The absurdity of allowing Hicks 's force to advance against Kordofan, resulting in encouraging the Mahdi and bringing him down to Khartoum, and all our subsequent military operations out here have resulted in nothing but irritating the Soudanese, exciting the fanaticism, and bringing about the present unsatisfactory state of affairs.... People were in daily expectation, when we left Cairo, to hear of the departure of Muktar Pasha from Constantinople; whether he has arrived in Egypt by this time or not I don't yet know. I never was sanguine as to his coming, and still less as to any good he will do if he does come. Sir H. Wolff expected at one time great things from their co-operation in the affairs of Egypt. He fancied that the Turkish Commissioner would be influential in settling peaceably the present hostile demonstrations in the Soudan; that the Sultan, as Sultan, would be able to do much in this direction, and still more as Caliph, but in neither capacity can he exercise any influence for good. Sir H. now sees, I think, that any attempt to use the Sultan's name for this purpose will only act as an irritant and do more harm than good. The very name of Turk is hated by these people, and the bent of their present fanaticism is to overturn the Caliphate.
What a curious and unsatisfactory political state we have arrived at in England — a regular impasse — neither side strong enough to govern, and the Irish apparently in the position of holding the balance of power. The only outcome seems to be a coalition between the moderate men on both sides. The time
seems to have arrived for some readjustment of party.
Whig and Tory days have long gone by, but the traditions and prejudices remain and are not easily destroyed.... — Yours very sincerely,
Fredk. Stephenson.
To his Brother
Abri, January 1886.
My dear William, — I little expected to find myself in my latter days campaigning again, but so it is, and here I am, at a pleasant spot upon the Upper Nile, at a village called Abri, about 140 miles south of Wady Haifa. Everything is going well with us, and I have a splendid little force under my command. It took some time to collect it at the front and bring up the necessary supplies and transport, but no time was lost, and directly we were ready we advanced. On the morning of the 30th I got up at 3.30, had a good breakfast, and marched off our compact little force at 5.30; there was a small amount of moonlight, everything was done in perfect silence, so as to enable us to get into position before dawn. This movement was most satisfactorily carried out, and the enemy in Giniss and along the river bank was completely taken by surprise. The position occupied by the enemy extended from a short distance south, or rather west, of our advanced fortified outpost at Kosheh, along the right bank of the Nile, and consisted of a series of mud houses, some of which were strongly occupied and obstinately defended; these were intersected at intervals by banks and watercourses running at right angles to the Nile, and offering a series of obstacles to that portion of our force which had to advance from Kosheh and drive back the enemy along this strip of ground which bordered the Nile for about three miles, until it reached the main part of the village of Giniss, beyond which, still along the river bank, was the enemy's camp, with his main body of cavalry, about 6000
1 886] GINISS 343