months more. The Soudan is still in an unsettled state, but I suppose it will calm down before long;
in the meantime we are realising the mistake which has been committed in abandoning Dongola, where the enemy is now collecting a force, though perhaps not a very formidable one, partly, I think, with the object of getting food and plunder, and partly in the hope of being able, should circumstances prove favourable, of advancing still farther towards our frontier. There is a great dearth of reliable information which is a great drawback to any fixed plan being formed; accounts we receive from spies and others are very conflicting,
often utterly untrustful, making it extremely difficult,
often impossible, to arrive at the truth except by the use of one's own eyes and experience. The false Mahdi
I believe to be dead, but there are some who still think he is shamming, and that he will make his appearance again with a halo of glory after an imaginary pleasant little trip to Paradise. Our hot weather has now left us, though I shall still find it on the Upper Nile, but down here the climate has become quite delightful again, and one can go about with impunity at all hours of the day....
Cairo, Ncwember 16, 1885. — You ask me in your last letter to tell you about my health. I never was better in my life, and as for fever, I never had anything more than a tendency to it for a couple of days — at least so I was told, for I never felt anything of it myself. I was knocked up at Luxor from the heat for a short time, but it was really nothing to speak of. I had had rather a trying day in the sun going over to Thebes to see the Tombs of the Kings, of which I don't mean to bore you with any description till I come home, and
then I shall probably give you more than you will care to listen ta. I will only say that all I saw exceeded my expectations, and that the grandeur of many of the buildings baffles attempts at adequate description. The Crescent and the Cross, which I then read for the first time, disappointed me much; the language is good, it is pretty writing, but the book is full of inaccuracies and really tells you little or nothing. Miss Edwardes' book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, is, on the contrary, an excellent book, equally well written, accurate, and with valuable information. I like our new High Commissioner very much, and we get on very well together; he is a clever man and very good company, but he is getting impatient for the arrival of the Turkish High Commissioner, without whom he cannot do much. I cannot help thinking that Turkey, like the rest of Europe, is much interested in the result of the English elections, and that she is delaying to take any active part with us in Egypt until she can see whether she will have to do with Lord Salisbury or Gladstone. I am in hopes that the Disestablishment question will give the Conservatives a few seats.... I will write more fully when I have more leisure....
December 10, 1885. —... I am about to repeat my trip up the Nile sooner than I expected, and leave here the day after to-morrow for Wady Haifa, to look after the Soudanese, who are making themselves troublesome.
• To Lady Elizabeth Romilly
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
... Myself and personal staff, with Colonel Maitland, R.E., and Major Woodhouse, R.A., Egyptian army, are now on our way to Wady Haifa to give General Grenfell a helping hand and see what these troublesome Arabs are about.
We have a difficult frontier to defend, and not too
1 885] HATRED OF THE TURK 341
many troops to do it with, if what we hear of the enemy's preparations in the Soudan for a descent upon Egypt are at all correct; there is already a pretty good force in our immediate front, which we must try and get rid of.
This Egyptian business seems endless, and I cannot see at present when matters will settle down. The action, as well as the inaction, of Mr. Gladstone's Government is the main cause of existing difficulties.