CHAPTER XXXIV

THE SOUDAN WAR (_Continued_)

XII. SEQUEL AND CONCLUSION

For the first few weeks after the return of the Desert Column to Korti,

we all believed that there would be an autumn campaign, and we looked

forward to the taking of Khartoum. Lord Wolseley distributed his

troops among various stations along the Nile from the Hannek Cataract

to Abu Dom, there to remain in summer quarters. In his dispatch of 6th

March, 1885 (Colville's _History of the Soudan Campaign_, Part II.),

Lord Wolseley indicated the force he would require, and requested that

the railway might be continued from Halfa to Ferkeh, a distance of 47

miles. The railway was begun and was eventually completed. By 1st

April the troops were occupying their allotted stations. One

distinguished officer was so certain of remaining in his quarters, that

he sowed vegetables in his garden. But upon 13th April Lord Wolseley

was ordered to consider the measures requisite to effect a total

withdrawal; and British faith was once more broken by a British

Government.

By that time Lord Wolseley, to whose personal staff I was once more

attached, had been to Dongola and had come to Cairo.

The news from home consisted chiefly of rumours of war with Russia; and

I was gratified to learn that largely in consequence of my

representations 50 machine guns had been sent to India. Machine guns

were then upon {332} their trial; and I had been consulted by the

authorities as to their precise utility. We also heard of the hearty

cordiality and enthusiasm with which the Prince and Princess of Wales

were being greeted in Ireland upon the occasion of their visit to my

country. There had been some misgivings upon the subject; and I had

had the honour to suggest to the Prince that if, as well as visiting

towns and cities in state, he went into the country among my people and

shot with them and hunted with them like the sportsman he was, he would

find no more loyal or delightful people in the Queen's dominions.

As a matter of fact, neither in the towns nor anywhere else in Ireland,

did the Prince and Princess receive aught but a most hearty welcome.

Nor did the Nationalist party even attempt to arouse a formal

demonstration directed against their visitors. They might have

suggested, but did not, that some such conventional protest was due to

the doctrine representing Ireland as a conquered country.

At the end of April Lord Wolseley and his staff including myself,

embarked in the s.s. _Queen_ for Souakim.

The Souakim expedition under the command of General Sir G. Graham was

then in full progress. On the 20th February he had been directed to

destroy the power of Osman Digna, and to guard the construction of the

Souakim-Berber railway. On the 20th March, Graham fought the

successful action of Hashin. On the 22nd was fought the bloody

engagement of McNeill's zeriba. The British were surprised while at

work upon the construction of the zeriba; the first shot was fired at

2.50 p.m., and the cease fire was sounded at 3.10. During that twenty

minutes of confused and desperate fighting, some 1500 Arabs out of an

attacking force of 5000 were killed. Desultory firing continued for an

hour, when the enemy retreated. According to the official history, the

British losses were 150 killed, 148 missing, 174 wounded, and 501

camels killed and missing.

The field of battle lay some six miles from Souakim; I {333} rode out

with Lord Wolseley to see it. Before we had ridden three miles in the

dust and the glare of sunlight, the hot air carried a dreadful waft of

corruption. The stench thickened as we drew near. A dusky cloud of

kites and vultures hovered sluggishly and unafraid among a wilderness

of discoloured mounds. The sand was heaped so scantily upon the dead,

that lipless skulls, and mutilated shanks, and clenched hands, were

dreadfully displayed. The bodies of the camels were mingled in a pile

of corruption, clustered upon by the birds of prey.

And wandering about that charnel-ground, raking in it with a hooked

stick, was a strange man whom I had met years ago in Japan, where he

used to photograph the cruel executions of that country. He spoke no

known tongue, but chattered in a jumble of languages; and here he was,

equipped with a camera, and placidly exploring horrors with a hooked

stick. Whence he came, and whither he went, we stayed not to inquire.

Day after day, for many days, the convoys of the expedition must pass

and repass this place, which lay in their direct route, at the slow

march of laden camels, and walking warily, lest they stepped ankle-deep

into a festering corpse.

General Graham, having occupied Tamai, Handub, and Tambuk, dispersed

the force of Mohammed Sardun on the 6th May; an operation which left

him practically master of the district. But on the 11th May, Lord

Wolseley, acting upon the instructions of the Government, ordered the

general withdrawal of all troops from the Soudan. On the 19th, we left

Souakim for Cairo. On the 27th June, Lord Wolseley turned over the

command of the forces in Egypt to General Sir F. Stephenson, and with

his staff left Cairo for Alexandria, there to embark for England.

Seven days previously (on 20th June), though we knew not of it, the

Mahdi, who had given us so much trouble, had died in Khartoum. There

he lay, listening perhaps for the footsteps of the returning English;

for he knew that, although the English are ruled by people having the

appearance of {334} men but the ways of a weathercock, they may go, but

they always come back. Thirteen years the false prophet slept in

peace: and then the man who had sojourned in a cave at the wells of Abu

Klea secretly collecting information, what time the Desert Column

followed a forlorn hope, rode into the Dervish city, and destiny was

fulfilled. Lord Kitchener of Khartoum fulfilled it, as strong men have

a way of doing. A poet once said that the soul of Gladstone is now

probably perching on the telegraph wires that bridge the desert where

we fought to save Gordon, too late. I know nothing about that; but I

know what the betrayal cost.

We learned afterwards that ere the Mahdi died, he had begun to

concentrate his armies upon Dongola, a movement that was continued

after his death, until the Dervishes were finally defeated by General

Stephenson, at Ginnis, on 30th December, 1885.

General Dormer had a way of his own with the Mahdi's disciples.

Addressing a prisoner, he said:

"I suppose you believe in the Mahdi because he can work miracles. Can

your prophet pluck out his eye and put it back again? Well, I am no

prophet, but I can."

And with that, Dormer took his glass eye from its socket, tossed it in

the air, caught it, and replaced it. The Arab was dumbfounded.

{335}