| Description | Diary, in pencil, describing Baird's attachment to the Anglo-Egyptian forces in the Sudan in February 1897 in the context of the continuing campaign against Mahdist forces under the Khalifa Abdullah. Baird describes his journey to Abu Hamad and his trip on a British gunboat to Omdurman. The diary includes visits to battlefields, descriptions of the Beit el Amana and other buildings in Omdurman, and gunboat patrols between Dongola and Omdurman and along the Blue Nile. Baird also dines in various officers' messes and attends meetings with Egyptian, British and Sudanese officials; he records their views of the current situation, with comments on Kitchener's strategy, and some details of the local tribespeople, their languages and customs. |