It was in May, 1883, that Edmund Dwyer Gray, the chairman of the Freeman's Journal, conceived the idea of making his paper a pioneer in providing its readers with foreign news. The Soudan, as it was then known, was in a state of wild unrest. The Mahdi's followers had revolted, and British troops in and around Khartoum were having a bad time. The years 1884 and '85 were fraught with gravest apprehensions for their safety.
No American or English journals had correspondents in any part of North Africa, and since a brief message had come through to London announcing the destruction of Col. William Hicks' Army - annihilated on its way to attack the Mahdi's headquarters - nothing had been learned of subsequent events. It was then that Mr. Gray seized the occasion, and made the Dublin Freeman's Journal one of the most frequently-quoted publications of our time.
The man he chose, Mr. Frank Power, known to his colleagues in Dublin's Prince's street as "Ghazi" Power, was the most dare-devil, resourceful and versatile member of his staff, equal to any emergency and avid for the ordeal that would try his mettle. His employer handed him a blank cheque, and told him to make all speed from Gravesend to Cairo, and, by hook or crook, to penetrate into Khartoum and dispatch all that he could gather about the state of affairs there and in the country around.
The Government replies that followed were based on Freeman's Journal dispatches or telegrams to Whitehall, and all revealed the growing gravity of the situation. Before many weeks of 1885 had expired the tragic news came from Mr. Power that General Gordon and several of his staff had been butchered in January by the Mahdi's mercenaries.
Mr. Power's letters brought the story of the siege down to July 31st, 1884, and the present volume consisting of Power's letters to his family describing the siege of Khartoum was first published the following year.
