1895] Wingate and Slat in 209 



Of the prospects of Constantinople he said he feared the Sultan's sub- 

 jects would never succeed in getting rid of him, though the European 

 Powers might depose him. He asked me about affairs in Arabia, and 

 told me he had seen Ibrahim ibn Thenneyan, but Sheykh Mohammed 

 Abdu had warned him that he was perhaps a spy of Sheykh Abul 

 Hilda's. I told him that I did not think this to be the case, though it 

 might be well to be cautious. Then he talked about the desert, and 

 an expedition he intended to make to El Arish in the Spring, and how 

 he was having the post road repaired to Dar el Beyda. He certainly 

 is a charming young man, and brim full of intelligence. 



" I lunched with Gorst and talked to him about the affairs of the 

 Soudan. He told me, as an instance of 'the humbug that went on at 

 the frontier, of the way in which Wingate had got the credit of Slatin's 

 escape from Khartoum. This has been represented as entirely Win- 

 gate's cleverness, ' whereas in point of fact Wingate was away at the 

 'time at Souakim, and the plan was Slatin's own. Maxwell (?), who 

 was in charge of Wady Haifa, received a letter from Slatin, addressed 

 to whoever was in command, asking him to pay the bearer £100, and 

 to promise another £100 in case of success. This Maxwell had done, 

 but nothing more was thought about it till Slatin arrived and embraced 

 Wingate, who had meanwhile returned, calling him his deliverer. Win- 

 gate then looked up the papers for the first time, and promptly endorsed 

 them, ' I approve.' There has been a raid quite recently, thirty miles 

 north of Wady Haifa, and sixteen persons have been killed in a village. 



" Left a card on the French Minister, M. Cogordan, who sent me 

 a message last summer through Mile. Lagrene that he would like 

 to see me. 



" igtli Dec. — Eldon Gorst came, wi'th his sister, to spend the day. 

 We took them to the sand hills and set up a shelter and lunched there. 

 I had a good deal of talk with Gorst. He is a worthy young man, very 

 painstaking and desirous to do rightly, but hardly a man of genius. 

 One does not understand why he should have been chosen, ou't of the 

 many thousand young men whose services are to be had, to be Prime 

 Minister of Egypt. I imagine that he would command at home per- 

 haps £400 or £500 a year. But this is one of the mysteries of Anglo- 

 Egyptian rule. He has a moderate knowledge of Arabic, having served 

 an apprenticeship under Cromer. The fact is, there is no coun'try so 

 easy to govern as Egypt is, given fair intelligence and perfect honesty 

 in the governor. 



"21st Dec. — M. Cogordan, with his secretary, lunched with us. 

 Cogordan is a man of about forty, of good presence and manners 

 and very amiable. We sat on the roof after luncheon and I took the 

 opportunity of explaining to him something of the history of Arabi's 

 revolution, as to which the French have 'the absurdest ideas. The 



