Excerpt from Story of the Soudan War: From the Rise of the Revolt July, 1881, to the Fall of Khartoum and Death of Gordon Jan., 1885

Had any man dared to predict in the autumn of the year 1882, when the rebellion instigated by Arabi Pasha had been crushed efl'ectually at tel-el-kebir, that eighteen months afterwards British troops would be actively engaged in another part of Egyptian territory, he would have been scouted as an idle dreamer; had he ventured further, and said that two years hence the flower of the British Army would be fighting unceasingly again st Time and the tremendous difficulties and varied perils incident to a river voyage along the great Nile Valley, with an objec tive two thousand miles distant from Cairo, the world would have pitied him as one demented. Yet how literal would the prophecy have been fulfilled We are too apt to forget that the unlikely is always happening, and that, poor ignorant creatures as we are, we cannot imagine what surprises the morrow will bring in its train. The English Government believed that in stifling the military rising in Egypt proper they were removing the one danger that threatened our interests in that country. They knew not of the sore that was festering elsewhere, nor of the operation that would be essential to its cure. Providing they had been aware of the seriousness of the disease, of the tenacity with which it had laid hold on the system, they could not have realised how weak wasthe body to be relieved of the visitation. As a fact, the frame was too reduced to bear the strain when palliatives were applied. It was utterly inadequate to withstand the shock of a vigorous endeavour to uproot the seat of the evil; hence the process of galvanisation, the application of extraordinary remedies, of extraneous aid. This assist ance England supplied, and dearly has she paid for her* interference. It cannot be said that, all things considered, the interference was unjustifiable, though had a correct estimate of the outlay been made, she would certainly have paused ere she committed herself to the bargain.

However, we must not stray on to debatable ground. On the contrary, we would, while relating events in their natural sequence, cling severely to none save a dispas sionate course. This, and this alone, is the Spirit which has animated the production of the Story of the Soudan War. The sole desire has been to produce a faithful reflex of occurrences from the outbreak of the Soudan rebellion in July, 1881, to the fall of Khartoum in January, 1885. And, to ensure reliability, official docu ments have, where possible, been consulted. No state ments of party have been accepted, because, however anxious one is to present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the lode-stone of bias too often weighs in the scale even when one would carefully eschew it.

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