as though release were
possible. An expedition that has for its goal a point four-hundred miles from
the place of imprisonment is a sort of communication with all that is going on
outside. Those who accompany it will see another English face perhaps, will
be greeted with English greetings, and will hear words of encouragement and
hope. They will be able to tell all about their hardships, their battles, the
bravery of the loyal little garrison that has stood firm all these months, but
also of the longing for help, and of the hope that, so long deferred, was
making sick the hearts of the poor blacks. What may not be the results of
such a journey ? They will be able to telegraph to England itself. The men
who have for so long been fighting for their lives will be able now to tell the
true state of affairs, will show how urgently help is needed to extricate those
poor forlorn men and women shut up at Khartoum, and perhaps will bring
back strong, brave, white soldiers to fight for them. Truly a noble expedi-
tion.

The people come down to the river bank to see them start. Surely they
will be successful. They have done wonders heretofore. They will do
wonders again. — Ah ! treachery, treachery was on their path.

The rest of the story is short. Down the river they bravely fought their
way, undaunted by the numbers that sought to stop them. Behind them
they left a town which patieutly but anxiously awaited their return. Before
them lay unknown help. Nothing will stop them. Day ar ' nifjht they
travel, overcoming every obstacle. Berber is reached in safety. No friends
here, only more enemies. There is nothing for it but to push on for the next
two hundred mi'es. But first they shell the town and thoroughly intimidate
their foes. Here too it is determined that all the steamers cannot be spared
to go so far from Khartoum. So all are sent back but one. This one with
Colonel Stewart, Mr. Power, and forty men, will accomplish the rest of the
journey. Fatal error. The rescuers thought more of tliose they were to
rescue than they did of themselves. All too brave a band. Not fai' from
Berber the solitary steamer struck upon a rock. Here indeed was a dilemma.
There was no going back, and there was no going forward. Still theie is a
ray of hope. A friendly man of the name of Suleiman Wad Gamr comes on
board, and generously offers to aid the party as much as is in his power to

102

TUE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

reach their friends. He points out that they can cross the desert direct to
Merawi, and promises to provide oamela to transport the whole forty-two
men. It is a tempting offer. True, it is a terrible ride. A hundred and
sixty miles lie between them and Merawi, and it is through that terrible
Bahiuda desert. Still it caa be traversed in a week by hard riding. And
Suleiman is friendly. They accept the offer. The whole party disembark
and are escorted to the tent of the Sheikh, a blind old man named Fakrietman,
who receives them cordially.

The rest is sad news. They all go unarmed except Colonel Stewart who
carries a small revolver in his belt. Presently Suleiman makes a sign, and
immediately those standi:^ by divide into two parties and fall upon the
strangers. Swords, spea; . and muskets are used. Oolonel Stewart is one of
the tirst killed. A few throw themselves into the river and escape. The
rest are ahot or drown.

So ended this little expedition. Gordon is now left quite alone. Un-
friended by his country, bereft of his friends, he has now single-handed to
renew the conflict with his foes.

fl) lif|l i?)':ffl''f) iiti i« m'W\^

■Ifl i J . ll i] ii

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, KHATITOUM.

VUfi UOkfiOBS or THE DSSSHT. 103

CHAPTER 3(ZTL

THE HORRORS OF THE DESERT.

At last Korti is reached. (December 16th, 1884.) For ninety-seven
days the toilers of the Nile have litei !ly dragged themselves along t)iis almost
unnavigable stream. But now they are within reasonable distance of their
goal. From Khartoum to Korti a messenger can travel within a week. Surely
Qordon is now to be saved. Only a month ago his letters told that he could
hold out. till the expeditii n arrived. Still, between him and Wolseley lay
unknown and untold dangers. Within the walls of Khartoum itself every
body knew that treachery was lurking. Hardly one could be depended on,
and " the one supremely capable Englishman" must be reached at once — at
once.

From Korti to Khartoum there are two routes. The Nile here takes a
long bend to the left and contains many rapids. Directly south stretches
the desert. What shall be done 1 Once more General Wolseley's thorough-
ness comes to the front. Both routes shall be used. Orders are issued (Dec.
29th) that General Stewart shall make a de&perate dash across the terrible
Bahiuda desert. There are only 180 miles of it, and there are reported to be
wells hera and there. The next day the march begins, and the resolute band
set their faces for Motemneh.

This little force, composed only of some fifteen hundred men, was des-
tined to witness the hardest fighting that was experienced throughout the
campaign. It fought on the open field in the desert was es, against reckless
hordea that outnumbered it by twelve to one. It lost its leader, and it lost
many of its highest oflScexB. It was more than once totally surroundad by
the enemy ; and was not seldom on the brink of complete annihilation.

Let us regard closely this brave band.
i ' The object was to establish at Gakdul a depot of stores and ammunition,

and so to fortify these wella as that they might serve as an auxiliary base between
Korti and Metemiieh. Accordingly, the following force was despatched : —
1,000 baggage camels, each three led by camel-men ; 1,000 troops mounted on
camels ; a detachment of heavy and light cavalry ; a rocket battery ; coamis-
sariat camels ; m )unted infantry, and hussars. They were led by Major
Kitchener and half-a-dozen Bedouin guides, and flanked and headed by
scouts. The formation was in column of companies, so formed that in two
minutes three squares oould be formed in dcbelon to resist any attack. Tho

104

THB WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

first halt of any length was made at Qakdul. How the little army performed
this march, and the almost indescribable sufferings they endured, has been
told by almost the last despatch penned by the well-known Mr. Cameron,
correspondent of the London Standard. We give his words in full :

Gakddl, January 13.

" At three o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th inst., we were all paraded
in the Desert outside Korti, ready at last to open the campaign. General
Stewart's previous march to Gakdul and back was more of the nature of a suc-
cessful reconnaissance made in search of water. We were now in grim earnest
bound on a dash straight across, to plunge unsupported into the heart of the
enemy's country, and amidst a population all of them avowed disciples of the
Crescentade against infidels every whero, inaugurated by Mahomed Achmet, the
Mahdi of the Soudan. No wonder that the natives who watched looked upon
us as men doomed to destruction, for had not three large armies more numer-
ous than ours, and as well equipped^ already passed over the same road, bound
on a similar errand to ours, and had they not all perished to a man ? But
what the natives did not realize, although some among them were beginning
to have a glinnnering of the fact, was that these great white soldiers, although
they did not bully and kick and tyrannise over them, were still a very different
kind of fighting material to the white-livered, despicable Egyptian and mur-
dering Bashi-Bazouk, to whom they had hitherto been accustomed. Only
Greeks, Copts, and blacks — chiefly runaway slaves — would accompany us as
servants. In the desert, water is the great thing. Food we can do without
for a period, and not suffer much, but never water. And so the first thing to do
on halting was to examine the skins that contained our precious supply ; and
then by the friendly bivouac of the Mounted Infantry detachment on rear
guard, we lay on the sand to try and snatch some sleep ero the bugles sounded.
For the waning moon would rise at half-past one, and at that hour General
Stewart had ordered the start to be made. Apparently the last tire to remain
alight had only flickered out and silence had but reigned for a few minutes,
when the beautiful but weirdlike reveille of the British army startled us
unwillingly into life again. Once or twice only during my campaigning expe-
riences have I heard the r^veill^ sound with feelings of satisfaction. The
last occasion was the morning of the battle of Tamai. All night we had lain
silent while the enemy cracked volleys of musketry into us from the bush
outside our zeribah. But with the first note of the rdveill6 we sprang to
our feet as one man, glad all of us to think that now our turn had come.
And before the bugles ceased the Arabs, too, had stopped their firing and
retired to the ambush from where they subsequently sprang upon us. With
very different disposition do we listen here in the desert to the morning call ;

TUB HORRORS OF THE DESERT.

105

for it is tho signal to jump up with unwilling,' energy and load our moaning
camels, and prepare to jog on again wearily in the dark To load a cnmel
projjerly, even in daylight, is a work of art. The cargc muat be balanced
exactly, one half on either side of his back, otherwise it will inevitably,
sooner or later, tumble off, und there is nothing more heartbreaking than to
see one's baj^gage tumble off on the line of march — particularly when in an
enemy's country. The last rope had hardly been fastened when the ' fall in'
sounded, and then tor an hour men and camels grouped into their places in
the dark ; and at half-past two we moved off our ground, the pebble-strewed
desert glistening in the dim moonlight as if it were covered with a coat of
yellow shining varnish. Frequently would the bugles sound the halt in n-ar,
to allow time for stragglers to cloje up, for the officer commanding the rear
guard had the usual orders to leave nothing behind. With him were the
spare camels, and if a loaded one tumbled, or lay down to die, as they fre-
quently did, a fresh beast at once took his place, and so wearily until morning
we silently marched — few cared to converse— gliding across the det^ert like
one long shadow. At lialf-past five what looked like the reflection of a liuge
conflagration appeared on the liorizon. It signalled the approach of day ;
and when it was light the bugles sounded a merry march, the men shouted
and talked cheerily, and even the camels looked mildly contented. At ten
we halted for breakfast, and tried to get a little sleep until two, when we
were away again, striding on sometimes across stretches of sand, sometiuies
over stony ground, and anon through mimosa country ; but ever the sun
shone fiercely overhead. A peculiarity of the deserts that border the Nile is
that the mouths of men and beasts who traverae them are always parched-
Those who have experience know that it is no use to drink continuously.
That only increases the torture, but it is difficult *o resist the temptation.
There was scarcity of water with all. Lucky was he who, having ventured to
bring with him a horse, could give that horse a drink ; and never shall I
forget the blank look of despair with wiiich one journalist announced that he
'had no water for his horse and none for himself.' But it was not always
the skins that ht.d leaked ; sometimes, too, had the honesty of the servants
in charge, for soldiers were foraging about, ofi'ering any price, even a dollar
for as much as would make a single drink.

" Again, early in the morning, we started, but there was now no unwill-
ingness to get on ; for with many delay meant torture — perhaps death — while
progress meant water and life. The Wells of Hambok, forty-seven miles out
from Korti, were found empty. Only a bucketful of the precious fluid was
there, and that was given to a couple of horses that otherwise would have
died. The column did not even halt at Hambok, but pushed on to El
Howeyet, eight miles further, where a better supply was expected. But
o

106

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

thore, too, ill-luck awaited ua. The c nvoy that started from Korti the day
before had only left El Howeyet half an hour previous to our arrival — ao
quickly had we travelled — and they had drunk all the water. But we halted
at El Howeyet until evening, and by that time enough water— if that name
may be given to a fluid of the color and consistency of pea-soup — had
accumulated to allow every man to have a slight drink. So wild were some
of the soldiers with thirst, that for some time it seemed as if a tumult might
set in ; but Major Wardroper ordered all to fall in as they stood, and so one
by one, and in ordef, were they supplied with their share. On as:ain we
went until dark, the camels striding at their quickest pace, as anxious as
their riders that water in plenty should be reactied ; and on again in the
morning too we went, making for the Wells of Abu Haifa, which, although
some distance oflfthe main track, were eight or ten miles nearer than Gakdul.
There the guides assured us would water bo found in plenty. In front the
squadron of the 19th Hussars pushed on, for the horses had only drunk a
quart a piece during the previous twenty-four hours. They were much dis-
tressed, of course, and, if not watered that day, would many of them
assuredly die. At first the Well ( f Abu Haifa looked anything but promising.
A shallow pool of water, green on the top, we saw, i/hich was well nigh
emptied before even the horses had satisfied their thirst. But then a clear,
bubbling spring, waa discovered at the bottom, which, when cleared, attbrded
sutticient for everybody : only the wretched camels went without. For a
period the scene at the Abu Haifa Well was exciting in the extreme. Chat-
tering Somalies, wild with thirst, barred from the main pool until the fighting
men had drunk their full, grubbed frantically in the sand, and in an incon-
ceivably short period dug holes, at the bottom of which a little water collected,
that was promptly lapped up. The soldiers, too, could hardly be restrained
from throwing discipline aside and thronged in on all sides, while in the
background were plunging horses and camels broken loose and fighting
despera jly with their human masters for a place.

"At present we know not whether our road is to be barred by thousands,
or whether we shall reach the Nile without firing a shot. In camp parlance
it is * even betting ' on either contingency. We only know that if we fight
at all it will not be for victory, but for very existence ; for behind us there
will be no retreat."

Poor fellow ; for Lim there was no retreat. Within a few hours — at the
battle of Abu Klea, he was killed, doing his duty as bravely as the bravest
fighting man.

ABU KLEA AND ABU KRU 107

CHAPTER XXVn.

ABU KLEA AND ABU KRU.

Gakdul was reached and passed, and the troops pri ssed on for Metemneh.
On the road to this town lay the wells of Abu Klea.

Abu Klea ; — the name baa become known wherever English pluck has
become known, for here occurred the tirst and perhaps the greatest of the
battles fought by the soldiers of the Nile expedition.

At noon on January the 16th as the troops were bivouacking in sight of
the ridge leading to the wells, news was brought that the enemy were holding
Abu Klea in force. At once dispositions were made for attack, and in com-
pact square of colunm the brigade moved forward as steadily as if on parade.
In this formation they* came within four hundied yards from the foot of the
ridge, when General Stew.art determined to rest where he was for the night
and attack the enemy in the morning. A zariba was formed, strong pickets
posted, and the men lay down under arms to gain what rest they could.

And this was not much.

All night bullets kept falling in and around the square, and three times
the alarm was sounded with the expectation of a general assault.

However, breakfast was comi)aratively quietly enjoyed after sunrise, and
at 10 o'clock Generjvl Stewart ordered a general advance. " We advanced
two miles," says Mr. Pearse of the Daily News, "exposed to a heavy fire on
all sides. We moved out to the attack under a hail of bullets. Men dropped
from the ranks right and left, but none of the wounded were left on t^e field.
It was nearly an hour before we sighted the enemy's main body, and realised
that at least 7,000 or 8,000 men were against us. We halted and closed
square. The concealed enemy sprang up, twenty banners waving, and came
on in a splendid line. The troops on the right were led by Abu Saleh, Emir
of Metemneh. On the left they were under Mahommed Khair, Emir <f
Berber. The latter was wounded, and retired early ; but Saleh came
desperately on at the head of a hundred fanatics, escaping the withering fire
of the Martinis marvellously until shot down in the square. The rear face,
composed of the heavy cavalry, broke forward in the endeavour to fire on the
rebels, who swept round the flank and broke into us. Then came the shock
of the Arabs' impulsive charge against our square. For a moment, there was
miiuh confusion, and the fate of the whole force trembled in the balance, until
the steadiness of the Guards, Marines, and Mounted Infantry prevailed. The

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ABU KLEA AND ABU KRU.

109

Sussex Regiment, though taken in rear, rallied and fought desperately. The
men fell back, re-formed in gf od order, and poured volleys into the enemy,
everyone in the leading division falling dead in our midst. The Guards
moved not an inch, even when the rear was threatened simultaneously with
the front. Among the tirst of our officers mortally wounded was Colonel
Burnaby, who fell gallantly in fight close to his old comrades the Blues."
Mr. Burleigh, of The Telegraph, thus describes Bumaby's death : —
" Still down upon us the dark. Arab wave rolled. It had arrived within
three hundred yards undiminished in volume, unbroken in strength — a rush
of 8f earsmen and swordsmen. Their rifle fire had ceased. Other Arab forces
surrounding us — the Mahdi's troops, plundering Bedouins and pillaging vil-
lagers from the river side — stood eager on the hill side watching the charge
upon the British square. In wild excitement, their white teeth glistening
and the sheen of their brandished weapons flashing like thousands of mirrors,
onward they came charging straight into lur ranks. I was at that instant
inside the square, not far from Gardner gun, when I saw the left face move
somewhat backward. Col. Burnaby himself, whose every action I saw from
a distance of about thirty yards, rode out in front of the rear left face, appar-
ently to assist two or three skirmishers running in hard pressed. All but one
man succeeded in reaching our lines. Col. Burnaby went forward to his
assistance sword in hand. As the dauntless Colonel rode forward he put him-
self in the way of a sheikh charging down on horseback. Ere the Arab closed
with him a bullet from some one in our ranks brought the sheikh headlong
to the ground. The enemy's spearsmen were close behind, and one of them
suddenly dashed at Colonel Burnaby, pointing the long blade of his spear at
his throat. Checking his horse and pulling it backward, Burnaby leapt for-
ward in his saddle and parried the Molem's rapid and ferocious thrusts. But
the length of the man's weapon— eight feet — put it out of his power to return
with interest the Arab's murderous intent. Once or twice Colonel Burnaby
just touched his man, only to make him more wary and eager. Affray was
the work of seconds only, for the savage horde of swarthy negroes from Kor-
dofan and straight-haired tawny- complexioned Arabs of the Bahiuda stripe
were fast closing in on our square. Colonel Burnaby fenced the swarthy
Ar.il) as if he were playing in an assault-at-arms, and there was a smile upon
his features as he drove off the man's awkward points. The scene was taken
in at a glance. With that lightning instinct which I have seen desert war-
riors before now display in battle while coming to one another's aid, an Arab,
who was pursuing o soldier and had passed five paces to Bumaby's right and
rear, turned with a sudden spring, and this second Arab ran his spear into
the Colonel's right shoulder. It was but a slight wound. Enough, though,
to cause Burnaby to twist around in his saddle and defend himself from thia

110

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

unexpected attack. Before the savage could rejjcat his unlocked for blow, so
near the ranks of tha scjuare was the scene now being enacted, a soldier ran
out and drove his sword bayonet throuj/h tiie second assailant. Brief as was
Burnaby's glance backward at this faval episode it was long, enough to enable
the first Arab to deliver his spear full iu the brave officer's throat. The blow
drove Burnaby out of the saddle, but it required a second one before he let
go his grip of the reins and tumbled upon :he ground. Half a dozen Arabs
Were now about Inm. With blooJ gusbiug in streams from his gashed throat
the dauntless guardsmen leapet! to hii foet sword in hand and slashed at the
ferocious group. They were the v ild strokes of a proud, brave man dying
hard, and he was quickly overborne and left helpless and dying."

This victory gave us possession of the wells, and of these the troops were
sorely in need.

Here they bivouacked unmolested by the enemy that night. But hard
fighting was yet in store for them .

On the following day they again pressed forward, making a forced march
in order to reach the river and escape the horrors of the desert. At daylight
on the 19th the column found itself but six miles from the green and fertile
banks, within reach of inexhaustible clear, sweet water, and approaching
their goal. But the enemy was on the aLrt. Let Mr. Burleigh tell the
story of what now took place.

" Streams of men on horseback and on foot came from Metammeh, inter-
posing themselves between the column and the water we longe^l to gain. For
a short time, Sir Herbert Stewart deliberated whether to push on two miles
nearer the Nile. As the Arabs mustered in sufficient force seriously to
threatuu our advance, he decided to halt upon a ridge of desert covered with
sparkling pebbles, four miles from the river. To our right and rear lay a few
low black hills, one mile to two miles distant ; on our front, the Desert rolled
downward, towards the green flats bordering the Nile ; for here, as at Dongola,
the belt of cultivation is rich and wide.

•' Turning with a light smile to his staff. General Stew.irt said, ' Tell the
officers and men we will have breakfast first, and then go out and fight.' The
column was closed up, with the baggage animals t ) the centre, as usual • the
boxes and pack-saddles being taken off, to make an inclosure to protect the
square from rifle fire. In less than ten minutes the Arabs were not only all
over our front and flanks, but had drawn a line around our rear. Groups
bearing the fantastic Koran-inscribed banners of the False Prophet, similar to
those of which wo had taken two or three score at Abou Klea, could be seen
occupying vantage points all around. The enemy's fire grew hotter and more
deadly every minute. Evidently their Remingtons were in the hands of Kor-
dofan hunters. Mimosa bushes were cut, and breakfast preparations were

H
<)

112 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

suspended for an hour, whilst most of the troops lay flat. Fatigue parties
strengthened our position. In going towards a low mound, a hundred yards
on our right front, where we had a few skirmishers, General Stewart w an shot
in the groin. The command devolved upon Lord Charles Beresford Ly
seniority, but he, being a naval officer, declined it, and Sir Charles Wilson
took it over. One of the most touching incidents in the zariba was th.^
wounded General tended by his friends, two or three of whom wept like men,
silently. Poor St. Leger Herbert, the Morning Post correspondent, one of
these, was himself shot dead shortly afterwards.

" The mound on our front was quickly turned into a detached work, forty
volunteers, carrying boxes and pack-saddles, rushing out, and, in a short
space of time, converting it into a strongly defensible post. Gradually, the
enemy's riflemen crept nearer, and our skirmishers were sent out to engage
them. They were too numerous to drive away ; and the nature of the ground,
and the high trajectory of their Remingtons, enabled the Arabs to drop their
bullets iiito the square at all points. Soldiers lying behind camels and saddle-
packs were shot in the head by dropping bullets. Mr. Cameron, the Standard
correspondent, was hit in the back and killed whilst sitt'ng behind a camel,
just as he was going to have lunch. The enemy were firing at ranges of from
700 t ) 2000 yards, and their practice was excellent. The zip, ping, and thud
of the leaden hail was continuous ; and, while the camels were killed in num-
bers, our soldiers did not escape, over forty having to be carried to the hospital,
sheltered as well as possible in the centre of the square behind a wall of saddles,
bags, and boxes. As a precaution against stampede, the poor camels were
tied down, their knees and necks securely bound by ropes to prevent their
getting upon their legs. The enemy's tire incre;ised in intensity ; and, as
stretcher after stretcher with its gory load was taken to the hospital, the space
was found too little, and the wounded had to be laid outside. Surgeon-Major
Ferguson, Dr. Briggs, and their colleagues had their t-kill and time taxed to
the utmost. Want of water hampered their operations; doctors and patients
were alike exposed to the enemy's iire. ,

*' Our situation had become unbearable. We were being fired at without
a chance of returning blows with or without interest. The ten thousand
warriors whom the Mahdi had sent from Omdurman to annihilate us were
blocking our road to the Nile ; and over a hundred Baggara, the ht rsemen of
the Soudan, and crowds of villagers, who had joined Mohamed Ahmed's cru-
sade, hung like famished wolves on our rear and flanks, awaiting an opportunity
to slay. Apparently, they were emboldened by our defensive preparations.

"There were three CDurses open to us — to sally forth and fight our way
to the Nile ; to fight for the river, advancing stage by stage, with the help of
zaribas and temporary works ; or to strengthen our position, and try to with-

' s

ABU KLEA AND ABU KRU,

lis

etand the Arabs ami endure the lack of water, till Lord Wolseley should tend
a force to our assistance ; we, meanwhile, sending u messenger or two hack to
Korti with the news. It was bravely decided to go out and engage the enemy
at close quarters. At two p.m. the force wastomarcli out in scjuare, carrying
nothing except ammunition and stretchers. Each man was to take a hun-
dred rounds and to have his water-bottle full. Evoi'3'thing was put into
thorough readiness for this enterprise. Lord Charles Beresford, with Major
Barrow, remained in command of the inclosure, or zariba, containing the
animals and stores. Thtiy had under them the Naval Contingent, the 19th
Hussars, a party of Royal Engineers, and Captain ^Torton's detachment of
Royal Artillery, with three screw-guns, and details from regiments and men
of the Commissariat and Transport Corps.

•' It was nearly three o'clock before the square started, Sir Charles Wilson
in command, and Colonel Boscawen acting „3 Executive Officer. Lord Airlie,
who had been slightly wounded at Abou Klea, and again on the 19th, together
with Major Wardroper, served upon Sir Charles's staff, as they had done upon
General Stewart's. The square was formed to the east of our inclosed defence,
the troops lying down as they were assigned their stations. The Guards
formed the front, with the Marines on the right front corner, the Heavies oa
the right and right rear, the Sussex in the rear, and the Mounted Infantry on
the left rear and left liank. Colonel Talbot led the Heavies ; Major BaiTow,
the Hussars; Colonel Rowley, the Guards ; Major Pde, the Marines, and
Major Sunderland, the Sussex Regiment. Captain Verner, of the Rifle
Brigade, was told off to direct the square in its march towards the river.
When the order was given for the square to rise and advance, it moved off to
the west to clear the outlying work.

" The instant the Aribs detected the forward movement on our part, they
opened a terrific rifle-fire upon the square from the scrub on all sides. In the
first few minutes many of our men were hit and fell. The wounded were with
difficulty picked up and carried. When the square slowly marched, as if upon
parade, down into the grass 'and scrub-covered hollow, intervening between
the works we had constructed and the lino of bare rising desert that bounded
our view towards the south and east — shutting out of sight tl.e river and the
fertile border slopes — all felt the critical movement had come.

" Steadily the square descended into the valley. Gap.' were made in our
force by the enemy's fire. As man after man staggered and fell, these gaps
were doggedly closed ; and, without quickening the pace by one beat, onward
our soldiers went. All were resolved to sell their lives dearly. Every now
and again the square would halt, and the men would lie down, firing at their
foes hidden in the valley. Those sheltered behind the desert crest were too
safely screened to waste ammunition upon at that stage. Wheeling to the

114 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

right and swinging to the left our men fought like gladiators, without unneces-
sarily waiting strength or dealing a blow too many. A more glorit)U!j S2)ectacle
was never seen than this little band iu broad daylight, on an open plain,
seeking hand-io-hand conflict with the courageous^ savage, and fanatical foe,
who outnumbered us by twelve to one.

"As the square moved over the rolling ground, keeping its best fighting
side — or rather its firing side — towards the great on-rushes of the Arabs, the
soldiers swung around, as thougli the square pivoted on its centre. Once it
entered ground too thickly covered by grass and scrub, halted, and coolly
swung round and marched out upon the more ope i ground, with the Arabs
to the ri^ht front, their tom-toms beating, and their sacred battle-flags of red,
white, and green flying in the air.

" Bearing banners lettered with verses from the Koran, a host of fanatic
Arabs was the first to hurl its swordsmen and spearsmen upon the sijuare.
The column wheeled to receive them, and the men, by their officers' direction,
fired volleys by companies, scarcely any independent firing being permitted.
The wild dervishes and fanatics who led the charge went down in scores before
our fire, which was opened on them at 700 yards, and none of the enemy got
within some yards of the square. This checked their ardour, which had been
excited by seeing the gaps in our ranks. Turee more charges were attempted
by the enemy at other points along the line of the square's advance.

"At half-past four, after nearly two hours' incessant fighting, as the
column neared the south-easterly edge of the valley to pass out of it, the Arabs
made their final grand rush. Nearly 10,000 of them swept down from three
sides towards the stjuare, their main body — numbering not fewer than 6000 —
coming upon our left face. It was a critical moment. Their fire had made
fresh gaps in our ranks, and fierce human waves were rolling in on every side
to overwhelm our force. Down the Arabs came from behind the ridge at a
trot, and not at the top of their speed, as the Hadendowas charge. Gallant
horsemen and wild dervishes led them, and shouted to their followers to ru^h
on in Allah's name and destroy us. Firm as a rock, the square stood steadily,
aimed deliberately, and fired. Again and again had volleys to be sent into
the yelling hordes as down they poured. Tne feeling was — Could they be
stopped before closing with us ? Their fleetest and luckiest, however, did not
get within twenty-five yards before death overtook them ; while the bulk of
the enemy were still a hundred yards away. At last — God be thanked ! —
they hesitate, stop, turn, and run back. Victory is ours, and the British
column is sife ! The broken lines of Arabs sullenly retreated towards Metem-
neh ; but our square had to gain the ridge before escaping from their sharp-
shooters' fire, or getting a chance of punishing the darinj,' foe. Without further
opposition, the British advanced to the river, and encamped for the night."

TUO LATC. 115

CHAPTER XXVIll.

TOO LATE.

You know well enough, my reader, that we have now reached the catas-
trophe of the whole play. You know how tragically it ends. How a sombre
curtain falls on a gloomy scene — a hero dead, a city lost, an army powerless,
a country in tearo. A year ago that hero left his country to gave another ;
and from that date to this he has thought of naught else. Many have died
for their country, many for their creed, many for their friends ; but few alone
unaided, single-handed, for friends united to them hy no lies but such as
bind a weak and trusting nation to a strong and worthy heart. "Greater
love," said the most loving Man that ever the world saw, '*hath no man than
this : that a man should lay down his life for his friends." Let us be glad
that we have on this earth those who can reach this divine ideal.

Not without dimly-shaped fears did England see her great pro-consul
venture forth alone to quiet an unruly nation. From then till now un-
ceasingly the clouds gathered thick around him. At no time did the sky
seem altogether bright. And now the thunders that muttered on the horizon
remorsely crash over his head. — It needs not to spin out the tale.

General Gordon cannot communicate with Wolseley, so Wolseley will
communicate with General Gordon. Everything is prepared : there are troops
at Korti, there are troops at Gakdul, there are steamers at Metemneh. These
last shall go up the river and greet him — greet him in the name of England's
army which has at last reached him.

What a thrill of pleasure must have gone through the ranks when the
orders are issued. They are actually there ; they will see him ; shake hands
with him ; glory over him ; rescue him. What mattered the hardships of the
journey now : the worn-out limbs, the burning thirst, the painful wounds ?
They scorned them before ; they jest at them now. Besides, has not the great
general they are about to save gone through the same 1 Yes ; and ten times
more. And what a man to save. — The fate of twelve million people hang on
his words. All Europe — nay, Asi* and the chief part of Africa, are guided
by hi-t acts.

To return. Let us trace, step by step, the course of this little expedition.

At eight o'clock on the morning of January the 24th of the present year,
two steamers, the Bordein and the Tall-Haweiya left Metemneh for Khar-

116 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

toum, having on board General Sir Charles Wilson, Major Gascoine, Captain
Trafford, Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley, and detachmentB of the Sussex Regi-
ment. Three hours later, at eleven o'clock, they received a word of en-
couragement. Stopping at the villnge of Gandatu a powerful Sheikh of the
name of Hussein sends a niexsenger on board to say that his tribe, the
Shagiyeh, would join the English when their power was established, remark-
ing also that the British troops were held in much dread, and that their
victories had produced a great effect. That night the steamers stopped at
Bewena. On the following day they pushed on , not without a brisk fire from
the enemy. Indeed, this soon became so hot that it was determined to travel
by night.

It was a strange little expedition this, and a notable one. Two little
steamers, manned by a small number of men, linking the great army that had
come from England to the great general that army came to save. Well might
they be proud of their post. And they were. It was no trivial duty, this
allotted to them, and bravely did they undertake it. All along the banks at
short intervals were the enemy and the enemy's guns, and as the two vessels
steamed past them a deadly fire from cannon and rifle sought to stay their
progress. Even in the darkness of night, a^ was echoed the noise of the
passing vessels, the enemy could be heurd calling to arms, and the dark and
dimly seen banks were lit up with the flare of hostile torches and the flash of
discharging musket r}'.

Now they near the invested city — the prison of their comrade, the object
of all their hopes, and all their fears. At once a fierce fire breaks out upon
them from every side. Shells burst on the very decks ; bullets fly over them
and around them till it seems scarcely possible that even now they can reach
the goal.

On the morning of the 28th Khartoum is sighted, but here the enemy
crowd thick. A battery of four Krupp guns opens upon them from Halfiyeh ;
then the battery from the island of Tuti ; then the guns from Omdurman ;
finally even the Krupps in the city itself pour upon them a great hail of iron.
Smoke and flashes of fire line the banks beside them, the banks before them.
Seven thousand rifles and sixteen cannon are doing their utmost to annihilate
them. Will there be aught left of this relieving band to perform the work
for which they set out ?

The thought comes over them : is it thus our general has been attacked
all along 1 Do those at home image to themselves this infuriate crowd of
savages gathered round this one man, all bent on taking his life? Avilling, nay
glad, to lose their own, so that their hated foe shall not escape. And this is
what the great Gordon Las been fighting against ! This is the warfare he has
kept up, month after month, so quietly mentioned in those simply-written,

TOO LATE. ' 117

■elf-forgetful despatches of his ! He shall bo saved, come what may. But
those guns from the city are ominous, ominous.

Undaunted, through the din, calmly they press on. But it is hard work.
The water is shallow and the course difKcult. At noon Tuti is reached. A
frightful fusilade ensues, and is kept up for four hours. Many shells bunt
on board, and many are wounded. Still they keep on ; push their way to
Khartoum itself ; come within six hundred feet of the city ; and see clear
into its very streets.

What do they see ? It can be told in a few words. The guns still blazing
at them from the heights ; the streets one mass of howling savages, exultingly
shouting defiance at the two little steamers peering at them from the water ;
on every side signs of vie' jrious hostility ; hatred open and blatant ; rage run
riot ; the Palace gutted ; the flag-staff flying the Mahdi's flag ; and — General
Gordon ? — what of him ? — who knows ? Who can tell ? No one. The one
man in that city they came to see ; the man whom ten thousand fighting men
came three thousand miles to save ; the man England is waiting daily to
welcome back — is not there. Disappointment unutterable. Success at
the moment of achievement turned into bitterest disaster. All these long
months of pain and toil utterly thrown away. The object of their search
irretrievably lost. The bravest of brave warriors gone.

Now truly did their hearts sink within them. Dangers they can face ;
difficulties they can overcome ; but to ba the bearers of this so sad news ; to
return having accomplished nothing ; to be the first to tell England her all
was lost ; — this was terrible.

Yet there was naught else to do. To land and oppose those shrieking
hordes ; to hew their way through these exulting foes ; to wreak vengeance in
their blood ; — this were tempting. But duty demands that they shall calmly
retreat and report to the relieving force the fate of the man for whom they
sought.

So it is done. The boats are turned northwards, and the journey back
is commenced.

118

TUK WAR IN TUE SOUDA.f.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE JOURNEY BACK.

Thb hero of the war in the Soudan is dead. We need not now dwell on
the comparatively unimportant after-events.

The two steamers fared ill on their way back. The firing xaa vigorously
kept up against them, and they had hard work slipping past the guns which
lined the banks. On the 25)th one steamer went aground sixty miles above
Gubat. The remaining stea)ner, havirg rescued the crew, kept on its solitary
way. But only for anothei* twenty miles. Then it too struck a rock and
sank in deep water. All ihe guns, stores, and ammunition of both steamers
were lost. Sir Charles Wilson escaped with the membeis of his party and
the crew from the wreck of his steamer in a small nuggar to the island, where
they entrenched themselves. At three in the morning of the 0th of February
the troops at Gubat were thrown into a state of intense excitement by the
appearance of a small row-boat coming down the Nile. It contained
Lieutenant Stuart- Wortley, with two men (another report says with three
English soldiers an-l natives from Khartoum), who had rowed forty miles
down stream— a most perilous venture — fortunately, they were not molested.
The camp was horror-stncken. No tongue or pen can adequately describe,
says the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, the effect produced in all hearts
by the fatal announcement. It was so little expected that the men had been
comforting themselves with the prospect of being able to relieve the long
beleaguered city, and cheer its heroic defender within a few weeks at latest.
The news fell like a thunderbi It in our camp, and has saddened and depressed
the stoutest hearts. Eager inquiries were made on all sides about Gordon,
but it could only be replied that the steamers could not get close enough in
shore to ascertain anything positively.

At two o'clock Lord Charles Beresford left on a steamer flying the British
ensign to rescue Sir Charles Wilson and Im party on the island. He took
with him twenty picked marksmen of the Royal Rifles attached to the
Mounted Infantry. The Mahdi's irregular followers were gathering round
that point, and this the third relief expedition it almost seemed was to share
the fate of its predecessors. But not quite. Still it was a daring exploit and
the dangers were great. The gauntlet had to be run between crowds of
rebels, and under a heavy fire. One steamer was shot through the boiler and

THE JOURNKY BACK. IIU

disabled for huun. Finally, however, buccom shone on them and both
rescuing parties returned in safety.

MeanwhiJe autiientic news of Gordon's death was received.

At early morning on the *27th of January, Farag Pasha, a black slave
whom Gordon had freed and advanced, and who had been implicitly trusted
throughout, opened the gates in the southern wall to the enemy. The bulk
of the Mahdi's fighting men were close at hand and at once rushed into the
town. General Gordon, hearing the C( nfusion, seized a sword in one hand
and an axe in the other, and hurried to the scene. Ho was accompanied by
Ibrahim Bey, the chief clerk, and twenty men. On his way to the Austrian
consulate he met a party of the Mahdi's men. These tired a volley, and
General Gordon fell dead. The Arabs then rushed on with their spears,
killed the chief clerk and nine of the men ; the re8t escaped. One consul
(Nicola) was made prisoner ; all the rest of the Europeans were kiileii, also
most of the notabley. The majority of the inhabitants fraternized with the
enemy.

In the words of Schiller: "So died a hero, right worthy to be wtr-
•hipped."

120

THE WAU IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XXX.

WHAT NOW?

The protagonist dead, little interest attaches to the fate of the deuter*
agonist : General Gordon no more, the public cares not much what is left to
his would-be rescuers to do. At first indeed was raised a great hue and cry.
The Mahdi, every one cried out, must be " smashed," and Gordon avenged ;
and for a time all read eagerly of what was being done in Egypt and the Sou-
dan. We need not here, however, linger over the details of this phase of the
war. Sufiice it to say that new problems sprang up, and the news of what
England was doing in Egypt varied from day to day.

The fighting around Suakim and against Osraan's hordes now became
more fierce, one battle in particular, when, because of the omission to advance
with scouts, the enemy dashed unawares upon the troops and many of our
soldiers' lives were sacrificed, creating a large amount of notice not unmixed
with severe criticism. The Suakim-Berber railway, too, was vigorously
pushed forward, and as late as the middle of April large sums were voted for
the railway lines to be built along the banks of the Nile.

Soon, however, Russia's advance towards Herat absorbed all attention,
and the Soudan problem was for the time left unsolved.

In this state it now exists ; and it mxist be left to a future edition to
complete the story of The War in the Soudan and the Causes which
L>:d id II.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ' 121

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

GENERAL GORDON.

It will be unnecessary here t© sketch at length the life of the soldier,
statesman, and hero around whom has centred the chief interest of the war
in the Soudan, and of whom the world has long ere this computed the worth.
It is the peculiar property of the warrior to be early appreciated. His
deeds are patent to all, and their results are in general so soon accomplished
that they become rapidly universally perceived and commented on. Gordon
is no exception to this. During his lifetime he was everywhere known, and
after his death probably not a paper in the civilized world did not frequently
contain his name. And, perhaps, of all the characters of history, not one has
been entitled to so much praise and so little blame.

Major-General Charles George Gordon was born on the 28th of January,
1833, at Woolwich, in tne very cradle of that branch of the service in which
he was destined to pass a career of more than usual distinction, even if his
own proper career as an English officer be alone taken into consideration.
He was the fourth son of an artillery officer, Henry William Gordon, who
attained the rank of Lieutenant-General. He was educated at different pri-
vate schools, havinj^ as his companion and mentor at one of these in Somer-
setshire his elder brother, the late Major-General Emlerby Gordon, but when
he was little more 16 he was entered at the Royal Military Academy at Wool-
wich. He passed his examinations successfully, and obtained the much-
coveted distinction of a Commission in the Royal Engineers. Hij first station
in 1854 was at Pembroke Dock. At the end of 1854 he was ordered to pro-
ceed with some huts to the Crimea. On his arrival in January, 1855, he was
at once placed under the officer in command of a portion of the trenches, and
during the remaining nine montlis of the siege he took a prominent part in
the engineering operations in front of the Russian stronghold. At the close
of the Crimean War, General (then Captain) Gordon was employed in Bessar-
abia, Armenia, the Caucasus, and lastly China. On the outbreak of the
Taeping rebellion he was appointed to the command of the foreign drilled
force, to which the Chinese authorities mainly trusted to bring the rebels
into subjection, and was given the brevet rank of Major. This force had
been styled the "over-victorious army," and Gordon soon vindicated its
claim to this high-sounding title. He had to organize the simplest details in
person. He was always the first man in attacks. It was he who showed the
way to victory as well as how to prepare for it ; but he never cjirried any
weapon save a small cane, which the Chinese soon regarded with almost
superstitious reveronco, and named his "wand of victory." The successful
termination of the long struggle which had brought such misery upon China
and her people was generally and rightly attributed to the young officer, wlio
refused to profit in any worldly sense by his remarkable achievement. He
accepted a few unmeaning honours at the hands of the Chinese Government,
eager to express its gratitude, but he refused all offers of a more solid charac-
ter. He also took every measure in his power to avoid the ovation with
which his countrymen were prepared to welcome him on his return ; but his

122

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

modesty could not stifle the general admiration felt towards liim for what he
had accomplished, nor prevent his receiving the name by which he will per-
haps be best remembered among his contemporaries, of f^inese Gordon.

The Taeping rebellion crushed, he returned to England, and was appointed
to a post at Gravesend. Many anecdotes have been preserved of his life here
during six years to show that he devoted himself with the same thoroughness

Gcnef&l Qofdo/i

to the question of dealing with the impoverished classes of the London out-
skirts as he had done to the suppression of the rebellion among the Taepings,
In 1871 Colonel Gordon was appointed British Consul at Galatz, in which
corner of Europe he remained buried from public view i'or three years, until
he volunteered at the end of 1873 his services for any work in Egypt. At that
moment Sir Samuel Baker had just resigned his command under the Khedive,

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

123

and Colonel Gordon was appointed in his place, at first as Governor of the
the tribes on the Upper Nile, and later on with the higher title of Governor-
General of th'3 Soudan. From the beginning of 1874 until 1&79 he governed
the vast region of the Blacks with satisfaction to the Cairo administration,
which was exti-emely hard to please, and with credit to himself. He gained
at the same time a high reputation among the people by his justice and
courage. He had that great merit in the eyes of an Eastern people of being
always accessible ; and he inspired his soldiers with something of his own in-
exhaustible ardour and confidence. His rule in the Soudan was glorious to
himself, satisfactory even to the Khedive, and gratifying to Englishmen as a
practical demonstration of the qualities which they must wish to see moat
common among their countrymen.

On his return from the Soudan he accepted the post of private secretary
to Lord Ripon, Governor-General of India, but resigned it a few months later.
From India he went to China in response to a summons from his former colleague
Li Hung Chang, and he is credited with having inspired the Chinese with peace-
ful views at the most critical period of one of their disputes with Russia. He
returned to England, and soon afterwards commanded the Engineers in the
Mauritius for a year. He then visited South Africa and Palestine. Return-
ing to England in De'cember, 1883, it became known that he had accepted a
command from the King of the Belgians to proceed to the Congo. How that
plan was suddenly changed and how the remainder of his life was spent till
his death on January 27th, 1885, has been already told.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HERBERT STEWART, K.C.B.

Major-General Sir Herbert Stewart, K.C.B. , was born on June 30,
1843, the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Stewart, rector of Sparsholt, Hamp-
shire, and was a great-grandson of the seventh Earl of Galloway. His mother
was daughter of the late Charles John Herbert, of Muckross, county Kerry.
He was educated at Winchester College, and entered the Army as ensign in the
37th Regiment (now the Hampshire) in 1863. It is not generally known that
Stewart was at one time intended for the Bar, that he kept all his terms and
ate all his dinners, but in the end abandoned that life for a military career.
He was gazetted Lieutenant in 1865 ai«i Captain in 1868. For two years
from this time he acted as Aide-de-Camp to the Major-General Commanding
the Bengal Presidency, and the year following as Deputy- Assistant Quarter-
master-General in Bengal. In 1873 he joined the 3rd Dragoon Guards, on
the lists of which regiment his name now stands as Major. In 1878 he passed
the Staff College and served as Brigade Major in the Zulu War of 1879, and
was present at the aftair of Erzungayan. He was specially employed on the
lines of communication after the breaking up of the Cavalry Brigade, and for
his services here lie was mentioned in Colonel Russell's report with brevet
rank as Major, which rank he gained substantively in 1882. He served as
principal Staff officer to the Transvaal field force in the operations against
Secocoeni, and as Military Secretary and Chief of the Staflf to Sir Garnet
Wolseley, and in this capacity he gained further mention in despatches and
his brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, together with a medal and clasp. In 1881
he went to South Africa on special service, and was Assistant Adjutant and
Quartermaster General in the Boer war, for which he was again mentioned.
In the early part of 1882 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, and later in the year he again saw active service as Deputy-
Assistant Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General for the cavalry division

124

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

in the operations in Egypt. Here he was present at all the minor engage-
ments of that campaign, as well as at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir and the cap-
ture of Cairo. For these services he was mentioned in despatches, appointed
Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, made a Companion of the Bath, gained a medal

I kv'

GENERAL STEWART,

with clasp, and was decorated with the Third Class of the Osmanieh and the
Khedive's Star. In the same year he gained the rank of Colonel. Last year,
again, he served in Egypt. Under Sir Gerald Graham he commanded the
Cavaljy Brigade, and was present at the battles of El Teb and Tamai, for

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCUKS.

125

which he was promoted to the rank of K.C.B. and gained additional distinc-
tions.

When General Stewart started across the desert for Metemneh Lord
Wolseley regarded the temporary deprivation of his services as a national loss.
General Stewart, he said, was one of the ablest soldiers and most dashing
commanders he had ever known. Lord Wolseley recommended him to the
Queen's most favourable consideration, and not in vain ; the Queen promoted
him at once to the rank of Major-General, the youngt'st of that rank in the
British Army. While engaged in a severe fight near Metemneh on January
19 he was so badly wounded that he was at once incapacitated, and the com-
mand devolved on Sir Charles Wilson, and afterwards on Sir Redvers Buller,
After the arrival of the column at Gubat he was placed on board a steamer
for a time, and was carried in safety to Gakdul. On February the 19th he
succumbed to the fever induced bv his wound.

CAPTAIN LORD CHAS. BERESFORD.

Captain Lord Charles Beresfohd belongs to a fighting race. He wears
upon his left breast two medals. While a midshipman, on two occasions he
sprang overboard and saved life. On one occasion his own life was very nearly
•acrificed — he, as well as the seaman he saved, being insensible when rescued.

126

TUE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

For each of these acts the Royal Humane Society of Great Britain voted him
a medal. He was the commander of the Thunderer when she blew up, bub
fortunately at that time was enjoying a leave of absence. After that he com-
manded the Queen's yacht Osborne for a time, but finding that there was
fighting possible in Egypt, at once obtained an appointment there. Lord
Charles is well known in the clubs in Dublin and London as a noted athlete,
being one of the finest boxers that ever put on the jjloves.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR GERALD GRAHAM, V.C, K.C.B.

Major-Geneeal Sir Gerald Graham, who was appointed to the com-
mand of the Suakim-Berber expedition, joined the army in June, 1850, as
second lieutenant of Royal Engineers. He became cai^tain in October, 1858,
Major in the following year, and in October, 1881, was created Major-General.
Some eighteen years ago General Graham was a resident of Montreal. He
was then a lieutenant-colonel and district commanding engineer, under Colonel

BIOQRAPUICAL SKETCHES.

127

Forde, R.E , and was very popular, not only in military circles, whera from
Ilia immense size and strength he bore the sobriquet of " Long Tom."

At Sebastopol he was twice severely wounded. In the assault of the
Redan he bravely led a ladder party, a most daring duty, and for his heroism
in bringing in wounded on several occasions under a terrific fire he was
awarded the Victoria Cross. He was also engaged in the battles of Alma and
Inkerman, and in 18G0 went to China, where he took part in numerous engage-
ments, being present at the assault of Tangku and the Taku forts. He was
also present at the surrender of Pekin and in this war was wounded by a
jingal ball. In the summer of 1882 he was appointed to the command of the
second brigade in the British expedition to Egypt, and was actively engaged
in the preliminary movements of the camnaiga against Arabi Pasha, and took
a prominent part in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

MAJOPv-GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER, V.O.

AIajor-General Sir Redvers Bull , V.C, Lord Wolseley's Chief of
Staft', has seen much honourable service be. >re the present campaign. He was
gazetted 2nd lieutenant in 1868, lieutenant in 18(52, captain in 1870, major in
1874, lieutenant-colonel in 1878, and colonel in 1879. He is also aide-de camp
to the Queen^ and D. A. & Q. M. General of South Africa, with the rank of

128 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

major-pjeneral. He was one of General Wolseley's companions-in-arms in the
Red River Expedition, and also accompanied him to Ashantee. He fought
valiantly in the Zulu War when Lord Chehnsford came to grief, and materially
aided Lord Wolseley in the last Egyptian campaign, taking a prominent part in
the battles of El Teb and Tamai. Of the General, Mr. Archibald Forbes
Bays : " Redvers BuUer has seen more war than any of our soldiers who are
not yet veterans. The Red River Expedition was not war but it had its
merits as a preparatory lesson. He accompanied Wolseley to Ashantee, and
soon took his place there as a man who might be trusted to organize, to lead,
and to tight. In South Africa his name was bracketed with Sir Evelyn Wood.
Men who were in the field with hira in the Zulu campaign will not soon forget
what dominance he swayed, what a power he wielded both of restraint and of
encouragement over the wild, mixed, irregular horsemen with "whom he did
service, so constant, so active, and so enterprising. They recognized in him,
with his taciturnity, varied by a rare sudden flash of speech that stirred men's
blood — in the subtle something that made his men love him while they feared
him, a born leader of men."

General Buller obtained the Victoria Cross for his gallant conduct at the
retreat at Inhlobana, on the 28th March, 1879, in having assisted, whilst
hotly pursued by Zulus, in rescuing Capt. C. D'Arcy, of the Frontier Light
Horse, who was retiring on foot, and carrying him on his horse until he over-
took the rear guard ; also for having, on the same date and under the same
circumstances, conveyed Lieut. C. Everitt, of the Frontier Light Horse, whose
horse had been killed under him, to a place of safety.

GENERAL WOLSELEY.

The life of Lord Wolseley is too well known to need any lengthened
account.

Lieutenant-General Garnet Joseph Wolseley, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., LL.D. .
D.C.L., is a son of Major G. J. Wolseley, and was br)rn in 1833. He entered
the army as Ensign in the 12th Foot at the age of 19. His first service was
in the Burmese War ; after this in the Crimea, where he was severely
wounded, and frequently mentioned in despatches. He next served in the
Indian campaigns of 1857-59, ngain being brought before the notice of the
authorities at home. The mutiny over, he next saw active service in China.
Ten years later he conducted the Red River Expedition, for the success of
which he was created Knight of St. Michael and St. George. His next
achievements were in the Ashantee War, for which he was puolicly thanked
by the Houses of Parliament, and was nominated a G.C.M.G., and K.C.B.
For the following years he administered the Government of Natal, and after-
wards was appoin ed High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief of the
island of Cyprus. In June, 1879, Lord Wolseley was sent to South Africa
again as Governor and High Commissioner of Natal and the Transvaal, to
re-organize the affairs of Zululand, and conducted the cperations against Seco-
coeni, whose stronghold he destroyed. Returning in 1880, he was appointed
Quartermaster-General at headquarters, and afterwards became Adjutant-
General. His brilliant achievements against Arabi Pasha — for which he was
raised to the peerage, and his subsequent leadership of the "relief expedi-
tion," has been given in detail in the-ne pages.

The above brief account of Lord Wolseley's career will show that he is a
general of no little experience in the art of war. He has fought in Burmah,
in Rus'^ia, in India, in China, in Canada, on the west coast of Africa, in the
Bouth of that continent, and in Egypt ; and everywhere, we may say, with

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

129

success. He has filled the important posts of Quartermaster-General and
Adjutant-General of the army. He has studied the theory of militaiy organi-
zation, and has not left out of view the practical details of a soldier's life in
peace and war. He has attempted bold strategies, and has succeeded. Has
led armies through countries utterly unknown before to British troops, and
has led them not only without extraordinary loss and hardship, but with ease
and comparative safety. This exjjerience, gained in a thoroughly active mili-
tary life of many years, he has used to excellent advantage in the Soudan war.

QENF.HAL WOLSELET.

Whatever view we may take of his choice of routes by which to reach
Khartoum we must allow that he has undertaken the expedition which
travelled along that difficult and circuitous river, the Nile, not only with
skill but with a forethought and with an attention to details that are more
than admirable.

Lord Wolseley places implicit confidence in the officers and men under
his command, and these return the feeling with interest. He possesses in a
high degree the quality of evoking obedience linked with the assurance of
success, and than such combination perhaps few are more advantageous to a
General commanding an army in the field.

130

TilK WAR IN TUB SOUDAN.

SIR CHARLES WILSON, C.B., K.C.M.G.

This distinguished Colonel of the Royal Eogineers, who took the com-
mand as senior officer of the advanced force of the Khartoum Expedition when
General Sir Herbert Stewart was wounded, and who afterwards went up in a
steamboat to Khartoum, has seen much staff service, and his previous experience
had specially qualified him for the duty in which he has just been engaged.
As a subaltern, he acted as secretary to Sir J. Hawkins in the delimitation of
the boundary between British North America and the United States territory,!
and served for several years on the Ordnance Survey in Ireland and Scotland.
From 1869 to 1876 he acted as Assistant Quartermaster-General on the In-
telligence Branch of the Head-quarters' Staff. In 1879 he was employed
under the Foreign Office in Turkey and Asia Minor, and later on, while
officiating as Consul-General of Anatolia was ordered to Egypt for special duty,
gaining the medal with clasp and bronze star, for his services in the Egyptian

DIOGRAPUICAL SKETCHES.

131

campaign of 1882. During tlie preBuut campaign, he has aetuil as head of the
Intelligence Department with the expeditionary force, and wiis acting in this
capacity with the Staff of Brigadier-General Sir Herbert Stewart in tlio advanie
from Korti to Metemnoh, Ho was in temporary command of the troops at
Gubat, until the arrival of Major-General Sir Redvers Buller. Sir Charles
William Wilson was born in 1830, being a scm of thu late Mr. Edward Wilson ;
he was educated at Cheltenham, and entered the Royal Engineers, in which
he became Lieutenant in 1855, Captain in 1864, Major in 1873, and Brevet
Lieutenant-Colonel in 1879. He was created a Knight of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George in 1881. having been made a Companion of the Hath
in 1877 for civil services. Ho rendered valuable servicos to the Palestine
Exploration Committee from 1864 to 1868, in the earlier topographical surveys
of the Holy Land and adjacent countries, and in editing their reports for
publication. ,

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL FREDERICK C. DENISON.

Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick C. Denison was born at Rusholme,
Toronto, on the 22nd November, 184(>. He is the second son of the late
Colonel George T. Denison, of Rusholme, and grandson of the late Colonel
George T. Denison, of Bellevue, Toronto, his great-grundl'ather. Captain John
Denison of the 2nd West York hegiment, in England, came to Canada in
1792, and settled in Toronto in 1796,

Lieut. -Colonel F. C. Denison, who commands the Canadian contingent
of boatmen in the Nile Expedition, is Captain of tiie "A" tro<-p of the Gov-
ernor-General'H Body Guard. He was educated at the Upper Canada College.
He studied law in the office of his brother, Lieut, -Colonel George T. Denison,
Police Magistrate.

His first commission in the Canadian Militia was as Lieutenant in the
Administrative Battalion, which was placed on active service on the Niagara
Frontier in 1866 to preserve the neutrality during the closing scenes of the
American civi) war. He served there for four months. On the 25th August,
1865, he was gazetted Cornet in' the Governor-General's Body Guard, and in
the September following he attended the camp of instruction at La Prairie,
where he served for the first time under Lord Wolseley. In the Fenian Raid
of 1866 Cornet Denison was with the Body Guard in Colonel Peacock's column
on the march from New Germany to Fort Erie, and on the morning of the
3rd June was with his corps, when being sent on to reconnoitre, they entered
and took possession of the place. In the month of August, 1866, a second
raid wad threatened and the Body Guard was again ordered to the frontier to
form a chain of posts along the Niagara River to cover a camp of observation
which was formed at Thorold under the command of Colonel Wolseley.
During this period Cornet Denison was continually used by Colonel Wolseley
as an aide-de-camp in the reviews and field days which often took place. In
August, 1868, '^Jornet Denison was gazetted Lieutenant, and when the Red
River Expedit on ,vas organized by Colonel Wolseley, he appointed Lieutenant
Denison as his aide-de-camp. In this expedition he was several times em-
ployed by Colonel Wolseley to do special services of a difficult and arduous
character. On arriving near Fort Garry Lieutenant Denison was sent on
alone by Colonel Wolseley to reconnoitre, and rode into the gate of the Fort as
Riel's followeis were running out, being the first man in Fort Garry, as he
and his two brother officers of the Body Guard were the first in Fort Erie.

132

THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

Colonel Wolseley mentioned him in his despatches as a " most promising and
sealous soldier." He wa» gazetted Captain in 187'i, Brevet Major in 1870,
and Brevet Lieut .-Colonel, Oth September, 1884, and on the occasion of the
Imperial authorities requiring a contingent of Canadian boatmen, the com-
maod was offered to Colonel Denison, wlio at onco obeyed the call of his old

UEl/T.-COL. K. C. UENiaON.

Chief. When the greater proportion of the Canadians came honfie, Lieut. -
Colonel Denison and some eighty voyagcurs and three officers remained, and
General Brackenbury, on the conclusion of his movements, issued a general
order thanking Colonel Denison and the Canadians for their cournge and
energy in sharing the trials and dangers of the campaign. Lieut. -Colonel
Denison was for several years alderman for St. Stephen's Ward, Toronto,
and twice Chairman of the Executive Committee, which positions he resigned
on leaving for the Soudan.

BIOOHAPHICAL SKETCHES.

133

OLIVIER PAIK

Pain's career has been one of extraordinary adventure. During the
Commune he was made Secrotjiry -General for Foreign Affairs, and escaped
with Rochefort, whose acquaintance he first made when the latter was in
prison under the Empire. During the Russo-Turkish war Pain joined Osman
Pasha, and fought against Russia. He was captured by the Roumanians, and
cast into a Russian prison, whence he was liberated through the intervention
of the Swiss Government, which was influenced by his friend Rochefort.
Pain was stated to be a Swiss and a journalist, and thus the Emperor Alex-
ander II. was constrained to give the ex-Communist his liberty. After the
amnesty Pain returned to Paris, and left for the Soudan and joined the
Mahdi.

134

THE WAR IN THE SOUlwVN,

COLONEL FREDERICK BURNABY.

Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burn.aby, or, aa he is best known,
*' Fred" Burnaby, was by no means the least of those who made for them-
selves a name in the Soudan war. He was born at Bedford in 1842, and was
educated at Harrow. His chief achievements here were his excellence in all
athletics, his mastery f)f French, and his ability to fight. From Harrow, too,
he wrote for Punch on th.; subject of fagging. At seventeen he was gazetted
Cornet in the Royal Hrr, f^ Guards (Blue). At twenty-two he made his first
balloon trip. Li 18G8 he travelled through France, Spain, Russia and Turkey.
After this he was Gordon"' companion in the Soudan, and it was here that he
made up his mind to make his celebrated journey to Khiva After accom-
plishing this, he visited iiaia Minor. In 1878 he was returned member for
jBirmingham, and, strange to say, attacked Radicalism vigorously. In 1882

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

135

he accomplished the feat of croBsing the channel in a balloon alone. On the
out-break of the Soudan war he joined Baker Pasha, and later on was severely
wounded at El Teb. After this, failing to obtain an appointment which
would bring him into active service with General Wolseley, he left for Africa,
but the next that was heard of him was that he was at Korti, doing excellent
service for the relief expedition. How his career was brought to an end at
the battle of Abu Klea has been uarrated.

MAJOR-GENERAL EARLE, C.C.

General Earle was born May 18, 1833. He, like Burnaby, was
educated at Harrow. His first services were in the Crimea, and afterwards
served in India and in Canada. In 1882 he was appointed Brigadier- General
to the expeditionary forces sent to Egypt. On the commencement of the
Soudan war, General Earle was at first designated for the supreme command,
Lord Wolseley, however, being ultimately chosen. He was killed on the 10th
of February in a successful engagement of tiie force which he led at Kerbekan,
near Dulka Island, on the Nile, seventy-five miles ab )ve Merawi.

Em
O

I— I
Q

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

137

THE MUDIR OF DONGOLA.

The devout Mudir of Dor.^ola, whose name has so often been heard in
connexion with the Soudan war, deserves a short notice. This oriental old
gentleir.an is a peculiar character. When not in uniform, he dons the dress
of a dervish, and is indeed a dervish of the most fanatical description. His
faithfulness to the Khedive has frequently been mistrusted, but his attacks
against the rebels, and his vigorous repudiation of the divine mission of the
Madhi, has at last convinced the British public that he is in truth their ally.
For his services he has been decorated with the entignia of the Order of St,
Michael and St. George.

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