"The terrible difficulty in this country is the want of corn; and now
that all direct communication with Khartoum is cut off by the
obstructions in the Nile, the affair is most serious. The natives are
all hostile, thus a powerful force is absolutely necessary, but the
difficulty is to feed this force.
"I wrote an official letter to Raouf Bey to caution Lieutenant-Colonel
Tayib Agha against making remarks in the presence of his troops."
On August 3 the steamer returned, bringing Achmet Rafik and the sole
surviving soldier from the Shir. This officer declared his men to have
been insubordinate, and that they joined the natives against his orders
to make an attack upon their enemies in return for attacks on their
part.
Two witnesses, the surviving soldier and the wife of one that was
killed, declared that Achmet Rafik himself gave the men orders to fight
the tribe, in company with the people of Niambore; but fearing
responsibility for the result, he now laid the onus of failure upon the
insubordination of the men. (The fact remained that in consequence of
the razzia made by Abou Saood's orders the natives attacked Niambore and
my people. In self-defence, Niambore and my few men returned the
attack, and my soldiers were killed.
