We are coming willingly from the Arabs and others, and by this means this objective has been achieved, and we have been deprived of obtaining true news about the movements of this great army after its arrival in such a region without taking the necessary measures to ascertain the conditions of the followers. We are cutting off the path of the Arabs to us to inquire from them about who these Arabs are, and what the situation is in El-Obeid, and what are the procedures for the expedition to ascertain its truth without acting blindly, especially since we are close to it. The last thing we can do in terms of necessary precautions is to assign a regiment or more to set out from here at night and head to one of the neighboring locations here and attack them at night, and perhaps they will bring us various information to ascertain what was mentioned after observing their relatives with binoculars. And by God's will, the objective will be achieved. According to His Excellency's order, I set out happily with these ideas, intending to meet His Excellency General Aks Pasha. And upon clarifying this matter, what was discussed was that he was speaking on this subject with His Excellency Colonel Farkhar, and that this was a sound opinion. I replied that this is a sign of a good outcome, as the sole objective is to ascertain the various situations. He replied that we agreed on that, as he is of one mind on this matter, but he finds it difficult because he does not know if he is able to do this for the soldiers. I have carried out this because this is the first time I have had the honor of being a commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, serving it with sincerity. Since then, I have not been ignorant of their conditions and morals for such night military operations. And I tell you that if these were my soldiers (he meant the English), I would assign a special detachment from them secretly, and they would not know the objective until they were about two hundred meters outside. And although I was thinking about this a quarter of an hour before you arrived, send to His Excellency Hussein Pasha Mazhar and discuss it with him, because he is more knowledgeable about the condition of the army and soldiers. And from now on, I say that His Excellency Hussein Pasha Mazhar agrees to this, but it would be in the form of a fort, and this is not suitable at night and will not yield any benefit, for fear of their escape without anyone being able to capture them. And even if it is necessary, there is no way but to assign two regiments, and they should be in the form of two columns, to join each other and attack one of the (1) villages.