My dear Minny, — Our autumn campaign I look upon as a settled thing, but whether I shall take a part in it myself, or whether the whole expedition will be organised from home and be entirely independent of this command I cannot say. In the meantime I am busy making certain preparations for it — buying horses and making arrangements for laying down a railway which it is in contemplation to make from Suakin to Berber. This afternoon we celebrate at six o'clock the Queen's birthday; the whole force will be on parade, and I shall take the opportunity of delivering on parade two Victoria Crosses and some half-dozen civil medals for gallantry in the field during the late campaign. In the evening I give a dinner to generals and staff officers. We shall sit down twenty-two, as many as the room will hold; I am afraid we shall be very hot. The Khedive is now at Alexandria enjoying the sea breezes, and Cairo is pretty nearly deserted by all who can find an excuse for going away. My occupation this summer is very different from what it was last year, — one's mind then was full of Pyramids, antiquities, and Egypt generally, until the cholera came to enliven us; this year it is war and rumours of war, and intrigues without end.... — Yours affectionately, Fredk. Stephenson.
To Lady Elizabeth Romilly
Cairo, June 29, 1884.
... We are threatened with intended inroads into Upper Egypt from some of the Soudan tribes; it is difficult to say whether these people will come on in force or not, at all events we are making preparations for them; possibly they will do little more than try and make raids upon some town or other on the Nile.
There are now five battalions of Egyptians, with cavalry and guns, at and above Assouan, and I have sent
up a battalion of our own, the Sussex, to give them a httle stiffening, and another battaHon of the Duke of Cornwall's will start for Kench in three or four days.
A company of engineers is gone to Suakin to make a jetty there for landing the railway plant on its way from England for the railway to Berber. This looks like business, and I look upon an autumn campaign in these parts as quite a settled thing. We are still without news of Gordon. Rumours are abroad that he had driven back with loss a force which the Mahdi had sent against Khartoum, but these tales are not to be depended upon.
Our little flotilla of Cook's steamers, manned by the navy and converted into armed cruisers, are in full use; they are constantly moving about from place to place between Assanot and Wady Haifa, and are of great service, as they make a very useful impression upon the people all along the Nile. You would hardly recognise the boat that took you up the Nile, now manned by bluejackets, armed with a gatling and flying the Union Jack.
We are still living in a country which is in reality without a Government; our own interferes just enough to make Nubar feel that all responsibility is taken off his hands; there is no feeling of security for the future, and under such a system as that affairs naturally drift on from bad to worse. The chief desire in Nubar 's mind is to shake himself clear of English control, and allow the administration of the country to fall back into its former evil ways.
... We had the usual birthday parade yesterday, and I was not sorry for an excuse for letting the Cairenes see the amount of force which we have at our disposal....
To his Brother
Cairo, September 22, 1884.
My dear William, —... I have been very loath to allude to the subject of Wolseley's 24 appointment
1884] LORD WOLSELEY'S APPOINTMENT 325