One hundred years ago
It is impossible to judge from the telegrams whether Khartoum will hold out, and indeed all depends upon the reception of this news. If, when it is received, the disaffected are cowed, and Colonel Coetlogon decides to wait, there will not, so far as appears, be any in- superable difficulty in doing so. The tribes are in motion all round, but no body of men with orders to attack has ,yet appeared; and Colonel Coetlogon holds the river, for he has sent two steamers southward, with orders to remove a dam thrown up by the Arabs. His latest telegram is hopeful. As guns from the river can destroy the city, overt insurrection is unlikely, unless the gar- rison turn traitors, and they may hear of the British decision in time to avert that risk. At the same time, England is far, and their enemies are near, and the slave-traders, maddened by the ap- proach of their great enemy, may strain ,every effort to seize Khartoum, and may precipitate the insurrection and the mutiny which they have doubtless prepared. Any order of retreat would now make this inevitable. Colonel Coetlogon must, however, have heard of General Ggrdon's mission, and it is in accordance with the usual order of things that he should wait, that the traitors should be dismayed and divided, and that General Gordon should arrive. All will then depend upon the genius and the magnetic influence of one man.
Spectator, 19 January 1884
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