Part 39 (1/2)
”_Khartoum, 4th November, 1884._
”Post came in yesterday from Debbeh, Kitchener, dated 14th October, cypher letter from Lord Wolseley, 20th September last, which I cannot decipher, for Colonel Stewart took the cypher with him. No other communications have been received here since 31st, letter which arrived a week after Stewart's steamer left this.
”At Metammeh, waiting your orders, are five steamers with nine guns. We can hold out forty days with ease; after that it will be difficult. Terrible about loss of steamer. I sent Stewart, Power, and Herbin down, telling them to give you all information. With Stewart was the journal of all events from 1st March to the 10th September. The steamer carried a gun and had a good force on board.
”Since 10th March we have had up to date, exclusive of Kitchener's 14th October, only two despatches; one, Dongola, with no date; one from Souakim, 5th May; one of same import, 27th April. I have sent out a crowd of messengers in all directions during eight months. I should take the road from Ambukol to Metammeh, where my steamers wait for you. Leontides, Greek Consul-General, Hanswell, Austrian Consul, all right.
Stewart, Power, and Herbin went down in the _Abbas_. Your expedition is for relief of garrison, which I failed to accomplish. I decline to agree that it is for me personally.
You may not know what has pa.s.sed here. The Arabs camped outside Khartoum on the 12th March; we attacked them on the 16th March, got defeated and lost heavily, also a gun. We then from that date had continual skirmishes with Arabs.
”The soldiers are only half a-month in arrears. We issue paper money, and also all the cloth in magazines. All the captives with the Mahdi are well. The nuns, to avoid an Arab marriage, are ostensibly married to Greeks. Slatin is with Mahdi, and has all his property, and is well treated; but I hear to-day he is in chains.
”A mysterious Frenchman[105] is with Mahdi, who came from Dongola. We have got a decoration made and distributed, with a grenade in the centre; three cla.s.ses--gold, silver, pewter.
Kitchener says he has sent letters and got none in reply. I have sent out during last month at least ten. Steamer with this leaves to-morrow for Metammeh. Do not let any Egyptian soldiers come up here; take command of steamers direct, and turn out Egyptian fellaheen. If capture of steamer with Stewart is corroborated, tell French Consul-General that Mahdi has the cypher he gave Herbin. Ha.s.sen Effendi, telegraph clerk, was with Stewart. You should send a party to the place to investigate affairs and take the steamer.”
On the 15th November, Lord Hartington telegraphed to Lord Wolseley to know how the information in Gordon's letter affected his plans. In reply, his Lords.h.i.+p, who had gone back to Wady Halfa, to hurry forward the expedition, stated that Gordon's letter made no change in his plans, but that it seemed to indicate the almost impossibility of Gordon's relief without fighting, adding that he, Wolseley, had sent Gordon the following message:--”Wady Halfa, November 17, 1884. Yours of 4th inst.
received 17th; the first I have had from you. I shall be at Kasr Dongola in four days.”
A few days later an Arab merchant who arrived at Dongola from Khartoum _via_ Shendy and Ambukol, and who had come by the desert route, stated that both water and fodder were plentiful. This news was confirmed by a messenger who returned to Dongola from Khartoum on the 19th November.
On the 28th a messenger sent by Gordon arrived at Dongola with a letter addressed to the Khedive, Nubar Pasha, and Baring, in cypher, and dated as far back as the 9th September. The letter began:--
”There is money and provisions in Khartoum for four months, after which we shall be embarra.s.sed.”
A telegram from Gordon to Sir E. Baring and Nubar Pasha, undated, but received 29th November, gave the following details:--
”Seeing now that the Nile is high, and steamers can go as far as Berber, I have formed an expedition of 2,000 men of the Khartoum garrison, which will proceed by steamers in order to rescue the Mudirieh of Berber from the hands of the rebels. After its recovery this force will remain at Berber with food for two months only, and if in that time the relieving army does not reach Berber in order to reinforce it, the Nile will have fallen and the islands will be dry, and the same result will ensue as before. Therefore it is to be hoped that the necessary troops will be sent to seize the Ghesireh of Berber while the Nile is high; and Stewart is going down in the small steamer, the _Abbas_, to proceed to Dongola by way of Berber, in order to communicate (with you) on the Soudan question.”
On the 29th November a messenger who had been despatched with a letter to Gordon, but had been taken prisoner not far from Khartoum, and had subsequently made his escape, came into camp. He reported that the Mahdi's troops were suffering from disease, food was very dear, the Arabs were deserting, but the Kordofan men were faithful to him; that Gordon sent to the Mahdi, inviting him, if he were the real Mahdi, to dry up the Nile and cross over; that five hundred regulars recently went over to Gordon; that the regulars still with the Mahdi were discontented; that on the 14th he saw an attack made on Khartoum between the Blue and White Niles; that it was repulsed, and the Mahdi, who was looking on, was very angry because it had been made without his orders.
Aware that time was of paramount importance, Wolseley, in order to stimulate his men to exertion, offered a prize of 100 to the battalion which should make the quickest pa.s.sage from Sarras to Debbeh, twenty miles further up the river, a measure which was much criticized by a portion of the British Press.[106]
Wolseley now gave orders for the formation of a small naval brigade, to be commanded by Lord Charles Beresford, his naval aide-de-camp.[107]
On the 23rd November, some cases of smallpox having occurred at Dongola, Sir Herbert Stewart started to select another camping-ground at Debbeh, a little further up the river.
All the remaining troops destined to take part in the expedition reached Wady Halfa by the end of November, with the exception of the 1st battalion of the Cameron Highlanders, which remained at Korosko.
The advance in force from Dongola commenced on the 2nd December, from which date the troops as they arrived were moved on beyond Debbeh to Ambukol, where a depot for supplies had been formed and placed in charge of Stewart. The head-quarters were established at the latter place on the 12th December. From Ambukol the force was moved a few miles further up the river to Korti, a much healthier spot.
Sir Herbert Stewart, with the Mounted Infantry and Guards' Camel Corps, reached Korti on the 15th December, after a march along the east bank of the Nile.
Wolseley's arrival at Korti on the 16th was followed by that of the South Staffords.h.i.+re Regiment. The last companies of the South Staffords.h.i.+re, with part of the Suss.e.x Regiment, reached the front on the 22nd, and they were speedily followed by other detachments. The Light Camel Corps, under Colonel M'Calmont, arrived on the 24th, after a twenty days' march from Wady Halfa, and at the same time the Heavy Camel Corps came up from Debbeh. General Buller, the Chief of the Staff, reached the front soon afterwards.
Of the Nile journey Wolseley reported to Lord Hartington, ”The English boats have up to this point fulfilled all my expectations. The men are in excellent health, fit for any trial of strength, as the result of constant manual labour.”
As a commentary on the above, it may be mentioned that nine out of sixteen boats which brought up some of the Duke of Cornwall's Regiment were lost, and the remainder, owing to the slightness of their build, had to be patched with tin to prevent their sinking--over fifty boats in all were lost. There can be no doubt as to the ”constant manual labour”