FL4618310

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About the 18th January there was desperate fighting, and about
200 of the Khartoum garrison were killed. Gordon publicly
thanked the troops for their conduct.

"The state of the garrison was then desperate from want of food;
all the donkeys, dogs, cats, rats, &c., had been eaten. A small ration
of gum was issued daily to the troops, and a sort of bread was
made from pounded palm-tree fibres. Gordon held several councils
of the leading inhabitants, and on one occasion had the town most
rigorously searched for provisions; the result, however, was very
poor, only yielding four ardebs of grain through the whole town.
This was issued to the troops. Gordon continually visited the
posts, and personally encouraged the soldiers to stand firm. It
was said during this period that he never slept."

On the night of the 25th January "many of the famished troops
left their posts on the fortifications in search of food in the town.
Some of the troops were also too weak from want of nourishmrnt
to go to their posts." At 3.30 the south front was attacked. "In
my opinion, Khartoum fell from sudden assault when the garrison
were too exhausted by privations to make proper resistance."

When Gladstone averred in the House, "It was plain that the
despatch of 28th December overrides the account of 14th December,
and represents a state of things in which there was not the smallest
reference to a scarcity of provisions," his object was, if not to tell
an untruth, to induce the House to believe a lie.

There was no despatch of 28th December at all. Wolseley's
despatch says that the only written document borne by the mes-
senger was dated the 14th December; " a fac-simile," indeed, of
the former brief words similarly dated.

And Wolseley's messenger carried no verbal message. There-
fore, the 14th December despatch was overridden by no other
despatch, and the words reported as used by Gladstone in the House
were untrue.

It is perhaps proper to record here what Major Kitchener's care-
ful inquiries elicited as to the fall of Khartoum. He prefaces it
by saying that "the last accurate information received about
Khartoum is contained in General Gordon's Diary, and dated the
14th December 1884."

Major Kitchener obtained no proof that the gates were treacher-
ously opened, but shows that Farag Pasha, to whom treachery was
generally imputed, was well received by the Mahdi, although three
days afer the fall of the city, when he failed to discover treasure,
Farag "was killed on the public market-place at Omdurman."

"Hassan Bey Balmasawi" (he says), "who commanded at the
Mesalamia gate, certainly did not make a proper defence," and
Hassan "afterwards took a commission under the Mahdi" and
went to Khordofan. Major Kitchener considered there was "very