



Produced by Giovanni Fini, StevenGibbs and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                             THE JOURNALS

                                  OF

                    MAJOR-GEN. C. G. GORDON, C.B.,

                             _AT KARTOUM_.

[Illustration: MAJOR-GEN. C. G. GORDON, C.B.]




                             THE JOURNALS
                                  OF
                    MAJOR-GEN. C. G. GORDON, C.B.,
                              AT KARTOUM.


                   _PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS._


                        INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

                                  BY

                            A. EGMONT HAKE,
             AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON,” ETC.

   WITH PORTRAIT, TWO MAPS, AND THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER SKETCHES
                          BY GENERAL GORDON.

[Illustration: LOGO]

                                LONDON:
           KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
                                 1885.




                                LONDON:

             PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.
                  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

     _The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved._




PREFACE.


THE work of editing these Journals is at an end; it only remains
now for me to thank one of my oldest and most valued friends, whose
assistance in every way I wish most thoroughly to acknowledge: this
is Mr. Godfrey Thrupp. When it became obvious that the public demand
for the work made its completion in so short a time impossible—as the
conscientious achievement of one man—he generously came forward. His
knowledge of the East and his deep interest in the subject made him an
invaluable colleague.

  A. EGMONT HAKE.

  _June 11, 1885._




                          TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                PAGE

  Editor’s Preface                                                   v

  Introduction by the Editor                                        ix

  General Gordon’s Position at Kartoum. By Sir Henry W.Gordon,
        K.C.B.                                                      lv

  The Mission of Colonel Sir Charles Wilson, R.E. By Sir Henry
        W. Gordon, K.C.B.                                          lxi

  Description of the Journal. By Sir Henry W. Gordon, K.C.B.      lxiv

  Position of the Steamers, Dec. 14, 1884                         lxvi

  Journal, Book   I.—Sept. 10 to Sept. 23, 1884                     3

  Journal, Book  II.—Sept. 23 to Sept. 30, 1884                    83

  Journal, Book III.—Oct. 1 to Oct. 12, 1884                      121

  Journal, Book  IV.—Oct. 12 to Oct. 20, 1884                     183

  Journal, Book   V.—Oct. 20 to Nov. 5, 1884                      213

  Journal, Book  VI.—Nov. 5 to Dec. 14, 1884                      279


  APPENDICES:—

  BOOK I.

  APPENDIX

  A.  Letter from Abdel Kader Ibrahim to General Gordon, and
      General Gordon’s reply                                       399

  A². Letters from Abderrahman en Najoomi and Abdullah en Noor
      to General Gordon, and his reply                             404

  B.  Letter from George Calamatino to General Gordon, and his
      reply                                                        409

  D.  Letter from the Ulema of Kartoum to the Mahdi                410

  E.  Letter from Faki Mustapha to Cassim el Moos                  420

  E¹. Upon the Slave Convention                                    425

  F. Memorandum upon the defeat of Hicks’s army                    426

  G. Letter from General Gordon to Ibrahim Abdel Kader             428

  K. Letter from Abdel Kader to General Gordon                     430

  L. Letters from Abderrahhman en Najoomi and Abdullah en Noor to
     General Gordon                                                432

  M. Letter from General Gordon to Sheikh Abderrahhman en Najoomi,
     with his reply                                                438

  N. Letters from Colonel Stewart and M. Herbin to General Gordon  442


  BOOK IV.

  P. Letter from Abou Gugliz to General Gordon                     447

  Q. Letters from Fakirs, and from Faki Mustapha, to the
     Commandant of Omdurman Fort                                   447

  R. Two letters from Slatin Bey to General Gordon                 452

  S. Letter from Slatin Bey to the Austrian Consul                 455

  The Insurrection of the False Prophet, 1881-83                   456


  BOOK V.

  Q. Letters from Saleh Ibrahim of Galabat and Greek Consul at
     Adowa to General Gordon and Greek Consul at Kartoum           511

  R. Letter from Slatin Bey to General Gordon                      519

  T. Letter from the Mudir at Sennaar to General Gordon            520

  U. Letter from the Mahdi to General Gordon with two enclosures,
     with General Gordon’s answer; and letters from General Gordon
     to the Mudir of Dongola                                       522

  V. Manifesto of the Mahdi to the inhabitants of Kartoum          539

  X. Letter from Major Kitchener to General Gordon, enclosing one
     from Herr Roth, and a telegram                                546


  BOOK VI.

   Y. Towfik’s Firman, and notice by General Gordon                550

  AB. Letter from Khalifa Abdullah Mahomed to General Gordon       553

  CD. Petition of the Ulema at Kartoum to the Khedive              556

  EF. Organisation of the Soudan under Zubair                      557




INTRODUCTION.

  “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
  I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
  The evil that men do lives after them;
  The good is oft interred with their bones.

         *       *       *       *       *

  Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
  To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
  They that have done this deed are honourable;
  What private griefs they had, alas! I know not,
  That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,
  And will no doubt, with reasons answer you.

         *       *       *       *       *

                          But were I Brutus,
  And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
  Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
  In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
  The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.”


THESE grand lines force themselves upon me, though maybe their analogy
is incomplete. Mark Antony was a casuist, and pleaded the cause of
revenge; I am only earnest in the cause of justice. Yet I trust in
my pleading to enable Englishmen to realise how great and how sad
is the loss of Charles Gordon, not only to those who loved him, but
to the cause of suffering humanity. Gordon is dead. We cannot bring
him back to life. Yet from his death we may learn at least how fit
he was to teach us while he lived, how fit to hold his country’s
honour in his hand, how fit to judge of what was right and what was
wrong. His journals are his last words to the world as much as they
are instruction and information to his Government, and Englishmen who
value England’s honour may well read them with a heavy heart—with eyes
dimmed by tears. I say Gordon is dead, and we cannot bring him back
to life, but we can do much he would have done for us _had he been
allowed to live_. His journals tell us how we can best repair mischief
already done (and I understand his words to apply rather to the English
people than to the Government which represents them), and they tell us
what is best for the Soudan. In the interest of this unhappy land he
devoted much of his life; in its interest he died. Let us then compare
the opposite conditions under which the people existed during Gordon’s
presence and absence, and in doing this let us mark well what Gordon
said during his life, and what his journals say for him now that he is
dead.

       *       *       *       *       *

Gordon used to tell the story of how, when Said Pasha, Viceroy
of Egypt before Ismail, went up to the Soudan, so discouraged and
horrified was he at the misery of the people, that at Berber he threw
his guns into the river, declaring he would be no party to such
oppression. In this spirit Gordon went there as Governor of the Equator
in 1874, and in this spirit he expressed his views on the duties of
foreigners in the service of Oriental States. His ardent and unstudied
words are worthy of the deepest study. They breathe the kindliest
wisdom, the most prudent philanthropy; and it would be well if those
whose lot is thrown in barbarous lands would take them for a constant
guide. To accept government, only if by so doing you benefit the race
you rule; to lead, not drive the people to a higher civilisation;
to establish only such reforms as represent the spontaneous desire
of the mass; to abandon relations with your native land; to resist
other governments, and keep intact the sovereignty of the State whose
bread you eat; to represent the native when advising Ameer, Sultan
or Khedive, on any question which your own or any foreign government
may wish solved; and in this to have for prop and guide that which is
universally right throughout the world, that which is best for the
people of the State you serve.

Such were Gordon’s sentiments when he first entered upon his task;
well would it have been for Egypt, England, and the world, had his
successors taken them to heart and made them their ideal. In such a
case the peace, the happiness he brought to the Soudan might still have
been preserved.

Never perhaps in the histories of barbarous rule were the ideals of
justice and truth more needed than at this date (1874). Seven-eighths
of the population were slaves; the country swarmed with slave-hunters
and slave-dealers; and district governors, greedy for pelf, aided and
abetted them in their raids. So crushed were the remaining population
that they regarded all comers as their foes; so destitute that they
were ready and willing to exchange their own kin for cattle or for
grain. Their flocks and herds, like their kindred, had been robbed.
To sow they were afraid, for governors and slave-hunters never let
them reap; and if perchance they cultivated ground, it was a mere
patch hidden in some distant nook out of the enemy’s way. The maxims
of their rulers, prior to Gordon’s advent, had been that if the
n