3-074-774 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Edmond O'Donovan, "Daily News" Correspondent in the Soudan, 1883. 'There seems to be little doubt of the lamentable death, among the other brave Englishmen who have perished with the Egyptian army in the Soudan, of this intrepid [Irish] traveller and enterprising journalist...Some of Mr. O'Donovan's letters from the army of Hicks Pasha, relating its march across the Nubian desert to the Nile, its subsequent advance from Khartoum in a south-west direction and its entrance into Kordofan upon a desperately arduous and perilous campaign, have appeared since Midsummer last; and the earlier portions which have been republished upon the occasion of the recent disastrous news, as well as those which only then came to hand, must be read now with painful interest, proving as they do his shrewd perception of the danger, as well as the manly courage with which he, and doubtless his companions, went forward in the performance of their chosen task...in 1879 he...arrived at Merv, a district singularly isolated from the rest of the world, an oasis in the desert, where he made the acquaintance of those barbarous people, and gained their confidence by the courageous frankness and straightforwardness of his personal demeanour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.