The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-13
A TALK WITH MAHMUD.

Mahmud's faith In his followers is
extravagant enough. He believes that
If his cavalry had been present and had
fallen upon our infantry, while he at
tackled us in front, he would have rout-
ed us. He declined to believe that the
British brigade alone could have car
ried the zareba, for although he
thought the English soldiers good, he
declared that he had better men in his
tent to serve as his body-guard.
Among other remarks he declared that
five thousand of his men wanted food;
Osman had some dhura hidden in his
quarters. while his own followers had
only dhum nuts and wild fruits.
Moreover the absence Of SO many
combatants was the real cause of his
defeat Our artillery. he added, did
little harm and killed nobody. This
was an absolute untruth. I never saw
a. higher percentage of losses inflicted
by cannon; it was probably as much as
twenty per cent.
"Of course" said Mahmud, had I
known that you possessed so many
soldiers, I should have brought more.
I had, as a matter of fact sent for re-
Inducements, but they could not ar
rive in time from Omdurman. The
war, assure you, is by no means end
ed. The Khalifa has men like the
sands Of the sea. They Will meet you
at Shabluka and Omdurman, and you
cannot conquer, for my master has
sixty thousand soldiers, many guns
and strongly fortified positions, utterly
unlike the zareba. Had I seen the
camels which were left at large before
the beginning of the battle? Well,
that was a plan of NINE for thought
that some of your men might come
forward and try to take them, when
my people could fire and kill your SOL
diers. No, I did not run away; I am
not a woman. + went into covered
pit to shelter myself. 1t was needless
to expose the person of the general
during the firing. I had given all pos
sible directions, and nothing more re-
manned to be done. Nor do I now care
what happened to me-
All the Dervish infantry died in the
trenches except those which were abb
sent searching for food. None ran
away. They had only brought a
months supplies from Metemneh, and
a great part of that had been captured
by gunboats. 1T did not sink these
vessels said Mahmud, because I ex-
pected their surrender when I took
Berber, where I had first planned to go
direct, without any waiting. 1t was
Osman who upset things. I had also
heard that there were only a few
Egyptian soldiers in front of me, of
whom I had not the slightest fear.
When I knew that the Sirdar and his
army had come up I could neither ad-
vance nor retreat, and chose Nakheila
because it was a good place both for a
camp and a fight. Had I stopped in
Metemneh for you, I could have beaten
the Egyptian army quite easily. I
could not have left the zareba without
fighting; to have gone back would
have meant the loss of half my men by
desertion or starvation. The KhaIifa
wrote to me asking me to return and
live with him in Omdurman, but I re-
piled that I was going to take Berber
first, which, if I had had dhura, could
have done. My error was in listening
to Osman Digna, and leaving Metem-
neh and the Nile. Before the bonn
bardment began, if you had not had so
many infantry, would have rushed
you; for cared nothing for your cav
airy, and could beat them always, as
have done before"
Mahmud asked how long it took the
train to go the ten days journey to
Halfa, and expressed surprise that it
could be done in one day Seeing the
engine quit the train at Shereik, he
asked number of questions Where
has it gone for water? Does it drink,
too, like men? Is it always a great
smoker? Strange devil, does it never
get tired? Are there many other such
| wonders in Cairo?-Soudan Correspon-
dence London Telegraph.