CHINESE GORDON 
 
 A SUCCINCT RECORD OF HIS LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 ARCHIBALD FORBES 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL 
 
 NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE 
 
 1884
 
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 I PREFACE. 
 
 The good fortune has never come to me to 
 know General Gordon, and this little volume 
 eg makes no pretence to be anything more than 
 £3 a compilation and an abridgment. There are 
 J two authoritative works on General Gordon's 
 career — Dr. Andrew Wilson's " Ever Victorious 
 Army," and Mr. Birkbeck Hill's " Colonel Gor- 
 g don in Central Africa ;" which last has a 
 special value, consisting as it does for the most 
 part of General Gordon's own letters to rela- 
 tives and friends, with admirably written link- 
 ing chapters by Mr. Hill. I have acknowledged 
 the quotations made from Mr. Egmont Hake's 
 >. volume, which are taken only from the few 
 -> passages of it which are not, as is my own work 
 J mainly, a digest of the two original works named 
 
 CO 
 
 {£ above. 
 
 D 
 
 o' My sole aim has been brevity and lucidity. 
 This little volume aspires to be simply a handy- 
 book — I hope for the many — to the life of a 
 great man in whom at present we have all a 
 
 burning interest. 
 
 A. F. 
 
 FULHAM, March 20//1, 1884.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ] VGE 
 EARLY DAYS, AND THE CRIMEA 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHINESE CORDON IN CHINA 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CRAVESEND AND THE EQUATOR Il6 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE SOUDAN 158 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIA, CHINA, AND THE CAPE 204 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BRITISH PLENIPOTENTIARY IN THE SOUDAN . . . 221
 
 J 
 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 A SUCCINCT RECORD OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY DAYS, AND THE CRIMEA. 
 
 The character of Charles Geonre Gordon is 
 unique. As it unfolds itself in its curiously 
 varied, but never contradictory aspects, the 
 student is reminded of the attributes of Sir 
 Lancelot, of Bayard, of Cromwell, of John 
 Nicholson, of Arthur Connolly, of Havelock, 
 of Balfour of Burley, of Livingstone, of Hedley 
 Vicars ; but Gordon's individuality stands out 
 in its incomparable blending of masterfulness 
 and tenderness, of strength and sweetness. His 
 high nature is made the more chivalrous by 
 his fervent piety. His absolute trust in God 
 guides him serenely through the sternest diffi- 
 culties. Because of that he is alone in no 
 solitude, he is depressed in no extremity. 
 The noble character has its complement in a
 
 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 keen sense of humour. No matter how sombre 
 the situation, if there be a comic side to any 
 incident, Gordon sees it and enjoys it. That 
 he has lived through strain so intense, and toil 
 so arduous, is probably due to the never-failing 
 fountain of blitheness that wells up in his 
 nature. He must be richly endowed with the 
 rare gift of personal magnetism. Without that 
 men have attained to greatness : but never 
 with the scantiness of means at command, that 
 has thrown Gordon back mainly on the 
 resources of his own personality ; nor ever 
 with the scrupulousness that has been one of 
 the most strongly marked traits of his career. 
 This may be a plodding and prosaic age ; but 
 no age can be so conventionalised that a man 
 of Gordon's attributes may not find his oppor- 
 tunities to perform achievements the lustre of 
 which stirs the astonishment and admiration of 
 peoples who can yet appreciate the gifts that 
 alone render those achievements possible. Gor- 
 don's modesty is great, but it would be un- 
 natural and impossible that he should not feel 
 an honest pride in the implicit confidence that 
 leans on his ability to perform, single-handed, 
 the seemingly impossible. This unique una-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 3 
 
 nimity of confidence has been earned by deeds, 
 not words ; no arts have fostered its growth ; 
 it may be said to have come almost in spite of 
 the man in whom it is reposed. 
 
 Gordon comes of a race of soldiers. His 
 great-grandfather belonged to "Johnny Cope's" 
 hapless command, as an officer in Lascelles' 
 Regiment (now the 1st Battalion Lancashire 
 Regiment), and was taken prisoner at Preston- 
 pans by Prince Charlie's "highland host," to 
 find a kinsman, Sir William Gordon, of Park, 
 fighting under the Stuart banner. He was 
 paroled through the interposition of the Duke 
 of Cumberland, who was his patron, and the 
 godfather of the son of his who was the o-rand- 
 father of " Chinese Gordon." That son natur- 
 ally entered the army, and saw varied and 
 plentiful service. He fought at Minorca, at 
 the siege of Louisburg, in what was then 
 French Canada, and on the Plains of Abraham 
 with the gallant Wolfe. In 1773 he married a 
 Miss Clarke, the sister of a Northumbrian 
 clergyman. By her he had four sons, the third 
 of whom, Henry William, born in 1786, was 
 the father of Charles George Gordon, the sub- 
 ject of this memoir. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Henry William Gordon was a gunner, a fine 
 soldier, a man of the most scrupulous honour, 
 of a temperament better suited, perhaps, for 
 command than for obedience, but a man of 
 remarkable geniality, and possessed of an in- 
 exhaustible fund of humour. He lived to be 
 proud of his son, yet it has been told that so 
 hio-h was his ideal of the character of the 
 British officer, that he had no pleasure in learn- 
 ing that his son had accepted the command of 
 an alien and barbarian force, notwithstanding 
 the honour of his selection therefor, and the 
 brilliancy of his achievements in that position. 
 He attained the rank of Lieutenant-General in 
 the service in which he may be said to have 
 been born, and in which he spent a long life. 
 He was well mated in his wife, who had been a 
 Miss Enderby, the daughter of a man of some- 
 what remarkable character. A London merchant 
 and shipowner, some vessels of his mercantile 
 fleet are historical. Those were two of Samuel 
 Enderby's ships, chartered by the East India 
 Company, and laden with cargoes of tea, that 
 lay at their moorings in Boston Harbour on 
 that evening of 1773, when Charles Adams 
 stood up in the Old South Church and uttered
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 5 
 
 the words, " This meeting can do nothing more 
 to save the country ! " That same night the sham 
 Indians boarded Enderby's ships, hauled on deck 
 the chests of the tea that formed their cargo, 
 broke them up and threw their contents over- 
 board, while the approving citizens crowding the 
 wharf listened in grim silence. When Phillip 
 gave the signal to " the first fleet " to cast anchor 
 in Sydney Cove, of the six transports that had 
 carried the convicts to found the new settlement, 
 some were ships chartered by the Government 
 from Charles Gordon's maternal grandfather. 
 His whalers opened up the fisheries in the Ant- 
 arctic Ocean, among the Islands of the South 
 Pacific, and in Japanese Waters, and made im- 
 portant geographical discoveries while they 
 were cruising with intent to "fill up" with oil. 
 
 Gordon's mother, Mr. Hake, in his "Story of 
 Chinese Gordon," describes as "a remarkable 
 woman. She possessed a perfect temper ; she 
 was always cheerful under the most trying 
 circumstances, and she was always thoughtful of 
 others ; she contended with difficulty without 
 the slightest display of effort ; and she had a 
 genius for making the best of everything. 
 During the Crimean War her anxieties were
 
 6 CHINESE GORDOX. 
 
 interminable ; she had three sons and several 
 near kinsmen at the front. She was perfectly 
 equal to the strain. Her hopefulness remained 
 unclouded ; all day long did she busy herself 
 with the wants of others at home and in the 
 field ; while a duty remained to be done, or a 
 kindness to be bestowed, her sunny energy 
 maintained her at her work." This admirable 
 woman — worthy mother of a noble son — gave 
 her husband eleven children, five sons and six 
 daughters. Of the sons three entered the army, 
 and two are living. Of these two the younger 
 is Charles George Gordon, he who now at the 
 age of fifty-one — he was born at Woolwich, 
 January 28th, 1833 — is engaged in the work of 
 the pacification of the Soudan. 
 
 Of Gordon's boyhood there is little to relate. 
 A soldier's son, he shared some at least of the 
 paternal migrations on military duty, for we hear 
 of his having been in the Ionian Islands when 
 his father was in command of the artillery there. 
 He was prepared at Taunton for the Royal 
 Military Academy, which he entered when as 
 yet he had not completed his fifteenth year. 
 His health in youth gave no promise of the 
 phenomenal endurance which later in life he
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. 7 
 
 has undergone with surprising immunity from 
 serious illness. "He was not strong," says 
 Mr. Hake, "and this may account for his having 
 done nothing really noteworthy either at school 
 or at his later examinations. In this part of his 
 story there was always humour, and now and 
 then there were flashes of that resolution and 
 energy which have since shown themselves in 
 so many ways, and to such splendid purpose. 
 Once, for instance, during his cadetship at the 
 Academy, he was rebuked for incompetence, 
 and told that he would never make an officer ; 
 whereupon he tore the epaulets from his 
 shoulders and flung them at his superior's feet." 
 As an instance of "resolution and energy" the 
 anecdote proves rather too much. General 
 Gordon has still a temper, and can " fly out " on 
 occasion, but he is too good a soldier to justify 
 the insubordination which it discloses, assuming 
 the anecdote to be true. He must have worked 
 hard at the Academy, and " incompetence " 
 could hardly have been chargeable against a 
 lad who came out so well as to win his appoint- 
 ment to the Royal Engineers. To that distin- 
 guished scientific corps he was gazetted as 
 second lieutenant in July, 1852 ; so that he was
 
 S CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 nineteen and a-half years of age when he began 
 his military career. 
 
 For two years he was at desk duty at Pem- 
 broke, preparing the plans for the fortifications 
 that have since been constructed about the 
 entrance to Milford Haven. The lad must 
 have been eating his heart as he worked with 
 rule and pencil, while more fortunate fellows 
 were sailing eastward to where Sevastopol 
 frowned over the waters of the Black Sea ; but 
 the time was coming when there should be 
 other work than plan-making for a capable and 
 resolute officer. He got the route for the 
 Crimea in December, 1854, and on New Year's 
 Day, 1855, the Golden Fleece carried him into 
 that maritime chaos, the harbour of Balaclava. 
 He landed in the very middle of the terrible 
 " black winter." Everywhere prevailed misery, 
 disease, and discontent. The great storm of 
 the 14th November had gone far to ruin the 
 encampments, and had shipwrecked a great 
 fleet of vessels laden with stores that would 
 have mitigated the rigour of the bitter winter. 
 What of the cavalry horses Balaclava had left 
 were dying at their picket ropes of cold and 
 inanition. Fuel was not less cruelly scarce than
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 9 
 
 was food. On the squalor, hunger, and general 
 wretchedness cholera had supervened, and the 
 ranks were thinning faster than if every day had 
 furnished a hard fought skirmish. The French 
 were getting on with their trench work, but the 
 English had to concentrate their attention on 
 the too often unsuccessful effort to keep alive. 
 So in the lull of work the young engineer officer 1 
 seems to have been neglected if not forgotten, 
 and it was not until he had been landed a 
 month that he was detailed for his first turn of 
 service in the trenches. His duties thence- 
 forward until the fall of Sevastopol were simply 
 those of a junior officer of engineers, consisting 
 mainly in the superintendence of the execution 
 of the plans for the details of the siege opera- 
 tions devised by the superior officers of the 
 " scientific corps." This work entailed the most 
 arduous and continuous labour, all but chronic 
 exposure to hostile fire, not a little risk, when 
 out to the front either reconnoitring for the site 
 for a new parallel or a further advanced battery, 
 or when engaged in laying out the " trace " with 
 tape line and pegs, of being the recipient of an 
 accidental bullet from our own side ; the danger 
 also of being abandoned out in the front, because
 
 io CHINESE CORDOX. 
 
 of a sudden scare in the advanced lines behind 
 the adventurous pioneer, and of being either 
 shot down or made prisoner by a sudden sortie. 
 The earliest task set him, says Mr. Hake, was 
 to effect a junction by means of rifle pits between 
 the French and English sentries posted in 
 advance of the trenches ; and in a letter home 
 he describes how "after being first fired upon 
 by the English sentries, and then by the Russian 
 pickets, and how often f he working party and 
 sentries under his command had bolted, he was 
 able to carry out his first definite order on active 
 service." 
 
 The engineer service in the siege of Sevas- 
 topol never received the recognition which it 
 most justly merited, because of the devotion, 
 skill, and bravery of the officers who performed 
 it. Kinglake scarcely refers to it, and William 
 Howard Russell does not often allude to any en- 
 gineer officer, except that most brilliant and ill- 
 fated officer whose career the late Col. Chesney 
 so vividly sketched in the paper entitled " Gor- 
 don of Gordon's Battery." The same gifted 
 author, in another paper, takes occasion to say 
 something of the character his Crimean service 
 earned for that gallant officer's junior of the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. li 
 
 same name. Of the latter Chesney writes : 
 " Gordon had first seen war in the hard school 
 of the ' black winter ' of the Crimean War. In 
 his humble position as an engineer subaltern 
 he had attracted the notice of his superiors, not 
 merely by his energy and activity (for these are 
 not, it may be asserted, uncommon characteris- 
 tics of his class), but by an extraordinary apti- 
 tude for war, developing itself amid the trench- 
 work before Sevastopol in a personal knowledge 
 of the enemy's movements such as no other 
 officer attained. ' We used always to send him 
 out to find what new move the Russians were 
 making,' was the testimony given to his genius 
 by one of the most distinguished officers he 
 served under." 
 
 It was in the acquisition of this knowledge in 
 the course of sedulously constructing batteries 
 that Charles Gordon spent the spring of 1855, 
 on that bleak Crimean plateau. Russell thus 
 speaks of the spectacle the front presented in 
 March as the result of the labour expended on 
 works and counter-works : — " The front of Se- 
 vastopol, between English, French and Rus- 
 sians, looks like a large graveyard, covered as it 
 is with freshly-made mounds of dark earth in all
 
 i 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 directions." In the performance of duties in- 
 volving so much exposure, he must have had 
 innumerable narrow escapes. One of these, 
 when a bullet from one of the Russian rifle-pits 
 passed within an inch of his head, he dismisses 
 in a letter home with the terse comment : " They 
 (the Russians) are very good marksmen ; their 
 bullet is large and pointed." The engineer 
 officers were severely taxed and exceptionally 
 exposed during the preparations for the second 
 bombardment in April, for the fourth parallel 
 had to be constructed within six paces of the 
 Russian rifle-pits, and during its continuance, 
 when an embrasure was struck and injured by 
 the return cannonade, it devolved upon them to 
 set an example by freely exposing themselves 
 when repairs were being made under fire. Gor- 
 don escaped untouched, amid the numerous 
 casualties in the trenches, although constantly 
 in the forefront of danger, and engaged in the 
 resistance made to sortie after sortie from the 
 Redan position of the Russians. In a letter 
 home written during the bombardment he ex- 
 presses himself with some confidence in regard 
 to what Russell calls the "golden opportunity" 
 for an assault not taken advantage of when the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 13 
 
 mass of the Sevastopol garrison had been sent 
 out to reinforce Liprandi, in anticipation of his 
 being attacked, of which there was no intention 
 in the allied camp. Gordon writes : " I think 
 we might have assaulted on Monday, but the 
 French do not seem to care about it. The 
 garrison is 25,000, and on that day we heard 
 afterwards that only 8,000 were in the place, 
 as the rest had gone to repel an attack (fancied) 
 of ours at Inkermann." 
 
 From April 30, the advance of trench-work in 
 the English front was almost at a standstill until 
 the Mamelon, which enfiladed our advance works, 
 should fall ; but Gordon with his comrades was 
 unremittingly busy in preparing for the third 
 bombardment, which unprecedentedly stupen- 
 dous artillery duel began on June 6. Naturally 
 Gordon was in the trenches, and he was returned 
 among the wounded, but his injury was merely 
 a contusion from a stone which a round shot 
 had thrown up, and he did not allow it to dis- 
 able him from duty. On the following day the 
 French carried the Mamelon, and were able to 
 hold it, but they were repulsed in their effort to 
 storm the Malakoff, and our attempt on the 
 Redan, which w r as led by Sir John Campbell,
 
 I 4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 and which Gordon accompanied, fared no 
 better. Many shared Gordon's opinion, ex- 
 pressed in a letter written after the fall of the 
 Mamelon : " I do not think the place can hold 
 out for another ten days, and Sevastopol once 
 taken, the Crimea is ours." The Russian de- 
 fence was more stubborn than the most com- 
 petent judges had expected; technically, Sevas- 
 topol was never taken, and, since the Russians 
 held the north shore till peace was signed, the 
 Crimea was never ours. Although our people 
 did not achieve the Redan on the day the 
 Mamelon fell, they were successful in seizing 
 and holding the important position of the 
 " Quarries," in front of it ; and Gordon bore his 
 share in the enterprise, escaping, more fortu- 
 nate than many gallant comrades, without a 
 scratch. Here is an extract from a letter 
 written by his brother : — " Only a few lines to 
 say Charlie is all right, and has escaped amidst 
 a terrific shower of grape and shells of all de- 
 scriptions. You may imagine the suspense I 
 was kept in until assured of his safety. He 
 cannot write himself, and is now fast asleep in 
 his tent, having been in the trenches from 
 2 o'clock yesterday morning during the can-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 15 
 
 nonade until seven last night, and again from 
 12.30 this morning until noon." 
 
 The final bombardment began on September 
 5th ; on the 8th the French took the Malakoff, 
 while we were unsuccessful in getting and keep- 
 ing a firm grip on the Redan. A second 
 assault on that position was resolved on for the 
 following day, but it was not necessary to de- 
 liver it. The Russians evacuated Sevastopol 
 on the night between 8th and 9th September, 
 and withdrew across the harbour to the north 
 shore position. Gordon was for duty in the 
 trenches on the morning of the 9th, and this is 
 his account of what he saw : — " Dunne the nio-ht 
 of the 8th I had heard terrific explosions, and 
 going down to the trenches at four next morn- 
 ing, I saw a splendid sight. The whole of 
 Sevastopol was in flames, and every now and 
 then terrible explosions took place, while the ris- 
 ing sun shining on the place had a most beautiful 
 effect. The Russians were leaving the town by 
 the bridge ; all the three deckers were sunk, the 
 steamers alone remaining. Tons and tons of 
 powder must have been blown up. About eight 
 o'clock I got an order to commence a plan of 
 the works, for which purpose I went to the
 
 6 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 Redan, where a dreadful sight was presented. 
 The dead were buried in the ditch— the Rus- 
 sians with the English— Mr. Wright reading 
 the burial service over them." 
 
 Gordon went on duty with the expedition to 
 Kinburn, and participated in the reduction of 
 that place; after which he returned to the 
 Crimea, where he remained until the evacuation 
 in February, 1856, engaged in the duty, so dis- 
 tasteful to an engineer, of demolishing the de- 
 fences, arsenal, and dockyard of the fallen 
 stronghold. Mr. Hake quotes some letters 
 written home by Gordon, chiefly between the 
 third bombardment and the final stroke of good 
 fortune. What is characteristic in these may 
 be extracted here. Gordon clearly, and with 
 justice, had a high respect for the soldierhood 
 of the Russians ; and perhaps his idiosyncracy 
 did not allow him to do adequate justice to the 
 French. "The Russians," says he, "are brave, 
 better I think than the French, who begin to 
 fear them." Again, " the Russians certainly are 
 inferior to none ; their work is stupendous, and 
 their shell practice beautiful." And yet again, 
 on June 15th, "the Russians are downhearted 
 though determined ; they are much to be ad-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 17 
 
 mired, and their officers are quite as cool as our 
 officers under fire." 
 
 He thus refers to Lord Raglan's death and 
 character : — " Lord RaMan died of tear and wear 
 
 O 
 
 and general debility. He was universally re- 
 gretted, as he was so kind. His life has been 
 entirely spent in the service of his country. I 
 hope he was prepared, but do not know." The 
 last sentence indicates what ever has been 
 uppermost in Gordon's thoughts. Writing pre- 
 viously of the sudden end of Captain Craigie, a 
 brother officer, he says, " I am glad to say that 
 he was a serious man. The shell burst above 
 him, and by what is called chance, struck him 
 in the back, killing him at once." It is by such 
 utterances that the reader can form for himself 
 a better conception of the tenets of this remark- 
 able man, than could be conveyed in pages of 
 attempted characterisation ; a man's own words, 
 especially when they are not intended for effect, 
 give the truest tracing of his mental and moral 
 lineaments. On August 3rd he writes, "We are 
 disappointed that General Jones did not mention 
 Brown in the attack on the Quarries." This is 
 the espi'it de corps ; but he goes on to guard 
 himself individually against an appetite for mili-
 
 1 8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 tary glory — " I, for one," he adds, " do not care 
 about being 'lamented' after death." If he 
 comments on neglect, it is no personal growl — 
 " I am not ambitious," he says, "but what easily 
 earned C.B.'s and Majorities there are in some 
 cases ! while men who have earned them, like 
 poor Oldfield, get nothing. I am sorry for him. 
 He was always squabbling about his batteries 
 with us, but he got more done by his perse- 
 verance than any man before did." 
 
 The close of the Crimean War saw Gordon's 
 status defined among his comrades and su- 
 periors as an officer of adequate parts and of 
 sterling trustworthiness. He had no oppor- 
 tunities to give earnest of his great future, but 
 as Chesney has recorded, his "special aptitude 
 for war" had been recognized by the men who 
 had the best means of forming the judgment. 
 Sir Harry Jones reported of him as an officer 
 who had done gallant service, and indicated that 
 he had earned promotion, if the regulations of 
 his corps had permitted that advancement. 
 And he was awarded the Legion of Honour, a 
 token of distinction conferred on few officers of 
 his rank, for as yet he was a subaltern. His 
 promotion as first lieutenant had come to him
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 19 
 
 in February, 1855, just as he began his trench 
 work, but he was not to get his captaincy until 
 three years after the Crimean War had ended. 
 
 By the Treaty of Paris Russia lost what she 
 has since regained by the Treaty of Berlin in 
 1878, a slice of territory the possession of which 
 carries with it a control over the lower Danube. 
 Until 181 2 this territory had been part of the 
 Turkish Empire, when it fell to Russia among 
 the spoils of Kutusoff's successful campaign. By 
 the Treaty of Bucharest Russian Bessarabia had 
 been advanced to the Pruth, and the principality 
 of Moldavia proportionately curtailed. Now 
 there was to be the retrocession to Moldavia of 
 what had been taken from it forty-five years 
 before. A commission, consisting of English, 
 French, Russian, and Austrian officers, was 
 appointed to lay down the new frontier line, 
 and the British commissioner was Major 
 Stanton (now Sir Edward Stanton). Lieu- 
 tenants Gordon and James, both engineers, as 
 was their principal, were assistant commis- 
 sioners, and their duties began in the summer 
 of 1856. There was plenty of variety in the 
 work. If the salt marshes bordering the Black 
 Sea are detestable and noxious, if life about the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Kilia mouth of the Danube is amphibious, and 
 presents the added joy of mosquitoes whose 
 size and viciousness are only to be found 
 equalled in Manitoba, if Kischeneft", the head- 
 quarters of the commission, was and is one of 
 the most commonplace, sordid, and unattractive 
 of the huee villages which in Southern Russia 
 pass for towns ; there was life and colour and 
 picturesqueness in the quaint semi-oriental 
 towns of the Principality. J assy, the Moldavian 
 capital, thirty years ago was even a quainter 
 field for ethnological study than it is to-day. 
 Ismail, on the Danube, still then showed in its 
 shattered walls the print of Potemkin's furious 
 attacks, and the not less memorable stubborn- 
 ness of its defence. Gordon and James M rode 
 the marches" for nearly a year, verifying or 
 correcting the Russian maps, surveying the 
 boundary line, and carrying despatches. We 
 are told that Gordon, in this work, so different 
 from that in which he had been engaged in the 
 Crimea, enjoyed himself greatly, and took a 
 keen interest in all that he saw. It was finished 
 at length, after multitudinous disputes, for the 
 Russians begrudged the surrender ; but Gordon 
 was not free to return to England. He was
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 21 
 
 ordered instead, to transfer himself to similar 
 work in another continent. There was a delimi- 
 tation commission in Asia Minor as well as in 
 Bessarabia, at the head of which Colonel Sim- 
 mons (now Sir Lintorn Simmons) was engaged. 
 Him Gordon was ordered to join. Gordon 
 was home-sick, and telegraphed to solicit that 
 another officer might be substituted. But he 
 was a proven useful man, and the peremptory 
 answer came back, " Lieutenant Gordon must 
 go." In Armenia he first came into contact 
 with wild uncivilised peoples, and learned to 
 understand their complex yet simple nature. 
 His duties on the commission took him to the 
 historic places of the land so teeming with 
 associations, and he ascended Mount Ararat. 
 Mr. Hake writes, ''After six months spent in 
 these regions he went back to Constantinople, 
 to be present at a conference of the commis- 
 sion. Here he remained longer than he had 
 expected, to nurse his chief, who had fallen ill. 
 This done, he was not sorry to return to 
 England after his three years' absence. Another 
 six months in England, and he was once more 
 sent to Armenia as commissioner. Here he 
 remained from the spring of 1S5S until nearly
 
 22 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 the end of the year, employed in verifying the 
 frontier he had taken so active a part in laying 
 down, and in examining the new road between 
 the Russian and Turkish dominions." 
 
 After his return to England from this frontier 
 delimitation service, Gordon had a turn of 
 " duty soldiering " at home, in the capacity of 
 Instructor of Fieldworks and Adjutant at Chat- 
 ham. He attained the rank of Captain on 
 April ist, 1859. He had then been a soldier 
 for seven years, less two months. His age was 
 twenty-six.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHINESE GORDON IN CHINA. 
 
 Leaving England for China in July, i860, 
 Captain Gordon did not reach the scene of our 
 military operations there in time to participate 
 in the capture of the Taku Forts. But Sep- 
 tember saw him at Tientsin, whence the allied 
 forces had already commenced (September 9) 
 their advance on Pekin, since the Chinese Com- 
 missioners were shuffling in the Chinese manner 
 in regard to compliance with the conditions 
 on which the allies were prepared to suspend 
 hostilities and conclude peace. It was in the 
 course of this movement, while negotiations were 
 still proceeding, and had suddenly seemed pros- 
 pering when indeed a basis of arrangement had 
 been agreed to, that the representatives of the 
 British Ambassador with their escort, while on 
 their way back to the army from Tungchow 
 after a not unsatisfactory conference with the
 
 24 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Chinese Commissioners, were beset, made pri- 
 soners, vilely maltreated, and finally carried off to 
 dungeons in Pekin, whence few of the party 
 emerged alive. This outrage made further nego- 
 tiations out of the question until satisfaction had 
 been exacted. Lord Elgin informed the Chinese 
 authorities that he would sign no convention 
 with the Imperial Commissioners except within 
 the walls of Pekin ; and the stern pronounce- 
 ment was made good. But as the advance was 
 now to be an avowedly hostile one, certain ad- 
 ditional military preparations had to be made 
 which detained the allied armies near Tunoxhow 
 until the beginning of October. This pause 
 gave Captain Gordon the opportunity of joining 
 the British force which the late Sir Hope Grant 
 so ably commanded. Pekin was reached on 
 6th October, and during the two following days 
 the army confronted the north wall of the capital, 
 with the principal concentration directed against 
 the An-ting Gate. 
 
 The allied commanders had given the Chinese 
 authorities until noon on the 13th to surrender 
 the gate, failing which immediate hostile action 
 would be resorted to. The artillery and engi- 
 neers were in possession of a temple close to the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 25 
 
 gate, and under cover of its courtyard were 
 busying themselves in getting the siege train 
 ready for action. In this work Gordon partici- 
 pated. " We were sent down," he writes, " in a 
 great hurry to throw up works and batteries 
 against the town, as the Chinese refused to give 
 up the gate we required them to surrender 
 before we would treat with them. The Chinese 
 were given until noon, on the 13th (October) to 
 give up the (An- ting) gate. We made a lot of 
 batteries, and everything was ready for the as- 
 sault of the wall, which is battlemented, and forty 
 feet high, but of inferior masonry. At 1 1.30 p.m. 
 (12th), however, the gate was opened, and we 
 took possession, so our work was of no avail." 
 It became a problem for Lord Elgin, in what 
 manner to inflict an adequate punishment for the 
 treacherous seizure of Parkes and his com- 
 panions, the murders wrought on so many of 
 the party, and the diabolical cruelty inflicted on 
 all its members. To burn the capital would 
 have been to punish a vast population guiltless 
 of complicity in the outrage. Yet the penalty 
 had to be one that would ring throughout the 
 whole empire. The complicity of the Emperor 
 and the Government in the treatment of the
 
 26 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 prisoners stood proven. These had been taken 
 in the first instance to the Yuen- Ming- Yuen, the 
 celebrated "Summer Palace," and there had been 
 beeun the ill-usa^e which resulted in so many 
 deaths. The clothing of the victims had been 
 found in the palace, and their horses in the im- 
 perial stables. So the orders were given for 
 the destruction of the " Summer Palace" by fire. 
 The vast and costly bonfire was kindled on the 
 1 8th October, and during the whole of the next 
 day Yuen-Ming- Yuen was still burning ; the 
 clouds of smoke, driven by the wind, hung like 
 a vast pall over Pekin. Next day Prince Yung 
 intimated absolute submission to all the demands 
 of the allies, and four days later a treaty was 
 signed with much pomp in the Hall of Ceremo- 
 nies, around which bristled British bayonets in 
 the very heart of the Imperial City. At this 
 scene Gordon was not present, " as all officers 
 commanding companies were obliged to remain 
 in camp, owing to the ill-teatment the prisoners 
 experienced at the Summer Palace." The men 
 were vicious, and needed controlling from exact- 
 ing revenge. But he saw, and deplores, the 
 destruction of the "Summer Palace." He 
 writes : — " We went out, and after pillaging it,
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 27 
 
 burned the whole place, destroying in a vandal- 
 like manner most valuable property, which could 
 not be replaced for four millions. We got up- 
 wards of ^48 a piece as prize money ; and 
 although I have not had as much as many, I 
 
 have done well. Imagine D giving 16s. 
 
 for a string of pearls, which he sold the next 
 day for ^500 ! You can scarcely imagine the 
 beauty and magnificence of the places we burned. 
 It made one's heart sore to burn them ; in fact, 
 those palaces" — there was a great imperial set- 
 tlement, upwards of 200 buildings, and the 
 grounds covered an area of eight by ten miles 
 in extent—" were so large, and we were so 
 pressed for time, that we could not plunder 
 them carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments 
 were burned, considered as brass. It was 
 wretchedly demoralising work for an army. 
 Everybody was wild for plunder. . . You would 
 scarcely conceive the magnificence of this resi- 
 dence, or the tremendous devastation the French 
 have committed. The throne and room were 
 lined with ebony, carved in a marvellous way. 
 There were huge mirrors of all shapes and 
 kinds, clocks, watches, musical boxes with pup- 
 pets on them, magnificent china of every de-
 
 28 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 scription, heaps and heaps of silks of all colours, 
 embroidery, and as much splendour and civiliza- 
 tion as you would see at Windsor ; carved ivory 
 screens, coral screens, large amounts of treasure, 
 &c. The French have smashed everything in 
 the most wanton way. It was a scene of utter 
 destruction, which passes my description." 
 
 Gordon accompanied Sir Hope Grant's force 
 on its retirement to Tientsin in November, 
 where it went into winter quarters. Head- 
 quarters moved from the Peiho in the following 
 year, but a detachment of British troops was 
 left, and Gordon remained at Tientsin until the 
 spring of 1862, in the capacity of officer com- 
 manding the Royal Engineers. From Tien- 
 tsin during this period of comparative quiet, he 
 made numerous journeys into the surrounding 
 country, and in one of those rides he and his 
 companion, Lieutenant Cardew, were able to 
 accomplish the enterprise of exploring a con- 
 siderable section of the " Great Wall of China." 
 It was an adventurous journey, for they pene- 
 trated into districts where no " Foreien Devil " 
 had been before them, and on one occasion they 
 had to ride for their lives. Their servant and 
 interpreter was a Chinese lad who knew some
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 29 
 
 " pigeon " English, and their baggage was car- 
 ried in a couple of carts. At Kalgan they 
 found the wall, with its parapet, twenty-two 
 feet high, and sixteen broad, the faces of huge 
 bricks, and the interior filled with rubble. 
 From Kalgan they followed the lines of the 
 wall west to Taitung, where the wall was not 
 so high, and where they saw the camel cara- 
 vans, laden with "brick tea," on the route to 
 Siberia. Fetching a wide south-westerly cir- 
 cuit in exploration of the line of the inner wall, 
 and looking for a road eastward through the 
 mountains flanking the Peiho basin on the 
 north, they ultimately struck the thorough- 
 fare at Taiyuen. Here they got into trouble 
 for the first and only time. Dr. Birkbeck Hill 
 tells the story. " When their bill was brought 
 them for their night's lodgings they found the 
 charge enormous. Seeing that a dispute would 
 arise, they sent on their carts, and waited at the 
 inn till thev felt sure these had srot well on 
 their way. Then they offered what they 
 thought was a reasonable sum. It was re- 
 fused. They tried to mount their horses, but 
 the people of the inn stopped them. Captain 
 Gordon took out his revolver, for show more
 
 3 o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 than for use, for he allowed them to take it 
 from him. Then he said, ' Let us go to the 
 Mandarin.' To this they agreed, and gave him 
 back his revolver. They all walked toward the 
 Mandarin's house— the two Englishmen along- 
 side their horses. On the way Captain Gor- 
 don said to his companion, ' Are you ready to 
 mount?' 'Yes,' answered Cardew ; so they 
 mounted quietly, and went on with the people. 
 When they reached the Mandarin's they turned 
 their horses, and scampered after their carts as 
 fast as they could. The people yelled and 
 rushed after them, but it was too late." So, in 
 cold so intense that " raw eggs were frozen 
 hard as if they had been boiled," they crossed 
 the mountains, and, after sundry vicissitudes, 
 finally reached Tientsin more than fourteen 
 days after their leave had expired. 
 
 This journey, which occupied two months, 
 was made in the winter 1 86 1-2, and in May 
 of the latter year Gordon, with some infantry 
 details, was ordered to Shanghai, in the vicinity 
 of which the Tai-ping rebels were becoming so 
 aggressive that it was considered requisite by 
 Sir Charles Staveley, who now commanded the 
 English forces in China, to operate against
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 31 
 
 them. Gordon now found himself in that 
 Kiangnan district which was later the scene of 
 his wonderful exploits at the head of the " Ever 
 Victorious Army." It is impossible, in the 
 narrow limits of this work, to give a detailed 
 narrative of the origin and progress of that 
 strange uprising the Tai-ping Rebellion. It 
 had been raging with varied fortune for twelve 
 years when Gordon was appointed to the task 
 of confronting and quelling it, and there are few 
 histories covering so short a space of time, that 
 are fuller charged with sensational incident. A 
 brief summary, nevertheless, is absolutely essen- 
 tial to the understanding of the events that 
 occurred in the fourteen final months during 
 which Gordon hammered at the Rebellion until 
 he broke it. 
 
 Between "the Heavenly King" of the Tai- 
 ping Rebellion, and "the Mahdi" of the Sou- 
 dan, there is a certain analogy which probably 
 has occurred to Gordon lone before now. Both 
 are of the people. Hung Sew-tsuen was " a 
 poor youth of a rude, despised race ; " Mo- 
 hammed Ahmed is the son of a Doncrola car- 
 penter. Both professed, and perhaps felt reli- 
 gious enthusiasm ; both certainly made a
 
 32 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 weapon of the religious enthusiasm with which 
 they were able to inspire masses. The charac- 
 ter of neither displays personal heroism ; both 
 schemed and allowed others to fight their 
 battles. Both characters are full of personal 
 licentiousness and ruthless cruelty ; the Mahdi's 
 " indiscriminate executions " in Obeid, and his 
 eighteen wives, find some parallel in the 
 Heavenly King's " exterminating decrees," and 
 his harem indulgences in Nanking. It has 
 befallen Charles Gordon to cope with both. 
 Will their fates be similar ? We know how 
 the " Heavenly King " came by his end ; will 
 the career of the Mahdi parallel his down to its 
 violent close ? 
 
 In the earlier days of China, Hung Sew-tsuen 
 might not even have expanded into a " village 
 Hampden," but might have grumbled his life 
 through as a peasant lad of the Hakkas, 
 the rude hill race to which he belonged — 
 the " Strangers " — who are regarded by the 
 "Punti" or " In-dwellers " of the Kwangtung 
 province, much, as Dr. Wilson expressively puts 
 it, "as the Irish of Liverpool are by the English 
 workmen of that city." Perhaps if he had 
 passed his examination at Canton he might
 
 CHINESE GORDON, 33 
 
 have merged into an official, and the Tai-ping 
 Rebellion had never been. But he failed ; all 
 the conditions of his life soured him ; and he 
 began to think. The "Opium War" of 1841-2 
 had shaken the internal prestige of the Imperial 
 Government, and a bold young fellow like this 
 soured Hakka might even dare to sneer at the 
 emblem of omnipotence in the person of a 
 Mandarin. He would find around him in his 
 clan people who had been carrying arms during 
 the war, and had gained some glimmering 
 notion of the might of the sword. There was 
 a stirring of the dry bones of the Chinese 
 Empire, and this young schoolmaster was first 
 the creature and then the compeller of the 
 movement. He invented a religion — from 
 Mahomet to Te Whiti, that has been the grand 
 leverage to move races, — and into the mosaic of 
 which this new religion of his was composed, 
 he worked a grim and distorted caricature of 
 Christianity. He had possessed himself of the 
 material he used in this way by having, in 184;, 
 sat at the feet of an uneducated American mis- 
 sionary whom he found working in Canton. He 
 turned this* simple man inside out, and took 
 away of the product just what suited himself,
 
 34 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Dr. Wilson holds this undoubtedly remarkable 
 Hakka man to have been far from a mere 
 cunning impostor. "To the grossly super- 
 stitious Hakka, and to the ardent student of 
 the more ancient Chinese classics, there was 
 now added," he writes, " a third person, so to 
 speak, imbued with certain Hebrew and Chris- 
 tian beliefs. It is a proof of the extraordinary 
 power of this man's mind, and the depth of his 
 convictions, that he could blend these three 
 individuals so completely into one under the 
 transmuting belief in his own mission. These 
 results were far above the power of a mere 
 cunning impostor. From the hour when Hung 
 arose from his sick bed, after his first forty days' 
 trance, and, poor and nameless, proclaimed his 
 ovation by fixing on his door-post the proclama- 
 tion, ' The noble principles qf the Heavenly 
 King, the Sovereign King Tsuen,' and through 
 success and defeat and imperial opposition, up 
 to the hour of his death in Nanking, he seems 
 never to have wavered or abated one jot of his 
 claim to supreme rule on earth." Most of us 
 now, it may be supposed, are rather inclined to 
 take Chesney's view that Hung was an able, 
 astute, and keen-sighted impostor. Since in the
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. 35 
 
 jargon of his pretended visions there were some 
 
 traces of his New Testament study, he had the 
 
 singular fortune — this being of blood and lust — 
 
 to find sympathy among good and fervent 
 
 people here in England, who were fain to 
 
 recognise in him a man who had put his hand 
 
 to the enterprise of evangelising the East. The 
 
 controversy is long dead and forgotten ; there 
 
 may be said that there is prima facie evidence 
 
 that Gordon regarded the Heavenly King as 
 
 an impostor, in virtue of his acceptance of the 
 
 conduct of operations against him. 
 
 The Hakka schoolmaster proclaimed his 
 
 "mission'" in 1850. A vast horde gathered to 
 
 him. He nominated five "Wangs" or soldier 
 
 sub-kings from out his clan, and commenced 
 
 his northward movement from Woosewen in 
 
 January, 1851. Through the rich prosperous 
 
 provinces his desultory march, interspersed 
 
 with frequent halts, spread destruction and 
 
 desolation. The peaceful fled shudderingly 
 
 before this wave of fierce stalwart ruffianhood, 
 
 with its tatterdemalian tawdriness, its flaunting 
 
 banners, its rusty naked weapons. Everywhere 
 
 it gathered in the local scoundrelism. The 
 
 pirates came from the coast ; the robbers from 
 
 i) 2
 
 36 CHIXESE QORDON. 
 
 the interior mountains rallied to an enterprise 
 that promised so well for their trade. In the 
 perturbed state of the Chinese population the 
 horde grew like an avalanche as it rolled along. 
 The Heavenly King met with no opposition to 
 speak of, and in 1853 his promenade ended under 
 the shadow of the Porcelain Tower, in the city 
 of Nanking, the second metropolis of the Chinese 
 Empire, where till the rebellion and his life 
 ended simultaneously he lived a life of licentious- 
 ness, darkened further by the grossest cruelties. 
 
 The rebellion had lasted nearly ten years 
 when the fates brought it into collision with the 
 armed civilization of the West. The Imperialist 
 forces had made sluggishly some head against 
 it. Nanking had been invested after a fashion 
 for years on end. " The prospects of the Tai- 
 pings," says Commander Brine, " in the early 
 spring of i860 had become very gloomy/' The 
 Imperialist generals had hemmed Tai-pingdom 
 within certain limits in the lower valley of the 
 Yantsze, and the movement languished further 
 " from its destructive and exhausting nature, 
 which for continued vitality constantly required 
 new districts of country to exhaust and destroy." 
 
 But in 1859 China and the West came into
 
 CHINESE GORDON 37 
 
 collision. Admiral Hope failed to force the pas- 
 sage of the Peiho. The Imperial Government 
 knew something by this time of the British charac- 
 ter, and knowing what was before it, concentrated 
 much of its attention in strengthening further 
 the defences of that river. The subjugation of 
 the Tai-pings ceased to be a prime object, and 
 the rebellion had opportunity to recover lost 
 ground. For the sixth time the " Faithful 
 King" relieved Nanking. The Imperialist gene- 
 rals fell back, and then the Tai-pings took the 
 offensive, and as the result of sundry victories, 
 the rebellion regained an active and flourishinof 
 condition. In i860 the Faithful Kino- W as 
 free to march into the rich district of Yiangnan, 
 the chief city of which, Soochow, he entered 
 almost without opposition. Shanghai, one of 
 the treaty ports, was threatened, but there was 
 in Shanghai a force of allied English and French 
 troops, who when the Tai-pings attempted the 
 place drove them back with heavy loss. The 
 Kiangnan district continued to be held by 
 large Tai-ping forces, but in the beginning of 
 1 86 1 Admiral Mope, in the course of a voyage 
 up the Yangtsze, visited Nanking, and there 
 entered into an arrangement with the Heavenly 
 
 2c
 
 3 8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 King who held his court there, that the river 
 trade was not to be interfered with nor Shanghai 
 to be molested by the Tai-ping forces, for the 
 space of one year. This convention was kept; 
 but in the face of warnings from the Admiral, 
 the Heavenly King ordered his general, imme- 
 diately on its expiry, to move on Shanghai. 
 The Faithful King advanced from Soochow in 
 the early part of 1862, proclaiming, "We must 
 take Shanghai to complete our dominions," and 
 heralding his advent by the smoke of burning 
 villages. Now for the first time did the allies 
 take the field against the Tai-pings ; and this 
 solely to secure the safety of Shanghai. Sir 
 Charles Stavelev, who had succeeded to the 
 command of the British forces, considered that 
 this could best be effected by maintaining 
 around that city a clear radius of thirty miles. 
 At first the allied forces which he commanded, 
 in conjunction with the Imperialist levies, had 
 fair success, but reverses occurred, and until the 
 Faithful King was summoned by his master to 
 Nanking, the Tai-pings held and laid waste the 
 country up to the city walls. 
 
 It was to assist in the operations Staveley 
 was engaging in that Captain Gordon was
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 39 
 
 summoned from the Peiho to Shanghai, in May, 
 1862. He was Commanding Engineer, and 
 had a prominent position in the conduct of 
 affairs. He was in command at the storm of 
 Singpoo, and in October of the same year he was 
 with the force which cleared the rebels out of 
 Kading, one of the places Staveley had aban- 
 doned in the earlier part of the year. One of 
 his letters about this time makes reference to 
 the Tai-ping character. " We had a visit," 
 says he, " from the marauding Tai-pings the 
 other day. They came close down in small 
 parties to the settlement, and burnt several 
 houses, driving in thousands of inhabitants. 
 We went against them and drove them away, 
 but did not kill many. They beat us into fits 
 in getting over the country, which is intersected 
 
 in every way with ditches, swamps, &c 
 
 You can scarcely conceive the crowd of peasants 
 who come into Shanghai when the rebels are in 
 the neighbourhood — upwards of 15,000 I should 
 think, and of every size and age — many strap- 
 ping fellows who could easily defend themselves 
 come running in with old women and children. 
 .... The people on the confines are suffering 
 greatly, and are in fact dying of starvation. It
 
 4o CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 is most sad, this state of affairs, and our Govern- 
 ment really ought to put the rebellion down. 
 Words could not depict the horrors these people 
 suffer from the rebels, or describe the utter 
 deserts they have made of this rich province." 
 
 When the Faithful King's withdrawal gave 
 comparative: and temporary peace to the region 
 around Shanghai, Gordon was engaged on the 
 survey of the thirty miles radius around that 
 city, and the conversance he thus gained of the 
 complicated amphibious country, was to stand 
 him in valuable stead a little later. " I have 
 been now," he writes, " in every town and 
 
 village in the thirty mile radius The 
 
 country is the same everywhere, a dead flat 
 with innumerable creeks and bad pathways." 
 Uhornme propose — Gordon believed that it was 
 all over ; " the people," he continues, " have 
 now settled down quiet again, and I do not 
 anticipate the rebels will ever come back ; they 
 are rapidly on the decline, and two years ought 
 to bring about the utter suppression of the 
 revolt." The revolt was suppressed, it is true, 
 in less than two years, but when Gordon wrote 
 the last sentence, he certainly had no notion that 
 there could be so venomous a sting in its tail.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. \\ 
 
 When, in i860, Shanghai was threatened by 
 the Tai-ping forces that had pervaded and con- 
 quered the district of Kiangnan, a number of 
 wealthy merchants of that commercial city de- 
 termined to subscribe funds for the establish- 
 ment of a foreign force for the purpose of 
 checking the enterprising enemy. A couple of 
 Americans, whose names were Ward and Burge- 
 vine, were engaged to recruit and organise this 
 force, of which Ward was to have the command. 
 Ward was an adventurer and a seaman ; but he 
 had useful military instincts, he was a man of 
 great personal bravery, and his character com- 
 manded respect. He and his followers did a 
 good deal of hard fighting, with chequered 
 fortunes, between i860 and 1862. W r ard had 
 been filling his ranks by disciplining Chinese, and 
 the force he commanded fought so well in the 
 operations of the early part of the latter year, 
 in co-operation with the allied troops of the 
 Shanghai crarrison, that it becran to be known 
 by the title of the " Ever Victorious Army " — a 
 title that soon was to become so familiar to the 
 world. Later a detachment of the " False 
 Foreign Devils," as Ward's soldiers were called 
 by the Tai-pings, because, although Chinese, he
 
 4 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 dressed them in European clothes, sustained a 
 serious reverse at Singpoo, and Colonel For- 
 rester, its commander, was made a prisoner. 
 Ward participated with part of his force in the 
 operations conducted by Captain Roderick Dew, 
 R.N., against the Tai-pings in the vicinity of 
 Ningpo, in the region south of Hangchow Bay, 
 and was killed by a chance ball during the 
 escalade of the town of Tseki. Dr. Wilson 
 says of him : " So passed away a man who, as 
 the originator of the idea of disciplining the 
 Chinese, had done good service. Surmounting 
 all difficulties, Ward had gained a strange as- 
 cendancy over Europeans, as well as Chinese, 
 by his cool and daring courage. Ever foremost 
 in fight, he was honourably scarred ; but his 
 ambition was boundless ; and perhaps it was 
 well for the Imperial Government of China that 
 he was removed at this stage of the Rebellion, 
 and that his work was left to be completed by 
 one who, though his equal in courage and in 
 coolness, far surpassed him in all the higher 
 qualities of a soldier." Soon after his death, 
 his force went back to Shanghai, Captain Dew 
 not sorry to end the connection, for Ward's 
 men robbed and " squeezed" with great industry.
 
 CHINESE GORDO. \. 43 
 
 Ward's second in command, Colonel For- 
 rester, declined to succeed him in the command 
 of the " Ever Victorious Army," and the posi- 
 tion fell to Burgevine, a more unscrupulous 
 soldier of fortune than had been his prede- 
 cessor. He soon came to loggerheads with Li- 
 Hung-Chang, the Imperialist Governor- General 
 of the Kiang provinces — " Governor Li;" as he 
 was known in England in those days. The 
 quarrel was intensified by a variety of circum- 
 stances, and in January, 1863, Burgevine was 
 dismissed. Li begged Sir Charles Staveley to 
 appoint a British officer to the vacant command. 
 Staveley entertained the request, but had to 
 refer to the Home Government for sanction 
 thus to dispose of the services of a British 
 officer. He recommended Gordon for the 
 appointment. Gordon was engaged in the 
 survey work of which mention has already 
 been made, and Mr. Hake says that he asked 
 permission to be allowed to finish that duty 
 before entering on the command offered him, 
 on the ground that the completed survey would 
 be of great service to him in the subsequent 
 military operations he would have to undertake. 
 To this request General Staveley acceded, and
 
 44 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 meanwhile the temporary command of the 
 " Ever Victorious Army" was given to Captain 
 Holland, R.M., General Staveley's Chief of 
 Staff. That officer strove to utilise his oppor- 
 tunity by making an attack, in conjunction with 
 an Imperialist brigade, upon the town of Tait- 
 san, held by the Tai-pings, but suffered a de- 
 feat, with the loss of some guns and many 
 officers and men. Xo more successful was 
 Major Brennan's expedition against Fushan, 
 and the prestige of the " Ever Vi ctoriou s 
 Army " was at a serious discount, when sanc- 
 tion reached General Staveley to entrust a 
 British officer with its permanent command. 
 Gordon — by this time Major Gordon, for he 
 had received his brevet for his services of the 
 previous year — was summoned from his survey 
 work, and the "Ever Victorious Army" had 
 now a chief under whom it was to make go<"! 
 its title to that appellation. 
 
 Gordon had just turned thirty — a young man, 
 truly, for a task so arduous. But men of his 
 stamp are not to be judged by their years. The 
 art of war, perhaps more than any other art, 
 demands experience in its successful practi- 
 tioners. But sometimes, although rarely, sol-
 
 CHINESE .GORDON. 45 
 
 diers move to the front in whom an innate 
 genius for war dispenses with the tuition of 
 experience. Sheridan, when he sent Early 
 " whirling up the Shenandoah Valley," had not 
 Gordon's years when the latter took the com- 
 mand of the "Ever Victorious Army." Ranald 
 Mackenzie at twenty- one, was pronounced by 
 General Grant the finest Cavalry- Division Com- 
 mander of the Union Armies. Skobeleff had 
 conquered Khokand before he reached eight- 
 and-twentv. To cite a more illustrious ex- 
 ample, Napoleon was but twenty-seven when he 
 carried the Bridge of Lodi. Gordon was in 
 the prime of mental and physical vigour. He 
 had been a constant student of the art military ; 
 his nature was at once enterprising and cau- 
 tious ; he seemed to control his fellowmen by 
 an intuitive influence ; and the buoyancy of his 
 temperament sustained him in every situation. 
 
 In what spirit he accepted the onerous task, 
 an excerpt from a home letter will show, written 
 in March, 1863. v^I have taken the step on 
 consideration. I think that any one who con- 
 tributes to putting clown this rebellion fulfils a 
 humane task, and, I also think, tends a great 
 deal to open China to civilisation. I will not
 
 46 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 act rashly, and I trust soon to be able to return 
 to England. ... I can say that if I had not 
 accepted the command I believe the force 
 would have broken up, and the rebellion gone 
 on in its misery for years. I trust this will not 
 now be the case. ... I think I am doing a 
 good service." 
 
 Something must be told of the constitution 
 of the army whose command he took over in 
 its headquarters at Sung-kiang. Its strength 
 varied, while lie had it, from 3,000 to 5,000 
 men, under about 150 officers. When he took 
 it over, the private soldiers were mostly locally 
 recruited, and were inferior to the Tai-pings 
 both in physique and courage ; but Gordon 
 almost at once began the practice of enlisting 
 picked men from out the captured rebels, who, 
 having: been accustomed to hard work and no 
 pay, found the new service an elysium, and 
 who, taken to-day, had no objection to go into 
 action against their late comrades to-morrow. 
 The pay was good, and fairly regular, and the 
 force was rationed, besides, when in the held. 
 Discipline was as firm as might be, but there was 
 little crime, and therefore few punishments. The 
 infantry armament consisted of smooth-bore
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. 47 
 
 English muskets, but one regiment had rifles, 
 and three hundred Enfields were distributed to 
 marksmen. " Every regiment," writes an ex-of- 
 ficer of the force, "could go through the manual 
 and platoon and bayonet exercises to English 
 words of command with a smartness and pre- 
 cision to which not many volunteer regiments 
 can attain ; could manoeuvre very fairly in com- 
 panies or as a battalion, and each regiment had 
 been put through a regular course of musketry 
 instruction, the scores and returns being satis- 
 factorily kept, and the good shots rewarded." 
 But this must have held good only of the ori- 
 ginal levies. The artillery arm was exception- 
 ally strong ; there were in all 52 pieces, most of 
 large calibre, but nearly all mounted on travel- 
 ling carriages. The building of batteries 
 against fortified places was not resorted to, but 
 the gunners were covered from musket and 
 gingall fire by large wooden mantlets. There 
 was a pontoon train for the larger rivers, and 
 the force carried planks for bridging the creeks 
 wherewith the country was intersected. 
 
 The non-commissioned officers were all 
 Chinese, selected from the ranks ; but the com- 
 missioned officers were exclusively foreigners,
 
 4 8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 and a most miscellaneous lot they were — as 
 varied in origin as the officers of the Begum 
 Sumroo's army, whose tombstones at Sirdhana 
 record almost every European nationality. 
 Americans were in the majority, but there were 
 Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Spaniards, 
 Italians, Poles, and Greeks. Some were ex- 
 mates of merchant ships, some old soldiers 
 (rankers) of good character, some adventurers 
 and refugees of no character at all. In one 
 month, eleven officers died of delirium tremens. 
 " There was no picking and choosing "■ — wrote 
 one who had been in the force — " the general 
 was too glad to get any foreigners to fill up 
 vacancies, and the result, especially in garrison, 
 was deplorable. They fought well, and led 
 their men well, however, and that, after all, was 
 the chief requisite." Chesney thus speaks of 
 them — "Among them were avowed sympa- 
 thisers with the rebels, and avowed defiers of 
 Chinese law ; but all classes soon learnt to re- 
 spect a general in whose kindness, valour, skill, 
 and justice they found cause unhesitatingly to 
 confide ; who never spared himself personal 
 exposure when personal danger was near ; and 
 beneath whose firm touch sank into insio-nifi-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 49 
 
 cance the furious quarrels and personal jealou- 
 sies which had hitherto marred the usefulness of 
 the force. " 
 
 Something must be told of the geography 
 and character of the region in which Gordon 
 led his army to thirty-three engagements in less 
 than two years. The theatre of his operations 
 was the district of Kiangnan, lying between the 
 lower portion of the Yantsze's course, its 
 northern boundary, and the deep, narrow bay 
 of Hangchow on the south. The width of the 
 blunt peninsula so formed, from Nanking on the 
 Yantsze, the Heavenly King's residence, to 
 Hangchow, at the head of the bay of the same 
 name, is about 1 50 miles ; its length from a line 
 drawn between these two places to where the 
 ocean bounds it, is about 200. Some twenty- 
 five miles inland from its extreme eastern apex, 
 on one of the innumerable creeks which thread 
 the region, lies the great treaty port of Shang- 
 hai. Densely peopled, thickly studded with 
 villages and towns, intersected in every direc- 
 tion by rivers, creeks, and canals, Kiangnan, 
 save for a few low isolated hills, is a dead level 
 teeming with fertility, never more than a few 
 feet above sea level, and occasionally actually
 
 5o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 below that. Look across any portion of this 
 vast plain, and boats, with mat sails spread, 
 seem to be moving in every direction over the 
 land. In warfare in such a country, — a vast 
 network of canals and towpaths, where there 
 are absolutely no roads, where wheeled vehicles 
 are never used, and where the bridges still 
 remaining were scarce and precarious, Gordon's 
 survey experiences were of incalculable use. It 
 was an immense advantage to know what canals 
 were still navigable, which choked with weeds ; 
 where the ground would bear artillery, and 
 where it was impassable swamp. "He knew," 
 writes one of his officers, "every feature of the 
 country better than any other person, native or 
 foreigner, better even than the rebels who had 
 been in partial possession for years." And he 
 strengthened his hand by the formation and 
 use of a flotilla of armed steamers and gunboats, 
 which in that water-intersected country, served 
 both to cover and flank all his movements, and 
 also by swiftly transferring the force from one 
 point to another, to multiply it to the enemy's 
 imagination. 
 
 An Imperialist army co-operated with the 
 force Gordon commanded, and his coadjutor-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 51 
 
 general was a Mandarin named Li Adong, a 
 man whom he regarded as well fitted for his 
 position and likely to be of great service. But 
 Gordon, on assuming- command of the " Ever 
 Victorious Army," distinctly stipulated, and it 
 was definitely arranged, that the discipline of that 
 force and the appointment of its officers should 
 be wholly vested in himself, and that the 
 Chinese generals should have no power to 
 hamper his movements. The Imperialist Gover- 
 nor-General was a shrewd, clear-headed man, 
 who discerned what manner of man was this 
 young officer of Engineers. He generally gave 
 him full liberty of independent action ; he was 
 mostly ready with support when it was asked 
 for, and save in one instance he behaved to- 
 wards Gordon with a confidence and loyalty 
 which were rare in a Chinaman. 
 
 It was on March 25th, 1863, that Major 
 Gordon reached Sung-kiang and took over the 
 command of the " Ever Victorious Army " — 
 then not quite in accord with its title, from 
 Captain Holland. His staff consisted of Cap- 
 tain Stack, 67th Foot, as his chief of staff; 
 Ensign Stevens, 99th Regiment, Adjutant- 
 General ; Mr. Cooksley (of the Commissariat 
 
 E 2
 
 5 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Service), Quartermaster-General ; Lieutenant 
 Ward, R.A., commanding Field Artillery; and 
 Dr. Moffit, 67th Regiment, as P. M. O. He 
 had to establish his position at the outset, for 
 the force favoured Burgevine, but his tact car- 
 ried him through this initial trouble. He con- 
 vened the officers and noncommissioned officers, 
 had some talk with them, and all was well for 
 
 the time. 
 
 Then he busied himself with swift prepara- 
 tions for the immediate and energetic offensive, 
 as being sure to prove the best defensive. He 
 might have entered on deliberate and connected 
 operations in co-operation with the Chinese 
 troops. He might have contented himself 
 with covering Shanghai, and perhaps nibbling 
 the Tai-pings gradually out of the thirty miles 
 radius round that place. But these were not 
 tactics that recommended themselves to a man 
 of Gordon's nature. He resolved on a quick 
 sudden blow at a distant point, at once to con- 
 fuse the enemy, to brace the despondent Im- 
 perialists, give heart and cohesion to his fol- 
 lowers, and inspire them with confidence in 
 their new chief. Where should he strike 
 first ?
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 53 
 
 Seventy miles north-west of Shanghai, on 
 the southern shore of the Yantsze estuary, is 
 situated the town of Fushan, a pirate den, 
 which the Tai-pings now held in some force, 
 and had repulsed an attempt made to reduce it 
 a short time before. Ten miles inland, but 
 shut in by Fushan from access to the river, 
 the town of Chanzu was holding out, lest worse 
 things should befall the beleaguered garrison. 
 For originally the commandant and soldiers 
 of it had been themselves Tai-pings, but had 
 declared for the Imperialist cause, and for the 
 renegades to surrender would probably have 
 been death. But the Faithful King, who was 
 besieging Chanzu, had offered terms to the 
 soldiers of its garrison if they would rat back 
 again to the Tai-ping side ; and the com- 
 mandant, who no doubt felt his own head 
 rather loose on his shoulders in the event of a 
 surrender, had to take off the heads of a con- 
 siderable number of his soldiers to discourage 
 the others from accepting the Faithful King's 
 overtures. 
 
 On the enterprise of relieving Chanzu, 
 Gordon, a few days after his assumption of 
 command, was on his way from Sung-kiang,
 
 54 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 with two steamer-loads of his infantry and 
 adequate artillery. Landing without opposi- 
 tion, under cover of an Imperialist force lying 
 entrenched near Fushan, he moved directly on 
 that place. He planted his guns under cover 
 of night, breached the defences next morning 
 (April 14), after a three hours' bombardment ; 
 and the defenders did not wait to receive the 
 assault, but evacuated the place. Receiving 
 reinforcements from the direction of Chanzu, 
 they made a partial rally, but next morning 
 had abandoned all their positions, and were in 
 full retreat on Soochow. Fushan, Gordon's 
 first coup, was won at the cost of but two killed 
 and six wounded, but one of the former was 
 an English captain, named Belcher. Gordon 
 promptly marched to the relief of Chanzu, 
 passing on the way the corpses of thirty-five 
 Imperialist soldiers, first partially burnt, and 
 then crucified ; a spectacle which testified that 
 the tenacity of the Chanzu Governor had been 
 a wise discretion. The Tai-ping retreat had 
 opened the place, aud the population received 
 their deliverer with rejoicing. The Mandarins 
 gave Gordon and his officers a state reception, 
 and he has recorded his impressions of the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 55 
 
 ci-devant rebel officers : — " I saw," says he, 
 " the young rebel chiefs who had come over ; 
 they are very intelligent and splendidly dressed, 
 with big pearls in their caps. The head man 
 is about thirty-five years old ; he looked worn 
 to a thread with anxiety. He was so very 
 glad to see me, and chin-chinned most vio- 
 lently, regretting his inability to give me a 
 present, which I told him was not the custom 
 with us people/' 
 
 Having executed his purpose thus brilliantly, 
 and leaving 300 of his men in garrison at 
 Fushan, he returned to his headquarters at 
 Sunof-kiano- and devoted himself for the 
 moment to improve the condition and dis- 
 cipline of his force, and prepare himself for a 
 vigorous campaign. Burgevine had been in- 
 triguing up at Pekin ; but Governor Li settled 
 his pretensions in a report to his official supe- 
 rior, an extract from which deserves quotation. 
 
 "As the people and the place are charmed 
 with him (Gordon), as he has already given me 
 returns of the organisation of the force, the 
 formation of each regiment, and the expenses ; 
 as he wishes to drill our troops and save our 
 money; as it is evident that he fully comprehends
 
 56 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 the state of affairs ; and as in the expedition 
 he is preparing his men delightedly obey him 
 and preserve the proper order ; I cannot there- 
 fore remove him without due cause." 
 
 The expedition he was now preparing was a 
 campaign which was to restore Kiangnan to 
 the Imperial arms, and by breaking the neck of 
 the rebellion, lead to the general pacification of 
 China. 
 
 Gordon's plans and preparations were soon 
 made, and already, before the close of April, 
 he had commenced operations. The natural 
 capital and central point of the theatre of the 
 war was the great city of Soochow, which the 
 Tai-pings had held ever since May, 1S60. To 
 regain it for the Imperial power may well be 
 supposed to have been the keynote to Gordon's 
 scheme of operations. But there offered a 
 judicious alternative to a direct advance. About 
 thirty-five miles north from Shanghai lies the 
 walled town of Taitsan, held by the Tai-pings, 
 and connected with Soochow by a main road 
 running westward from Taitsan to Soochow, 
 threading on its course, about midway, the im- 
 portant town of Ouinsan. A chcval as it was 
 on the line of communications between Taitsan
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 57 
 
 and Soochow, Ouinsan was obviously a place of 
 immense strategical significance ; and further, it 
 was the arsenal of the Tai-pings, where they had 
 established a shot factory under some vagabond 
 Englishmen. Ouinsan, then, was Gordon's im- 
 mediate objective. He was moving on that 
 place, when he had suddenly to divert his force 
 on Taitsan to inflict exemplary retribution for 
 an act of the basest treachery. The Tai-ping 
 commander of Taitsan had made proposals of 
 surrender to Governor Li. These may have 
 been simply a snare, or there may have been 
 some reality originally in them, for Gordon's 
 work at Fusan might well have intimidated the 
 Taitsan commander. Anyhow, negotiations had 
 gone on, and an Imperialist column was sent up 
 by agreement to occupy the place. Presents 
 had been interchanged, and the day had been 
 fixed for the surrender. On that day a large 
 detachment of the Imperialist force was actually 
 admitted, when, at a signal, the gate was closed, 
 and the detachment was treacherously attacked 
 and seized. Three hundred were decapitated, 
 and the heads sent to Soochow and Ouinsan as 
 an evidence of the smartness and fidelity of 
 the Taitsan commander.
 
 58 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Gordon put aside his project of striking at 
 Ouinsan, and moved on Taitsan with all speed, 
 undeterred by the arduous character of the new 
 enterprise. For Taitsan had a garrison of 
 10,000 men, 2,000 of whom were picked braves. 
 The place was well found in artillery, and the 
 gun detachments were officered by several Eng- 
 lish, French, and American adventurers in the 
 Tai-ping employment. Coming upon the place 
 from the south, he worked round to its west, 
 keeping out of gunshot from the walls, and 
 capturing some outworks that had covered the 
 Ouinsan road, cut off the communication in that 
 direction. His heavy guns, with their mantlet 
 protection, were pushed forward, and opened 
 fire on the walls. On the second day of the 
 bombardment, May 2nd, a practicable breach 
 was achieved by their fire. A regiment had 
 been moved toward the North Gate, at once to 
 stop the retreat of the garrison, and to cover 
 the left flank of the attacking force. The moat 
 was bridged, and the stormers crossed to the 
 assaults under the command of Captain Ban- 
 ning. But the Tai-pings, full of fight, manned 
 the breach, engaged hand to hand with the as- 
 sailants, and drove them back. Gordon, fol-
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 59 
 
 lowing the tactics of Grahame at San Sebastian, 
 caused his artillery to play over the stormers' 
 heads, and so cleared the breach. The forlorn 
 hope again attacked, this time crowned the 
 breach, and the colours of the victorious regi- 
 ment waved from the top of the wall. The 
 Tai-pings broke and fled in every direction, 
 trampling each other to death in their eagerness 
 to escape. Seven hundred Chinese prisoners, 
 were made, and enlisted into the ranks of the 
 Ever Victorious Army ; the foreign mercenaries 
 received scant mercy, and seven of them were 
 killed. The loss of Gordon's force in the 
 capture of Taitsan was not inconsiderable. 
 Captain Banning and twenty men were killed ; 
 seven of his officers and 142 privates were 
 wounded. A clamour raised that Gordon's army 
 had been guilty of inhuman conduct, indeed of 
 the " most refined cruelty," was refuted by him ; 
 and rebutted even more conclusively by General 
 Brown, the officer in command of the British 
 troops about Shanghai, who testified that the 
 execution of seven Tai-pings — the circumstances 
 of which formed the burden of the charge — was 
 carried out by an independent Imperialist force 
 lying six miles distant from Taitsan.
 
 60 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Gordon writes of the reduction of Taitsan : 
 " I attacked the two large stockades in one day 
 and the town on the next. The rebels made a 
 good fight, but it was no use, and the place fell. 
 .... Its capture opens out a large tract of 
 country, and the Chinese generals were de- 
 lighted, and have said all manner of civil things 
 about the force. I am now a Tsung Ping 
 Mandarin (which is the second highest grade), 
 and have acquired a good deal of influence. I 
 do not care about that overmuch. I am quite 
 sure I was right in taking over the command, 
 as you would say, if you saw the ruthless 
 character of the rebels." 
 
 There had been plundering at Taitsan, and 
 some consequent demoralisation of the " Ever 
 Victorious Army ; " so Gordon took it back to 
 Sung-kiang for reorganization. ; Some of the 
 officers displayed a marked distaste for discip- 
 line, and Gordon was able to replace the most 
 disaffected by non-commissioned officers and 
 privates from the British regiments in Shang- 
 hai, whom General Brown had allowed to 
 volunteer. But he was never quite free from 
 the trouble of indiscipline among his officers. 
 Near the end of May he prepared to move on
 
 CHINESE CORD OX. 61 
 
 Quinsan a second time. He found occasion to 
 promote his Commissary- General, Cooksley, to 
 the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, so that he 
 might have the right to exercise command over 
 the majors who commanded the regiments. 
 The latter took umbrage at this promotion, and 
 claimed for themselves equal rank and pay. 
 This refused, they sent in their resignations, 
 with the anomalous demand that these should 
 be at once accepted, but that they should be 
 allowed to serve on the impending expedition. 
 Gordon accepted their resignations, refusing 
 the rider ; but he was marching out next morn- 
 ing ! When the " fall in " sounded, only his 
 own body-guard obeyed ; and the officers who 
 had been appointed in room of the majors re- 
 ported that the men would not move. Finally 
 the majors accepted the situation, and the force, 
 consisting of 600 artillery and 2,300 infantry, 
 marched on Ouinsan, in assisting to assail 
 which an Imperialist force under General 
 Ching, was to co-operate. The key to all 
 future operations against Soochow, recon- 
 naissances and reports proved Ouinsan to 
 be in itself strong. The ditch around it 
 was over 100 feet wide ; the approaches were
 
 62 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 furnished with forts inside stockades ; the gar- 
 rison was estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000 
 men. How was it to be assailed ? General 
 Chine was anxious that the attack should be 
 on the eastern side, that looking toward Tait- 
 san. But Gordon's military insight guided him 
 to another method. In the issue, he virtually 
 took this great city with a little river steamboat. 
 It was an extraordinary exploit, and, if the de- 
 scription of it appeared in a novel, the writer 
 might be complimented on his inventive faculty, 
 but desired, another time, to adhere somewhat 
 closer to possibility. 
 
 Gordon discovered that the only land com- 
 munication between Ouinsan and Soochow was 
 by a single causeway, narrow in places, flanked 
 all the way by a canal, and that canal acces- 
 sible to his flotilla approaching it by a creek 
 from the south. By seizing this causeway he 
 would cut the communication between the two 
 cities, and so the reinforcement of the Ouinsan 
 garrison from as well as its retreat to Soochow 
 being hindered, he might deal with it presently 
 as circumstances should surest. On board 
 the " Hyson" he started on this romantic expe- 
 dition, with a flotilla of sailing gunboats, which
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 63 
 
 carried, too, a picked but small infantry bat- 
 talion armed with rifles. The " Hyson," which 
 mounted a 32-pounder gun, and a 12-pound 
 howitzer, was commanded by a rugged but 
 valiant American skipper named Davidson, and 
 craft and skipper had already made their names. 
 She had the reputation of being amphibi- 
 ous — able to drive over the bed of a creek on 
 her paddle-wheels, when there was not water 
 enough to float her ; he, man enough to fight 
 the "Hyson" as if she had been a puissant 
 ironclad. Chunye, about eight miles west from 
 Ouinsan, was the point at which Gordon's 
 flotilla approached the causeway. The ap- 
 proach was protected by piles, which had to 
 be pulled up, and by stockades on the land 
 about the causeway, within which was a strong 
 stone fort. This position he did not need to 
 assault. A panic seized the defenders, and 
 they bolted, a part running in upon Ouinsan, 
 the rest making along the causeway westward 
 for Soochow. The troops were landed to 
 occupy a position so important and so fortu- 
 nately acquired, and the "Hyson" made a 
 reconnaissance along the canal toward Soo- 
 chow, her fire sweeping from the adjacent cause-
 
 64 CHIXESE GORDOX. 
 
 way and from the canal banks, alike detachments 
 on the march and those holding intermediate 
 stockaded positions. The little craft pushed 
 to within sight of Soochow, went about, and 
 returned toward Chunye. She was only just 
 in time. A desperate fight was raging in the 
 darkness on the causeway and its vicinity. The 
 garrison of Quinsan, scared by the tidings the 
 fugitives had brought in, and, since Gordon had 
 beset the town on the three other sides with his 
 own and Imperialist troops, in a panic lest their 
 means of retreat should utterly fail them, had 
 sallied out under cover of darkness, and were 
 heading along the causeway in the direction of 
 Soochow, when they encountered Gordon's 
 detachment commanding it at Chunye. To 
 this struggling, confused melee, the " Hyson " 
 came steaming through the darkness, her lights 
 ablaze, her steam whistle emitting demoniacal 
 yells — a mysterious, awe-inspiring monster. At 
 the sight a spasm of frantic terror seized the 
 hapless Tai-pings. They recoiled and drew 
 apart from the close struggle with Gordon's 
 men. Into them, thus huddled, tore the 
 fire from the steamer's foregun, and sent them 
 back on the beleaguered town a crazed mob of
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 65 
 
 fugitives. The Imperialists on the east side of 
 the city marched in and took possession. Quin- 
 san had fallen without having been assaulted. 
 
 Of its garrison eight hundred were taken, 
 most of whom entered the ranks of the Ever 
 Victorious Army. This was not a tithe of the 
 garrison, nor did any great number ever succeed 
 in reaching Soochow. The mass must have 
 perished miserably in efforts to escape, drowned 
 in creeks, smothered in mud, slaughtered by the 
 villagers, who, infuriated by outrage, rose unani- 
 mously on the fugitives. This marvellous suc- 
 cess Gordon had srained at a cost of two killed 
 and five drowned. The fall of Quinsan gave 
 him an admirable headquarter position — a cen- 
 tral point communicating by water with Soo- 
 chow, Sung-kiang, Taitsan, and Chanzu. And 
 yet more, the boldness of the attack and the 
 completeness of the success paralysed the 
 Tai-pings and gave confidence to the country 
 people. 
 
 But there ensued a double trouble. General 
 Ching had been jealous of Gordon, and so 
 resented his summary capture of Quinsan, an ex- 
 ploit he had himself been bent on achieving, that 
 he not only quarrelled with Gordon, but fired, by 
 
 v
 
 66 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 mistake as he alleged, into a detachment of the 
 latter's force. Gordon moved into his vicinity to 
 resent actively any further blunders of the same 
 awkward description, but finally the affair termi- 
 nated in a humble apology on Ching's part. 
 While this affair was awaiting settlement 
 Gordon had to cope with a more dangerous 
 mutiny among his own troops than any that 
 had previously occurred. The force had its 
 connections at the old quarters in Sung-kiang, 
 and was vehemently opposed to Ouinsan as the 
 new depot station. 
 
 When the change was definitely ordered, the 
 artillery refused to fall in, and threatened to blow 
 the English officers to pieces with the big guns 
 and the Chinese authorities with the small arms. 
 A written proclamation of a sheer mutinous 
 tenor was conveyed to Gordon. He paraded 
 the non-commissioned officers, convinced that 
 they were at the bottom of the mischief, and 
 demanded to know who wrote the proclamation. 
 They professed ignorance. "Then," rejoined 
 Gordon, " I will shoot every fifth man of you." 
 The gunner non-coms, replied with groans. 
 The most vehement groaner, a corporal, Gordon 
 dragged out of the rank and had him shot on
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 67 
 
 the spot by two infantry men who were standing 
 by. His comrades were locked up, told that if 
 in one hour the writer's name was not given up, 
 the threat of having every fifth man shot would 
 be carried out. They gave in, the name was 
 disclosed, and the mutiny was over. Another 
 followed almost immediately after, this time 
 among the commissioned officers of the artillery, 
 who resented the promotion of Major Tapp to 
 the command of that arm ; but Gordon's firmness 
 quelled it also. 
 
 In a long letter home Gordon sketches his 
 situation just after the capture of Ouinsan ; some 
 extracts may be made : " The rebels never got 
 such a licking before, and I think there will not be 
 much more severe fighting. My occupying this 
 city enables the Imperial Government to protect 
 an enormous district rich in corn, &c, and the 
 people around are so thankful for their release 
 that it is quite a pleasure. . . You may hear of 
 cruelties being committed ; do not believe them. 
 We took nearly 800 prisoners, and they have 
 some of them entered my body guard and fought 
 since against their old friends the rebels. I 
 took a Mandarin who had been a rebel for three 
 years, and have him now ; he has a bullet in 
 
 F 2
 
 68 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 his cheek which he received in fighting against 
 the rebels. . . The rebels Wangs or Kings 
 knew that 'a new English piecee had come when 
 Fushan was taken, but did not expect him at 
 Taitsan.' Some of the reports spread are most 
 amusing ; one is, that ' the rebels gave me 
 ^2000 not to attack Ouinsan,' when I advanced 
 on that place after the capture of Taitsan. All 
 the mandarins have heard of this ; but it must 
 have slightly upset their story when we came up 
 again against Ouinsan. I have four English 
 officers with me ; we wear anything we can get, 
 and the men are almost in rags. Having to 
 move our headquarters (from Sung-kiang) has 
 caused a good deal of work, and this is only 
 just completed." 
 
 The next enterprise that presented itself was 
 naturally the reduction of Soochow, the capital 
 city of the -province. Gordon believed that had 
 the Imperialists' co-operation been possible, 
 Soochow could have been rushed in the panic 
 caused by the alarm of his cruise in the " Hyson." 
 But now the undertaking had to be gone about 
 systematically. The City of Pagodas is the 
 centre of a great system of waterways, and can 
 be reached on every side by water. Approach'
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 69 
 
 ing it thus, then, Gordon resolved on isolating 
 it by gradually mastering its communications 
 and approaches. One main key to its approach 
 on the south was the town of Kahpoo, ten miles 
 south of it, and yet another was Wokong, three 
 miles^south again of Kahpoo. For the reduction 
 of those places he quitted Quinsan with about 
 2200 men, artillery and infantry, and the armed 
 steamers " Firefly," and " Cricket." Kahpoo 
 he stormed on 27th April, and next day moved 
 on Wokong so rapidly as to surprise some of 
 the stockades outside which had been left un- 
 guarded, and to carry others with little loss. A 
 judicious disposition of his troops now enabled 
 him to shut in the garrison of Wokong itself, 
 and the Tai-pings surrendered. Four thousand 
 prisoners were taken, among whom were many 
 chief men. Of the prisoners, at his own urgent 
 request, General Ching received some 1 500 as 
 recruits for his army, under strict promise that 
 they should receive good treatment. But Ching 
 broke his promise, for Gordon presently heard 
 that five of these men had been beheaded. He 
 was bitterly indignant at this breach of faith. 
 There had been default, too, in the payment of 
 his force, and this preyed heavily on his mind.
 
 70 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 He had repressed plunder, using the argument 
 of regular pay ; now the regular pay was not 
 forthcoming, and his troops, having neither 
 " meal nor malt," plunder nor pay, were dis- 
 contented not without cause. Half of them had 
 deserted since Ouinsan fell, and he had been 
 obliged to fill the gap with rebel prisoners. 
 But it was Ching's breach of faith, and his cause- 
 less cruelty, that filled Gordon's cup of dissatis- 
 faction with his position to overflowing. He 
 resolved to lay down his command and rode 
 down to Shanghai with that intent. But when 
 he reached that place on August 3rd, he found 
 that an event had occurred which caused him to 
 revoke his resolution. Burgevine had suddenly 
 left that place with some 300 European tag-rag 
 and bob-tail, to join the Tai-pings in Soochow, 
 carrying off" a small steamer and throwing the 
 treaty port into a not unnatural fit of consterna- 
 tion. To abandon the Imperialist cause at such 
 a juncture was not to be thought of by Gordon, 
 for it would have been to have left his own 
 troops to be seduced from their allegiance by 
 their old commander, who had had the art to 
 impress them with the belief that his dismissal 
 had been the result of standing up for their rights.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 71 
 
 Gordon at once started alone back to Ouin- 
 san. He must have had serious thoughts on 
 that solitary night-ride, since so much hung on 
 the temper of the officers whom he was to meet 
 at dawn. He found appearances so bad, that 
 he sent back his siege train to Taitsan, while 
 reinforcing his advanced position at Kahpoo. 
 He was attacked there in great force, and had a 
 gunboat blown up, but beat off his assailants. 
 Burgevine did not command the rebels in this 
 attack ; he was reported to be organising a 
 foreign legion inside Soochow. Gordon during 
 this period of defensive and anxiety writes home 
 with perfect serenity : " The fact that Burgevine 
 has joined the rebels will no doubt very much 
 prolong the rebellion, which, humanly speaking, 
 would almost have been put down this year, or 
 at the latest, next spring, but the force at my 
 command is too small in numbers to do every- 
 thing, and one has to act with great caution in 
 the changed aspect of affairs ; added to which is 
 the idea the Imperialists have got into their 
 heads that they can defeat the rebels in the field, 
 which they cannot do. Many people urge me 
 to attack, but my opinion is so much against it 
 that their persuasion will be in vain for the
 
 72 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 present. I feel I have so many lives entrusted 
 to me that these are, as it were, at my disposal, 
 and I will not risk them in an enterprise I 
 consider rash. Burgevine is a very foolish man, 
 and little thinks the immense misery he will 
 cause this unhappy country, for of the ultimate 
 suppression of the rebellion I have little doubt, 
 as it is a Government receiving revenues con- 
 tending with a faction almost blockaded, and 
 (that Government) commanding inexhaustible 
 sums. Burgevine's boy who has run out, says 
 he tells the Wangs all about the settlement and 
 the force, &c., which interests them very much. 
 He is in good health, but very indolent ; he has 
 a nice lot with him — all the scum of Shanghai, 
 which may be said to be celebrated for its pro- 
 duce in that way. He is not allowed to send 
 money down to Shanghai, so I expect the rebels 
 intend eventually to take it all back again. An 
 intercepted letter from Burgevine says he has 
 thirty or forty men who are with him who 
 declare they will run away at the first oppor- 
 tunity, I believe he now regrets his conduct 
 (in joining the rebels). Burgevine's agents 
 have been in vain trying to get my men over." 
 In a later letter, dated Sept. 25, written from
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 73 
 
 Waiquaidong, two miles east of Soochow, he 
 mentions that Burgevine had been down in 
 Shanghai, attempting to get arms there for the 
 use of the rebels, had failed, and had narrowly 
 escaped being captured. 
 
 There had been a great scare in Shanghai 
 because of Burgevine's action in joining the 
 rebels. It was notorious that Gordon's officers 
 were not to be trusted. Indeed, there had 
 come a report into the treaty port that Ouinsan 
 had been given up to the rebels by its garrison. 
 The British commandant of Shanghai, writing 
 to his military superior, let himself use such 
 lancruaee as tn j s : « Should this be true — the 
 report just spoken of — the worst may be antici- 
 pated ; Major Gordon a prisoner, the siege train 
 lost, and the speedy advent of the rebels, com- 
 manded by Burgevine, before this place." 
 Gordon was no prisoner, however, but steadily 
 operating for the reduction of Soochow ; the 
 siege train was safe ; and the rebels were never 
 more to approach Shanghai. 
 
 On Sept. 29, he took Patachow, close up to 
 the southern verge of the Soochow suburbs, 
 and wrote home next day that he expected in 
 two or three mails to announce the fall of the
 
 74 CHINESE GORDOX. 
 
 great city. An illustration of the curious con- 
 dition of this strange war is afforded in the 
 circumstance that a bridge at Patachow formed 
 a sort of neutral ground, where Gordon's Euro- 
 pean officers (European must in this connection 
 be held to include American) were in the habit 
 of having friendly intercourse with the people 
 of their own colour who were in the rebel army. 
 They were old comrades in many instances, 
 although they were now serving on opposite 
 sides. The rebel Europeans, as they may be 
 styled, were far from satisfied with their position 
 or their prospects. Gordon, for his part, was 
 willing to negotiate with them, because their 
 desertion would weaken the rebels, and place in 
 safety their own lives, which were now in 
 danger, for the rebel Wangs mistrusted them. 
 He accepted the proposal to give Burgevine 
 himself a meeting, and hear what that person 
 had to say. 
 
 A noteworthy man in his way, this Burgevine, 
 in sketching whose strange life a page may not 
 be thought wasted. A native of North Carolina, 
 his father had been one of Napoleon's officers. 
 He was a scholar and had been a gentleman, 
 who made shipwreck of his life, because of
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 75 
 
 ambition unsupported by steadfast purpose, of 
 restlessness, and finally drink. Dr. Wilson says 
 of him, " A much wandering man, he seems to 
 have turned up in California, Australia, the 
 Sandwich Islands, India — where he studied Hin- 
 dustanee, — Jeddah, London, and other places ; 
 beinor in fact one of those nautical Gentlemen 
 who combine a taste for literature with the 
 power of navigating coasting vessels, and, would 
 fate allow, of founding great empires." He 
 tired equally of a post-office clerkship and of 
 editing an American paper, and so naturally 
 gravitated to China, which was at that time to 
 the adventurers of the world what Central 
 America had been in Walker's day, and Ger- 
 many during the long fighting of the Thirty 
 Years War. We have already found him 
 Ward's lieutenant and temporary successor, and 
 his dismissal from the charge of the Ever 
 Victorious Army has been recorded in a pre- 
 vious page. He never ceased to resent this 
 dismissal ; but continued to nourish his revenge 
 against the Imperialists and his dream of carv- 
 ing out an empire in China ; and it was in 
 pursuit of both aspirations that he entertained 
 the Tai-ping overtures, and as we have seen,
 
 76 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 took a detachment of miscellaneous foreigners 
 to Soochow, and identified himself with the 
 Tai-ping cause. The Tai-pings wished to have 
 him, no doubt for the double reason that he and 
 the Europeans he brought would make them 
 more formidable in the field ; and in the belief 
 too, that he had sufficient influence with the 
 officerhood of Gordon's force, to bring them 
 over, and perhaps the force itself along with 
 them. He had become dissatisfied with his 
 position in Soochow, and it was therefore that 
 he entered into personal communication with 
 Gordon. 
 
 At his interview Buroevine avowed his de- 
 termination to desert the Tai-pings, if his 
 officers and men were guaranteed immunity 
 for acts done in the Tai-ping service. Gordon 
 gave this guarantee, offering further to take a 
 number of them into his own force, and assist 
 the remainder out of the country. At a second 
 interview, not understanding Gordon's cha- 
 racter, Burgevine made him the proposal that 
 they two should unite to seize Soochow, hold it 
 equally against Rebels and Imperialists ; or- 
 ganise there an army of 20,000 men, and then 
 march on Pekin. One can fancy the quiet
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 77 
 
 scorn with which Gordon " declined to entertain 
 any such idea." It was rather a ticklish time for 
 Gordon, since, aware of the negotiation with 
 Burgevine, the Imperialists ventured to suspect 
 his loyalty ; while, on the other hand, he was run- 
 ning the risk of his own officers being tampered 
 with. But in October the coup came off. Bur- 
 gevine and his comrades sent word that they 
 intended, under pretence of making a sally, to 
 throw themselves on Gordon's protection. He 
 gave the pre-arranged signal ; the Europeans 
 headed what looked like a desperate rush on 
 the " Hyson," backed by thousands of Tai-ping 
 troops. The Europeans boarded the little 
 vessel, the Tai-pings were driven off with volleys 
 from her artillery, and she carried the fugitive 
 deserters into Gordon's camp. But when they 
 were landed it was found that Bureevine and 
 several others were not among them. They 
 accounted for this by stating, that being under 
 suspicion, they took the opportunity when it 
 offered, without waiting for those who were not 
 at hand. They were glad enough to get out of 
 their plight, poor wretches ! They had been 
 virtually crimped from Shanghai by Burgevine, 
 and had been badly treated in Soochow — star*
 
 78 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 vation and death staring them in the face. 
 Most of them volunteered to join Gordon's 
 force. 
 
 Gordon at once made an appeal to the Tai- 
 ping chiefs on behalf of Burgevine and his 
 companions who still remained in Soochow, 
 aware that he and they had been arrested. 
 With his own hand he wrote a letter of ad- 
 mirable tone. Having referred to his own 
 clemency and his endeavours to deter the Im- 
 perialist authorities from inhumanity, he con- 
 tinues, " Having stated the above, I now ask your 
 Excellencies to consider the case of the Euro- 
 peans in your service. A man made to fight 
 against his will is not only a bad soldier, but he 
 is a positive danger, causing anxiety to his 
 leaders, and absorbing a large force to prevent 
 his defection. If there are many Europeans 
 left in Soochow, I would ask your Excellencies 
 if it does not seem much better to you to let 
 these men quietly leave your service if they 
 wish it ; you would thereby get rid of a con- 
 tinual source of suspicion, gain the sympathy of 
 the whole of the foreign nations, and feel that 
 your difficulties are all from without. Your 
 Excellencies may think that decapitation would
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 79 
 
 soon settle the matter, but you would then be 
 guilty of a crime which will bear its fruits 
 sooner or later. In this force of mine, officers 
 and men come and go at pleasure, and although 
 it is inconvenient at times, I am never appre- 
 hensive of treason from within. The men 
 have committed no crime, and what they have 
 tried to do, viz., escape, is nothing more than 
 any man, or even animal, will do when placed 
 in a situation he does not like. . . . You need 
 not fear them communicating information. I 
 knew your force, men and guns, long ago, and 
 therefore care not to get that information from 
 them." 
 
 The Tai-ping general answered this letter in 
 very polite terms ; and Burgevine was sent out 
 safely from Soochow, and handed over to the 
 American Consul. In a home letter Gordon men- 
 tions : " Moh-Wang asked the messenger (who 
 brought him Gordon's letter) a great deal about 
 me, and if it were possible to buy me over, and 
 was told that it was not. He asked why the 
 Europeans wanted to run away, and was told it 
 was because they saw there was no chance of 
 success. He said, ' Do you think Gordon will 
 take the city ? ' and was told c Yes ' — which
 
 So CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 seemed to make him reflect. This defection 
 of the Europeans is an almost extinguishing 
 blow to the rebels, and from the tone of Moh- 
 Wang's letter, so different from the one he 
 wrote General Staveley a little time ago, I feel 
 convinced that the rebel chiefs would come to 
 terms if they had fair ones offered. I mean to 
 do my best to bring this about ; and am sure 
 that if I do, I shall gain a greater victory than 
 any captures of cities would be. ... I care 
 nothing for a high name." 
 
 Subsequent investigation proved that at the 
 very time Burgevine was negotiating with 
 Gordon in regard to his relief, he had proposed 
 to his lieutenant a plan for entrapping the man 
 whose efforts were being directed toward the 
 succour of him and his followers. Jones re- 
 volted against treachery so base, and he and 
 Burgevine had a "difficulty." Jones told the 
 story thus : " Burgevine drew out his revolver, 
 which he cocked and discharged at my head 
 from a distance of about nine inches. The 
 bullet entered my cheek and passed upward ; 
 it has not yet been extracted. I exclaimed, 
 ' You have shot your best friend ! ' His answer 
 was, ' I know I have, and I wish to God I had
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. Si 
 
 killed you ! ' There is a line cynical frank- 
 ness in the comment on this statement which 
 Burgevine sent to a Shanghai paper — " Cap- 
 tain Jones' account of the affair is substantially 
 correct ; and I feel great pleasure in bearing 
 testimony to his veracity and candour, whenever 
 any affair with which he is personally acquainted 
 is concerned." 
 
 Burgevine subsequently had a strangely 
 chequered career, which cannot here be fol- 
 lowed. When a prisoner in the summer of 
 1865 in the Imperialist hands, he was reported 
 to have been drowned by the capsizing of a 
 ferry-boat. " I have no reason to suppose," 
 writes Dr. Wilson, " that the account of his 
 death given by the Chinese authorities was 
 untrue ; and if they did drown him purposely, 
 they saved themselves and the American autho- 
 rities a good deal of trouble." 
 
 By dint of hard, although desultory fighting, 
 now attacking, now defending, and hampered 
 by the clumsy and independent manoeuvring of 
 Ching at the head of the Imperialist army in 
 so-called co-operation, Gordon had made good 
 the occupation of a chain of posts encircling the 
 east and the south sides of Soochow, close up
 
 82 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 to Lake Taiho. There remained, to complete 
 the investment, but the reduction and occupa- 
 tion of the Tai-ping outworks on the north and 
 north-west of the city ; then the chain of en- 
 vironing posts would extend from the lake 
 round to the lake, on whose waters his armed 
 steamers would in effect shut in the place and 
 its garrison. The character of the enterprise 
 had considerable analogy to the German siege 
 of Paris, only that Gordon had no " field-army" 
 such as those with which Prince Frederick 
 Charles, Manteuffel, and Goben covered the 
 Teuton cordon that encircled the capital of 
 France. Gordon had to neutralise numbers 
 by skilful dispositions and bold strokes to a far 
 greater extent than was incumbent on the Ger- 
 man leaders. Including the contingent under 
 Ching which co-operated with him, and was 
 under his orders to a certain indefinite extent, 
 he had fourteen thousand men, all told, at his 
 disposal, for the double task of hemming in a 
 force more than twice his own numbers, and of 
 keeping off and hindering from relieving the 
 place other forces nearly threefold his strength. 
 The Tai-pings inside Soochow may have la- 
 boured under discouragement, for they had
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 83 
 
 learned to know Gordon ; but at Wusieh, the 
 Chateaudun of Soochow, there stood a fresh 
 army 40,000 strong; which the Faithful King 
 had marched down from Nanking, bent on un- 
 clasping Gordon's grasp on Soochow. That 
 army, however, was to some extent paralysed 
 by the critical situation of the Heavenly King's 
 capital ; Gordon had learnt how matters stood 
 with Nanking, and so made bold to ignore the 
 propinquity of the Faithful King and his 40,000 
 men. 
 
 He had left his Imperialist allies holding the 
 southern posts, and had swept round to the 
 north of Soochow with his sieee-train and the 
 lively Hyson for the reduction of the Tai-ping 
 positions in that quarter. On November 1st 
 he carried Leeku by assault, with the loss of an 
 officer, who fell by his side leading the forlorn 
 hope, and whom he had shortly before pardoned 
 for somethingsuspiciouslylike treachery. Eleven 
 days later he went at Wanti, a place whose cap- 
 ture would all but complete the investment. It 
 was so strongly built that shell-fire had no effect 
 on it, so he carried it by storm, with some loss, 
 but 350 rebels fell and 600 were made pri- 
 soners. He had men fioditinor under him at 
 
 G 2
 
 84 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Wanti who had been in the rebel ranks a week 
 previously. There remained to be reduced only 
 Mouding, on the Grand Canal ; and this effected, 
 the investment of Soochow was complete. 
 
 Returning to the eastern face, he determined 
 to assail the defences of Soochow by a night 
 attack, which was delivered November 27th. 
 He himself commanded his forlorn hope of 
 two companies, having Majors Williams and 
 Howard under him. The mass of his force 
 waited under arms for a signal to advance. 
 The surprise seemed complete. The forlorn 
 hope had penetrated through the outer works, 
 and the main body was following, when sud- 
 denly a fierce fire of grape and musketry was 
 opened on the whole force. Artillery replied to 
 artillery, and Gordon, at the head of his forlorn 
 hope, dashed at the breastwork. But there was 
 hesitation behind him ; his Chinese soldiers did 
 not relish night-fighting, and Gordon had to 
 fall back with considerable loss of officers as 
 well as of men. Moh-YYang, the Tai-ping 
 general, was himself in the forefront of the 
 defence, fighting like a private soldier, with 
 twenty Europeans around him. He repelled 
 the attack, but his loss must have been very
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 8$ 
 
 heavy from Gordon's artillery, which maintained 
 its fire for three hours. 
 
 Now ensued some curious work. General 
 Ching had an interview with one of the Tai-ping 
 Wanes, who stated the general conviction inside 
 the city that notwithstanding Gordons tempo- 
 rary repulse, its reduction was simply a question 
 of time. All his colleagues, with the exception 
 of the indomitable Moh-Wang, who had a 
 handful of junior officers supporting him, were 
 prepared to yield the place, and come over to 
 the Imperialists with the whole garrison. But 
 to save appearances, Gordon must make another 
 assault. While Moh-Wang was resisting that, 
 the other Wangs would shut him out of the city, 
 and so, free from his opposition, they would agree 
 on a surrender. On the morning of the 29th, 
 Gordon's artillery reopened on the stockades. 
 The assault followed. It was arduous work. 
 Ditches had to be swam across, breastworks 
 had to be climbed, and the Faithful King him- 
 self, who had arrived from Wusieh the same 
 morning by a path still open, was engaged in 
 the defence at the head of his body-guard. In 
 the confusion of the attack Gordon, with a few 
 men, found the Tai-pings in force between him
 
 86 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 and his supports. To fall back was impossible 
 as distasteful ; he fought his way onwards 
 instead. Capturing some stockades, he pushed 
 through them, and had gained a stone fort 
 when his troops overtook him, and made good 
 the advantage he had won. The position he 
 had achieved rendered Soochow untenable by 
 the Tai-pings ; but it had cost him dear. Nine 
 of his officers had been killed, and a great 
 number wounded, among the latter his adjutant- 
 general Major Kirkman. As ever, Gordon 
 had in those assaults exposed himself with a 
 cool matter-of-fact daring that seemed natural 
 to the man, and was necessary as an example to 
 his motley force, but which would have been a 
 vice in the commander of a more regular army. 
 He never carried any other weapon than a little 
 cane, with which he used to direct his followers, 
 and which got for itself the name of " Gordon's 
 magic wand of victory." His Chinese soldiers, 
 seeing him always in front among the bullets, 
 yet never wounded, concluded that he bore a 
 charmed life, and that it was the "magic wand " 
 which gave him protection. 
 
 Some negotiations speedily followed, but the 
 surrender was not just yet. Stout old Moh-
 
 CHINESE CORDOX. 87 
 
 Wang was still in the way. He called a council 
 of war. It must have been a strange scene, 
 when dinner over, and prayers offered up, 
 the Wangs arrayed in their robes and crowns, 
 took their places around the raised table at the 
 head of which sat the valiant Moh-Wang. The 
 debate grew warm. Kong Wang rose from his 
 throne and cleared for action by taking off his 
 robes. Moh-Wang demanded to know what he 
 meant; whereupon the other, probably the 
 quicker of the two " on the draw," stabbed Moh- 
 Wang with a dagger, and the other Wangs 
 finished him off. 
 
 The same niorht Soochow surrendered. Gor- 
 don withdrew his forces to a distance, to pre- 
 vent looting, and demanded a grant of pay for 
 his men, as reward, compensation, and encourage- 
 ment. Governor Li haggled with him like a 
 fishwife, and Gordon had a difficulty in hinder- 
 ing his troops from revenging themselves 
 directly on that official. He sent them back to 
 Ouinsan out of harm's way, but in a condition 
 of disaffection approaching mutiny. 
 
 Li was intoxicated with the success which 
 Gordon had earned but for which scant credit 
 was accorded him. It is certain that the Tai-
 
 88 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 ping Wangs surrendered, but it is not clear to 
 whom — whether it was to Gordon, to Ching, or 
 to Governor Li, they considered themselves as 
 capitulating. Anyhow Gordon had the fullest 
 right to expect that Li would spare the lives of 
 the Wangs. For mercy to them Gordon had 
 expressly stipulated, and Li had "gladly as- 
 sented " to the demand. Li never attempted to 
 deny this, which was confirmed to the fullest 
 extent by General Ching. 
 
 But Li betrayed his pledge to Gordon, and was 
 guilty of an act as ruthless as it was treacherous 
 — for he had accorded terms to the Wangs ; an 
 act that sent a thrill of indignation through civili- 
 sation, and ultimately withdrew British officers 
 from service under the Imperial Government. It 
 is a lurid story, the details of which Gordon has 
 tried to write dispassionately. On the afternoon 
 of the 5th of November, the day before the actual 
 consummation of the surrender, General Ching 
 set Gordon's mind at rest by telling him that 
 Governor Li had "amnestied the prisoners." 
 Next day, returning from marching his -troops 
 out to Ouinsan, Gordon rode into the city to the 
 Nar-Wanofs house. There he found all the 
 Wangs, their horses saddled, just starting to go
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 89 
 
 out to Governor Li, for the meeting at which 
 the city would be formally given over. In his 
 anxiety to be assured that everything was well, 
 he called aside the Nar-Wang, who told him all 
 was right. Then he bade the Wangs good-bye, 
 and saw them ride away toward the East Gate, 
 bound for their rendezvous with Governor Li. 
 
 Gordon himself then took things easy, for his 
 mind was at rest. He saw burial given to 
 M oh- Wang's body, and then sauntered to the 
 East Gate. Beyond it, tied up to the bank, lay 
 Governor Li's boat. On the bank, close to it, 
 he noticed a large crowd, and presently a horde 
 of Imperialist soldiers came yelling in through 
 the East Gate, firing off their muskets after their 
 fashion. Gordon rebuked the rioters for con- 
 duct calculated to create a disturbance. Then 
 General Ching came through the gate. When 
 he saw Gordon confusion fell upon him. 
 Ching lamely parried Gordon's questions with 
 prevarications. The Wangs, he said, had 
 never been to Li. Gordon returned that he 
 had seen them going, and asked what could 
 have happened to them. Then Ching told a 
 cock-and-bull story which Gordon mistrusted. 
 He betook himself for information to Nar-
 
 c;o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Wang's house, which he found gutted, for the 
 plundering had begun. Nar-Wang's uncle, him- 
 self a Tai-ping leader, begged that Gordon 
 would go to his house for the protection of his 
 womenfolk, and Gordon complied. He was 
 now in effect a prisoner, for the Tai-ping 
 soldiers, with arms in their hands, crowded the 
 street outside. But he took no thought for 
 himself. He boded mischief to the Wangs at 
 the hands of Li, whose breach of faith he 
 suspected. He did not then know that they 
 had been murdered before he had the colloquy 
 with Ching, and that the crowd of Imperialists 
 he had seen on the bank near Li's boat had 
 been standing around their corpses. Fortu- 
 nately for him the Tai-pings were in equal 
 ignorance of the fate that had befallen their 
 leaders. A prompt and resolute man, Gordon 
 decided on a masterful expedient to save the 
 Wanes from the fate he did not know had 
 already befallen them. He attempted to send 
 out his interpreter to the trusty skipper David- 
 son, with orders to bring the steamers round 
 and take prisoner the Chinese Governor- Gene- 
 ral ; also to have his force brought up from 
 Ouinsan. He had difficulty in procuring per-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 91 
 
 mission for the interpreter to go out, but at 
 length the latter was allowed to go at 2 a.m. on 
 the 7th. An hour later, news came back that 
 the Imperialist plunderers had seized the inter- 
 preter, wounded him, and torn up the order of 
 which he was the bearer. The Tai-pings were 
 becoming more and more excited, while the 
 Imperialists were carrying on the work of 
 plunder, and Gordon became apprehensive of a 
 general massacre. Then he persuaded the men 
 who held him virtual prisoner to let him go. He 
 made an effort to reach his steamers, but was for 
 an hour a prisoner in the hands of the Imperial- 
 ists at the South Gate, who did not know him, 
 and took him for one of the rebel Europeans. 
 Escaping, he headed then for the East Gate, 
 where he knew his body-guard was lying. Un- 
 relenting in his resolve to seize Governor Li, he 
 waited there for his steamers, and meanwhile 
 kept his promise to the Tai-pings who had 
 released him by sending his guard to protect 
 the house of Nar-Wang's uncle. It was too 
 late, however, and the house had been ransacked. 
 General Ching turned up ; Gordon gave him a 
 piece of his mind, and remained waiting for the 
 steamers to come up for his intended capture
 
 92 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 of Li, ignorant still that the Wangs had been be- 
 headed. As he waited, Ching sent to him Major 
 Bailey, an Imperialist artillery officer, with intent 
 to speak him fair. Ching, said Bailey, after 
 Gordon had spoken so sternly to him had " gone 
 into the city, and sat down and cried." Then 
 he had got up, and to relieve his sorrow, " shot 
 down twenty of his men for looting," and sent 
 Bailey to explain that he, Ching, had simply 
 obeyed Li's orders. Gordon asked Bailey if 
 the Wangs had been beheaded. Bailey replied, 
 equivocatingly, that he had heard so. He then 
 brought up Nar-wang's son. The lad pointed 
 across the canal, and said that his father and 
 the other Wangs lay dead there. 
 
 Gordon crossed over. " I found six bodies," 
 he wrote, " and recognised Nar- Wang's head. 
 The hands and bodies were gashed in a frightful 
 way, and cut down the middle." 
 
 It is said that he burst into tears at the sight. 
 They were tears not alone of sorrow, but of 
 disappointment, shame, and fierce wrath. The 
 foulest despite had been done him. His honour 
 had been mocked at by the wanton butchery. 
 " It is not to be wondered at," writes Mr. Hake, 
 " that Gordon was enraged beyond bounds ; it
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. 93 
 
 is not surprising that for the first time during 
 the war he armed himself and went out to seek 
 the life of an enemy. He took a revolver and 
 sought the Governor's quarters, fully resolved 
 to do justice on his body and accept the 
 consequences." 
 
 But Li had come to realise what manner of 
 man Gordon in his w r rath could be, and had 
 escaped into the town. Gordon pursued him, 
 but the Governor got into hiding, and remained 
 there. Gordon had ordered up his troops to 
 assist him in his search, but, finding that vain, 
 led them back to Quinsan. There he told his 
 officers that no British officer could serve longer 
 under Governor Li ; that he did not intend to 
 disband the force, but would place it under 
 General Brown, the British commander at 
 Shanghai, and let him dispose of it. 
 
 Till near the end of February, 1864, Gordon 
 held the Ever Victorious Army inactive in 
 its quarters at Quinsan, under formal instruc- 
 tions from General Brown to suspend all active 
 aid to the Imperialist cause, further than pro- 
 tecting Soochow. These instructions were die- 
 tated at Gordon's instance, and it was also on 
 his demand that an inquiry was instituted at
 
 94 CHINESE GORDOX. 
 
 Pekin into the conduct of Governor Li. Mean- 
 while Li's despatches had described to the Im- 
 perial Government the success achieved in the 
 reduction of Soochow. Li had of course arro- 
 gated to himself the lion's share of the credit, 
 and was rewarded with the "Yellow Jacket," 
 which carries with it the highest military grade 
 of the Empire. But he had allowed himself to 
 testily to the high value of Gordon's services ; 
 and the Imperial Government was neither slow 
 nor chary in its acknowledgments. An Im- 
 perial Decree set forth that " Gordon, in com- 
 mand of his auxiliary force, displayed thorough 
 strategy and skill, and has put forth most dis- 
 tinguished exertions." It ordained, further, 
 that " a medal of distinction of the highest 
 class " be conferred upon him, and that he 
 should receive a gift of 10,000 taels (about 
 ,£3.500), in token of Imperial approbation. Li 
 was enjoined to communicate to Gordon " our 
 decree of approval and praise for the great 
 bravery and exertions which attended the re- 
 capture of Soochow," and to present him with 
 the money gift ; and the instructions proceeded : 
 " Foreign nations already possess orders of 
 merit under the name of ' Stars.' Let, there-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 95 
 
 fore, the decoration of the first class, which we 
 have conferred upon Gordon, be arranged in 
 accordance with this system." 
 
 Gordon was in no mood to be the grateful 
 recipient of Imperial favours. He was scarcely 
 the sort of man to be chagrined that Governor 
 Li had stolen his laurels. Neither laurels nor 
 honours were things about which Gordon con- 
 cerned himself. "As for the honours," he 
 wrote home, " I do not value them at all, and 
 never did." But his indignation had not 
 cooled at the despite done to him in the vio- 
 lation of the stipulation he had exacted that the 
 Tai-ping chiefs should be spared. He would 
 accept neither decoration nor money. It was 
 in these terms he couched his curt refusal : 
 " Major Gordon receives the approbation of 
 His Majesty the Emperor with every gratifica- 
 tion, but regrets most sincerely that, owing to 
 the circumstance which occurred since the cap- 
 ture of Soochow, he is unable to receive any 
 mark of His Majesty the Emperor's recogni- 
 tion, and therefore respectfully begs His Majesty 
 to receive his thanks for his intended kindness, 
 and to allow him to decline the same." 
 
 The Chinese Government in a financial sense
 
 96 CHINESE GORDO X. 
 
 had behaved fairly well to the Ever Victorious 
 Army, since ,£7,000 had been distributed to the 
 wounded in the attacks on Soochow,and the extra 
 month's pay that Gordon had agreed for had 
 been paid. But inaction was deteriorating that 
 force ; and yet more the prospect of his resig- 
 nation of the command. " The officers/' wrote 
 one of them, "did everything to honour Colonel 
 Gordon, and show in how high esteem they 
 held him ; but they were very jealous of each 
 other, and during January constantly quarrelled 
 over the question who should succeed to the 
 command in the event of his leaving." Sixteen 
 of them had to be discharged. The urgency 
 became great that Gordon, having put his hand 
 to the plough, with so great effect, should not 
 look back until the last furrow of the field had 
 been turned. And if the srood work was to be 
 finished, it was clear that only he could accom- 
 plish it. During his inaction the rebellion, in 
 spite of the fall of Soochow, began to make 
 head again. The province was lapsing into 
 lawlessness. Foreigners were joining the Tai- 
 ping ranks. The irrepressible Burgevine was 
 meditating a return to a service of which his 
 experience had been so adverse. The Im-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 97 
 
 periallst forces, despite the aid of some of 
 Gordon's disciplined artillery, were barely- 
 holding- their own against the enemy. Mr. 
 Robert Hart, the able and clear-headed official 
 in charge of the Imperial Customs, strongly 
 urged that Gordon should resume the field, 
 since his inaction was the strongest encourage 
 ment to the disaffected, and pointed out that 
 his abandonment of that attitude could be as- 
 cribed only to his sacrifice of private feelings 
 for the welfare of the province in whose behalf 
 he had already done so much. Governor Li, for 
 his part, had something to urge in explanation, 
 or rather indeed in justification of the executions 
 he had ordered. Gordon so far stifled his re- 
 sentment as to have a personal interview with 
 the Governor, who agreed to issue a proclama- 
 tion clearly setting out that the massacre was in 
 the teeth of the pre-arrangement with Gordon 
 that lives should be spared. Gordon intimated 
 to the British Minister in Pekin his resolution 
 to re-take the field. The language he used 
 proves how ready he was to accept responsi- 
 bility when he had convinced himself that his 
 course was right. " I am aware," he writes, 
 
 " that I am open to very grave censure for the 
 
 11
 
 98 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 course I am about to pursue ; but iu the ab- 
 sence of advice .... I have made up my 
 mind to run the risk. If I followed my own 
 desire, I should leave now, as I have escaped 
 unscathed, and been wonderfully successful. I 
 do not apprehend that the rebellion will last 
 six months longer if I take the field. It may 
 last six years if I leave. ... If the course I 
 am about to pursue meets your approbation, I 
 shall be glad to hear ; but, if not, shall expect 
 to be well rebuked. This letter will relieve 
 you from any responsibility on the matter." 
 The course he was about to pursue did meet 
 Sir Frederick Bruce's approval, and that Minis- 
 ter further strengthened Gordon's hands by 
 obtaining a positive promise in writing from 
 the Chinese Government that, in cases of capi- 
 tulations where he should be present, nothing 
 was to be done without his concurrence. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the 19th of February, Gordon 
 moved out from Ouinsan with his whole force, 
 save a garrison of 200 men left in that place 
 under Colonel Morant. It was in the dead of 
 winter, and the weather was bitterly cold and 
 snowy. 
 
 In his letter to Sir F. Bruce, Gordon had
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 99 
 
 succinctly set forth his strategic scheme, — " I 
 propose to cut through the heart of the rebel- 
 lion, and divide it into two parts by the capture 
 of Yesing and Liyang." Soochow, whence in 
 effect he started, is in the very centre of 
 the Kiangnan peninsula, to the western side of 
 which the Tai-pings had been mainly localised 
 by the previous fighting. At the north-west 
 corner of the peninsula is Nanking, where the 
 Heavenly King, the head of the rebellion, had 
 his residence. On a waved line between Soo- 
 chow and Nanking, were the towns of Yesing- 
 Liyang, and Kintang, in succession from Soo- 
 chow ; all three strongly held by Tai-ping forces. 
 By marching on this wavy line, and the suc- 
 cessive reduction of the towns named, Gordon 
 would cut the rebellion into two slices, each so 
 circumscribed as probably to be unable to exist 
 independently. This bold strategy had diffi- 
 culties in its train. Shanghai could no longer 
 be Gordon's base of supplies ; he had to relin- 
 quish a base and march omnibus impedimcntis. 
 Nor could his steamers uniformly accompany 
 him, and their support had therefore occa- 
 sionally to be sacrificed. His troops were not 
 what they had been. The recruited Tai-pings 
 
 H 2
 
 IOO 
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 that now mainly filled the ranks were sturdy 
 fellows enough, and did not lack courage ; but 
 they had not had time to acquire the discipline 
 and steadiness which were the elements in 
 virtue of which, next to the genius of its chief, 
 the Ever Victorious Army under Gordon's 
 leadership had hitherto justified its title. He 
 had lost many of his best officers, some in fight, 
 others by dismissal or withdrawal ; and some 
 of their successors were the reverse of efficient. 
 He moved by the north of Soochow to 
 Wusieh near the Grand Canal, and thence 
 marched on Yesing, through the region which 
 the Tai-pings had been wasting during three 
 years of uninterrupted occupation — a region 
 which had been almost denuded of inhabitants, 
 the few remaining being in the last stage of 
 starvation. Yesing was captured after a petty 
 resistance on March ist, and a village occupied 
 which cut the communications with Liyang, 
 the next Tai-ping city in the line of route. In 
 this village were found starving wretches who 
 had been forced to resort to cannibalism. 
 "Those who still remained alive had been 
 driven to eat human flesh, and the unburied 
 bodies of the dead were in a condition which
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 101 
 
 showed that much of this revolting food had 
 been consumed." Liyang was reached on the 
 4th, and so out of heart were the rebels there, 
 that they surrendered without a blow. A 
 thousand of its garrison were enlisted into the 
 Ever Victorious Army and formed into a separate 
 regiment : and twenty-five gun-boats captured 
 were added to Gordon's flotilla. The country 
 around it was in a ghastly condition. One of 
 Gordon's officers writes : " Hundreds of dead 
 bodies were strewn along the roads — people 
 who had died from starvation ; and the few 
 who were yet alive watched one of their com- 
 rades dying, so as to obtain some food off his 
 dead body ! ' The town was well stocked with 
 provisions, all of which that Gordon could spare 
 from his own necessities he distributed among 
 the miserable peasantry. Leaving part of his 
 force in Liyang, he marched forward on 
 Kintang with three regiments of infantry and a 
 strong artillery carried on the gun-boats. Bad 
 weather and the necessities of the peasants had 
 detained him, and it was not till March 20th 
 that he was within strikino- distance of the 
 latter strong place, whose garrison had not 
 complied with a summons to surrender. Next
 
 102 CHIXESE G0RD0X. 
 
 day everything was ready for opening tire, when 
 there reached him an alarming despatch from 
 Governor Li. Gordon had been trusting to the 
 Imperialists to cover his thinks, but they had 
 failed him. A Tai-ping army, yooo strong, had 
 moved out from Chanchufu, a town north-west 
 from Soochow, and now almost directly in his 
 rear ; had turned the Imperialist flank, was 
 threatening YVusieh, had captured Fushan, and 
 was besieo-inor Chanzu, the town whose relief 
 had been Gordon's earliest enterprise with the 
 Ever Victorious Army, and so was within thirty 
 miles of Ouinsan itself. This was startling 
 news, but Gordon had in hand the specific busi- 
 ness of the reduction of Kintang. He would 
 concentrate himself vehemently on that, and so 
 free himself to deal with the other matter. 
 
 But Kintang proved stubborn. Three hours' 
 bombardment had made a practicable breach. 
 The rebels seemed cowed, and an assault was 
 ordered. Then they manned the breach, and 
 resisted with persistent determination. The re- 
 newal of the artillery hre swept the breach clear, 
 and a second storming party, led by Major Kirk- 
 man, attacked again, only to be also repulsed. 
 Kirkman was struck down wounded ; and now
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 103 
 
 the magic spell of Gordon's immunity from hos- 
 tile bullets was to be broken. He shared in the 
 assault, and was shot through the leg". He si- 
 lenced a soldier who was proclaiming the disaster, 
 and stood giving orders till he all but fainted 
 from loss of blood. Even then he would not 
 retire, and Dr. Moffit had to carry him to his boat 
 by main force. A third assault was attempted, 
 but unsuccessfully ; and Gordon had to draw 
 off, with a loss of ioo killed and wounded, 
 among whom were fifteen officers, two of whom 
 were killed. He abandoned further attempt on 
 Kintang, and on the 24th had reconcentrated 
 at Liyang. 
 
 There yet more ominous tidings reached 
 him from the Imperialists ; the Faithful King 
 himself was in possession of Fushan. Gordon's 
 wound prevented him from standing, but, like 
 Marshal Saxe. he could fight on his back. And 
 time pressed. The advancing Tai-pings were 
 issuing proclamations, that their march was on 
 Shanghai, taking Soochow on the way. Even 
 at Chanchufu they had been nearer Soochow than 
 was Gordon at Liyang; how much more so when 
 they were actually threatening Wusieh, not ten 
 miles to the north-west of Soocho.v! It be-
 
 104 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 hoved him urgently, above all things, to recover 
 the command of the interior lines. 
 
 The troops he had taken up to Kintang were 
 worn by marching and fighting. He would 
 not spare himself, wounded though he was, but 
 the soldiers were not inspired by his perfervid 
 energy. He had to take with him troops that 
 had not been on the Kintang march ; there 
 were available but the light artillery and two 
 infantry regiments, one of which consisted of 
 the Tai-pings mustered in at Liyang in the be- 
 ginning of the month. With this little force, 
 little over 1,000 strong, he started for Wusieh 
 on the 24th. Arriving there next day, he found 
 that the Tai-ping force threatening it had been 
 driven back, but that from Changchufu to 
 Fushan, the whole northern region of the pen- 
 insula was in Tai-ping hands. Next day, with 
 his artillery and 400 infantrymen, he dashed 
 out into the territory which the Tai-pings per- 
 vaded, bent on discovering their dispositions, 
 and the point at which they could be struck to 
 greatest purpose. There was real sublimity 
 in the serene confidence of this wounded man, 
 lying prostrate and helpless on the deck of his 
 boat, but plunging with a few hundred men into
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 105 
 
 the heart "of a region occupied by unknown 
 thousands of enemies. In the district passed 
 through the houses had been burnt, and the 
 inhabitants butchered in every direction. The 
 halt for the night was by a group of blazing 
 villages, whence at dark the Tai-pings had been 
 driven ; and it was disturbed by a desultory fire 
 on the sentries, alternated by efforts on the 
 enemy's part to ride through the bivouac of the 
 little force. It was through awful scenes that 
 he darted with his amazing rapidity. A letter 
 says : " It is horrible to relate ; it is more hor- 
 rible to witness. To read that people are eating 
 human flesh is one thing ; it is another to see 
 the bodies from which the flesh has been cut. No 
 one can eat a meal here without loathing. The 
 poor wretches have a selfish look that is inde- 
 scribable, and they haunt one's boat in shoals, 
 in the hope of getting some scraps of food. 
 Their lamentations and moans completely take 
 away any appetite which the horrors one has 
 witnessed may have left one. The rebels have 
 evidently swept up everything edible, and left 
 the unfortunate inhabitants to die." 
 
 Advancing, and fighting as he advanced, 
 Gordon soon realized the situation. Waisso
 
 106 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 was the centre of the Tai-plng line, on which 
 the rebels stood, with their backs to the 
 YanQftsze and their faces towards Ouinsan, 
 By striking at Waisso, he would curl in that 
 left flank of theirs that stretched to Chanzu 
 and threatened a fresh country. Waisso, 
 then, became his objective. 
 
 He had to wait a day or two for his other 
 infantry battalion to come up, and then he 
 moved on the place. When a leader 
 essays a bold emprise and succeeds, the bril- 
 liancy of his tactics is praised, for nothing 
 succeeds like success ; when he fails, he is stig- 
 matized as rash. Gordon has a profound in- 
 difference to criticism ; but he is a man of 
 rigorous inward searching, and I think it pos- 
 sible that when he reviewed this Waisso busi- 
 ness in cool blood, he may have realized that 
 he had been somewhat over-adventurous. By 
 dividing his force, he had often conquered. 
 But it was a very small force he had now, and 
 its elements were not wholly satisfactory. One 
 regiment of it was the best corps in the 
 Ever Victorious Army, but the other con- 
 sisted of the Liyang Tai-pings, and had not 
 had time to acquire discipline. It is noteworthy
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 107 
 
 that in the majority of his divided movements 
 he had remained with the infantry, and fought 
 that arm himself. This he would probably 
 have done at Waisso, but for the helplessness 
 of his wounded condition. The officers to 
 whom he intrusted the infantry operations 
 proved unequal to the duty. 
 
 Gordon himself, with his artillery flotilla, 
 pushed on up a creek that would take him 
 close to the enemy's position. His infantry had 
 orders to march the following morning, their 
 direction was given them, and the combined 
 attack was to be made the following day. 
 Everything miscarried. The infantry had not 
 come up to co-operate, and in their default the 
 flotilla narrowly escaped destruction. The 
 banks of the creek were too hicrh to admit of 
 their being swept by the guns, and the Tai- 
 pings in force fired down into the boats. It was 
 with great difficulty that the gun-boats were ex- 
 tricated, and a retreat made on the encamp- 
 ment. There the wildest confusion prevailed, 
 and a panic was in full sway. The infantry had 
 come by a great mischance. The force had 
 advanced in the morning till it had come upon 
 a Tai-ping camp, strongly entrenched and
 
 108 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 stockaded. Colonel Rhode, who was in com- 
 mand, probably felt the want of artillery. He 
 might have remedied that by an immediate and 
 resolute attack. Instead, he and Colonel 
 Howard — the two regiments were marching 
 apart — halted, and set about distributing their 
 force in companies. The Tai-pings, from the 
 adjacent hills, saw their opportunity. They 
 worked in between Rhode and Howard ; then 
 they came on in great numbers, and brought 
 cavalry to the attack. The new regiment 
 broke, stampeded into the other, and threw it 
 into confusion. A regular rout ensued, and 
 lasted for three miles up to the camp at Luka- 
 chow, where the pursuit was checked by the 
 camp reserve. About 400 men were lost, and 
 eisfht officers fell either in the ficrht or in the 
 flight. It was an Isandlwana on a small scale 
 in almost every detail, but that the slaughter was 
 not so sweeping : few of the Tai-pings had other 
 weapons than knives and spears. Gordon had no 
 other alternative but to fall back, and hearten his 
 men after the punishment they had received. He 
 brought up another regiment, and, on 3rd April, 
 reapproached Waisso, and effected a junction with 
 Governor Li at the head of 7000 1 mperialist troops.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 109 
 
 The rebellion in the field had been driven to 
 its last ditch ; Nanking, its headquarter, was to 
 hold out a little longer. In the limited area 
 they still held up in the north of the Kiangnan 
 peninsula, the Tai-pings were hemmed in on 
 three sides by Imperialist troops, and on the 
 Yantsze behind them was the Imperial fleet. In 
 the infliction of the coup dc grace Gordon's force 
 had an important share. He first cleared the 
 rebels out of Waisso with very little fighting. 
 Then he followed them up as they retreated 
 westward in disorder on Chanchufu and 
 Tayan. The villagers rose against them in a 
 fury of well-earned hate, and slaughtered them 
 in thousands. Governor Li was besieging 
 Chanchufu, and Gordon having collected his 
 whole force, about 3,000 strong, moved to co- 
 operate in this work. In the course of the 
 preliminary operations he lost his best artillery 
 officer, Major Tapp, and at the same time had 
 himself a very narrow escape. It was arranged 
 that on April 27th, after a preparatory bom- 
 bardment, Gordon's troops and an Imperialist 
 force should make a simultaneous assault at 
 separate points. At 1 p.m. Gordon's attack was 
 launched ; two regiments formed the storming
 
 no CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 party. The resistance was exceptionally despe- 
 rate, and spite of the gallant exertions of the 
 officers, the column had to be recalled. The 
 combination had not come off; the Imperialist 
 attack had been delayed ; so the whole Tai- 
 ping force had been free to oppose Gordon's 
 storming party. Later in the afternoon, both 
 forces, however, attacked simultaneously. The 
 Tai-pings fought with extraordinary desperation ; 
 as they manned the breach Gordon's artillery 
 swept them down, only to be replaced again 
 and again by indomitable defenders, brandish- 
 ing spears and shouting defiance. A retreat 
 had to be ordered, and even the pontoons had 
 to be abandoned. Gordon's loss in officers 
 was terrible ; he had ten killed, and nineteen 
 wounded. 
 
 Then Gordon set the Imperialists to sap up 
 to the walls, and meanwhile the gradual defec- 
 tion of the garrison set in. A final assault was 
 made by Governor Li on nth May, the anni- 
 versary of the capture of Chanchu by the Faith- 
 ful King. The Ever Victorious Army had been 
 rather left out of the programme for this day. 
 The Imperialists duly attacked, but when they 
 crossed the ramparts, met with a desperate
 
 CHINESE GORDON. in 
 
 resistance, and began to give way in confusion. 
 At this critical moment Gordon struck in oppor- 
 tunely with a portion of his force. The Impe- 
 rialists were rallied, the breach was cleared, and 
 after some stubborn fighting inside the place the 
 reduction of Chanchufu was completed. Its 
 garrison was found to consist of 20,000 men, of 
 whom 1,500 were killed at the capture. At that 
 capture the Ever Victorious Army fought its 
 last fight. 
 
 The Imperialists did not want it at Nanking, 
 and outside the walls of that place the rebel- 
 lion was crushed, and all but dead. The 
 Ever Victorious Army had done its work 
 and "served its time." Its raison d'etre was 
 finished. Before the fall of Chanchu-fu Gor- 
 don had written home, " I shall, of course, make 
 myself quite sure that the rebels are quieted 
 before I break up the force, as otherwise I 
 should incur great responsibility, but on these 
 subjects I act for myself and judge for myself ; 
 this I have found to be the best way of getting 
 on. I shall not leave things in a mess, but I 
 think, if I am spared, I shall be home by 
 Christmas." He about kept his tryst. 
 
 When Gordon marched his army back into
 
 ii2 CHIXESE GORDOX. 
 
 Ouinsan on 16th May, he learned that the Order 
 in Council had been cancelled under which British 
 officers were free to serve the Chinese Govern- 
 ment. He saw many arguments in favour of 
 the immediate dissolution of the Ever Victo- 
 rious Army ; and he promptly set about the 
 work of disbandment. This, his last duty in 
 China, he handled with the same firm yet deli- 
 cate touch that had brought him through so 
 many difficulties, and with the characteristic dis- 
 interestedness which commanded respect alike 
 from the force, his countrymen, and the Chinese 
 officials. Governor Li gave him full powers, 
 and left in his hands the whole details. The 
 pay throughout had been good, and there was 
 no parsimony at the end. The officers who 
 had been wounded received about ^900 apiece, 
 and the others in proportion. The unarmed 
 rank and file had a month's pay and marching 
 money to their homes. The disbandment had 
 been completed by the 1st of June. "And so," 
 writes Chesney, "parted the Ever Victorious 
 Army from its General, and its brief but useful 
 existence came to an end. During sixteen 
 months' campaigning under his guidance, it had 
 taken four cities and a dozen minor strong
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 113 
 
 places, fought innumerable combats, put /tors 
 de combat numbers of the enemy, moderately 
 estimated at fifteen times its own, and finding 
 the rebellion vigorous and aggressive, had left it 
 at its last gasp, confined to the ruined capital of 
 the usurper." 
 
 The large money present offered to Gordon 
 he declined, as he had done the previous grant. 
 He had spent his pay in promoting the effi- 
 ciency of his force. " I leave China as poor as 
 when I entered it," were the simple, modest 
 words he wrote home. He left Ch:na, how- 
 ever, with the goodwill, respect, and esteem of 
 all with whom he had to do. The merchants 
 and bankers of Shanghai expressed their col- 
 lective gratitude. The British Minister wrote, 
 " Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon well deserves her 
 Majesty's favour, for independently of the skill 
 and courage he has shown, his disinterestedness 
 has elevated our national character in the eves 
 of the Chinese." The Emperor of China con- 
 ferred on him the highest military title of China 
 (Ti Tu, Commander-in-Chief) and the rare Im- 
 perial decorations of the Yellow Jacket and the 
 Peacock's Feather. 
 
 Prince Kung formally requested the British
 
 H4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Minister to bring Colonel Gordon's merits 
 before the notice of her Majesty, and adds : 
 " Colonel Gordon's title, Ti Tu, gives him the 
 highest rank in the Chinese army ; but the 
 Prince trusts that if, on his return home, it be 
 possible for the British Government to bestow 
 promotion or reward on Colonel Gordon, the 
 British Minister will bring the matter forward, 
 that all may know that his achievements and his 
 character are equally deserving of praise." 
 
 It may be possible to bring many accusations 
 against the system of government which obtains 
 in these Islands ; but it cannot be charged that 
 Britain does not know how to reward her dis- 
 tinguished men. Prince Kung's aspiration had 
 been anticipated. Already in the beginning of 
 1864, Gordon had received the exceptional dis- 
 tinction of a brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy. But 
 further recognition awaited him on his return to 
 England. The guerdon usually bestowed on 
 British subjects who have covered themselves 
 with glory on foreign service in which other 
 troops were engaged than our regular army, is 
 the G. M. G., and even the most sanguine of 
 Gordon's friends could scarcely have anticipated 
 for him a higher distinction than this. But it
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 115 
 
 was evident that there was a special delight to 
 do him honour. He was made a C. B. And 
 to mark further how his merits were appre- 
 ciated, the defence of the kernel of the Empire 
 was confided to his charge. This was the real 
 nature of the work which Colonel Chesney per- 
 mits himself to designate as " the building of 
 obscure forts from the designs of others on an 
 Essex swamp." 
 
 1 2
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GRAVESEND AND THE EQUATOR. 
 
 From 1865 to 1S71 Gordon lived at Graves- 
 end, employed on the duty of improving the 
 defences of the Thames. These were his six 
 years of quiet peace and beneficent happiness. 
 It is a beautiful life of which Mr. Hake gives 
 us a sketch so tender. " He lived wholly for 
 others," writes that gentleman. " His house 
 was school and hospital and almshouse in turn, 
 was more like the abode of a missionary than 
 of a commanding officer of Engineers. The 
 troubles of all interested him alike. The poor, 
 the sick, the unfortunate, were ever welcome, 
 and never did supplicant knock vainly at his 
 door. He always took a great delight in chil- 
 dren, but especially in boys employed on the 
 river or the sea. Many he rescued from the 
 gutter, cleansed them and clothed them, and 
 kept them for weeks in his house. For their
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 117 
 
 benefit he established reading classes, over 
 which he himself presided, reading to and teach- 
 ing the lads with as much ardour as if he were 
 leading them to victory. He called them his 
 * kings,' and for many of them he got berths on 
 board ship. One day a friend asked him why 
 there were so many pins stuck into the map of 
 the world all over his mantelpiece ; he was told 
 that they marked and followed the course of the 
 boys on their voyages ; that they were moved 
 from point to point as his youngsters advanced, 
 and that he prayed for them as they went, night 
 and day. The light in which he was held by 
 those lads was shown by inscriptions in chalk on 
 the fences. A favourite legend was ' God bless 
 the Kernel ! ' So full did his classes at length 
 become that the house would no longer hold 
 them, and they had to be given up. Then it 
 was that he attended and taught at the Raes'ed 
 Schools, and it was a pleasant thing to watch 
 the attention with which his wild scholars lis- 
 tened to his words." 
 
 The workhouse and the infirmary, writes 
 another, were his constant haunts, and of pen- 
 sioners he had a countless number. Many of 
 the dying sent for him in preference to the
 
 nS CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 clergy, and he was ever ready to visit them. 
 All eatine and drinking he was indifferent to : 
 his philosophy was that in half an hour after a 
 meal it did not matter what he had eaten. His 
 large garden was cultivated much on the allot- 
 ment plan, by poor people to whom he gave 
 permission to plant what they pleased, and to 
 take the yield. He allowed the author of a 
 book on the Tai-ping Rebellion to come and 
 stay with him, and supplied him with material. 
 But there came to him a suspicion that the 
 writer was praising him, and he asked to see 
 what he had written. It was a bad quarter of 
 an hour for the author, who ruefully told Gordon 
 he had spoiled his book, as he watched page 
 after page being torn out. His purse was 
 always empty because of his free handedness ; 
 and he even sent some of his medals to the 
 melting pot in the cause of charity. 
 
 When another appointment removed him 
 from Gravesend, there was universal regret. 
 Equally graceful and sincere was the tribute of 
 the local newspaper. " Our readers will regret," 
 it wrote, " the departure of Colonel Gordon from 
 the town in which he has resided for six years, 
 gaining a name by the most exquisite charity
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 119 
 
 that will long be remembered. Nor will he be 
 less missed than remembered, for in the lowly 
 walks of life, by the bestowal of gifts ; by attend- 
 ance and ministrations on the sick and dying ; 
 by the kindly giving of advice ; by attendance 
 at the Ragged School, Workhouse, and In- 
 firmary ; in fact by general and continual bene- 
 ficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied 
 in well doing that his departure will be felt by 
 numbers as a personal calamity. His charity 
 was essentially charity, and had its root in deep 
 philanthropic feeling and goodness of heart ; 
 shunning the light of publicity, but coming even 
 as the rain in the nighttime that in the morning- 
 is noted not, but only the flowers bloom and 
 give a greater fragrance. . . All will wish him 
 well in his new sphere, and we have less hesi- 
 tation in penning these lines from the fact that 
 laudatory notice will confer but little pleasure 
 upon him who gave with the heart and cared 
 not for commendation." 
 
 The " new sphere " was Galatz, the Rou- 
 manian river-port on the lower Danube, and 
 his duty there, as British member of the 
 Danubian Commission, was to superintend the 
 improvement of the navigability of the great
 
 120 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 river's mouths. The deep Sulina channel by 
 which vessels of large burden can now load 
 at the Galatz and Braila wharfs is mainly 
 Gordon's work during the two years his head- 
 quarters were at Galatz. I found his memory 
 still green there in the early days of the Russo- 
 Turkish War, fourteen years after he had ex- 
 changed the mosquitoes of the lower Danube 
 for the not less venomous insects of the Upper 
 Nile. How that exchange came about was in 
 this wise. 
 
 When Mehemet Ali entered on the enterprise 
 of annexing the Soudan to Egypt, his honest 
 intentions may have been to introduce com- 
 merce and civilisation into the midst of the 
 Negro and Arab tribes, its inhabitants. Trad- 
 ing ports were established, but it was soon 
 found that slave hunting paid better than ivory, 
 and the traffic in slaves gradually increased 
 until the scandal of it stirred the indignation of 
 Europe. The Egyptian Government connived 
 in the slave catching and the slave dealing, and 
 made a profit out of what was a virtual royalty. 
 The Upper Nile Basin — the region now known 
 as the Equatorial Provinces — was the main 
 theatre of the abominatiou. It was in this
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 121 
 
 country that Zebehr — now known as Zebehr 
 Pasha, and suggested by Gordon as the new 
 Governor-General of the Soudan — rose to be 
 the arch slave hunter, who was able to defy the 
 Khedive, and even to defeat an expedition sent 
 to humble his pretensions. At length the re- 
 monstrances of civilisation moved the late 
 Khedive to evince, or feign, a serious earnest- 
 ness of intention to put down the slave trade. 
 He formally announced the annexation by 
 Egypt of the whole Nile Basin up to the Equa- 
 torial Lakes, and in 1869 issued a firman to Sir 
 Samuel Baker, giving him absolute and supreme 
 power over the whole country south of Gondo- 
 koro. Sir Samuel had previously been up to 
 the equatorial part of the Nile system, and must 
 have been aware that the command assigned him 
 was mostly on paper. Of his work there is no 
 space to speak, but spite of the steadfast oppo- 
 sition he experienced, alike from Egyptian 
 officials and their accomplices the Arab slave 
 traders, he gave the cruel commerce a severe 
 blow. Baker's term was up in 1873 ; and in 1872, 
 Nubar Pasha and Gordon had met in Constan- 
 tinople, and Nubar had asked the Danubian 
 Commissioner to recommend some Engineer 
 

 
 122 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 officer to be Baker's successor. A year later, 
 when Baker was coming out into civilisation 
 from his thankless and laborious work, Gordon 
 tendered himself as his successor if the Khedive 
 would apply for him and the British authorities 
 did not object. The arrangement was effected, 
 and after a short visit to London to make his 
 simple preparations Gordon arrived in Cairo in 
 February, 1874. 
 
 A quotation from Mr. Birkbeck Hill's abstract 
 of the Khedive's Instructions which Gordon 
 took with him to his province will best explain 
 the character of the duties to which he was 
 assigned in Central Africa. " The province 
 which Colonel Gordon has undertaken to or- 
 ganise and to govern is but little known. Up 
 to the last few years it had been in the hands 
 of adventurers who had thought of nothing- but 
 their own lawless gains ; and who had traded in 
 ivory and in slaves. They established factories 
 and governed them with armed men. The 
 neighbouring tribes were forced to traffic with 
 them whether they liked it or not. The 
 Egyptian Government in the hope of putting 
 an end to this inhuman trade, had taken the 
 factories into their own hands, paying the
 
 CHINESE CORD OX. 123 
 
 owners an indemnification. Some of these men 
 had nevertheless been still allowed to carry on 
 trade in the district, under a promise that they 
 would not deal in slaves. They had been 
 placed under the control of the Governor of the 
 Soudan. His authority, however, had scarcely 
 been able to make itself felt in these remote 
 countries. The Khedive therefore had resolved 
 to form them into a separate Government, and 
 to claim as a monopoly of the State the whole 
 of the trade with the outside world. There was 
 no other way of putting an end to the slave 
 trade which at present was carried on in defiance 
 of law. Once the brigandage had been stamped 
 out, trade might become free to all." Gordon 
 was to establish a line of posts through his 
 province, attempt to win the confidence of the 
 tribes, and persuade them to stop the wars made 
 in the hope of carrying off slaves. 
 
 Gordon's career in Africa is recorded in those 
 supremely interesting and intensely character- 
 istic letters to members of his family which Mr. 
 Birkbeck Hill has had the privilege of publish- 
 ing, and which really make his book — "Colonel 
 Gordon in Central Africa/' I own to shudder 
 ing at the sacrilege of condensing into a few
 
 124 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 score pages the outlines of that extraordinary- 
 narrative which those letters — Gordon's own 
 journal in effect — tell with so unstudied a vivid- 
 ness. That the path of the condenser is a 
 thankless one — this does not distress me. My 
 grief is that in " boiling down " this thick vo- 
 lume of letters, the beauty, the strength, the 
 sacred fervour, and the tender play of humour 
 which irradiate them must clean evaporate, and 
 there be left but a matter-of-fact record of acts 
 and facts. I have the self-consciousness of 
 being a vandal ; yet there comes to me some 
 consolation in the probability that its very sue 
 cinctness which distresses me will induce many 
 people to read this little book who cannot find 
 time to study the massive volume of letters, 
 and so learn at least something more of this 
 grand and beautiful life than they did before. 
 To those wonderful letters there is now an 
 added pathos. The field that Gordon broke in 
 to cultivation threatens to relapse into pristine 
 wilderness. The march of humanity that he 
 led so enthusiastically halted when he withdrew 
 from its van. And now it has wheeled in its 
 tracks, and is in melancholy and disheartening 
 retreat.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 125 
 
 Before Gordon left Cairo on his way to his 
 work, he had seen through the devices of Ismail. 
 " I think," he wrote home, " I can see the true 
 motive of the expedition, and believe it to be 
 a sham to catch the attention of the English 
 people ; and feel like a Gordon who has been 
 humbusrored." But he was determined as far as 
 in him lay to make the sham into a reality. " I 
 will do it," was his later expressed resolution, 
 " for I value my life but as naught, and should 
 only leave much weariness for perfect peace." 
 The Egyptian authorities wanted to make a 
 satrap of him, and he was offered ;£ 10,000 to 
 maintain his state ; but Gordon named ^2,000 
 and refused to accept any more. But an en- 
 tourage was incumbent. He had to engage a 
 suite of servants, of whom he was not long in 
 ridding himself, and two wretched aides-de- 
 camp were assigned him, much against his and 
 their will. Going by water to Souakim, he 
 travelled through the desert to Berber — a fort- 
 night's march, for he had an infantry escort of 
 200 troops. Subsequently he traversed the 
 distance, 280 miles, in nine days on camel-back. 
 At Khartoum, the man who in the river voyage 
 up from Berber, " had his trousers off and was
 
 I2 6 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 pulling the boat in spite of crocodiles," was re- 
 ceived by the Governor-General in full uniform, 
 salutes were fired in his honour, and the braying 
 of a brass band welcomed him. His own offi- 
 cial title he discovered to be " His Excellency 
 General Colonel Gordon, the Governor-General 
 of the Equator " -he calls it " an extraordinary 
 mixture." He stayed but eight days in Khar- 
 toum, by no means favourably impressed with 
 the Governor- General there, with whom he 
 afterwards had many "skirmishes." His Equa- 
 torial policy he defined in a decree which he 
 published before leaving Khartoum. " I have 
 issued," he writes, "a stinging decree, declaring 
 the Government monopoly of the ivory trade, 
 and prohibiting the import of arms and powder, 
 the levying of armed bands by private people, 
 and the entry of any one without passports — in 
 fact, I have put the districts under martial law." 
 Then, on 22nd March, he began his voyage 
 up the Nile, accompanied by his proUgi Abou 
 Saoud, whom he had found a prisoner in Cairo. 
 Abou's character was villainous, and everyone 
 united in dissuading Gordon from taking with 
 him the notorious slave hunter, but he was obsti- 
 nate. He believed in Abou, and sanguine that
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 127 
 
 he would be " a very great help — he will be a 
 great man ; he is built and made to govern." 
 The disillusionment came when he discovered, 
 later, that his life was in imminent danger 
 through this scoundrel's treacherous machina- 
 tions. There are buoyancy and hope in Gor- 
 don's narrative of this voyage ; he was not yet 
 in harness, and had not come into the realisa- 
 tion of the difficulties that were to confront him. 
 He notes the crocodiles "lying glistening in the 
 sun," the huge flocks of migratory birds " wait- 
 ing to go north," the hippopotamuses " walking 
 about like huge islands in the shallow water," 
 the monkeys with their " tails stuck up straight 
 over their backs like swords," the camelopards 
 that " looked like steeples." He gets fun out 
 of his surroundings. One night, he tells, a peal 
 of laughter from a bush startled him. u I felt 
 put out, but the irony came only from birds 
 that laughed at us from the bushes in a very 
 rude way. They are a species of stork, and 
 seemed in capital spirits, and highly amused at 
 anybody thinking of going up to Gondokoro 
 with the hope of doing anything." At the Sau- 
 bat River, he had his first interview with some 
 of his subjects — a tribe of Dinkas. The chief
 
 128 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 was coaxed on board — " he was in full dress — 
 a necklace," and his method of salutation was 
 perhaps a little peculiar. " He came up to me, 
 took up each hand, and gave a good soft lick 
 on the backs of them ; then he held my face, 
 and made the motion of spitting on it." From 
 the " tight place " in the Bahr Gazelle the 
 " sudd," or vegetation that had blocked the 
 river so that it took from eighteen months to 
 two vears to voyage from Khartoum to Gondo- 
 koro, had been partly cut, partly swept away, 
 and Gordon passed in a few hours the stretch 
 that had lately been so obstructive. A few 
 days below Gondokoro he passed first the 
 abandoned Austrian Mission Station of St. 
 Croix, where in thirteen years fifteen mission- 
 aries had succumbed to local diseases without 
 having made a single convert ; and Bohr, a 
 " regular slave-trading station, where they were 
 not over civil when they heard of my decree." 
 At length, twenty-three days out from Khar- 
 toum, Gondokoro was reached, and Gordon's 
 arrival created much amazement, for nobody 
 had ever heard of his nomination. 
 
 Gondokoro was the nominal capital of his 
 province, but the province itself was purely
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 129 
 
 mythical. The only possessions Egypt held 
 in all the vast region were two forts, one here 
 at Gonclokoro, with a garrison of 300 miserably 
 inefficient men, whom it were a misnomer to 
 call soldiers ; and another at Fatiko, some 200 
 miles as the crow flies further to the south, 
 with 200 men holding it. Both places were 
 virtually in a state of siege. " As for tax- 
 collecting," he writes, " or any government 
 existing outside the forts, it is all nonsense. 
 You cannot go out in safety half a mile — all 
 because they have been fighting the poor 
 natives and taking their cattle." The man 
 chiefly to blame for this state of things was 
 Raouf Bey, the Egyptian Governor whom 
 Gordon relieved. Raouf, he complains, " had 
 never conciliated the natives, never had planted 
 dhoora (grain), and, in fact, only possessed the 
 ground he camped on." Very soon Gordon dis- 
 pensed with the supine, inefficient Raouf, who 
 was not sorry to get away — left, in fact, "in 
 great joy and contentment." 
 
 It was at least a fine virgin field on which to 
 begin work, and Gordon was quite sanguine. 
 " I apprehend not the least difficulty in the 
 work ; the greatest will be to regain the poor
 
 i 3 o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 people's confidence. They have been hardly 
 treated." But he could not commence in 
 earnest until his staff and baggage had come 
 up, and he made a dash down the Nile to 
 Berber to fetch them. His sole companion 
 hitherto had been the American Colonel Long, 
 whom he left to represent him at Gondokoro. 
 The staff he found at Berber consisted of 
 Major Campbell, of the Egyptian Staff; Mr. 
 Kemp, his engineer ; the two brothers Linants ; 
 Messrs. Anson, Russell, and Gessi ; and, 
 later, there came to him Lieutenants Chippen- 
 dall and Watson, R.E. The Berber journey 
 cost him over two months, but in June he was 
 back at the Saubat River, where he remained 
 two months, organising a station there and 
 conciliating the Shillook natives. Here he 
 began to see his way into the heart of the 
 slave commerce. There were three slave sta- 
 tions above him on the Bahr Gazelle, to the 
 occupants of which he had given notice to quit. 
 From one of them a letter came into his posses- 
 sion directed to the Egyptian Governor of 
 Fashoda, a post on the Nile outside Gordon's 
 confines. This letter ran : "I am on my way 
 to you with the 2,000 cows I promised you
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 131 
 
 and with all to satisfy your wants." The cows 
 had been stolen from the neighbouring tribes — 
 the all meant slaves. Gordon went straight to 
 the slave station, broke it up, cleared the holders 
 of it out, and ordered them down to Khartoum ; 
 the cows he had to confiscate, since the owners 
 could not be reached. The convoy of another 
 dealer he patiently waited for at the Saubat. The 
 trader tried to pass his convoy round Gordon, 
 but the latter "checkmated" him, gave him a 
 fortnight's imprisonment and then forgave him, 
 and even employed him. " He is not worse than 
 the others, and these slavers have been much 
 encouraged to do what they have done. He is 
 a first-rate man, and does a great deal of 
 work." " In reality," he continues, "it was not 
 I who changed the station (to a better site 
 across the river), but the slave-hunters whom 
 I have taken into my employ. They are hardy, 
 active fellows, mostly Berberans — the remnant 
 of an ancient race." As he waited for a steamer 
 to take him up to Gondoroko, he engaged him- 
 self in making friends with the natives around 
 him, and in studying the character of the local 
 slavery. His views expressed then may throw 
 some light on the line he has taken in regard 
 
 K 2
 
 , 3 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 to slavery since he reached Khartoum in 
 January last. "I think," he writes, "that the 
 slavers' wars, made for the purpose of taking 
 slaves, are detestable ; but if a father or mother 
 of their own freewill, and with the will of the 
 child, sells that child, I do not see the objection 
 to it. It was and is the wholesale depopulation 
 of districts which makes slavery such a curse, 
 and the numbers killed or who perish in the 
 collection of slaves." Wretched as were the 
 people, their apathy stood for something like 
 contentment. " I declare," writes Gordon, " I 
 think there is more happiness among those 
 miserable blacks, who have not a meal from 
 day to day, than among our own middle 
 classes. The blacks are glad of a little hand- 
 ful of maize, and live in the greatest discom- 
 fort. They have not a strip to cover them, but 
 you do not see them grunting and groaning all 
 day long, as you see scores and scores in Eng- 
 land, with their wretched dinner-parties and 
 attempts at gaiety, where all is hollow and 
 miserable." He filled up his time in charitable 
 ministrations. " I took an old bag-of-bones 
 into my camp a month ago, and have been 
 feeding her up ; but yesterday she was quietly
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 133 
 
 taken off, and now knows all things. She had 
 her tobacco up to the last, and died quite quietly. 
 What a change from her misery ! I suppose she 
 filled her place in life as well as Queen Eliza- 
 beth." Wretched, lonely, unwholesome quarter as 
 Saubat was, it was a good spot for intercepting 
 the slave traffic. A boat would come down 
 from Gondokoro. Its appearance would be 
 perfectly innocent — the cargo wood and ivory, 
 seemingly, nothing contraband. But a bird 
 would whisper to the alert Gordon, and a rum- 
 mage would be made. The wood pulled up, 
 lo ! a number of woolly heads, the heads of 
 slaves whom the slavers were trying to smuggle 
 down the river. " The strategical position here 
 is splendid," writes Gordon, triumphant at such 
 a find. Then slaves and ivory would be alike 
 confiscated ; the former he kept, the latter went 
 to swell the revenue. 
 
 In the beginning of September he went up 
 to Gondokoro to encounter fresh toil and 
 trouble. For one thing, staff and servants were 
 alike ill, broken down by the dreadful climate, 
 which on him alone made no impression. The 
 place was an hospital. Poor young Anson had 
 already died. Gessi had been down with fever,
 
 i 3 4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 but was now recovering. Russell was ill — too 
 ill to be moved, and Gordon had him in his own 
 tent, wholly under his charge. Campbell, ill ; 
 Linant very ill, could not be moved. De Witt, 
 " an amateur," dead. All the servants, ill and 
 down. " The sick were being medically attended 
 by," writes Gordon, " one of the best doctors (me) 
 I know of." And the same practitioner had also 
 to do most of the nursing. All the accounts 
 Gordon had to keep, every detail personally to 
 see to. But Gondokoro was too unhealthy. He 
 moved his quarters first sixteen miles up the 
 river to Rageef, a great change for the better, 
 with its higher ground and purer air. Linant, 
 however, could not be moved, and died at 
 Gondokoro. 
 
 To add to Gordon's troubles, he found that 
 Abou Saoud, in whom he had believed, was a 
 scoundrel and a traitor. He had been "squeez- 
 ing" the chiefs whom Gordon was trying to 
 conciliate, bullying the natives, and treating 
 Gordon himself with insolent familiarity. He 
 had inspired his men to mutiny. So Gordon 
 broke the ex-slavedealer, in whom he had 
 hoped to find an efficient lieutenant, and sent 
 him down to Gondokoro with this letter as a
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 135 
 
 flea in his ear : — "Abou! when I took you up at 
 Cairo, there was not an Arab or a foreigner who 
 would have thought of employing you, but I 
 trusted to your protestations and did so. When 
 I got to Gondokoro you were behaving pro- 
 perly, and I congratulated myself on your 
 appointment to the high post I gave you. Soon, 
 however, I came little by little to repent my 
 action, and to find out that my fair treatment 
 was thrown away. You deceived me. To come 
 to more personal matters, you strangely forgot 
 our relative positions ; you have forced your 
 way into my private apartment at all times, 
 have disputed my orders in my presence, and 
 treated all my other officers with arrogance, 
 showing that you are an ambitious grasping 
 man, and unworthy of the authority I gave you. 
 If you do this under my eyes, and at the be- 
 ginning of your work, what will you do when 
 you are away from me ? Now, hear my deci- 
 sion ! Your appointment is cancelled, and you 
 will return to Gondokoro and wait my orders. 
 Remember, though I remove you from your 
 office, you are still a government officer, subject 
 to its laws, which I will not hesitate to put in 
 force against you if I find you intriguing."
 
 1 36 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Three weeks later, on the entreaty of two of 
 his staff, Gordon relented, and gave Abou Saoud 
 another chance. But that person was " not a bit 
 changed — only more wary and sly than before." 
 He recommenced his intrigues ; and Gordon 
 would stand him no longer. " One wants some 
 forgiveness oneself," he had written, when he 
 pardoned the scheming traitor; "and it is not 
 a dear article." It came very near being a dear 
 article to Gordon, however, for through Abou's 
 machinations he had a narrow escape of his life ; 
 so the end came, and Abou Saoud — a failure 
 and something worse — was sent down the river. 
 Gordon, however, lived inside a sort of ring- 
 fence of scoundrelism. He presently discovered 
 that his local chief officer at Gondokoro had 
 connived at the passage of a convoy of slaves 
 for the " consideration " of 360 dollars. The 
 convoy — 1600 slaves — got arrested down at 
 Fashoda, and the Gondokoro Mudir had a 
 rather unhappy time. But Gordon had not a 
 free hand, and felt the falseness of his position. 
 The Khedive was writing to him "quite 
 harshly" to stop the slave trade. The Khe- 
 dive's officials were helping it on. " I ask," 
 writes Gordon, "if under these circumstances
 
 CHINESE GORDON. \yj 
 
 his Highness would think me justified in hanging 
 the men I find in charge of slaves : I do not think 
 he would. I cannot help thinking the Khedive 
 finds out that he has made a mistake in appoint- 
 ing me, and that he would sooner have a quieter, 
 easy-going, salary-drawing man." 
 
 At the end of the year he abandoned the 
 Gondokoro site for his principal station, and 
 transferred the seat of government to Lado, 
 twelve miles down the river, on ground that 
 rose above the pestilential marshes. He had 
 lost from sickness eight members of the original 
 staff, of which only Kemp now remained with 
 him at headquarters. Kemp had been up at 
 Duffli at the head of the cataract, 134 miles 
 south of Gondokoro, trying to put together the 
 steamer that had been taken up in pieces, and 
 that was still intended to be used later for the 
 navigation of the Albert Nyanza ; but troubles 
 with the tribes, caused by the misconduct of 
 Kemp's escort, had necessitated the temporary 
 abandonment of the work. Colonel Long had 
 been doing good work before going sick down 
 to Khartoum. He had visited M'tesa, the 
 King of Uganda, and had met with a good recep- 
 tion. On his way down he had discovered and
 
 i 3 8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 used a water passage from Urandogani to 
 Foweira, which gave Gordon great satisfaction, 
 facilitating as it would his access to M'tesa's 
 capital. 
 
 Lado he found much healthier than had been 
 Gondokoro. He had invented a pill which had 
 kept him in perfect health, and hard work hin- 
 dered him from feeling dull, spite of his abso- 
 lute loneliness. He had completed a map of the 
 Nile from Raeeef down to Khartoum, and had 
 built his new station at Lado when the year 
 closed. It was about this date that one of his 
 staff thus summed up what Gordon had already 
 accomplished : — " He has certainly done wonders 
 since his stay in this country. When he arrived, 
 only ten months ago, he found a few hundred 
 soldiers in Gondokoro, who dare not go a hun- 
 dred yards from that place, except when armed 
 and in bands, on account of the hostile Baris. 
 With these troops Gordon has garrisoned eight 
 stations, Sambat, Ratachambe, Bohr, Lado, 
 Rageef, Fatiko, Duffli, and Makrane. Baker's 
 expedition cost the Egyptian Government nearly 
 ;£ i, 200,000, while Gordon has already sent 
 up sufficient money to Cairo to pay for all 
 the expenses of his expedition, including not
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 139 
 
 only the sums required for last year, but 
 the amount estimated for the current one as 
 well." 
 
 For 1875 Gordon had a great scheme, if only 
 he could persuade the Khedive to fall in with it. 
 His communications with Egypt via Khartoum 
 were the reverse of satisfactory. The naviga- 
 tion of the river was beset with difficulties, and 
 firewood for the steamers was beginning to get 
 scarce. Gordon's proposal for a new base was 
 that the Khedive should send a small expedition 
 to Mombaz Bay on the Indian Ocean, 250 miles 
 north of Zanzibar, where a station should be 
 established, and whence a detachment should 
 push inland toward M'tesa. The Mombaz Bay 
 route would be shorter than that by Khartoum, 
 and would much more effectually open up 
 Central Africa. The Khedive entertained the 
 proposal, and sent out what was known as the 
 Juba River Expedition, under McKillop Pasha 
 of the Egyptian navy, whom Colonel Long 
 accompanied to command the intended inland 
 expedition. Trouble arose. Interests clashed. 
 The Zanzibar merchants became alarmed for 
 their equatorial trade, and the Aden settlement 
 grew nervous about its Soumali coast supplies.
 
 i 4 o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Finally, at the instance of the British Govern- 
 ment, the expedition had to be abandoned. 
 
 In February Gordon went down the river to 
 the "pestiferous Saubat." His programme was 
 to spend eight months in settling the stations on 
 that line ; then go south to Fatiko, taking up 
 to Duffli the steamers he meant to have put 
 together there, and with which the lacustrine 
 water system was to be explored. But circum- 
 stances interfered with the execution of this 
 programme. From Foweira there had come 
 news to him that Kaba Rega, king of Unyoro, 
 had leagued himself with the old slave-hunting 
 gang, the original licensees of the Egyptian 
 Government, and was meditating an attack on 
 that station. He ordered down the slave 
 hunters, who were still nominally in the Khe- 
 divial service. Fifty of them came and were 
 sent off to Khartoum, bewailing Gordon's mas- 
 terful confiscation of the slaves they had brought 
 down to Lado. As for Kaba Rega, Gordon 
 determined to drive him out of his kingdom, 
 and substitute Riongo, who had been Baker's 
 vakeel and was now Kaba Rega's rival and a 
 well affected man. 
 
 But first the Sheikh Bedden had to be dealt
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 141 
 
 with, for he had been contumacious, and his 
 proximity to Rageef rendered him dangerous. 
 The only method to bring this apparently 
 truculent gentleman to terms was to surprise 
 him and take his cattle from him. Some risk 
 attended the expedition, for Gordon's Soudanese 
 soldiers were as bad as bad could be, and a 
 concentration which he had devised failed to 
 come off by reason of their heedlessness and 
 pusillanimity. But in the end, without any 
 effusion of blood or burning of villages, Bedden 
 was punished by the loss of 2600 head of cattle, 
 and soon after came in and made submission. 
 Gordon was not stern with the old man ; he 
 gave him back twenty of his cows, and made 
 him some presents — anxious thus to impress the 
 tribes with a sense at once of his justice and 
 generosity. Later it turned out that the cattle 
 had not been Bedden's at all, but belonged to a 
 friendly chief, to whom prompt restitution of 
 them was made ! Bedden himself turned out 
 to be but a poor creature after all. " To-day," 
 wrote Gordon, " I rode to Bedden Islet to have 
 a look at the channel, and observing some 
 natives on a rock under a tree, I walked up to 
 them. They did not move, and I sat down near
 
 i 4 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 them. I asked, 'Are you Bedden's people?' 
 They pointed to an old man and said ' Bedden,' 
 and there was our friend himself. Poor old 
 man ! he was partially blind. I tried to be civil 
 with him ; gave him my whistle and some 
 tobacco, and told the people not to take his 
 cows. It was a sudden meeting to come across 
 him like that ! " 
 
 The problem that confronted Gordon was 
 how to get the heavy portions of the steamers 
 intended for the lakes up above the cataracts 
 about Duffli, which, with the rapids below them, 
 interfered with the continuous navigation of the 
 river. He finally resolved, that since the route 
 lay through a region that would be almost in- 
 evitably hostile, the true method was to " go up 
 and place a station on the Nile, a day's march 
 above Rageef; then to bring all the impedi- 
 menta up there ; then to make another station 
 a day's march further, and take the things up 
 there ; and so on to the head of the Falls." But 
 then the further problem was before him, how 
 to feed the people in those successive stations ? 
 It was yet, however, early in the year, and he 
 could not begin the operation until later in the 
 season, when he should have reconnoitred the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 143 
 
 country, and when his steamers would have 
 arrived from Khartoum. He started southward 
 to select the position for his first station, taking 
 with him forty Soudanese soldiers, fifty Niam- 
 Niam recruits from the Makrata country whom 
 he had enlisted, and a number of bearers carry- 
 ing fifteen days' provisions for the little expedi- 
 tion. Kerri, on the Nile, thirty miles south of 
 Raeeef, was the limit of the march. When 
 halted there, and he was in friendly intercourse 
 with the natives, the alarm of an attack was 
 given, which formed a pretext for his "unruly 
 mob " of followers to plunder the huts. It was 
 a ruse, and angered Gordon so that he thus 
 breaks out in his letter : — " Cowardly, effeminate, 
 lying brutes these Arabs and Soudanese ! with- 
 out any good point about them that I have 
 seen. It is degrading to call these leaders and 
 these men officers and soldiers — I wish they 
 had one neck, and that someone would squeeze 
 it ! When not obliged, I keep as far away as I 
 can from them, out of earshot of their voices. 
 It is not the climate ; it is not the natives ; but 
 it is the soldiery which is my horror." By dint 
 of hard work, in the early days of June three 
 nuggars — Nile barges — were towed up the
 
 I44 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 narrow rapid stream from Rageef to Kerri, and 
 ioo soldiers followed to form the station there. 
 Gordon himself went down to Lado to await the 
 steamers from Khartoum, which were longfover- 
 due, and which were bringing the troops he 
 needed. It is needless to say he found there 
 everything as it should not be. The impossible 
 Governor he "bundled off" to Khartoum — his 
 " Botany Bay," along with a number of pampered 
 and spoilt old soldiers. And he had to deal 
 with the women belonging to the soldiers. The 
 latter had been wont to have wives in every 
 station, which made the stations masses of in- 
 defensible huts. Gordon compelled the " vifes," 
 as he called them, to accompany these men to the 
 new stations which he was forming. And he 
 was justifiably proud of the fact that now he 
 had so pacificated the region that a couple of 
 soldiers could march safely where previously it 
 was necessary to send a band ioo strong. 
 
 At length, on the last day of July, a start was 
 made from Kerri. He had to " pray the nuggars 
 up as I used to do the troops when they 
 wavered in the breaches in China," but it was 
 heart-breaking work. The soldiers were miser- 
 able, ' feckless ' creatures, and the current was
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 14$ 
 
 strong, the tackle was bad, and there were many 
 rocks. Occasionally there was defeat all along 
 the line. " It appears that yesterday" (Gordon 
 is writing August 9th) " one of the nuggars, 
 through the stupidity of the Reis, broke loose, 
 and floating down got into the middle of the 
 rapids in such a position that nobody could get 
 at her. In my absence they sent down the 
 felucca, and she got staved in on the rocks and 
 sand. Next they sent down another nuggar, 
 and she is now in the middle of the river hard 
 and fast on the rock." This was a " sad catas- 
 trophe," but perseverance overcame it, and the 
 point where was to be formed Moogie Station 
 was reached a few days later. 
 
 Here he waited for the reinforcements he 
 expected up from Lado on the arrival of the 
 Khartoum steamer, and soon, then "the two 
 hemispheres will meet." The natives were 
 troublesome. It was not that they sent their 
 magicians to curse Gordon — that did not matter. 
 But they attacked the station next to the one he 
 occupied, and fired arrows into the tents of his 
 own little camp where he had but twenty men. 
 Next day young Linant, thebrother of the Linant 
 who had died at Gondokoro, came down from
 
 1 46 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Makadi, forty miles up stream, with ropes and a 
 detachment, and a number of natives to assist in 
 hauling the nuggars. Linant had been to M'tesa, 
 and met there in April Stanley the explorer. 
 Gordon's young assistant had not long to live. 
 There had been a skirmish in which the natives 
 showed unaccustomed courage, and Linant, with 
 Gordon's permission, took a detachment of thirty- 
 six men with two officers and crossed the river 
 to make reprisals, with intent to deter the natives 
 from attacking the expected steamer. This was 
 in the morning. At midday Gordon heard 
 firing, and saw Linant's red shirt as he stood on 
 a hill, not two miles distant from the station, 
 apparently in no trouble. In the afternoon 
 there was an alarm. A man was seen running 
 down to the opposite shore. A boat fetched 
 him across. " Where is your musket ? " asked 
 Gordon. " The natives have got it ! " " Where 
 are the rest?" " They are all killed ! " "How?" 
 " They had finished their ammunition." Gordon 
 had but thirty men and they were useless — in a 
 panic at the news. He moved down stream to 
 the next station, which was fortified, experi- 
 encing immense difficulty on the voyage because 
 of the swift tortuous current. But the natives
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 147 
 
 allowed the movement undisturbed, save that 
 one from an eminence hurled vituperation, u I 
 made him recognize," grimly remarks Gordon, 
 " that the top of a rock 500 yards distant was 
 not a healthy place to select for the delivery of 
 an address." He found at the lower station the 
 steamer and four escaped men of Linant's party, 
 who told the story that the detachment had got 
 surrounded, and that when all its ammunition 
 was crone the natives had rushed in. Poor Linant 
 was killed by two lance wounds, a victim of the 
 brisrht red shirt he wore — the second son his 
 
 o 
 
 father had lost in the Equatorial Province. 
 
 It was necessary to punish this reverse, and 
 Gordon had received a great accession of force. 
 The steamer had brought up a detachment, and 
 the Mudir of Fatiko, Nuehr Aga, who turned 
 out an excellent officer, brought in a number of 
 fierce and strapping Niam Niams, so that the 
 Moogie garrison was now 500 strong. But 
 Gordon could not find it in his heart to be very 
 relentless against those hapless natives, whose 
 wizard "stood on ' Balak's hill,' obeying, no 
 doubt, the Chief's mandate, ' Come, curse me 
 this people, for they are too mighty for me' — ■ 
 
 the Kings and Princes of Midian sitting like 
 
 1 2
 
 r 4 8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 apes behind him." " I can quite enter," writes 
 Gordon, "into these poor people's misery at 
 their impotency. ' We do not want beads ; we 
 do not want to see the Pasha ; we want our 
 lands, and you to go away!' The retribu- 
 tive expedition killed nobody, and brought in 
 but 200 cows, 1,500 sheep, and the daughter of 
 the Sheikh, who, of course, had to be let go. 
 
 At length Duffli was reached. " It is all 
 over," writes Gordon in large capitals. The 
 Fola Falls were impassable, and everything 
 would have to be portaged. He settled down 
 at Fashelie, a few miles from Duffli, to wait 
 until the tall grass would burn that now waved 
 around him like a great sea. He was ailing. 
 He suffered from ague for the first time since 
 boyhood, and later came liver. The rest helped 
 him, and £ave time for administrative work. 
 The chain of stations from the Soudan up to 
 almost within touch of the Albert Nyanza, was 
 complete. The posts arrived regularly; the 
 country was actually almost at peace. And the 
 slave-hunting? He had been industriously 
 routing out the slave-catchers, but up at Duffli 
 he found " a little nest of ten," who had stayed 
 behind in hopes that they would be overlooked.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. \$ 
 
 No such luck for them ! They had been quite 
 independent, levying taxes and making raids ; 
 but their good time was over very soon after 
 Gordon reached the scene of their perform- 
 ances. Probably they did not feel very ami- 
 able towards him when they found themselves 
 inexorably "bundled off" down to Khartoum, 
 they and their gang of followers. 
 
 By the end of 1876 Gordon had finished his 
 Equatorial work and was back in London, but 
 when that year opened he had still perhaps the 
 most arduous part of his undertaking before 
 him. The region of the Great Lakes had to be 
 explored in detail, pacificated, and studded with 
 posts to maintain the peacefulness. The early 
 days of January saw him marching south from 
 Fashelie to Foweira via Fatiko, through a 
 dreary country strewn with outcrops of iron ore 
 and with slag from native smelting. The region 
 between Duffli and Foweira was a lonely desert 
 of marsh, out of which " the moment the sun 
 goes down, a cold damp arises, that enters one's 
 very bones." The thorns tore his clothes to 
 rags, and gigantic elephants cumbered the diffi- 
 cult track through the tangled jungle. His 
 object in going thus far south now, was to chase
 
 i S o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Kaba Rega out of his Unyoro kingship at 
 Mrooli, and restore Riongo. In this he suc- 
 ceeded ; Kaba Rega burning his " palace," and 
 running off to Masindi with the " magic stool." 
 Gordon left garrisons in Masindi and Mrooli to 
 keep Kaba Rega in check and support Riongo, 
 and returned in February to Duffli, postponing 
 his intention for the present, of " surveying the 
 gaps in the Victoria Nile." In the beginning 
 of March the two life-boats having been put 
 together at Duffli, Gessi started with them to 
 explore Lake Albert Nyanza. Reaching Ma- 
 gungo, where the Victoria Nile flows into Lake 
 Albert, Gessi set forth on his work of cir- 
 cumnavigation, which he accomplished in nine 
 days, in spite of a very violent storm that drove 
 him on to an isle swarming with Kaba Rega's 
 troops, on whom it was necessary to fire. The 
 Lake Gessi reckoned 140 miles long by 50 wide. 
 Gessi earned Gordon's commendation ; he had 
 done his work smartly and efficiently, and re- 
 joined his chief in the end of April. Meanwhile 
 Gordon himself was continuing his attention to 
 administrative details. He reconstituted the 
 line of stations from Duffli north to Lado, and re- 
 organised a postal service. From Foweira there
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 151 
 
 came down to him in an envelope addressed to 
 " Stanley," a quaint letter from M'tesa, written 
 in Kaba Rega's interest. The scribe was evi- 
 dently a Bombay man, of a phonetic tempera- 
 ment. The letter is a curiosity. 
 
 " To Sir Canell Gorlden, Feb. 6, 1876. 
 My dear Friend Gorden hear this my word be 
 not angry with Kavarega Sultan of Unyoro. I 
 have head that you been brought two manwar 
 ships but I pray you fight not with those 
 wanyoro for they know not what is good and 
 what is bad. I am Mtesa King of Uganda for 
 if you fight with governour you fight with the 
 King. . . I pray you my friends hear this my 
 letter stop for a moment if you want to fight put 
 ships in the river Nile take west and north and 
 I will take east and south and let us put Wan- 
 yoro in to the middle but first send me answer 
 from this letter. Because I want to be afreind 
 of the English. I am Mtesa son of Suna King 
 of Uganda let god be with your majesty even 
 you all Amen. Mtesa King of Uganda." 
 
 The humour of his lonely situation up in 
 this remote region, left to struggle single-handed 
 with every petty detail, rather amused than 
 irritated the energetically philosophical man.
 
 j 52 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 Steamers were wanted. The engines originally 
 ordered out by Baker, then casually found by a 
 travelling engineer half embedded in the desert 
 sand beyond Korosko, had finally in a casual 
 kind of fashion reached Khartoum. But the 
 engines were useless without hulls. " Shall I 
 order hulls and risk it?" writes Gordon in a 
 home letter. " Ask Mary what I had better do, 
 or the old cook. . . In any other Government 
 in the world I should have under me sub- 
 ordinates to look after the proper supplies being 
 sent up and properly distributed, to look after 
 the accounts, the soldiers, their arms, &c. 
 I have not time to do this work, and it appears 
 not to be the custom — the whole of these 
 matters are the affair of the Governor per- 
 sonally. He is controller in land and water 
 matters in the fullest extent of the word ; repairs 
 of boats, steamers, &c, are all his work." 
 
 As Gordon moved through the country he 
 used his observant faculties keenly. " It is odd 
 and worthy of study," he writes—" the limits of 
 perfect nudeness and of full clothing. The 
 tribes on the Nile to the Albert Lake are per- 
 fectly nude ; then comes a region of apologies 
 for dress, and then come full dressed tribes.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 153 
 
 This is another curious feature about the Nile 
 tribes : they have not the least idea of indeli- 
 cacy in being naked, but they are very clean in 
 person and in their habits and demeanour." 
 
 It was a tedious period while the completion 
 of the steamer at Duffli was being waited for ; 
 but at length it was ready. Gessi, the efficient, 
 had been ordered down to Khartoum, and 
 Gordon was unaccompanied in this latest expe- 
 dition by any European. He had resolved 
 not to undertake exploration work, and had 
 indeed in the beginning of the year written to 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson, pointing out that his 
 troops in the stations which he had formed in 
 the Lake Country needed all his efforts to keep 
 them supplied. " The wants of the troops," he 
 then wrote, "are immediate; the exploration 
 can wait." But these gaps in the Nile geo- 
 graphy were preying on his mind. " I see at 
 once," he wrote, " how incomplete the work is 
 until they are rilled up." Schweinfurth had 
 written, "It may be that Lake Albert belongs 
 to the Nile system ; but it is not a settled fact, 
 for there are seventy miles between Foweira 
 and Lake Albert never explored, and one is not 
 authorised in making the Nile leave Lake
 
 i S 4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Albert. The question is very doubtful." Gor- 
 don had followed the Nile from Khartoum to 
 Duffli, and Gessi had completed the survey of 
 the river from Duffli up into Lake Albert. An 
 " Albert Nile" then was established ; but what 
 about the Victoria Nile? That river flowed 
 out of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, and its course 
 was known as far north as Foweira ; but beyond 
 that, what of it ? There were those who held 
 it might go to the Saubat or the Asua, both of 
 which rivers are part of the Nile system, but in 
 this case the Albert Nyanza would be a separate 
 source. 
 
 " It was contended," wrote Gordon later, 
 "that the Nile did not flow out of Lake 
 Victoria and thence into Lake Albert and so 
 northward, but that one river flowed out of 
 Lake Victoria and another out of Lake Albert ; 
 and that these two rivers united and formed 
 the Nile. This statement could not be posi- 
 tively denied, inasmuch as no one had actually 
 gone along the river from Foweira to Ma- 
 gungo. So I went along it with much suffering, 
 and settled the question. I also found that 
 from Foweira to Karuma Falls there was a 
 series of rapids to Murchison Falls, thus by
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 155 
 
 degrees getting rid of the 1000 feet difference 
 of level between Foweira and Magungo." 
 
 On July 28, Gordon was on Lake Albert, 
 and had reached the debouchment of the 
 Victoria Nile into that lake. Then he began 
 his arduous survey work of the seventy miles 
 stretching eastward to Foweira. " A dead 
 mournful place this is " (near Murchison Falls), 
 " with a heavy damp dew penetrating every- 
 where ; it is as if the Angel Azrael had spread 
 his wings over this land. You can have little 
 idea of the silence and solitude." The river 
 was navigable up to the foot of the Falls, but 
 then the arduous tramp began in a pouring 
 rain through dense jungle, and terrific ravines 
 coming down laterally from the table land into 
 the deep canyon in which the river ran. Five 
 days of scrambling through a tangle of wild 
 vines and other creepers at the rate of about 
 eighteen miles a day, brought Gordon to the 
 deserted station of Anfina, and three days later 
 he was in Foweira, and the survey had been 
 complete. He visited the station that had 
 been formed at Mrooli, seventy-five miles up 
 the Victoria Nile from Foweira, and penetrated 
 by land eighty miles further in the direction of
 
 156 CHINESE GORDON* 
 
 Lake Victoria, to near Speke's Nyamyango. 
 Then he turned back, and visited Masindi Sta- 
 tion, thence arriving at Magungo on September 
 29th, having annexed for the Khedive and 
 actually occupied a large tract of the Equatorial 
 lucustrine region. On 6th October he started 
 on his journey northward, bound for Cairo, his 
 ulterior intentions seemingly not very definite. 
 " Body of Comfort — a very strong gentleman — 
 says, ' You are well ; you have done enough ; 
 go home — go home and be quiet, and risk no 
 more.' Mr. Reason says, 'What is the use of 
 opening more country for such a Government ? 
 There is more now under their power than they 
 will ever manage. Retire now, and avoid 
 troubles with M'tesa and the Mission.' But 
 Mr. Somebody (I do not know what) says, 
 ' bnut your eyes to what may happen in future ; 
 leave that to God, and do what you think will 
 open the country thoroughly to both Lakes. 
 Do this not for the Khedive, or for his Govern- 
 ment, but do it blindly and in faith.' An oracle 
 also says, ' Let your decision rest on the way 
 the Khedive is disposed ; if he desires you to 
 stay, then stay ; but if he seems indifferent, 
 then do not hesitate, but go away for good.' "
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 157 
 
 Gordon reached Cairo on December 2, had a 
 final interview with Cherif Pasha, to whom he 
 entrusted the task of informing the Khedive 
 that he did not intend continuing in his service, 
 and on Christmas Eve, 1876, he arrived in 
 London. He had administered the Equatorial 
 Province for eighteen months. What he had 
 done in that time was briefly this : — He had 
 mapped the White Nile from Khartoum to 
 within a short distance of the Victoria Nyanza. 
 He had given to the slave trade on the White 
 Nile a deadly blow. He had restored confi- 
 dence and peace among the tribes of the Nile 
 Valley, so that they now freely brought into the 
 stations their beef, corn, and ivory for sale. 
 He had opened up the water communication 
 between Gondokoro and the Lakes. He had 
 established satisfactory relations with King 
 M'tesa. He had formed Government districts, 
 and established secure posts with safe communi- 
 cation between them. He had contributed a 
 revenue to the Kheclivial exchequer, and this 
 without oppression. The Tai-ping Rebellion 
 established Gordon's genius as a military com- 
 mander ; the Equatorial Provinces, when he 
 left them, testified not less to his genius as a 
 philanthropic and practical administrator.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE SOUDAN. 
 
 " They say I do not trust Englishmen ! ' 
 once said shrewd old Ismail. " Do I mistrust 
 Gordon Pasha ? That is an honest man ; an 
 administrator, not a diplomatist." For the 
 moment Ismail had lost his " administrator." 
 Gordon had suffered so much hindrance in his 
 Equatorial work at the hands of Ismail Yacoub 
 Pasha, the Governor-General of the Soudan, 
 that he had thrown up his command. He had 
 successfully checked slave-driving in his own 
 Province, but he could do nothing to stop it in 
 the extensive Soudan region, where Khartoum 
 was the head-quarters of the system. But the 
 Khedive was urgent for him to return, and it 
 was pointed out to him by those in authority at 
 home that there was a sort of moral obligation 
 resting on him to carry out his work. His holi- 
 day in England was brief ; he was back in
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 159 
 
 Cairo early in February, 1877. He conquered 
 all along the line. Ismail Yacoub was re- 
 moved, and his place given to Gordon, with a 
 vastly increased sphere of duty and responsi- 
 bility. " Setting a just value," wrote the Khe- 
 dive to the latter on February 17, 1877, "on your 
 honourable character, on your zeal, and on the 
 great services you have already done me, I 
 have resolved to bring the Soudan, Darfour, 
 and the provinces of the Equator, into one vast 
 province, and place it under you as Governor- 
 General." He was to have three sub-gover- 
 nors, and the two matters to which Ismail 
 desired his principal attention were the sup- 
 pression of slavery, and the improvement of the 
 means of communication. 
 
 Part of his commission was to attempt an 
 arrangement of questions in dispute between 
 Egypt and Abyssinia, and this matter Gordon 
 resolved to go into before proceeding to Khar- 
 toum and beginning his work of administration. 
 He had his interview with the Khedive. "He 
 looked at me reproachfully, and my conscience 
 smote me. . . . Then I began and told him 
 all ; and then he gave me the Soudan, and I 
 leave on Saturday. I am very glad to get
 
 160 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 away, for I am very weary. I go up alone 
 with an infinite Almighty God to direct and 
 guide me, and am glad to so trust him as to 
 fear nothing: and to feel sure of success." He 
 was at Massowah already on the 26th of 
 February. 
 
 It was a tangled skein, the unravelment of 
 which was thrown upon Gordon by the Khe- 
 dive's curiously vague instruction : " II y a sur 
 la frontiere d'Abyssinie des disputes ; je vous 
 charge de les arranger." Lord Napier of Mag- 
 dala's friend, Prince Kassai, had set himself up 
 under the title of " Johannis, King of Abys- 
 sinia." Old Menelek of Shoa, on the south, 
 still held and holds his own against Johannis, 
 and Boeos also remained recalcitrant. The ill- 
 fated Munziger Pasha, a Swiss, who was Go- 
 vernor of Massowah for the Khedive, had per- 
 suaded his master to snatch the opportunity to 
 annex Bogos to the Soudan. That was effected 
 in 1874, but when the lust for annexation 
 prompted a further effort to wrest the Hama- 
 cen province from Abyssinia, the Egyptian 
 troops were utterly and disastrously defeated, 
 chiefly by the exertions of Walad el Michael, 
 the hereditary Prince of Hamacen and Bogos,
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 161 
 
 whom Johannis had released from the confine- 
 ment in which he had been detained, and sent 
 him into his own country to raise his people 
 against the Egyptian invaders. Smarting under 
 defeat, the Khedive, in 1876, instituted a new 
 expedition against Abyssinia under the Ame- 
 rican Lorincr and Rahib Pasha. Walad el 
 Michael had quarrelled with Johannis, and, 
 thinking- he could do better for himself by 
 changing sides, went over to the Egyptians. 
 He brought them no luck. Johannis smote 
 them hip and thigh, and finally, under a truce, 
 what was left of the Egyptian army got back to 
 Massowah. Walad el Michael, who had 7,000 
 men, drew off to Bogos ; and while Johannis 
 and Rahib were negotiating, he struck for his 
 own hand, and surged into the Province of 
 Hamacem, whose Abyssinian Governor he 
 killed. Johannis panted to have this truculent 
 free-lance in his power, and sent a mission to 
 Cairo offering the Khedive the cession of 
 Hamacem — Bogos already he had— if the 
 Egyptians would but hand over to him this 
 troublesome Walad el Michael. The envoy 
 was treated in rather haut en has fashion, and, 
 after kicking his heels in Cairo for some three 
 
 M
 
 1 62 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 months, returned to Abyssinia without any 
 answer from the Khedive to Johannis's propo- 
 sal — an indignity which kindled the latter 
 potentate to bitter wrath. 
 
 It was to attempt the resolution of this chaos 
 into order that Gordon went up to the Abys- 
 sinian frontier. He could devote but a brief 
 interval to the effort, for the internal condition 
 of his new and vast Province clamoured for his 
 urgent attention. Darfour was in revolt, and the 
 Egyptian garrisons were besieged by the insur- 
 gents. Further south the slave-dealers, under 
 the lead of that "cub" Suleiman, the son of 
 Sebehr Pasha, were threatening an outbreak. 
 And to crown the difficulties of the situation 
 for Gordon, the Soudan had been well-nigh 
 drained of troops for the support of the Sultan 
 in his war with Russia. It availed Gordon 
 little that the Khedive had made him a Mar- 
 shal ; sent him a uniform covered with gold 
 lace, and given him in charge the South- 
 eastern Littoral down to Berberah, opposite 
 Aden. From Massowah he pushed on Keren 
 (now Sanheit), the chief town of Bogos. His 
 new state this man, so fond of simplicity, found 
 " irksome beyond measure." He breaks out in
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 163 
 
 angry protest : " Eight or ten men to help me 
 off my camel ! as if I were an invalid. If I 
 walk, every one gets off and walks ; so. furious, 
 I get on again." As he approached Keren, the 
 Abyssinian mercenaries in Egyptian pay came 
 out to meet him with musicians, dancers, and 
 kettle drummers ; when he entered, the garrison 
 was on parade to receive him. It was not the 
 inevitable Scot he found here, but the almost 
 equally inevitable Irishman, a gentleman of the 
 name of Macilvrey, who had come up with 
 Consul Cameron, and now wore his white 
 sheet, and had a local wife and family. Walad 
 el Michael presently came into the place with 
 an escort of cavalry and infantry. The French 
 missionaries interpreted to him Gordon's views. 
 Egypt declined to prosecute the war with Abys- 
 sinia, and Gordon would either give Walad a 
 government in his territory, or ask Johannis to 
 give him one in Abyssinia. Walad wanted 
 ever so much better terms, but Gordon was 
 resolute, and Walad accepted the former alter- 
 native. It was a complicated situation, which 
 Gordon thus expounds in quaint allegory : 
 
 " There were two courses open to me with 
 respect to this Abyssinian question ; the one to 
 
 M 2
 
 164 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 negotiate peace with Johannis and ignore Walad 
 el Michael, and if afterwards Walad turned 
 rusty, to arrange with Johannis to come in and 
 catch him. This certainly would have been 
 easiest for me. Johannis would have been 
 delighted, and we would be rid of Walad ; but 
 it would first of all be very poor encouragement 
 to any future secessions, and would debase Egyp- 
 tian repute. The process of turning in the 
 polecat Johannis to work out the weasel (Walad) 
 would play havoc with the farmyard (the coun- 
 try) in which the operation was carried on ; and 
 it might be that the polecat Johannis having 
 caught the weasel Walad, might choose to turn 
 on the hens (which we are), and killing us, stay 
 in the farmyard. For, to tell the truth, we, the 
 hens, stole the farmyard, this country, from the 
 polecats when they were fighting among them- 
 selves, and before they knew we were hens. 
 The other course open to me was to give 
 Walad a government separated from Johannis, 
 which I have done, and I think that was the 
 best course ; it was no doubt the most honest 
 course, and though in consequence we are like a 
 fat nut between the nutcrackers, it will, I hope, 
 turn out well."
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 165 
 
 The "hen" simile Gordon pursued in a 
 written reverie on administration. " I often think 
 how small the office work generally is with us 
 in England in our great offices, in comparison 
 with the questions one has to decide here. In 
 the one case a few pounds are in dispute ; in 
 the other case the whole tenure, and the desti- 
 nies of human beings are a question. In reality 
 both are equally important so far as the effect 
 on ourselves is concerned. The procuring and 
 boiling of potatoes is as much to a poor woman 
 as the reorganisation of the army is to Cardwell. 
 We are all hens, and never were such eggs laid 
 as our own ! " 
 
 He could not wait here at Keren while slow 
 thinkers made up their minds. His presence 
 was needed at Khartoum, for which he started 
 in the beginning of April, riding some forty-five 
 miles a day on his swift camel ; and giving 
 orders, writing letters, and attending to applica- 
 tions at the stations which he passed through. 
 The work he saw in front of him would be ar- 
 duous ; but he braced himself to wrestle with it. 
 "With terrific exertions," he wrote, " I may in 
 two or three years' time, with God's administra- 
 tion, make a good province, with a good army
 
 1 66 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 and a fair revenue, and peace and an increased 
 trade, and also have suppressed slave raids ; 
 and then I will come home and go to bed, and 
 never get up again till noon every day, and 
 never walk more than a mile." 
 
 Arrived at Khartoum, he had to submit to 
 the ceremony of installation. The Cadi read 
 the firman and presented an address, a royal 
 salute was fired, and then Gordon had to 
 make his speech from the vice-throne. It was 
 very short — but "it pleased the people much." 
 The pithy sentence he uttered was, "With the 
 help of God I will hold the balance level ; " and 
 then, as not he records, he <! directed gratui- 
 ties to be distributed to the deserving poor, and 
 in three days he gave away upwards of a thou- 
 sand pounds of his own money." He was not, 
 however, universally popular. His second in 
 command, Halid Pasha, "wanted to bully" 
 him; however, "after a two days' tussle" he 
 gave in and became Gordon's "dear friend and 
 obedient servant," but he had later to be dis- 
 graced and sent down to Cairo. The sister of 
 the late Governor-General took a petulant 
 method of signifying her disgust at her brother's 
 supercession. She broke all the windows of
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 167 
 
 the palace — some hundred and thirty — and cut 
 the divans to pieces out of spite. 
 
 Gordon spent less than a month in his capital, 
 but in that time he revolutionised the adminis- 
 tration. Under the old regime ten or fifteen 
 unfortunates were flogged daily ; he abolished 
 the reign of the courbash. In the bad old 
 days, nobody could approach the Governor 
 without bribing the underlings, and every office 
 was got by dint of backsheesh. The regular 
 pay of the places was poor — not often more 
 than ^"240 a year — yet great bribes were given 
 by the aspirants, to be recouped to the office- 
 holders by corruption and "squeezing" the 
 people. The officials had been wont to bring 
 those bribes to their superior, for venality per- 
 meated the whole of the Egyptian machinery of 
 government. When the backsheesh was brought 
 to Gordon, he felt the impossibility of reform- 
 ing at a bound immemorial usage, so he took 
 the money and put it in the treasury. To 
 facilitate the redress of grievances, he had a 
 box in the palace-door, a " lion's mouth ' in 
 which suppliants put their complaints and 
 petitions, which received his immediate atten- 
 tion, and the device saved him the waste of
 
 1 68 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 time that would have been involved in giving a 
 hearing to every petitioner. Before he left he 
 decided on giving the city a proper water supply, 
 and so spare the citizens the labour of carrying 
 water from a distance. And he had already 
 commenced the task of disbanding the 6000 
 Turks and Bashi Bazouks who constituted the 
 frontier guards, and who habitually allowed the 
 slave-caravans to pass. 
 
 It was a mighty task which he confronted, 
 this reform of the Soudan. "A stupendous 
 task," writes Mr. Hake, "to give peace to 
 a country quick with war ; to suppress slavery 
 among a people to whom the trade in human 
 flesh was life and fortune ; to make an army 
 out of perhaps the worst material ever seen ; 
 to erow a flourishing trade and a fair revenue 
 on the wildest anarchy in the world. The 
 immensity of the undertaking ; the infinity of 
 details involved in a single step toward the end ; 
 the countless odds to be faced ; the many pests, 
 the deadly climate, the horrible vermin, the 
 ghastly itch, the nightly and daily alternations of 
 overpowering heat and bitter cold — to be en- 
 dured and overcome ; the environment of bestial 
 savagery and ruthless fanaticism — all these com-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 169 
 
 bine to make the achievement unique in human 
 history." 
 
 Urgently wanted in Darfour, he left Khar- 
 toum toward the end of April, and journeyed 
 rapidly by Obeid to Fogia, whence a force had 
 been sent two months previously to relieve the 
 Darfour garrisons. " I expect," he wrote during 
 this journey, "to ride 5,000 miles this year, if I 
 am spared. I am quite alone, and like it. I 
 have become what people call a great fatalist, 
 yet I trust God will pull me through every 
 difficulty. The solitary grandeur of the desert 
 makes one feel how vain is the effort of man. 
 This carries me through my troubles, and 
 enables me to look upon death as a coming 
 relief, when it is His will. I am now accus- 
 tomed to the camel. It is a wonderful creature, 
 and so comfortable, with its silent, cushion-like 
 tread." His camel was an exceptionally swift 
 animal ; as Gordon approached Fogia, it left the 
 escort far behind, and its rider " came flying 
 into the station in marshal's uniform " before the 
 troops there had time to get into order to 
 receive him. While waiting at Omchanga for 
 troops to come to him — " tag, rag, and bobtail 
 troops " were all he expected — he felt himself
 
 170 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 constrained to ask pardon of the people for 
 their oppression by the Bashi Bazouks. Enter- 
 prise clashed with enterprise. Fascher, the 
 capital of Darfour, had to be relieved. Haroun, 
 the surviving member of the Darfour Sultan's 
 family, was in revolt. At Shakka, further 
 south, were the hordes of Zebehr Pasha the 
 arch-slaver ; his son Suleiman in command. 
 11 Shakka," he writes, " is the Cave of Adul- 
 lam ; all murderers, robbers, &c, assembled 
 there, and thence make raids upon the negro 
 tribes for slaves. They can put ten thousand 
 men into the field. Altogether it was as well I 
 came to the Soudan ; another year would have 
 left little Soudan to come to, what with these 
 gentlemen, Darfour and Abyssinia ! ' On the 
 march to Toashia, Gordon's "tag, rag, and bob- 
 tail " had no meat for two days, and he found 
 there a garrison that had received no pay for three 
 years — a set of brigands, whom he sent back 
 into Kordofan to be disbanded. He took on to 
 Dara 500 " of all sorts, a very poor set," and 
 on the way was threatened by an attack from 
 thousands of determined blacks. " Very few 
 Englishmen," he wrote, "know what it is to be 
 with troops they have not a bit of confidence in.
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 171 
 
 I prayed heartily, but the situation gave me a 
 pain in the heart. I do not fear death, but I 
 fear, from want of faith, the results of my death 
 — the whole country would have risen. It is 
 most painful to be in such a condition ; it takes 
 a year's work out of one."' At Dara there came 
 to him with 600 men the Sheikh of the Razagat 
 tribe, from near Shakka, smarting under out- 
 rage at the hands of Sebehr's son. Dara had 
 been six months without news from without ; 
 everything was at famine prices. Gordon likens 
 his arrival to the relief of Lucknow. Indeed 
 the whole country was starving. Among some 
 hundreds of wretched creatures believed to be 
 slaves, captured outside Dara, there were "poor 
 little wretches, only stomachs and heads, with 
 antennae for legs and arms — the enormous 
 stomachs caused by grass feeding." 
 
 He was determined to deal with Shakka and 
 with Suleiman, but first he had to push out to 
 Fascher and ascertain how matters fared with 
 the supine garrison of 8,000 men in their 
 nominal beleasoierment. But he had to gro 
 round from Dara by YVadar, for the Leopard 
 tribe was threatening Toashia. He had for ally 
 the Masharin tribe, whose chief was mortally
 
 I72 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 wounded in the first fight. Seven hundred 
 " Leopards " attacked his camp, in which he 
 had 3,500 troops, but so cowardly were they 
 that the Leopards all but conquered, indeed 
 would have done so but for the exertions of the 
 brave Masharins. His plan of coercing the 
 Leopards into submission was by driving them 
 from their wells — a policy from which his 
 humanity revolted, but it produced the desired 
 effect. The Leopards made their submission ; 
 their plight, " with throats unslaked, with thick 
 lips baked," was piteous in the extreme. 
 Gordon had compassion on them, swore them 
 to fealty on the Koran, and then let them drink. 
 The Leopards had got their lesson. 
 
 Gordon could afford to stop in Fascher only 
 sufficiently long to banish a colonel who had 
 been intriguing against him. Zebehr's son had 
 to be dealt with. The " cub " had sent Gordon 
 a temporising letter, but his acts did not accord 
 with his words. News reached Gordon from 
 the fugitives who had suffered, that the slave- 
 dealing horde under Suleiman was ravaging the 
 region about Dara and even threatening that 
 place itself. He dashed at Dara, riding eighty- 
 three miles in a day and a-half, and leaving his
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 173 
 
 escort far behind. As soon as his people there 
 had recovered from their surprise at his sudden 
 arrival they proceeded to fire the salute that 
 should have greeted him. " My poor escort," 
 writes Gordon, "where is it? Imagine to 
 yourself a single, dirty, red-faced man on a 
 camel ornamented with flies, arriving in the 
 divan all of a sudden ! " 
 
 Three miles outside Dara a gang of slavers 
 who were stirred to anarchy by the orders of 
 the arch-slaver Zebehr, and who had just sworn 
 on the Koran to persistent hostility against 
 Gordon and the government he represented, 
 several thousands of their slave-soldiers about 
 them, and in command Zebehr's son himself, 
 ^nside Dara, a lone man, who had ridden in on 
 his camel, and was speculating on the where- 
 abouts of his escort. And what happened ? 
 Let the lone man tell the story himself. " At 
 dawn I got up, and putting on the golden 
 armour the Khedive gave me . . . rode out to 
 the camp of the robbers three miles off. I was 
 met by the son of Zebehr — a nice-looking lad 
 of twenty-two years — and rode through the 
 robber band. There were about 3,000 of them, 
 men and boys. I rode to the tent in the camp ;
 
 i"4 CHIXESE GORDO X. 
 
 the whole body of chiefs were dumfounded at 
 my coming among them. After a glass of 
 water, I told the son of Zebehr to come with 
 his family to my divan. They all came, and 
 sitting there in a circle, I gave them in choice 
 Arabic my ideas. That they meditated revolt ; 
 that I knew it, and that now they should have 
 my ultimatum, viz., that I would disarm them 
 and break them up. They listened in silence, 
 and then went off to consider what I had said. 
 They have just now sent me a letter stating 
 their submission, and I thank God for it, . . . 
 Maduppa Bey has come here and says, when 
 the son of Zebehr got home, he lay down and 
 said not a word, and that the Arabs say I have 
 poisoned him with coffee." Gordon resolved to 
 send men to Shakka and clear out the " slave 
 nest." He ordered young Suleiman back there, 
 and, after a scene, the young fellow finally de- 
 parted, leaving half his gang with Gordon. Be- 
 fore he went, Suleiman wrote subserviently to 
 ask Gordon for a government. The reply was 
 that until he had proved his fidelity Gordon 
 would never give him a place, even if the refusal 
 cost him his life. He was in the midst of men 
 who were debating whether or not they should
 
 CHIXESE GORDON. 175 
 
 fight him, but this did not discompose him. 
 " Ruffians as they are," he writes, " I rather 
 like having a chat with them." The chat on 
 this occasion took a curious turn. When 
 Gordon had given his brusque reply to the 
 chief who brought him the letter from Sulei- 
 man, he asked the emissary whether he was a 
 father. "He said 'Yes/ and I asked him 
 whether he did not think a good flogging would 
 do the cub good, to which he agreed." 
 
 Gordon followed Suleiman into the "den" at 
 Shakka, at the latter's invitation. There were 
 6,000 more slave dealers in the interior whom 
 he was determined to work out, and yet for 
 whom he felt some consideration. He had 
 been thinking out the slave question from the 
 slave-dealer's point of view, and was not quite 
 in accord with the home Abolitionists-at-any- 
 price. As to the slave-dealers he asks, "Would 
 you shoot them all ? Have they no rights ? 
 Are these not to be considered ? Had the 
 planters no rights ? I would have given 
 ^500 to have had the Anti-Slavery Society in 
 Dara during the three days of doubt whether 
 the slave-dealers would fight or not. A bad 
 fort, a cowed garrison, not a man who did not
 
 I7 6 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 tremble, — a strong, determined set of men, 
 accustomed to war, good shots, and with two 
 field-pieces. Now understand me. If it suits 
 me I will buy slaves for my army. I will let 
 captured slaves go down to Egypt and not 
 molest them, and I will do what I like and 
 what God in His mercy may direct me to do 
 about domestic slaves ; but I will break, the 
 neck of slave raids even if it cost me my life. 
 I will buy slaves for my army ; for this purpose 
 I will make soldiers against their will to enable 
 me to prevent raids." 
 
 Suleiman behaved on the surface like a gentle- 
 man. He came out to meet Gordon, gave him a 
 cordial welcome and the hospitality of his own 
 house, which Gordon accepted. He seems rather 
 to have taken to the lad, whom Gessi later had to 
 exterminate. Suleiman's very coolness amused 
 him. "He is a cub," writes Gordon. "He 
 has no sense of propriety — lolls about, yawns, 
 fondles his naked feet, and speaks as if he were 
 a street boy. He quietly ignores all the past, 
 and asked me for his back pay ! He does not 
 seem in the least put out at any hard words I 
 may say. He would have suffered nicely if he 
 had fallen into the hands of an Arab Pasha."
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 177 
 
 Shakka Gordon found swarming with slaves. 
 When he left for Obeid, he could not help sus- 
 pecting that the party travelling under his 
 escort was actually a caravan of slaves. " When 
 you have got the ink out of it that has soaked 
 into blotting paper, then slavery will cease in 
 these lands." His visit to Suleiman lasted only 
 two days. Later he learned how narrow had 
 been his escape from treachery. 
 
 He was back in Khartoum by the middle of 
 October to find that his energy had made him 
 " much feared and respected, but not overmuch 
 liked." The whole population was impressed 
 by his unquenchable force, his resolute firmness. 
 " The Pasha is coming " was news that inspired 
 alertness into every functionary. The mass of 
 accumulated work at the capital he despatched 
 in a week, and then set off by water down the 
 Nile to Berber; with this mild programme: 
 " Berber, Dongola, Wadi Haifa, Assuan ; thence 
 I cross to Berenice on the Red Sea, and go up 
 to Massowah ; from Massowah to Bogos ; 
 thence I hope to go to meet King Johannis ; 
 thence return to Massowah and go to Berberah 
 and perhaps Harrar ; then back to this place." 
 Events disarranged the projected tour. When 
 
 N
 
 1 78 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 below Dongola investigating a railway con- 
 tract, telegrams from Khartoum reached him, 
 announcing an invasion on the part of the 
 Abyssinians, and that Sennaar was actually 
 threatened. There was nothing for him but to 
 return with all speed to Khartoum, which he 
 did, making a " bee-line " across the so-called 
 Bayouda desert, to learn that the story of inva- 
 sion was an invention. But the irrepressible Walad 
 el Michael was troubling the frontier, and Gor- 
 don rode off into the Bogos country to look up 
 that turbulent person. Walad he found at 
 Hellal, a mountain eyrie six hours from San- 
 heit, with 7,000 troops around him. Walad was 
 shamming sick ; Gordon found him lying on a 
 couch, nursing his knee. It was a hazardous 
 undertaking, accompanied as he was by but ten 
 soldiers. He was quartered in a wretched hut, 
 with a fence round it, and his people were con- 
 siderably scared at the aspect of affairs. While 
 waiting for the palaver with Walad, he amused 
 himself with an inspection of that leader's army, 
 and at night was serenaded by the priests with 
 hymn-singing. Walad would not hear Gordon's 
 suggestion that he should solicit pardon from 
 Johannis, and Gordon arranged matters with
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 179 
 
 him on the basis of a subsidy of ^1,000 a 
 month, and left very willingly for Massowah, 
 whence, after waiting in vain some time for a 
 reply to a proposal he had sent to King Johannis, 
 he departed for Khartoum, via Souakim and 
 Berber. And so his first year of office closed. 
 During that year he had ridden over about 4,000 
 miles of desert, and had effected wonders of 
 reform. It had been dreadful labour. Continual 
 camel-ridinsf had affected him curiously. " I 
 have shaken," he wrote, " my heart or lungs 
 out of their places ; and I have the same feel- 
 ing in my chest as you have when you have a 
 crick in your neck. ... I say sincerely that, 
 though I prefer to be here sooner than anywhere, 
 I would rather be dead than lead this life." 
 
 He did not reach Khartoum, intercepted at 
 Shendy by a telegram from the Khedive begging 
 him to leave the Soudan and come to Cairo 
 to arrange Ismail's and Egypt's complicated 
 finance. He was in Cairo by March 7th, and 
 on reaching the station at 9 p.m. was whisked 
 straight off, in all the dirt and dust of travel, 
 to dinner at the Palace, where the Khedive 
 placed him at table on his right hand. Quarters 
 were assigned him in the Kasrel Kousa, the 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Cairo palace set apart for royal visitors — a 
 splendour which he loathed. " My people are 
 all dazed," he writes, "and so am I, and wish 
 for my camel." In designing him for the 
 "figure-head" of the Finance Inquiry, Ismail 
 was mistaken in his man. Gordon was in too 
 dead earnest for the work that was expected 
 of him ; he spoke his mind with considerable 
 emphasis, and he had left Cairo within a month 
 after his arrival. He was not chagrined by 
 what he calls his " failure," although he had 
 the belief that, had he been permitted, he could 
 have satisfactorily settled the finance trouble. 
 Here is a sample of his philosophy : — " His 
 Highness threw me over completely at the last 
 moment ; but far from being angry, I was very 
 glad, for it relieved me of a great deal of 
 trouble ; and he said I might go at the end of 
 next week. I laugh at all this farce. I left 
 Cairo with no honours, by the ordinary train, 
 paying my fare. The sun, which rose with 
 such splendour, set in the deepest obscurity. 
 His Highness was bored with me after my 
 failure, and could not bear the sight of me, 
 which those around him soon knew. I do not 
 know how matters will end with me, for I was
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 1S1 
 
 too outspoken at Cairo to have strengthened 
 my position. When one depends on one man, 
 a bit of cheese or a fig will cause, perhaps, a 
 change in that man's digestion and temper." 
 
 Instead of returning to Khartoum direct, 
 after this abortive journey to Cairo, he deter- 
 mined to visit first the south-eastern districts 
 of his vast province, the littoral region beyond 
 the Straits of Bab-el Mandeb. 
 
 Zeila, the port of Harrar, was his first landing 
 place. Zeila, and the country about it, had 
 been ceded to the Khedive by Turkey for the 
 consideration of £ 15,000 a year additional 
 tribute. At Harrar, 200 miles inland, the 
 Governor was an old friend of Gordon — the 
 same Raouf Pasha whom he had found at 
 Gondokoro four years previously, and had then 
 deposed. " I am going to turn him out again," 
 writes Gordon serenely ; " he seems to be a 
 regular tyrant." The "regular tyrant" sub- 
 sequently became Gordon's successor in the 
 governor-generalship of the Soudan. It was an 
 abominable journey, eight days long, from Zeila 
 to Harrar. Gordon learned that from the ports 
 of this coast, Zeila, Berberah, &c, the Mussul- 
 man population were continually passing slaves
 
 1 82 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 across to Hodeidah on the Arabian coast oppo- 
 site — a commerce which he determined to stop. 
 On his way to Harrar, he met a convoy of 
 ,£2,000 worth of coffee which Raouf was ex- 
 porting to Aden on his private account, mean- 
 ing with the proceeds to purchase merchandise 
 which he would retail to the soldiers at Harrar 
 at exorbitant rates. This consignment Gordon 
 promptly confiscated, and Raouf, who he had 
 learned had " taken possession " of Harrar for 
 the Khedive by the effective measure of stran- 
 gling the old Ameer, accepted his fate at Gordon's 
 hands and went away quietly. Gordon fol- 
 lowed him almost immediately, and by the end 
 of May had reached Khartoum, travelling via 
 Souakim and Berber. The alteration in his 
 relations with the Khedive, consequent on what 
 had occurred during his Cairo visit, had made 
 him simply a more uncompromising reformer 
 and disciplinarian. " I now only look to bene- 
 fiting the peoples," he wrote in alluding to the 
 changed attitude of the Khedive. It was in this 
 spirit, probably, that within the month after 
 his leaving Cairo, he had turned out three 
 Generals of Division, one General of Brigade, 
 and four Lieutenant-Colonels. For many months
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 183 
 
 after his return to Khartoum he continued in 
 residence there, engaging himself in questions 
 of finance, and the general settlement of the 
 affairs of the Province. The Soudanese rail- 
 way had been in course of construction when 
 he entered on his governorship. The idea in 
 the abstract was excellent ; the mistake was 
 that Ismail was so bent on bringfingf' the 
 Soudan traffic down through Egypt that he 
 ignored the natural outlet of the trade to the 
 Red Sea by the Berber-Souakim route. Fifty 
 miles of line of railway had already been made 
 from Wadi Walfa towards Hanneck, at a cost 
 of nearly half a million sterling. Gordon's plan 
 was to complete the communication with Han- 
 neck partly by tramway, partly by small steamers, 
 at a comparatively low expenditure, but his 
 project was not taken up, and there is the 
 section of railway to this day, out there in the 
 desert absolutely in the air. The Soudan 
 finances were not cheerful. On the previous 
 year there had been a deficit of ,£250,000, and 
 the budget for the current year did not balance 
 by £ 7 '2,000. But the slave trade was being 
 resolutely hunted — in July Gordon records that 
 twelve slave caravans had been taken in two
 
 1 84 CHINESE GORDO X. 
 
 months. At length, in December, he had Walad 
 el Michael off his shoulders. That worthy had 
 gone from Bogos with 300 men to make his 
 submission to King Johannis. That submis- 
 sion could not have been a pleasant ceremony. 
 Gordon thus describes it: — " He (Walad) will 
 have to pick up a big stone and put it on his 
 neck and go before the king thus. He will 
 then lie down before the throne. The king, 
 if he means to pardon him, will tell one of his 
 officers, « Touch him with your hand on the 
 neck.' If he does not mean to do so, he says 
 1 Touch him on the neck with your foot ; ' that 
 means the affair is not settled. Then come 
 pourparlers, &c, and Walad el Michael is either 
 imprisoned on a mountain that has no exit from 
 it but where there is water, or is pardoned." 
 Johannis himself still smarted under the insult- 
 ing fashion in which he considered the Khedive 
 had treated the envoy he had sent to Cairo. 
 But with his " beloved friend " Gordon, whom 
 he designated " Sultan of Soudan," he would 
 make peace, and with this intent he sent the 
 son of his Prime Minister, whom Gordon went 
 to meet at Katarif, received him with a salute 
 of artillery, and sent Mr. Winstanley back with
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 185 
 
 him to Abyssinia with presents for the king. 
 The envoy drank half a bottle of cognac during 
 a morning visit he paid to an Abyssinian lady 
 married to one of Gordon's officers. 
 
 In February, 1879, there reached Gordon 
 one of several summonses to Cairo, to be 
 examined on Soudan affairs before the Council 
 of Ministers. He refused to go, urging the neces- 
 sity of remaining in the Soudan until the taxes 
 for the past year had been collected, and until a 
 revolt which had occurred in the Bahr Gazelle 
 had been suppressed. This revolt had broken 
 out in the previous July, and was a very serious 
 matter. While Gordon had been keeping the 
 slavers in check in the northern part of his huge 
 territory, the slave-raiding scoundrelism of the 
 Shakka nest had gathered head under the 
 "cub" Suleiman, and were overrunning the 
 Bahr Gazelle country. Gordon's work at 
 Khartoum engrossed himself, but he acted with 
 decision. He confiscated all the property of 
 the Zebehr family, and having had good ex- 
 perience how able and resolute a man was his 
 subordinate Gessi, he sent him south with an 
 expeditionary force. Gessi had no easy enter- 
 prise. First, he had to go up into the Equato-
 
 1 86 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 rial Province and bring down reinforcements. 
 Then the flooded country kept him inactive till 
 November. Suleiman meanwhile had not been 
 idle. He had proclaimed himself Lord of the 
 Province, and had surprised and massacred an 
 Egyptian garrison at Dem Idris. This feat 
 brought him support from the so-called neutral 
 Arab tribes ; he could control some 6,000 men, 
 and was reported to intend taking the initiative 
 and attacking Gessi in Rumbehk. Gessi, for 
 his part, was very weak, with but 300 regulars, 
 two guns, and 700 wretched irregulars. His 
 appeal to Gordon for aid was delayed by the 
 "sudd" in the river, and did not reach Khar- 
 toum for five months. But Gessi did not 
 wait for a reply from Khartoum. His men had 
 been deserting, but floggings and executions 
 cured that propensity, and in November he took 
 the offensive in a curiously amphibious march. 
 Tramping, rafting, and boating, he reached 
 the Waw in the beginning of December to find 
 the inhabitants bitterly incensed against the 
 slave-dealers, who had kidnapped from the dis- 
 trict upwards of 10,000 women and children. 
 It was natural that he should here receive 
 local reinforcements, and with these he moved
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 187 
 
 westward to Dem Idris, the military station 
 which Suleiman had captured and destroyed. 
 Suleiman himself was leisurely marching towards 
 his "den" at Shakka, cumbered with his live 
 booty, but when he heard that Gessi had over- 
 come the natural obstacles of the march from 
 Rumbehk, and was actually at Dem Idris, he 
 turned aside to attack him with 10,000 men. 
 The attack occurred on December 28th, and the 
 fighting was stubborn and bloody. Four times 
 did the slave crew charge Gessi's entrench- 
 ments, four times were they driven back, and 
 finally Suleiman retired with heavy loss. But 
 he would not own himself worsted, and Gessi 
 was too weak to improve his advantage ; so a 
 fortnight later, having been strongly reinforced, 
 Suleiman assailed again. Two days' desperate 
 fighting compelled his retirement a second time, 
 but a third and fourth time he renewed the 
 struggle, and with no better result, notwith- 
 standing that Gessi's ammunition was running 
 short. At length Gessi, having received some 
 ammunition, thought himself justified in taking 
 the offensive. On March nth (1879), he 
 attacked Suleiman's camp of wooden huts con- 
 nected by barricades of tree trunks. This
 
 1 88 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 combustible position he set fire to with rockets ; 
 the slavers had to sally out as the only alterna- 
 tive to being roasted, and Gessi punished them 
 heavily, although his scantiness of ammunition 
 deterred him from an energetic pursuit. But 
 he was able to effect much. The slavers fled 
 to Dem Suleiman, three days' journey further 
 west, and Gessi swept the vicinity of Dem Idris 
 clear of them, liberated 10,000 of their victims, 
 and restored so great confidence that the tribes 
 were readily reinforcing him. 
 
 Down at Khartoum Gordon was asking for 
 bread in the shape of- a regiment wherewith to 
 strengthen Gessi, and Cairo was offering him a 
 stone in the shape of Zebehr, the father of the 
 young fellow who was fighting with Gessi — the 
 man who, it was well known to the Khedive, 
 " had egged on his people to this revolt, had 
 caused the devastation of the whole country, 
 and who was alone responsible for the slave- 
 trade of the last ten years." Gordon would 
 not have Zebehr then at any price ; yet it is 
 this man, whom Gordon himself has accused 
 and proven guilty of every atrocity, this man 
 whom he was sorry he had not the opportunity 
 to hang, to whom he now incomprehensibly
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 189 
 
 desires to entrust the future of the Soudan ! 
 At length the Khedive gave Gordon permis- 
 sion to go up to Shakka and give the hand of 
 co-operation to Gessi. He left Khartoum early 
 in March, determined to break Shakka up 
 entirely, and evacuate it. This was his last 
 journey, and he hurried along with all his old 
 energy, detecting slave convoys as he moved. 
 "I smell slaves: look under those trees!" he 
 exclaimed one morning to his secretary as they 
 rode along. " No," said the secretary ; but the 
 slaves were there all the same, crouched down 
 in the long grass at the command of the ras- 
 cally Bashi-Bazooks who were driving them. 
 These miscreants were stripped, beaten, and 
 dismissed. "It was only," says Gordon, 
 grimly, " the want of power and legality which 
 prevented them being now on their backs look- 
 ing up at the skies, for I had every wish to 
 shoot them." All the way along this march he 
 was releasing slaves whom he found beino - 
 driven down ; but the commerce continued of 
 so great dimensions as proved it was only 
 checked, not killed. " We must have caught," 
 says he, "over 2,000 in less than nine months, 
 and I expect we did not catch one-fifth of the
 
 igo CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 caravans." At Edowa "a party of seven slave- 
 dealers with twenty-three slaves were brought 
 to me. Nothing could exceed the misery of 
 these poor wretches. Some were children of 
 not more than three years of age : they had 
 come across that torrid zone from Shakka, a 
 journey from which I on my camel shrank." 
 And again: "When I had just begun this 
 letter another caravan with two slave-dealers 
 and seventeen slaves was brought in, and I 
 hear others are on the way. Some of the poor 
 women were quite nude. Both those caravans 
 came from Shakka, where I mean to make a 
 clean sweep of the slave-dealers." 
 
 All his thoughts during his long camel-rides 
 were concentrated on devising methods to abolish 
 this atrocious traffic. A scheme dawned upon 
 him one night. He recognized that as all 
 slaves coming from the south-west — he had 
 pretty well closed the Equatorial route — must 
 pass through Darfour to get into the Soudan, 
 he could secure the control of Darfour by two 
 simple regulations: i. That all persons re- 
 siding in Darfour must have a permis de 
 stjour; and, 2. That all persons travelling to 
 and from Darfour must have passports for
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 1 91 
 
 themselves and their belongings. All infrac- 
 tions of those regulations he would punish with 
 imprisonment and confiscation of property. But 
 the millstone of Egypt and the Egyptians was 
 round his neck. There stared him in the face 
 the Khedive's firman declaring slave-dealing 
 punishable only with imprisonment of from five 
 months to five years, and Nubar had not long 
 before telegraphed to him bluntly that the pur- 
 chase and sale of slaves in Egypt was legal. 
 He was straining every effort against the abo- 
 mination, but, after all, it was like punching at 
 a sack. 
 
 On his way up he had heard from Gessi, 
 under date February 24th, asking for ammuni- 
 tion and troops, which Gordon hoped to send 
 him up immediately on reaching Shakka. But 
 a day before he reached Shakka he had further 
 news from Gessi. That valiant man no more 
 wanted assistance. He had done his work with 
 the means to his hand. How he did it was 
 thus. Suleiman was in Dem Suleiman, a place 
 named in his own honour. On that place 
 Gessi marched on Mayday. Three days later 
 he was within striking distance, and he 
 assaulted with such success that Suleiman
 
 1 9 3 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 narrowly escaped capture, and a large booty 
 fell to Gessi. Like a bloodhound Gessi went 
 on the trail of the slave-prince, with 600 men 
 at his back, and resolute eagerness in his heart. 
 The country was ghastly with the fresh traces 
 of destruction ; the tropical rains had set in, 
 and in the long tramp his men all but starved. 
 At length a dense forest was reached, the heart 
 of which Gessi penetrated, only to be told by a 
 child whom he found the sole occupant of the 
 burnt forest-village, that Suleiman had spent the 
 previous night there. On he went in keen pur- 
 suit, the scent now hot, and next night a strange 
 thing happened. Scouts came to him who had 
 mistaken his camp for that of Rabi, Suleiman's 
 ally. They came, said they, from a force 
 Sultan Idris was bringing up, and begged the 
 supposititious Rabi to delay his advance until a 
 junction might be effected. 
 
 Gessi's manoeuvring was brilliant. He 
 marched at once, struck Rabi at daylight, and 
 utterly routed him. Then he cleared the 
 field, camped, displayed Rabi's ensign he had 
 captured, and sent out emissaries to fall in Idris' 
 way and guide him to the camp of his friend 
 Rabi. His own force he ambushed in the grass
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 193 
 
 around the camp. Idris approached, and a 
 sudden storm caused his troops to hurry 
 forward in disorder to the shelter that seemed 
 awaiting them. Gessi's ambush spoke, and to 
 such purpose that only Idris and a few followers 
 escaped, all his property remaining in Gessi's 
 hands, who returned to Dem Suleiman laden 
 with spoil. 
 
 Gordon spread dismay at Shakka when he 
 announced his intention to clear out the place. 
 But he had begun to ask himself questions. 
 " I doubt much," said he "the liberation of the 
 slaves in the twelve years (according to the 
 convention) of which there now remains nine. 
 Who will do it?" Is he answering that ques- 
 tion now with Zebehr, or will he answer it by 
 devoting himself to the great work ? He was 
 anticipating the action that the resolution of 
 the British Government enforced, as the con- 
 sequence of Hicks' defeat. "The Government 
 of the Egyptians in those far off countries is 
 nothing else but one of brigandage of the very 
 worst description. It is so bad that all hope of 
 ameliorating it is hopeless ; so I am doing the 
 only thing possible, that is, vacate them. I 
 have given up blaming the governors, for it is
 
 i 9 4 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 useless, so I send them to Cairo If you 
 
 put aside the suppression of the slave-trade 
 . . . . I have no hesitation in saying that an 
 Arab governor suits the people better, and is 
 more agreeable to them than an European." 
 Has then Gordon sadly seen that the suppres- 
 sion of the slave-trade has now to be put aside, 
 and so that Zebehr is the Arab governor the 
 Soudan would prefer to him ? There is another 
 alternative, that which he outlined five years ago. 
 " I declare if I could stop this traffic I would 
 willingly be shot this night ; this shows my 
 ardent desire ; and yet, strive as I can, I can 
 scarcely see any hope of arresting the evil. 
 Now comes the question. Could I sacrifice my 
 life and remain in Kordofan and Darfour ? I 
 feel, if I could screw my mind up to it, I could 
 cause the trade to cease, for its roots are in 
 these countries." Omnipotent in the Soudan, 
 unhampered by Egyptian intrigue and double 
 dealing, what might not Gordon do ! 
 
 Suleiman had had the effrontery to send 
 emissaries to him, one of whom was Zebehr's 
 chief secretary, the others long offenders. These 
 emissaries Gordon tried by court-martial, and 
 shot them. Stern measures were needed to
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 195 
 
 support Gessi and scare the slave-dealers, who 
 
 were now everywhere dispersing. As for the 
 
 wretched slaves, they, thus released, were 
 
 wandering about the country in thousands, and 
 
 were " being snapped up by the native Arabs 
 
 as if they were sheep." As he marched to 
 
 Toashia to break up a slave gang there, the 
 
 road he travelled was strewn with the skulls of 
 
 wretches who had fallen out of the slave caravans 
 
 and died by the wayside. 
 
 At Toashia Gessi and Gordon met, and the 
 
 latter bestowed well-earned praises on his 
 
 energetic lieutenant. When Gessi started on 
 
 his mission of following up Suleiman to the 
 
 bitter end, he went away a Pasha, decorated 
 
 with the Osmanlie, and the possessor of the 
 
 honorarium of £2,000. The finale of Gessi's 
 
 work must be told in a sentence. With 300 
 
 men he surrounded a village in which Suleiman 
 
 lay with 700. Gessi played the high game and 
 
 gave Suleiman ten minutes to surrender, which 
 
 he did. He and ten of his slaver comrades 
 
 Gessi shot by Gordon's orders. The papers 
 
 found on his son compromised the father so 
 
 deeply that his trial became a necessity. 
 
 Zebehr's guilt was proved, and he was sentenced 
 
 o 2
 
 196 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 to death. This is the man whom the Khedive 
 pensioned, and to whose elevation to the gover- 
 nor-generalship of the Soudan England has been 
 asked to consent. " What pensions — " asked 
 Mr. Birkbeck Hill before the latter proposal 
 was mooted, — " what pensions have the widows 
 and orphans whom Zebehr has made by the 
 thousand ? What allowance have the poor 
 worn out bodies of men, strong enough till he 
 draofo-ed them from their homes, who are now 
 draining the last bitter dregs of life in cruel 
 slavery ? What recompense has been made to 
 those whose bleached bones mark the track of his 
 trade over many and many a league of ground ?" 
 It was at Fogia, on July ist, 1879, while on 
 his way back to Khartoum, that Gordon received 
 a telegram from Cherif Pasha, informing him of 
 Ismail's abdication, and instructing him to pro- 
 claim throughout the Soudan that the Sultan 
 had bestowed the Khedivial dignity on Tewfik 
 Pasha. He obeyed the mandate, and formally 
 acknowledged the communication, " nothing 
 more." Before leaving Khartoum for Cairo, 
 he received intelligence from Darfour that 
 
 O 
 
 Haroun had been killed and his forces dis- 
 persed, so that the pacification of the Soudan
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 197 
 
 was complete when he left it. He wrote home 
 that he hoped to be back soon in England, but 
 might have to go first to Abyssinia, on a mission 
 to Johannis, and the latter expectation was 
 fulfilled. 
 
 He had conceived a regard for Ismail, not- 
 withstandine the friction between them that 
 often had irritated him. " It pains me," he 
 wrote, " what sufferings my poor Khedive 
 Ismail had to go through." In Cairo the pashas 
 all thought he would be badly received by 
 Tewfik, because of his friendship for " the 
 Incurable." He had indeed reached Cairo 
 "very cross at the dismissal of Ismail," declined 
 the special train Tewfik had ordered him, and 
 meant also not to accept quarters at the palace 
 but to go to the hotel. But he thought he 
 " would not be justified in such a snub," so he 
 went to the palace, and almost immediately was 
 sent for by the new Khedive, whom he told he 
 did not mean to return to the Soudan, but 
 " would go to Massowah, settle with Johannis, 
 and then £0 home." He and Tewfik did not 
 get on very badly. "He told me," writes 
 Gordon, " that my enemies with his father 
 and with him had urged my dismissal ; that he
 
 198 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 had had terrible complaints against me, at which 
 I laughed, and he did so also." And so he 
 departed for Massowah en route for Abyssinia, 
 leaving the warning: that if on his return he 
 heard any of the Council of Ministers had said 
 anything against him, he would beg the 
 Khedive, as a punishment equal to a sentence 
 of death, to make the evil speaker governor- 
 general of the Soudan. At Massowah he 
 found that the Abyssinians were in virtual 
 possession of Bogos, so that it was not a ques- 
 tion of ceding or not ceding the country, but of 
 retaking it. And, to add to his embarrassments, 
 a telegram from the Khedive reached him just 
 before he started inland that he was to cede 
 nothing, but that he was to avoid a war. On 
 the road he learnt that Walad el Michael had 
 been made prisoner at Goura by Aloula, 
 Johannis' lieutenant in chief. He himself was 
 on his way first to Goura to see this Aloula. 
 Although arrayed in marshal's uniform he met 
 with scant respect, the soldiers scarcely 
 acknowledging his salute. At length a shed of 
 branches was reached, at the end of which was 
 a couch on which lay a figure wrapped up in 
 white, even to his face, the nose alone appear-
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 199 
 
 ing. This was Aloula, and he was not sick. 
 Gordon handed him the letter announcing the 
 Khedive's accession and his own mission. This 
 the Abyssinian received slightingly, putting the 
 gold-tasselled green silk bag on the pistol lying 
 by his side. Aloula once or twice broke the 
 tedious silence by remarking, "You are English, 
 and your nation are my brothers," but Gordon 
 would not accept the overture, and claimed 
 simply to be regarded as the Khedive's envoy 
 and a Mussulman for the time. He was 
 quartered close to Aloula's shed, and when he 
 went for a stroll was politely ordered back to 
 his circle, so that virtually he was a prisoner. 
 Conscious that Egypt had treated Abyssinia 
 very badly and unjustly, he took no umbrage at 
 this treatment, which rather seems, indeed, to 
 have amused him. The issue of his palavers 
 with Aloula was that he undertook to see 
 Johannis, Aloula agreeing not to attack Egypt 
 during his absence. So Gordon started on his 
 twelve days' journey to Debra Tabor, near 
 Gondar, where Johannis was. It was an atrocious 
 road he travelled by, sent by it to prevent his 
 acquiring a knowledge of the better one which 
 existed. The King, seated on a raised dais,
 
 -oo CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 received him civilly enough, telling him the 
 cannon salute was in his honour, and then sent 
 him to his quarters in some wretched huts. 
 Next day Gordon had his audience. The King 
 recited his grievances against Egypt, and 
 Gordon made no demur. Then he formulated 
 his demands. They were at least comprehen- 
 sive. He demanded " the retrocession of 
 Metemna, Changallas, and Bogos, cession of the 
 ports of Zeila and Amphila, an Abouna, and 
 a sum of money of from one to two million 
 pounds." As alternatives he would accept 
 Bogos, Massowah, and the Abouna, adding 
 " I could claim Dongola, Berber, Nubia, and 
 Sennaar, but will not do so." Gordon asked the 
 King to put those demands into writing, and 
 give the Khedive six months to reply, to which 
 his Majesty consented, Gordon adding that, 
 personally, he did not think they would be com- 
 plied with. The King's request was that 
 Gordon should accompany him to some baths, 
 two days distant, but the latter preferred wait- 
 ing till his Majesty's return, a week later. 
 During the interval Gordon discovered that the 
 absurd claims had been inspired by the Greek 
 consul, and that hopes had been conceived of
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 201 
 
 detaching himself from the Khedive's interest. 
 All that Gordon wanted was the letter the King 
 had promised to write, and he was promised 
 for the 8th (November) a farewell audience, 
 when he should receive the letter. The inter- 
 view is unique. Let Gordon himself recount it : 
 
 " King (very sulky). ' Have you anything to 
 say ? ' 
 
 " Gordon. ' No.' 
 
 " King. ' Go back to your master. I will 
 send a letter.' 
 
 " Gordon. ' Will you give me the Egyptian 
 soldiers ? ' 
 
 " King (furious). 'Why do you ask me this? 
 you keep many of my subjects prisoners ! ' 
 
 " Gordon. ' No, every one is free.. Ask the 
 Consul.' [Consul silent. 
 
 " King. * I have written one letter, and I will 
 write another about this. Go.' 
 
 So Gordon left the presence, and started an 
 hour afterwards. Just as he was starting, the 
 interpreter brought him the letter, and a money 
 present, which he, of course, sent back. He 
 opened the letter, and, sure that it was too short 
 to include the demands the King had specified,
 
 202 CHINESE G0RD0A. 
 
 had it translated. It ran thus : — " I have re- 
 ceived the letters you sent me by that man. I 
 will not make a secret peace with you. If you 
 want peace, ask the Sultans of Europe." The 
 " that man," is an accepted expression of angry 
 contempt. On his way back to the coast Gor- 
 don was bullied, evilly entreated, and arrested 
 over and over again by Abyssinian soldiers, as 
 well as by the population. He suffered gross 
 indignities, and had to disburse a large sum in 
 bribes to obtain his extrication. At length he 
 reached Massowah, and rejoiced to see there 
 the English gunboat " Seagull." The Khedive 
 had ignored his request, made by telegraph when 
 he had been actually a prisoner, that a regiment 
 and war steamer should be sent to Massowah. 
 " I do not," he concludes, "write the details of 
 my misery. They are over, thank God. Sleep- 
 ing with an Abyssinian at the foot, and one on 
 each side of you, is not comfortable, and so I 
 passed my last night in Abyssinia." 
 
 He had sent in his resignation to the Khe- 
 dive on his way back to Egypt. Probably he 
 had so only anticipated his dismissal. The 
 Pashas hated him and intrigued against him ; 
 Tewfik is but a poor weak creature. The ex-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 203 
 
 pressions in his acceptance of Gordon's resigna- 
 tion were probably "from the teeth outwards." 
 " I should have liked to retain your services, but 
 in view of your persistent tender of resignation, 
 am obliged to accept it. I regret, my dear 
 Pasha, losing your co-operation, and in parting 
 with you, must express my sincere thanks to 
 you, assuring you that the remembrance of you 
 and your services to the country will outlive 
 your retirement." So Gordon turned his back 
 on the Soudan ; but he had not yet seen the last 
 of that resfion.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIA, CHINA, AND THE CArE. 
 
 " It was none too soon," writes Mr. Birkbeck 
 Hill, "that Colonel Gordon brought his work 
 to an end and came home. Even his iron frame 
 and unconquerable will must soon have given 
 way under the vast strain that had been so long 
 upon him. He had indeed ruled the great 
 country over which he had been set. On his 
 shoulders each man's burden lay, and such a 
 burden had brought, as it ever must, dangers, 
 troubles, cares, and sleepless nights. He had 
 been ill — very ill, as some of his letters show — 
 when he set out on his mission to Abyssinia. 
 The hard usage which he had undergone, and 
 the risks he had run in that kingdom, had still 
 more tried his health. On his return to Alex- 
 andria, he was examined by Dr. Mackie, the 
 surgeon to the British Consulate, who certified 
 that he was ' suffering from symptoms of ner-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 205 
 
 vous exhaustion, and alteration of the blood, giv- 
 ing rise to hemorrhagic (purpuric) spots on the 
 skin, or cicatrices of former sores or wounds. I 
 have recommended him,' added Dr. Mackie, 
 ' to retire for several months for complete rest 
 and quiet, and that he may be able to enjoy- 
 fresh and wholesome food, as I consider that 
 much of what he is suffering from is the effect 
 of continued bodily fatigue, anxiety, and indi- 
 gestible food. I have insisted on his abstaining 
 from all exciting work — especially such as im- 
 plies business or political excitement." 
 
 This advice chimed aptly with Gordon's own 
 aspirations as to the life he would lead when 
 the wished-for retirement should at length come 
 to him. He had pictured in his quaint way the 
 restful life. He would lie in bed till noon ; take 
 daily short strolls ; never go on a railway jour- 
 ney, and never accept an invitation to dinner. 
 He meant to have oysters for lunch. The 
 oysters, perhaps, he obtained, but not the rest. 
 In May, 1881, the Marquis of Ripon was sail- 
 ing for India to succeed Lord Lytton in the 
 Viceregal rule. There was the general realisa- 
 tion that India needed a strong moral tonic after 
 a rdgime so enervating and deteriorating. Lord
 
 206 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Ripon's character augured well for this whole- 
 some process of deodorisation, and it may- 
 have seemed to him that his hands would be 
 strengthened by the co-operation of such a man 
 as Gordon in the capacity of private secretary, 
 a position in many respects analogous to that of 
 prime minister. The offer of the post was 
 made to Gordon, and he accepted it in the 
 purest single-heartedness. The appointment 
 astonished most those who knew India best. 
 Had Gordon entered into harness, he would 
 have done incalculable harm in his energetic 
 efforts to do good. British India is a network 
 of cliquism and favoritism. It is the peculiarity 
 of its administration that the very abuses pro- 
 duce a fairly good governing machinery, better 
 suited perhaps to the circumstances than would 
 a rule strung to a loftier key. But Gordon was 
 not the man to have accepted the laissez /aire 
 tone of the Anglo-Indian Raj : to put the matter 
 in the bluntest familiar phrase, he would have 
 been in India a bull in a china-shop. The 
 realisation of the impossibility of the position 
 came to him on the voyage out, and on arriving 
 in Bombay he resigned the appointment. No- 
 thing need be added to the explanation of the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 207 
 
 motives which led him to take this step, pub- 
 lished by him in the Anglo-Indian newspapers. 
 — " Men, at times, owing to the mysteries of 
 Providence, form judgments which they after- 
 wards repent of. This was my case in accept- 
 ing the appointment Lord Ripon honoured me 
 in offering me. I repented of my act as soon 
 as I had accepted the appointment, and I 
 deeply regret that I had not the moral courage 
 to say so at that time. Nothing could have 
 exceeded the kindness and consideration with 
 which Lord Ripon has treated me. I have 
 never met anyone with whom I could have felt 
 greater sympathy in the arduous task he has 
 undertaken." In a private letter he speaks 
 with yet greater frankness. "Ina moment of 
 weakness," he writes, " I took the appointment 
 of private secretary to Lord Ripon, the new 
 Governor-General of India. No sooner had I 
 landed in Bombay than I saw that, in my irre- 
 sponsible position, I could not hope to do any- 
 thing to the purpose, in the face of the vested 
 interests out there. Seeing this, and seeing 
 moreover, that my views were so diametrically 
 opposed to those of the official classes, I re- 
 signed. Lord Ripon's position was certainly a
 
 208 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 great consideration with me. It was assumed 
 by some that my views of the state of affairs 
 were the Viceroy's ; and thus I felt that I 
 should do him harm by staying with him. 
 We parted perfect friends. The brusqueness 
 of my leaving was inevitable, inasmuch as my 
 stay would have put me in possession of secrets 
 of state, that — considering my decision even- 
 tually to leave — I ought not to know. Cer- 
 tainly I might have stayed for a month or two, 
 had a pain in the hand, and gone quietly ; but the 
 whole duties were so distasteful that I felt, being 
 pretty callous as to what the world says, that it 
 was better to go at once." 
 
 He resigned the Indian private secretaryship 
 on June 3rd, and had projected a journey to Zan- 
 zibar to help Sultan Syed Burghash in his work 
 of stopping the slave-trade, when there came to 
 him a request that he should visit China, be- 
 tween which Empire and Russia hostile differ- 
 ences threatened in connection with Kashgar. 
 The invitation came to him from his old friend, 
 Mr. Hart, the Chinese Commissioner of Customs, 
 and its terms ran thus : " I am directed to in- 
 vite you here (China). Please come and see 
 for yourself. This opportunity for doing really
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 209 
 
 useful work on a large scale ought not to be 
 lost. Work, position, conditions, can all be 
 arranged with yourself here to your satisfaction." 
 Gordon never learned by whom it was that 
 Mr. Hart had been directed to send him this in- 
 vitation ; but there is little doubt that it emanated 
 from the Imperial Court. The Chinese cour- 
 tiers were keen for war ; Gordon's old friend, 
 the " Governor Li " of the Tai-ping Rebellion 
 period, now in effect Prime Minister of China, 
 stood almost alone in urging the wisdom of 
 peace. What probably inspired the request for 
 Gordon's visit was, that he should give his 
 advice whether for peace or war ; and that if 
 there should be war, he, being on the spot, 
 might be induced to take the command. He 
 saw his way to be of service to China, and he 
 telegraphed that he would come on by first op- 
 portunity. "As for conditions Gordon indif- 
 ferent," was the characteristic postscript. But 
 he had to apply for leave to the Home Govern- 
 ment, and when asked to state " more specifi- 
 cally" his purpose in going to China, and the 
 position he was to hold, all he could reply was 
 " I am ignorant." To simplify matters, he for- 
 warded to the War Office the resignation of his
 
 2IO 
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 commission and sailed for China. Gordon has 
 ever received almost indulgent consideration 
 from the military authorities at home, and his 
 resignation was not accepted. He received 
 permission to visit China on condition that he 
 should accept no military service. He did not 
 pledge himself not to do so, but explained that 
 his efforts would be directed toward the preser- 
 vation of peace. " My fixed desire," he said, 
 " is to persuade the Chinese not to go to war 
 with Russia, both in their own interests and 
 those of the world, and especially those of Eng- 
 land. To me it appears that the questions in 
 dispute cannot be of such vital importance that 
 an arrangement could not be come to by con- 
 cessions on both sides. Whether I succeed in 
 being heard or not is not in my hands. I pro- 
 test, however, against being regarded as one 
 who wishes for war in any country, far less in 
 China. In the event of war breaking out, I 
 could not answer how I should act for the pre- 
 sent ; but I shall ardently desire a speedy peace. 
 Inclined as I am, with only a small degree of 
 admiration for military exploits, I esteem it 
 a far greater honour to promote peace than to 
 gain any petty honours in a wretched war."
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 211 
 
 He left India for China on June 10th, went 
 up from Hong Kong to Tientsin, and there 
 had an interview with his old friend the states- 
 man Li ; who when he saw him fell on his neck 
 and kissed him. The little episode when 
 Gordon had been hot on his track revolver in 
 hand, was not permitted to affect the mutual 
 cordiality. As the outcome of that interview 
 and of others, Gordon found it would be a wise 
 precautionary measure to clear his decks for 
 action. While a British officer he had not that 
 full freedom of speech and action which he de- 
 siderated, so he sent this telegram to London : 
 "July 27th, 1880. I have seen Li Hung 
 Chang, and he wishes me to stay with him. I 
 cannot desert China in her present crisis, and 
 would be free to act as I think fit. I therefore 
 beg to resign my commission in her Majesty's 
 service." 
 
 But Gordon was not to be lost to her Ma- 
 jesty's service. Already, on August 14th, he was 
 back in Shanghai, his work accomplished. He 
 had brought to China real " Peace with honour." 
 His counsels had turned the wavering scale, 
 and the peace party in the Imperial Councils 
 had conquered by virtue of the weight of the 
 
 r 2
 
 212 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 arguments he embodied in a memorandum 
 which is a model of condensed wisdom and 
 lucidity. Its concluding words were these : 
 "China wants no big officer from Foreign 
 Powers ; I say big officer, because I am a big 
 officer in China. If I stayed in China, it would 
 be bad for China, because it would vex the 
 American, French, and German Governments, 
 who would want to send their officers. Be- 
 sides, I am not wanted. China can do what I 
 recommend herself. If she cannot, I could do 
 no good." 
 
 The resignation of his commission had been 
 declined, but his leave had been cancelled. He 
 was rather cavalier with the War Office people, 
 and the constant consideration shown him is a 
 sufficient answer to accusations which we have 
 recently heard. In reply to the message which 
 reached him at Shanghai, intimating non-ac- 
 ceptance of his resignation but the cancellation 
 of his leave, he sent this brusque ultimatum : 
 " You might have trusted me. My passage 
 from China was taken before the arrival of tele- 
 gram of August 14th, which states leave can- 
 celled, &c. Do you still insist on rescinding 
 the same ? ' The brief answer reached him
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 213 
 
 next day : " Leave granted to February 28th." 
 By that date he was back in England. 
 
 But not for long. He could anticipate ease, 
 but the crave to be doing something had so 
 overmastered him that he could not take that 
 ease when he might. He threw himself ear- 
 nestly into the current questions of the hour, 
 and paid a visit to the King of the Belgians to 
 talk over an International Expedition to the 
 Congo, which King Leopold meditated des- 
 patching under his leadership. In May he was 
 on his way to the Mauritius to take up the duty 
 he had accepted there as Commanding Royal 
 Engineer. As he passed through Suez he visited 
 the grave of his gallant lieutenant, Gessi, who 
 was the latest victim to the horrible Soudan. 
 Gessi had died in the French Hospital at Suez 
 on 3rd April, " after protracted sufferings, 
 caused by the terrible privations in the previous 
 months of November and December, when he 
 had been shut in by the impassable ' sudd ' 
 barrier in the Bahr Gazelle." Gordon remained 
 in his Mauritius post about ten months. " It 
 was," says Mr. Hake, "a happy and peaceful 
 time. He became deeply interested in the 
 Seychelles ; he made some curious researches
 
 214 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 concerning the site of the Garden of Eden ; he 
 planned and suggested certain excellent schemes 
 for the defence of the Indian Ocean." On March 
 6th, it should have been said, he attained the 
 rank of Major-General. 
 
 While Gordon was staying at Lausanne in 
 the spring of 1881, he had received and had 
 declined an offer from the Government of the 
 Cape of Good Hope of the command of the 
 Colonial forces, at a salary of ,£1,500 a year. 
 He had made a tender of his services in a 
 sphere of wider responsibility, to which the 
 Colonial Ministers had apparently not seen 
 their way to accede. But troubles had been 
 thickening upon them since ; and they bethought 
 themselves aeain of a man whose administrative 
 genius stood so high. They applied to the 
 Home Government for consent to utilise Gor- 
 don's services, and this accorded, the Premier 
 of the Cape Government, on March 3rd, 1882, 
 sent him the following communication : " Posi- 
 tion of matters in Basutoland grave, and of 
 utmost importance that Colony secure services 
 of some one of proved ability, firmness, and 
 energy. Government resolved therefore asking 
 whether you are disposed to renew offer which
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 215 
 
 you made to former Ministry. They do not 
 expect you to be bound by salary then stated. 
 Should you agree to place services at disposal 
 of this Government, it is very important you 
 should at once visit the Colony, in order to 
 learn facts bearing on situation. Could you do 
 this you would confer signal favour on Colony, 
 leaving your future action unpledged. ... It 
 is impossible within limits telegram to enter 
 fully into case, and in communication with you, 
 Government rely upon same devotion to duty 
 which prompted former offer, to excuse this 
 sudden request." Gordon's former offer had 
 been of " his services for two years to assist 
 in terminating war and administering Basuto- 
 
 land." 
 
 He immediately took ship, and reached the 
 Cape in May. Governor and Ministers found 
 themselves in a difficulty. Mr. Orpen was 
 Administrator of Basutoland, and him they 
 were reluctant to remove. They wanted Gor- 
 don's services, yet they did not see how to uti- 
 lise them, since Gordon and Orpen would clash. 
 The object of the former in coming to the Cape 
 was clear. He had once already declined the 
 appointment simply of Commandant of the
 
 2 i6 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Colonial Forces. He wished to engage himself 
 in the settlement of the Basutoland troubles, 
 and the Cape Government were anxious that 
 he should do so, but could not make up their 
 minds to clear the way for Gordon by the re- 
 moval of Mr. Orpen. Most men in Gordon's 
 position would, under those circumstances, have 
 declined the Cape service altogether; but he, 
 hoping disinterestedly to find some method 
 whereby he might be of use, took the appoint- 
 ment of Commandant-General which he had 
 refused a year previously. It was told him 
 that the appointment was but a temporary ex- 
 pedient. He studied the native problem care- 
 fully, and sent in a memorandum giving as his 
 opinion that the Basutos should have been con- 
 sulted as to their transference from the Imperial 
 to the Cape Government, and suggesting that 
 they should be summoned to a conference con- 
 cerning the terms of agreement with the colo- 
 nial Government. To this memorandum no 
 reply was accorded, and Gordon proceeded up 
 country to King William's Town, and there 
 prepared the report on the Colonial forces 
 which the Premier had requested of him. It 
 was full of suggestions for reforms, and Gordon
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 217 
 
 showed how the Colony could, by the adoption 
 of economies he pointed out, maintain an army 
 8,000 strong, instead of the existing force of 
 1,600, at an expense of .£7,000 less than the 
 smaller force cost. Neither on this, nor on 
 suggestions in regard to other matters which 
 he had been asked to make, did any action 
 follow. In July the Government requested 
 him to visit Basutoland, to which his reply, 
 accompanied by a memorandum as to the line 
 of action he would recommend there, was that 
 there was no use in his going to Basutoland, 
 unless the Government were prepared to ac- 
 knowledge his presence and take account of his 
 proposals. To this, apparently, the Govern- 
 ment did not see their way, and Gordon re- 
 mained at his military post in King William's 
 Town, until next month, when the Cape Secre- 
 tary for Native Affairs came up and requested 
 him to accompany him into Basutoland, whither 
 Mr. Sauer was going to see Mr. Orpen, the 
 Ministerial representative. Gordon demurred. 
 He pointed out that he was opposed to Mr. 
 Orpen's policy, and could do no good ; but 
 Sauer pleaded hard, and he went. As the 
 issue, Gordon became more and more con-
 
 2 i8 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 vinced of the futility of a policy which con- 
 sisted in trying to settle matters by using one 
 set of Basutos to coerce another, and wrote a 
 memorandum embodying his opinions. Then 
 Mr. Sauer asked him to go, as a private indi- 
 vidual, to Masupha, the hostile Basuto chief, 
 and try to win him over. Gordon went with 
 neither credentials nor instructions, on an 
 errand of no inconsiderable risk. Masupha, 
 fortunately, was a gentleman, although a 
 " nigger." While Gordon was negotiating 
 with him in the name of the Cape Govern- 
 ment, the emissaries of that Government in- 
 spired Letsea, the opposition Basuto Chief, to 
 assail Masupha. The latter might have held 
 Gordon as a hostage ; instead, he magnani- 
 mously allowed him to go in peace. 
 
 Conduct of this description Gordon, with all 
 his self-abnegation, was not the man to brook. 
 The moment he got back from Masupha into 
 what of civilisation South Africa anywhere 
 affords, he telegraphed to Cape Town : " As I 
 am in a false position here, and am likely to do 
 more harm than good, I propose leaving for 
 the Colony, and when I have finished some 
 Reports I will come down to Cape Town,
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 219 
 
 when I trust Government will accept my resig- 
 nation." The reply was : " The Premier has no 
 objection to your coming to Cape Town as pro- 
 posed." But Gordon had taken service under 
 certain conditions which he was prepared to 
 fulfil, and intimated accordingly. The Premier 
 was severe in a Little Peddlington fashion, but 
 after the same fashion grandly magnanimous. 
 This was his reply : "In answer to your tele- 
 gram proposing to come to Cape Town and 
 expressing a wish that Government would 
 accept your resignation, and to subsequent 
 messages intimating that when you tele- 
 graphed it had escaped your memory that you 
 had stated your willingness to remain until 
 Parliament met, I have to state that I have no 
 wish to hold you to your promise, and am now 
 prepared to comply with the desire expressed, 
 that your resignation should be accepted : after 
 the intimation that you would not fight the 
 Basutos, and considering the tenor of your 
 communication with Masupha, I regret to re- 
 cord my conviction that your continuance in 
 the position you occupy would not be condu- 
 cive to public interest." 
 
 It was a minor thing to have earned the
 
 220 
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 o-ratitude of an Emperor for the subjugation of 
 a rebellion that was striking at the vitals of his 
 Empire; it was a trifle to have been Viceroy 
 of the Soudan, and to have won the admiration 
 of the world because of the resolute skill with 
 which he had pacificated that vast and turbu- 
 lent region. What availed Gordon all these 
 things so lone as he had been unsuccessful in 
 o-ivine satisfaction to the Premier of the Cape 
 Colony ? He has lived through much, through 
 what would have proved fatal to most men ; 
 but the most surprising proof of tenacious vita- 
 lity he has given is that he should have sur- 
 vived that august functionary's recorded convic- 
 tion that his continuance in office " would not 
 be conducive to public interest." He staggered 
 back to England, there to recover from the 
 prostration of despair. It is surprising, indeed, 
 that, after so authoritative an imprimatur of his 
 incapacity, wanton recklessness could tempt 
 greater powers than the Cape Government to 
 entrust him with responsibility. Yet this has 
 been done.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BRITISH PLENIPOTENTIARY IN THE SOUDAN. 
 
 Soon after his return to England from South 
 Africa General Gordon went to Palestine, and 
 settled outside Jerusalem. Mr. Hake throws 
 some light into his life and aims during this 
 year of repose. " Most of his time," writes 
 that gentleman, " is devoted to research, and it 
 is with an eagerness that is almost a passion 
 that he pursues the survey of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, the Tabernacle, and the walls of 
 Jerusalem. ... He has taken the holy sites 
 in hand to prove them not the holy sites at all, 
 greatly to the horror and scandal of clerical 
 tourists. But he is no mere iconoclast ; he 
 works as one seeing sermons in stones and 
 good in everything — with the faith of a Chris- 
 tian, but the eye and brain of an engineer. The 
 Bible is his guide ; and he ' does not care for 
 sites if he has a map.' ' In reality/ he says,
 
 222 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 ' no man, in writing on those sites ought to 
 draw on his imagination ; he ought to keep to 
 the simple facts, and not prophecy, to fill up 
 gaps.' . . . And his greatest interest of all, 
 and his latest, is the proposed Jordan Canal ; 
 and the thoroughness with which he has gone 
 into the details of this enormous scheme is com- 
 plete and unassailable." 
 
 But in Palestine Gordon was in retirement, 
 and he is a man who has brought it upon him- 
 self that while his powers remain to him, there 
 can be for him no prolonged retirement. There 
 is no rest for a philanthropist of his energetic 
 stamp. 
 
 If the Mahdi had asserted himself while Gor- 
 don was still Governor-General of the Soudan, 
 it is not probable that the world would have 
 heard much of him. But it was not until more 
 than a year after Gordon had quitted Egypt, 
 that Mahomet Ahmed began to put forward his 
 divine commission. He had, nevertheless, been 
 planning his crusade during Gordon's reign, 
 although that satrap does not seem to have 
 even heard of him. Mahomet Ahmed, whom 
 we now know as " the Mahdi," is a native of 
 the province of Dongola, and his father was a
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 223 
 
 carpenter. He himself was apprenticed to an 
 uncle whose trade was that of a boatman, but 
 he ran away from that service, and became the"; 
 disciple of a faki (head dervish) who lived near 
 Khartoum. As the result of a close study of 
 religion, he was himself made a faki, and in 
 1870 took up his residence on the island of 
 Abba, near Kana, on the White Nile. He 
 speedily began to acquire a reputation for great 
 devoutness, and so became wealthy, gathered 
 disciples, and married freely, selecting wives 
 from the families of the most influential sheikhs 
 of the vicinity. In the early part of 1 88 1, Gor- 
 don having gone, he began to assert the claim 
 that he was "the Mahdi," the long-expected 
 redeemer of Islam whom Mahomet had fore- 
 told, and claiming a divine commission to re- 
 form Islam, and establish an universal equality, 
 an universal law, an universal religion, and a 
 community of goods. Setting himself to gather 
 about him a following, he addressed appeals to 
 his brother fakis, one of whom informed the 
 Government of his schemes and pretensions, 
 adding the belief that he was a madman. 
 Raouf Pasha, the then Governor of the Sou- 
 dan, proceeded to take cognisance of him as
 
 224 CHIXESE GORDO X. 
 
 the result of this information ; and it is at this 
 stage of his career that the Mahdi steps out 
 into the arena of contemporary history. Colonel 
 Stewart thus characterises him : — " In person 
 the Mahdi is tall and slim, with a black beard, 
 and a light brown complexion. Like most 
 Dongolawis, he reads and writes with difficulty. 
 Judging from his conduct of affairs and policy 
 I should say he has considerable natural ability. 
 The manner in which he has managed to meree 
 together the usually discordant tribes denotes 
 great tact. He probably had been preparing 
 the movement for some time." Colonel Stewart 
 in another portion of his report gives some 
 indication of the reason why a religious fanatic 
 finds so readily a following in the Soudan : — 
 " The Arabs and Dongolawis," he writes, 
 " negroes, and others settled within the Arab 
 (the northern) zone of the Soudan, are all Mo- 
 hammedans of the Maliki school. This reli- 
 gion, however, owing to the prevailing ignorance 
 of the people, partakes mostly of an emotional 
 and superstitious nature. Hence the enormous 
 influence of the fakis or spiritual leaders, who 
 are credited with a supernatural power, and are 
 almost more venerated than the Prophet.''
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 225 
 
 Another cause for the strength of the Mahdi's 
 following seems to have been that the great 
 slaveowners — the sheikhs and chiefs who had 
 llourished on their nefarious practices under 
 Zebehr, and whom all the efforts of Baker and 
 Gordon had not put down — threw in their lot 
 eagerly with any enterprise that struck at the 
 Egyptian rule, under which a term had been 
 definitely fixed for the emancipation of the slaves. 
 The Mahdi easily repulsed the detachment 
 Raouf Pasha sent out to bring him in, and at 
 the end of 1881 defeated in the most summary 
 style a stronger force under Rashid Bey that 
 had been despatched to drive him out of Gabel 
 Gadir. But these were petty successes com- 
 pared with the great victory he gained in June 
 1882 over the main Egyptian army of the Sou- 
 dan, which Abdul Kadir, who had superseded 
 Raouf Pasha, had gathered for the purpose of 
 crushing him, and the command of which had 
 been entrusted to Yussuf Pasha. Very few of 
 the Egyptian soldiers escaped, and all their 
 commanders were slain. Thus early did the 
 Arab fanaticism display itself. The attack at 
 Gabel Geon was led by the dervishes, headed 
 by an enthusiast of exceptional dash and fury,
 
 226 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 who was known as " The Dervish," and of 
 whose conduct Colonel Stewart reported : ' I 
 hear that the desperate and fearless way in 
 which he rushes on a square armed with 
 Remingtons is something marvellous." 
 
 After his victory at Gabel Geon, the 
 Mahdi pursued the offensive. He overran 
 the open country unchecked, but failed to 
 achieve any success against places that had 
 been fortified, even though the fortifications were 
 feeble. In assailing El Obeid, he met with a 
 severe repulse, losing 6,000 of his warriors in 
 one assault alone. During the months of the 
 campaign which the battle of Tel-el- Kebir 
 ended so summarily, there were discrepant 
 rumours concerning affairs in the Soudan. Now 
 there were reports of the dispersal of the 
 Mahdi's bands ; reports, again, of their threat- 
 ening Khartoum and the towns on the White 
 Nile. Then later, in the winter season of 
 1882-3, came definite tidings of the surrender 
 to the Mahdi of the town of El Obeid, after the 
 garrison had endured desperate straits. The 
 surrender, however, once consummated, most of 
 the garrison, with the Commandant Iskander 
 Bey at their head, took service under their con-
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 227 
 
 queror. With the proverbial zeal of the rene- 
 gade, Iskander Bey became the medium for 
 endeavouring to gain over officers in the Egyp- 
 tian army in which he had himself held a com- 
 mission. After the fall of El Obeid the Mahdi 
 remained himself inside the Kordofan Province, 
 but his emissaries were active in other parts 
 of the Soudan. 
 
 The grave situation in Lower Egypt had 
 distracted attention from what was happening 
 in the Soudan, but as soon as might be after the 
 reconstruction following on Arabi's collapse, 
 preparations began for the renewal of operations 
 against the Mahdi. Colonel Hicks, an officer 
 who had retired from the Indian Army after 
 much and good service, was appointed to the 
 expedition, at first in the nominal position of 
 chief of the staff, and later he was made com- 
 mander-in-chief. In the early summer of 1883, 
 Hicks Pasha conducted a short and successful 
 campaign in the Sennaar district (lying between 
 the Blue Nile and the White Nile), against a 
 section of the Mahdi's force, commanded by a 
 lieutenant named Amed Mokushigi. While 
 on the march for Gebel Ain, on the morning of 
 
 April 29th, Hicks was furiously assailed. Time 
 
 q 2
 
 228 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 had served him to form square, and in this atti- 
 tude, halted, he awaited the attack. A military 
 correspondent of the Daily News vividly de- 
 scribed the fight, and his account has a special 
 interest, as the first portrayal of that method of 
 attack which our soldiers had to encounter 
 later at El Teb and Tamanieb. 
 
 " We opened a tremendous fusillade from our 
 front face, apparently without effect, for still 
 they came on gallantly, but at 500 yards they 
 began to fall fast. Still the chiefs led on their 
 men with all the reckless and romantic chivalry 
 of the Saracen knights. One by one they fell 
 dismounted, two or three to rise again and dart 
 forward on foot, waving their standards, only to 
 drop and rise no more. After half an hour's 
 continuous rattle of musketry, seeing their chiefs 
 fallen and their banners in the dust, the ad- 
 vancing hordes waver, and are greeted with a 
 tremendous yell from our troops, who had 
 stood firmly and unflinchingly, and I may 
 say as steadily as any troops could. Now 
 the enemy move off to the right among the 
 lone grass, and our front is cleared. Shells 
 burst among them. Soon all were out of sight, 
 except a few who walked about unconcernedly,
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 229 
 
 and actually singly came up, after the rest had 
 retreated, to within a few yards, brandishing 
 their spears in defiance. One after another 
 those fanatics were shot down. . . . Norden- 
 feldts and Remingtons are no respecters of 
 creeds or fanatical idiosyncrasies. Sheikh after 
 sheikh had gone down with his banner, although 
 the Mahdi had assured each he was invulner- 
 able, and their faithful but misguided followers 
 had fallen in circles around the chiefs they 
 blindly followed. Twelve of the most promi- 
 nent leaders — nine from Samoar and three 
 from Kordofan — had left their bones to whiten 
 on the field amidst three hundred of their 
 followers." 
 
 The rainy season compelled Hicks to sus- 
 pend active operations until the autumn, but 
 on September 9th he moved out from El Duem 
 on his fatal march on El Obeid. He himself had 
 misgivings, and had applied for reinforcements 
 which could not be given him. The Euro- 
 peans who accompanied him were quite out- 
 spoken in their forebodings of disaster. Major 
 Seckendorff wrote, " I have seen Egyptians in 
 three battles, and should be at a loss to find one 
 hero among them." Poor O' Donovan thus
 
 230 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 adumbrated his fate — referring in a private 
 letter to the death of a friend, he continued — 
 "It would be odd if the next intelligence from 
 this part of the world told that I too had gone 
 the way of all flesh. However, to die even out 
 here, with a lance-head as big as a shovel 
 through me, will meet my views better than the 
 slow, gradual sinking into the grave which is 
 the lot of so many. You know I am by this 
 time, after an experience of many years, pretty 
 well accustomed to dangers of most kinds, yet 
 I assure you I feel it terrible to face deadly 
 peril far away from civilised ideas, and where no 
 mercy is to be met with, in company with fellows 
 that you expect to see run at any moment, and 
 who will leave you behind to face the worst." 
 
 The last word from the doomed column came 
 from that gallant ill-fated war correspondent in 
 a telegram from "Sange Hamferid Camp," forty- 
 five miles south-west of El Duem. There is a 
 sough in its final words of the evil to come. 
 "We are running a terrible risk in abandoning 
 our communications and marching 230 miles 
 into an unknown country. But we have burnt 
 our ships. The enemy is still retiring and 
 sweeping the country bare of cattle. The water
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 231 
 
 supply is the cause of intense anxiety. The 
 camels are dropping." And so ended O'Dono- 
 van's work in the profession which he adorned ; 
 so closed, too, the scanty record of this fateful 
 advance ! 
 
 Authentic details may never be forthcoming 
 of the stupendous catastrophe which befell 
 Hicks' column; and a lurid cloud of mystery 
 may hang over the last scenes for all time. No 
 European present in the fighting that wrought 
 its annihilation is known to have survived. 
 The report that Mr. Vizetelly, the artist, had 
 escaped death, seems untrue. We know abso- 
 lutely nothing more authentically as to the 
 details of the catastrophe than we did in No- 
 vember last. Of this we may be sure at least, 
 that the handful of our countrymen died as 
 beseemed men who had worn the British 
 uniform. 
 
 The British Government had specifically 
 refused to be accessory in any sense to the 
 military doings in the Soudan undertaken for 
 the subjugation of the Mahdi. On the con- 
 trary, so early as May, 1883, Lord Granville 
 had carefully explained that "her Majesty's 
 Government were in no way responsible for the
 
 23 2 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 operations in the Soudan, which had been un- 
 dertaken on the authority of the Egyptian 
 Government, or for the appointment or actions 
 of General Hicks." It remains to be said that, 
 since British influence was paramount at Cairo, 
 a hint from Downing Street would have been 
 sufficient to arrest the progress of operations of 
 such manifest hazard, and an untoward issue 
 to which could not fail to bring about moment- 
 ous complications. 
 
 The mind of a government is like a snow- 
 ball— acqnirit vires eundo ; but the resemblance 
 is only to a very slow-rolling snow-ball. The 
 news of the catastrophe to Hicks' column 
 reached England about 20th November. 
 Nearly a month later, Lord Granville had har- 
 dened his heart to "recommend" the Khedive's 
 Ministers to resolve on the abandonment of the 
 Soudan, and had intimated his Government's in- 
 tention not to employ British or Indian troops 
 in that province. The Egyptian Ministers 
 were not unnaturally reluctant to fall in with 
 this recommendation. Three weeks later Lord 
 Granville hardened his heart somewhat further. 
 He was not peremptory, but he directed Sir 
 Evelyn Baring "to urge with all earnestness
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 233 
 
 upon the Khedive and Ministers that all mili- 
 tary operations, excepting those for the rescue 
 of outlying garrisons, should cease in the Sou- 
 dan." Later in the same day, he braced him- 
 self to be explicit. No longer did he " recom- 
 mend," or "urge", the jelly had stiffened, and 
 he now used the alarming word "insist." " It 
 must be made clear," he telegraphed, "to the 
 Egyptian authorities that the responsibility 
 which for the time rests on England obliges her 
 Majesty's Government to insist on the adoption 
 of the policy which they recommend, and that it 
 will be necessary that the ministers and gover- 
 nors who do not follow this course should cease 
 to hold office." Whereupon the Cherif ministry 
 resigned, the Khedive "accepted cordially the 
 abandonment of the whole of the Soudan ; " 
 Nubar Pasha succeeded Cherif, and "entirely 
 concurred in the wisdom of abandoning the 
 Soudan." 
 
 Her Majesty's Government might insist and 
 the Khedive and his new ministers might con- 
 sent, but of themselves these mental phenomena 
 did not go a great way toward effecting the 
 evacuation of the Soudan. It was studded all 
 over from the Abyssinian frontier to Fascher,
 
 234 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 by Egyptian garrisons all of which were lock- 
 fast in their stations, and what with troops, 
 officials, merchants, nondescripts, women and 
 children, the Egyptian population in the Soudan 
 numbered about 30,000. The delay of her 
 Majesty's Government in screwing itself up to 
 utter the word " insist" had materially added to 
 the difficulties of the extrication of these. Since 
 her ministers had at last uttered that strong 
 word not even a government with a genius 
 for evading responsibility could well deny that 
 England had incurred some responsibility in 
 regard to those unfortunate derelicts of the 
 Egyptian regime. "We were all agreed," in- 
 deed said Mr. Gladstone, " that measures 
 should be taken for the relief of the garrisons." 
 Baker had gone to Souakim with several ship- 
 loads of poltroons, but that was not much of a 
 " measure." What other "measure" could the 
 ingenuity devise of a Government who had 
 definitely disavowed their intention of employing 
 their troops in the Soudan ? 
 
 On Saturday, January 19th, the nation 
 learned with a thrill of glad surprise that on 
 the previous evening General Gordon had left 
 England for the Soudan, having accepted the
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 235 
 
 mission " to report on the military situation 
 there, to provide in the best manner for the 
 safety of the European population of Khar- 
 toum, and of the Egyptian garrisons through- 
 out the country, as well as for the evacuation 
 of the Soudan with the exception of the sea- 
 board." This was what the Tijnes of that 
 morning told us, and the sentiment of relief, 
 pleasure, and pride was universal. To know 
 that Gordon had gone, that was enough for 
 most people. Mr. Gladstone afterwards in the 
 House of Commons, on the evening of Febru- 
 ary 1 2th, defined more closely the duty which 
 Gordon had undertaken. " General Gordon 
 went," said the Premier, " not for the purpose 
 of reconquering the Soudan, or to persuade the 
 chiefs of the Soudan — the Sultans at the head 
 of their troops — to submit themselves to the 
 Egyptian Government. He went for no such 
 purpose as that. He went for the double pur- 
 pose of evacuating the country, by extricating 
 the Egyptian garrisons, and reconstituting it, 
 by giving back to these Sultans their ancestral 
 powers, withdrawn or suspended during the 
 period of Egyptian occupation. General Gor- 
 don has in view the withdrawal from the coun-
 
 236 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 try of no less than 29,000 persons under mili- 
 tary service in Egypt, and the House will see 
 how vast was the trust which was placed in the 
 hands of this remarkable person. We cannot 
 exaggerate the importance we attach to his 
 mission. We are unwilling — I may say we 
 were resolved to do nothing which should 
 interfere with the pacific scheme, a scheme, be 
 it remembered, absolutely the only scheme, 
 which promised a satisfactory solution of the 
 Soudanese difficulty by at once extricating the 
 garrisons and reconstituting the country upon 
 its old basis of local privileges." 
 
 I have spoken of the country's surprise at 
 the sudden despatch of Gordon on this mis- 
 sion. And it was a genuine surprise. He left 
 Charing Cross in the evening of 18th January. 
 But it was known that on the previous day 
 Gordon had arrived in Brussels to receive from 
 the Kino- of the Belgians his final instructions 
 for the anti-slavery expedition to the head- 
 quarters of the Congo the command of which 
 he had accepted. There had been hope till 
 then that he might go to the Soudan, but with 
 his departure for Brussels that hope had died. 
 It had been in the minds of many ever since
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 237 
 
 the news came of Hicks' misfortune, but the 
 universality of the aspiration had been kindled 
 by an opportune stroke of journalistic perspi- 
 cacity. General Gordon, having travelled from 
 Palestine to Brussels, had come from Brussels 
 to England on the 7th of January, on a short 
 farewell visit to his sister at Southampton. 
 There, on the 8th, a representative of the Pall 
 Mall Gazette had an interview with him, the 
 publication of the notes of which " transformed 
 the whole situation." The conviction was uni- 
 versal that the striking paper in that journal 
 forced the hand of the Government ; and pro- 
 bably remains so, in the face of Mr. Gladstone's 
 explanation that the Government had long pre- 
 viously entertained the desire to avail them- 
 selves of General Gordon's services, and that 
 the hindrance was the "aversion" of the Egyp- 
 tian Government. It was at least a significant 
 coincidence that this aversion should have " be- 
 come mitigated and at length entirely removed" 
 within a week of the publication in the Pall 
 Mall Gazette of its interview with General 
 Gordon. But for that interview and the 
 popular feeling it evoked, it seems highly pro- 
 bable that by this time General Gordon and
 
 238 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Mr. Stanley would have been discussing the 
 former's programme on the banks of the 
 Congo. 
 
 Whatever Gordon's own views were as to 
 the policy which ought to be pursued in the 
 Soudan, he loyally subordinated them to the 
 instructions he took from the Ministers at that 
 afternoon consultation on his arrival from 
 Brussels. " I go to cut the dog's tail off. I've 
 got my orders, and I'll do it, cotlte que coiite." 
 At ei^ht o'clock he started. " The scene at the 
 station," said the Pall Mall Gazette, " was very 
 interesting. Lord Wolseley carried the General's 
 portmanteau, Lord Granville took his ticket for 
 him, and the Duke of Cambridge held open the 
 carriage door." His companion was Lieut.- 
 Colonel Stewart, nth Hussars. 
 
 The original intention was that General 
 Gordon should go through the canal straight to 
 Souakim, and thence attempt to reach Khartoum 
 by the Berber route, relying for his safety in 
 this hazardous enterprise on his old friendly 
 relations with the Hadendoah tribes, who 
 inhabit the country between Souakim and 
 Berber. It was understood that he desired to 
 maintain his independence unfettered by any
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 239 
 
 relations with Egypt, and it was known that he 
 had said stern things about the Khedive, who 
 might, therefore, have a reluctance to meet him. 
 Sir Evelyn Wood went down to Port Said to 
 meet Gordon on his arrival there, and it was 
 arranged that if he were firm in his resolve not 
 to visit Cairo, but go straight through the canal, 
 Sir Evelyn Baring was to go to Suez and have 
 a conference with him there. But Colonel 
 Harrington had come back from Souakim with 
 an unfavourable report as to the practicability 
 of the Souakim- Berber road, and, influenced 
 doubtless by other reasons more than by this 
 argument, Gordon altered his route so as to 
 include Cairo, and reached that capital on the 
 night of January 25, arriving, as his wont, in 
 advance of the time at which he was expected. 
 He was keen to push forward, and had desired 
 to leave Cairo within twenty-four hours, but 
 was prevailed on to stay a day longer, for many 
 questions had to be discussed and many points 
 settled. On the morning of the 26th he had an 
 interview with the Khedive which was of a 
 very cordial character, his Highness expressing 
 great satisfaction that Gordon should have 
 undertaken to go to the Soudan, and his com-
 
 2 4 o CHINESE CORDON. 
 
 plete confidence in him. The day was con- 
 sumed in conferences at the British Residency 
 with Sir Evelyn Baring, Nubar Pasha, Sir 
 Evelyn Wood, and others ; and when Gordon 
 left Cairo on the 27th January he went not only 
 as British High Commissioner, but as the 
 Khedive's Governor-General of the Soudan. 
 He was accompanied by the son of the Sultan 
 of Darfour, to whom the Khedive, at Gordon's 
 suggestion, had restored, so far as he was con- 
 cerned, the parental dominions, and General 
 Graham convoyed his old comrade as far as 
 Assouan. When they reached Korosko, 
 General Gordon and Colonel Stewart quitted 
 the Nile Valley and struck across the Nubian 
 Desert, on their camel ride of 240 miles to 
 Abou Hamed. They plunged into the desert 
 without any military escort, and a feverish 
 anxiety for their safety had to be endured for 
 nine days, since no sure news could be received 
 respecting them until they should have reached 
 Berber. 
 
 The following are the instructions from the 
 British Foreign Office under which General 
 Gordon had consented to go to the Soudan : —
 
 CHINESE GORDON, 241 
 
 "Foreign Office,/^/. 18, 1884. 
 11 Sir, — Her Majesty's Government are desirous that you 
 should proceed at once to Egypt, to report to them on the 
 military situation in the Soudan and on the measures which it 
 may be advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian garri- 
 sons still holding positions in that country, and for the safety of 
 the European population in Khartoum. You are also desired 
 to consider and report upon the best mode of effecting the eva- 
 cuation of the interior of the Soudan, and upon the manner in 
 which the safety and the good administration by the Egyptian 
 Government of the ports on the sea coast can best be secured. 
 In connection with this subject, you should pay especial con- 
 sideration to the question of the steps that may usefully be taken 
 to counteract the stimulus which it is feared may possibly be 
 given to the slave trade by the present insurrectionary move- 
 ment and by the withdrawal of the Egyptian authority from the 
 interior. You will be under the instructions of her Majesty's 
 Agent and Consul-General at Cairo, through whom your reports 
 to her Majesty's Government should be sent under flying seal. 
 You will consider yourself authorized and instructed to perform 
 such other duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to 
 entrust to you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir E. 
 Baring. You will be accompanied by Colonel Stewart, who will 
 assist you in the duties thus confided to you. On your arrival in 
 Egypt you will at once communicate with Sir E. Baring, who 
 will arrange to meet you, and will settle with you whether you 
 should proceed direct to Suakin, or should go yourself or des- 
 patch Colonel Stewart to Khartoum via the Nile. — I am, &c. 
 (Signed) Granville." 
 
 During the leisure of his voyage across the 
 Mediterranean, Gordon had written the following 
 memorandum on these instructions, which was 
 received by the Foreign Office on February 
 1 st : — 
 
 " I understand that her Majesty's Government have come to 
 the irrevocable decision not to incur the very onerous duty of
 
 242 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 securing to the peoples of the Soudan a just future Government. 
 That, as a consequence, her Majesty's Government have deter- 
 mined to restore to these peoples their independence, and will 
 no longer suffer the Egyptian Government to interfere with their 
 affairs. 
 
 " 2. For this purpose her Majesty's Government have decided 
 to send me to the Soudan to arrange for the evacuation of 
 these countries, and the safe removal of the Egyptian employe's 
 and troops. 
 
 " 3. Keeping paragraph No. 1 in view, viz., that the evacua- 
 tion of the Soudan is irrevocably decided on, it will depend on 
 circumstances in what way this is to be accomplished. My idea 
 is that the restoration of the country should be made to the dif- 
 ferent petty Sultans who existed at the time of Mehemet Ali's 
 conquest, and whose families still exist ; that the Mahdi should 
 be left altogether out of the calculation as regards the handing 
 over the country ; and that it should be optional with the 
 Sultans to accept his supremacy or not. As these Sultans 
 would probably not be likely to gain by accepting the Mahdi as 
 their sovereign, it is probable that they will hold to their inde- 
 pendent positions. Thus we should have two factors to deal 
 with — namely, the petty Sultans asserting their several indepen- 
 dence, and the Mahdi's party aiming at supremacy over them. 
 To hand, therefore, over to the Mahdi the arsenals, &c, would, 
 I consider, be a mistake. They should be handed over to the 
 Sultans of the States in which they are placed. The most diffi- 
 cult question is how and to whom to hand over the arsenals of 
 Khartoum, Dongola, and Kassala, which towns have, so to say, 
 no old standing families, Khartoum and Kassala having sprung 
 up since Mehemet Ali's conquest. Probably it would be advis- 
 able to postpone any decision as to these towns till such time as 
 the inhabitants have made known their opinion. 
 
 " 4. I have in paragraph 3 proposed the transfer of the lands 
 to the local Sultans, and stated my opinion that these will not 
 accept the supremacy of the Mahdi. If this is agreed to and my 
 supposition is correct as to their action, therecanbebut little doubt 
 that as far as he is able the Mahdi will endeavour to assert his 
 rule over them, and will be opposed to any evacuation of the 
 Government employes and troops. My opinion of the Mahdi's
 
 CHINESE CORDON. 243 
 
 forces is, that the bulk of those who were with him at Obcid will 
 refuse to cross the Nile, and that those who do so will not exceed 
 3,000 or 4,000 men, and also that these will be composed princi- 
 pally of black troops who have deserted, and who, if offered fair 
 terms, would come over to the Government side. In such a 
 case, viz., ' Sultans accepting transfer of territory and refusing 
 the supremacy of the Mahdi, and Mahdi's black troops coming 
 over to the Government,' resulting weakness of the Mahdi ; 
 what should be done should the Mahdi's adherents attack the 
 evacuating columns? It cannot be supposed that these are to 
 offer no resistance, and if in resisting they should obtain a suc- 
 cess, it would be but reasonable to allow them to follow up the 
 Mahdi to such a position as would insure their future safe 
 march. This is one of those difficult questions which our 
 Government can hardly be expected to answer, but which may 
 arise and to which I would call attention. Paragraph 1 fixes 
 irrevocably the decision of the Government, viz., to evacuate the 
 territory, and, of course, as far as possible involves the avoid- 
 ance of any fighting. I can therefore only say, that having in 
 view paragraph 1 and seeing the difficulty of asking her Ma- 
 jesty's Government to give a decision or direction as to what 
 should be done in certain cases, that I will carry out the eva- 
 cuation as far as possible according to their wish to the best of 
 my ability, and with avoidance, as far as possible, of all fighting. 
 I would, however, hope that her Majesty's Government will give 
 me their support and consideration should I be unable to fulfil 
 all their expectations. 
 
 " 5. Though it is out of my province to give any opinion as to 
 the action of her Majesty's Government in leaving the Soudan, 
 still I must say it would be an iniquity to reconquer these 
 peoples and then hand them back to the Egyptians without 
 guarantees of future good government. It is evident that this 
 we cannot secure them without an inordinate expenditure of 
 men and money. The Soudan is a useless possession, ever was 
 so, and ever will be so. Larger than Germany, France, and 
 Spain together, and mostly barren, it cannot be governed except 
 by a Dictator who may be good or bad. If bad he will cause 
 constant revolts. No one who has ever lived in the Soudan can 
 escape the reflection, ' What a useless possession is this land.' 
 
 r 2
 
 244 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Few men also can stand its fearful monotony and deadly cli- 
 mate. 
 
 " 6. Said Pacha, the Viceroy before Ismael, went up to the 
 Soudan with Count F. de Lesseps. He was so discouraged and 
 horrified at the misery of the people that at Berber Count de 
 Lesseps saw him throw his guns into the river, declaring that he 
 would be no party to such oppression. It was only after the urgent 
 solicitations of European consuls and others that he recon- 
 sidered his decision. Therefore, I think her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment are fully justified in recommending the evacuation, inas- 
 much as the sacrifices necessary towards securing a good 
 government would be far too onerous to admit of such an at- 
 tempt being made. Indeed one may say it is impracticable at 
 any cost. Her Majesty's Government will now leave them as 
 God has placed them ; they are not forced to fight among them- 
 selves, and they will no longer be oppressed by men coming 
 from lands so remote as Circassia, Kurdistan, and Anatolia.'' 
 
 During his short stay in Cairo the following 
 supplementary instructions were communicated 
 to General Gordon by Sir Evelyn Baring : — 
 
 " Lord Granville ' authorised and instructed you to perform 
 such duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to intrust 
 to you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir E. Baring.' 
 I have now to indicate to you the views of the Egyptian Govern- 
 ment on two of the points to which your special attention was 
 directed by Lord Granville. These are (i) the measures which 
 it may be advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian 
 o-arrisons still holding positions in the Soudan, and for the 
 safety of the European population in Khartoum. (2) The best 
 mode of effecting the evacuation of the interior of the Soudan. 
 These two points are intimately connected, and may con- 
 veniently be considered together. It is believed that the num- 
 ber of Europeans at Khartoum is very small, but it has been 
 estimated by the local authorities that some 10,000 to 15,000 
 people will wish to move northwards from Khartoum only when 
 the Egyptian garrison is withdrawn. These people are native
 
 CHINESE GORDOX. 245 
 
 Christians, Egyptian employes, their wives and children, &c. 
 The Government of his Highness the Khedive is earnestly soli- 
 citous that no effort should be spared to insure the retreat both 
 of these people and of the Egyptian garrison without loss of life. 
 As regards the most opportune time and the best method for 
 effecting the retreat, whether of the garrisons or of the civil 
 populations, it is neither necessary nor desirable that you should 
 receive detailed instructions. A short time ago the local autho- 
 rities pressed strongly on the Egyptian Government the neces- 
 sity for giving orders for an immediate retreat. Orders were ac- 
 cordingly given to commence at once the withdrawal of the civil 
 population. No sooner, however, had these orders been issued 
 than a telegram was received from the Soudan, strongly urging that 
 the orders for commencing the retreat immediately should be de- 
 layed. Under these circumstances, and in view of the fact that 
 the position at Khartoum is now represented as being less 
 critical for the moment than it was a short time ago, it was 
 thought desirable to modify the orders for the immediate retreat 
 of the civil population, and to await your arrival. You will bear 
 in mind that the main end to be pursued is the evacuation of 
 the Soudan. This policy was adopted, after very full discus- 
 sion, by the Egyptian Government, on the advice of Her 
 Majesty's Government. It meets with the full approval of his 
 Highness the Khedive, and of the present Egyptian Ministry. 
 I understand also that you entirely concur in the desirability of 
 adopting this policy, and that you think it should on no account 
 be changed. You consider that it may take a few months to 
 carry it out with safety. You are further of opinion that ' the 
 restoration of the country should be made to the different petty 
 Sultans who existed at the time of Mohammed Ali's concpiest, 
 and whose families still exist ;' and that an endeavour should be 
 made to form a confederation of those Sultans. In this view 
 the Egyptian Government entirely concur. It will, of course, 
 be fully understood that the Egyptian troops are not to be kept 
 in the Soudan merely with a view to consolidating the power of 
 the new rulers of the country. But the Egyptian Government 
 has the fullest confidence in your judgment, your knowledge of 
 the country, and of your comprehension of the general line of 
 policy to be pursued. You are therefore given full discretionary
 
 246 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 power to retain the troops for" such reasonable period as you 
 may think necessary, in order that the abandonment of the 
 country may be accomplished with the least possible risk of life 
 and property. A credit of ,£100,000 has been opened for you at 
 the Finance Department, and further funds will be supplied to 
 you on your requisition when this sum is exhausted. In under- 
 taking the difficult task which now lies before you, you may feel 
 assured that no effort will be wanting on the part of the Cairo 
 authorities, whether English or Egyptians, to afford you all the 
 co-operation and support in their pow. 
 
 This paper Sir Evelyn read to General 
 Gordon, and reported to Lord Granville that he 
 expressed entire concurrence in the instructions 
 it embodies. The only suoraestion he made 
 was in connection with the passage in which 
 Sir Evelyn, speaking of the policy of abandon- 
 ing the Soudan, had said, " I understand also 
 that you entirely concur in the desirability of 
 adopting this policy." General Gordon had 
 desired Sir Evelyn to add the words, " and 
 that you think it should on no account be 
 changed." Those words were accordingly 
 embodied in the document, 
 
 While Gordon and his companion were 
 crossing the desert, there had occurred another 
 of those stupendous massacres with which the 
 history of the Soudan is so thickly studded. 
 On February 4th General Baker's Egyptian 
 force, marching from Trinkitat toward Tokar
 
 CHINESE CORDOX. 247 
 
 with intent to relieve the garrison of that 
 beleaguered place, had been attacked by a 
 detachment of Osman Digna's Arab levies, 
 defeated almost without resistance, and with a 
 loss of nearly two-thirds of its number, utterly 
 annihilated as a military force. Under popular 
 pressure, the British Government had formed 
 the resolve of despatching to the Eastern 
 Soudan an expeditionary force of British troops 
 charged with the duty, if there should be yet 
 time, of relieving the garrisons of Sinkat and 
 Tokar ; contingently, however, on General 
 Gordon's reply to the question addressed to 
 him, asking whether this measure met with his 
 approval. As soon as — having emerged safely 
 from the desert — he had recovered his com- 
 munications, he replied, "not very enthusiasti- 
 cally," that he saw no particular objections ; and 
 the experiences of General Graham's little army 
 do not come within the province of this little 
 volume. 
 
 It was on the nth February that General 
 Gordon reached Berber, "in high spirits and 
 very sanguine as to the success of his mission."' 
 He threw himself into his work with all his old 
 energy. Before leaving Berber he confirmed
 
 248 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 Hussein Bey Halifa in the governorship, 
 strengthening his position by giving him a 
 Council of Notables, and he sent forward orders 
 to Khartoum removing Hussein Pasha from the 
 Vice-Governor-Generalship, and appointing in 
 his room Colonel de Coetlogen, who had been 
 in military charge ever since the catastrophe 
 which befell Hicks Pasha's army. In advance 
 of General Gordon's arrival in the capital, the 
 city was placarded with a proclamation sent 
 forward by him, proclaiming the Mahdi Sultan 
 of Kordofan, remitting one-half of the taxes, and 
 permitting the trade in slaves to be carried on. 
 The proclamation is said to have given universal 
 satisfaction. The Times correspondent com- 
 municated a conversation with an intelligent 
 Arab: "Gordon Pasha," said the Arab, "will 
 be received as a friend of the Arabs and blacks. 
 His coming means no more Turks, with their 
 backsheesh and kourbash. But he should have 
 come a year ago ; it is now too late." Gordon 
 himself did not think it was too late, if we are 
 to judge by the telegram he sent Sir Evelyn 
 Baring from Berber : — 
 
 "Am leaving for Khartoum, and believe you 
 need not give yourself any further anxiety about
 
 CHINESE GORDON. 249 
 
 this part of the Soudan. The people, great and 
 small, are heartily glad to be free from a union 
 which has only caused them sorrow." 
 
 It was on the morning of Tuesday, February 
 1 8th, that General Gordon made his entry into 
 Khartoum. In one of his letters home he 
 describes how when entering Keren arrayed in 
 the splendid " gold coat " of a field marshal, and 
 in the pomp beseeming the Governor-General 
 of the Soudan, the humour of his fancy had 
 suggested to him some resemblance in the eyes 
 of the populace between him and " the Divine 
 Figure from the North " who was just then a 
 o-ood deal in the mouths of men. A veritable 
 " Divine Figure " he must have shone in the 
 sight of the people of Khartoum as he came 
 among them on this February morning. What 
 a change for them from the regime of Bashi- 
 Bashoukery, of the pashas, of the stick, the 
 lash, the prison ; from the grinding taxation 
 and the denial of even a form of justice ! No 
 wonder that as he passed to the Palace from the 
 Mudirieh, where he had been holding a levee 
 to which the poorest Arab was admitted, the 
 people pressed about him, kissing his hands and 
 feet, and hailing him as " Sultan," " Father," and
 
 250 CHINESE GORDON. 
 
 " Saviour !" There is a whole-souled energy and 
 an uncompromising thoroughness in everything 
 that this man does. With the best will in the 
 world to redress grievances, another man would 
 have gone about the work in a methodical, un- 
 galvanic fashion. But Gordon does not know 
 the meaning of routine. There on the shelves 
 were the Government ledgers, on whose pages 
 were the lone records of the outstanding debts 
 that weighed down the over-taxed people. On 
 the walls hung the kourbashes, whips, and bas- 
 tinado rods, implements of tyranny and torture. 
 Gordon wiped out the evidence of debts and 
 destroyed the emblems of oppression in a fine 
 impulse of characteristic ardour. A fire was 
 made in front of the palace, and the books and 
 bastinado rods thrown on this funeral pyre of 
 Egyptian tyranny. 
 
 He had so but begun the day's work. From 
 the council chamber he hurried to the hospital, 
 thence to inspect the arsenal. Then he darted 
 to the heart of the misery of the prison. In 
 that loathsome den two hundred wretched 
 beines were rotting in their chains. Younof 
 and old, condemned and untried, the proven 
 innocent and the arrested on suspicion, he
 
 CHINESE GORDO X. 251 
 
 found all clotted together in one mass of com- 
 mon suffering. With wrathful disgust, Gordon 
 set about the summary work of liberation. 
 Before night fell the chains had fallen from off 
 scores of the miserables, and the beneficent 
 labour was being steadily pursued. Ere this 
 busy day closed Gordon's energy had left him 
 hardly anything to do inside of Khartoum. He 
 had arranged that the Soudanese soldiers were 
 to stay in their native land, and had appointed 
 to the command of them a veteran negro officer, 
 who had distinguished himself in Mexico under 
 Bazaine. He had settled that the Egyptian 
 soldiers were to be sent across the river to Am 
 Durman, where was Hicks's camp before he 
 started on his ill-fated march, and that they and 
 their families were to be sent down the river 
 in detachments, and so also were to cro the 
 European civilians who cared to leave. 
 
 And here, while he stands on the threshold 
 of this latest and most arduous enterprise of all, 
 this brief record will leave him. What has 
 occurred since General Gordon arrived in 
 Khartoum is yet clouded and misty. Shadows 
 have fallen across the brightness of the early 
 landscape, and his buoyant anticipations are
 
 2^2 CHIXESE GORDO.\, 
 
 -o- 
 
 not finding realisation. It may be that this 
 task which he has undertaken shall prove 
 impossible for him to accomplish. But down 
 in the country whence he sprang- there is a 
 homely proverb, "A stout heart to a stey 
 brae." No difficulties will abate his loyal 
 courage ; no stress of adversity will daunt his 
 gallant heart. For him life has no ambition, 
 death no terror. He will do his duty. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 , 4 
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, VHITEFRIARS.
 
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