226 George Wyndham and Jameson [1896 



our Government talks of putting down the Slave Trade as one of its 

 objects in this Soudanese war. There seems to be no doubt that the 

 200 negroes taken by Rhodes to South Africa were practically pur- 

 chased from the Government of Zanzibar, which has ' recruited ' them 

 here. In the recent raid negroes holding respectable positions were 

 seized, among them a son of the Khedive's porter, the servant of El 

 Abbasi, Sheykh of the x\zhar, and a writer employed at £7 a month in 

 the Native Courts at Cairo. These were rescued, but very many 

 others were driven off. 



"I spent my last day, a very lovely one, in the garden — the roses 

 well in bloom, the nightingales singing, bee birds flying about, a roller 

 sitting near the tomb, and in the evening a jackal. I lit two candles 

 there for Sheykh Obeyd to get us a good passage home. We had our 

 Mowled there on Monday. Old Sheykh Abderrahman Faki promises 

 to say prayers for me in my absence, but expostulates that I do not go 

 to his mosque. I prefer to recite my Fatha at the tomb." 



We reached London on the evening of the 24th, and slept there. 



" 25th April. — Breakfasted with George Wyndham. We are to go 

 together on a pilgrimage to Stratford in connection with a monograph 

 he is writing on Shakespeare. He has the practical editorship now of 

 the ' New Review,' and in Parliament is making a cave against Cham- 

 berlain, whom he agrees with me in considering as at the bottom of all 

 the Government mischief. He says there is no doubt in the world that 

 Chamberlain was in with Rhodes and Jameson in their attack on the 

 Transvaal, and he is angry with him for having backed out of it, and 

 ruined the plot at the last moment to save his own bacon. He has been 

 seeing much of Jameson, whom he likes, and of the gang that have 

 been running the Transvaal business, about a dozen of them, with 

 Buckle, the ' Times ' editor, and Miss Flora Shaw who, he told me con- 

 fidentially, is really the prime mover in the whole thing, and who takes 

 the lead in all their private meetings, a very clever middle-aged woman. 

 George made, it appears, a good speech in the House ten days ago, at- 

 tacking the Government on the line of their having disarmed the Out- 

 landers, and left the Chartered Company defenceless. Chamberlain 

 has since been making overtures to him of friendship, and has been 

 walking about with him ostentatiously in the Lobby; but, seeing this 

 did not stop George's mouth, he has since shown animosity. I warned 

 George that Chamberlain was a man who would do him a mischief if 

 he could. George is very happy with all this busy work. 



" My article will be out on the 1st duly corrected in the ' Nineteenth 

 Century,' and George has asked me to write him another for his June 

 number of the ' New Review.' I shall give him one on the Moallakat 

 with my translation of Antar's Ode. 



" Old Alfred Montgomery is dead, and buried with a wreath from 



