In submitting to the public in a collected form the Letters which have
already appeared in the daily press, a Special Correspondent has the
option of one of two courses. The one course is, to publish the Letters as
nearly as possible as they originally stood, as a journal written from day
to day, and from week to week; the other, to recast the whole, to rewrite
the Letters, and to give a continuous narrative of the expedition as of a
past event. The second of these courses has the advantage of unity of
purpose; it will contain fewer errors, fewer mistaken predictions of the
probable course of events, and, above all, less of the repetitions which
must unavoidably occur in a series of letters. The style, too, will
naturally be far smoother and more polished than in the original letters,
written as they usually were in haste and under circumstances of great
difficulty. But, on the other hand, such a narrative would lose much of
the freshness which original letters possess, and it would be deficient in
that interest which a knowledge of the hopes and fears, the doubts and
anticipations, the plans destined to be frustrated, and the opinions
constantly varying with the course of events, must give to a narrative.
The present tense too is far more pleasant and less monotonous than the
preterite. I have therefore determined, in submitting my Letters for
republication, to adhere as closely as possible to the original form and
matter; not hesitating, however, to make many additions, alterations, and
excisions, where subsequent information or the course of events have
proved my opinions or conclusions to have been erroneous.
The present work does not profess to be a scientific record of the
expedition. It gives neither statistics, general orders, nor official
documents. This will no doubt be hereafter done by some officer far better
qualified for the task than I can be. It is merely the plain narrative of
a looker-on, who accompanied the expedition from the commencement of
December 1867, when affairs at Zulla were at their worst, to the closing
scene at Magdala. At the same time, I have not shrunk from stating my own
opinions as to the course of events. A great disaster like that of the
complete break-down of the Transport-train at Zulla cannot occur without
grievous blame attaching to somebody. I conceive it to be one of the first
duties of a correspondent to state fearlessly the persons and the causes
which, in his opinion, have brought on a great public disaster.
Unpleasant, therefore, though it be to find fault, I have not hesitated to
assign the blame where I consider it was due. This I did in the very first
letter I wrote from Zulla after landing, before I had gone up to Senafe;
and the opinion I then expressed, I now, after months have elapsed, and
after hearing the matter discussed in every light, do not hesitate to
reaffirm.
With the exceptions I have alluded to, the Letters are the same in form
and substance as when they appeared in the columns of the _Standard_; and
although, for the reasons I have given, I am convinced that it is the
wisest course to leave them so, yet, remembering as I do the circumstances
of haste, fatigue, and difficulty under which they were written, I cannot
but feel extreme diffidence in submitting them to the public “with all
their errors on their head.”