Gordon left China immediately he had
saved that country from war, arriving in England on
October 21, 1880. From then till about the end
of the following April he spent on leave. During
this month the post of officer commanding Royal Engineers
at the Mauritius fell vacant, and two officers to
whom the command was offered retired rather than go
to Mauritius. Sir Howard Elphinstone was then
offered the command, and would also probably have
retired, but Colonel Gordon offered to go for him,
and refused any money on account of the exchange, though
usually L700 or L800 was paid for an exchange of this
kind. Yet Gordon was so poor that he had actually
to borrow the money to pay for his passage when he
went from India to China a few months before this!
He left England for the Mauritius on the 2nd May,
travelling via the Suez Canal and Aden.
The voyage opened up to his ever-active
fertile brain the whole question of the advantage
to England of the Suez Canal, and of our proper route
to India. This, he maintained most strongly, should,
in the event of war, be via the Cape, and not
through the Canal, his opinion concurring with that
of Lord Palmerston, Mr. W. E. Forster, and many men
of ability. The Suez route may save a few days,
but the risk is terrible. In some parts of the
Canal only one ship can pass at a time, and a sunken
barge, a little dynamite, or even a severe sandstorm
may block the Canal for days. An enemy could easily
bribe the owners of a few petty craft to sink their
vessels, and thus completely to block up troopships
in the Canal. Even without such designs our troopships
are frequently delayed in passing through owing to
accidents of all sorts.
The heads of many Englishmen have
been completely turned by the opening of the Suez
Canal, and Gordon was one of the few who stood out
against the idea of considering it as the proper
route to India. It has been said that our trade
has increased very largely since the Canal was opened,
and that is true; but then the period in question has
been one of special activity, and probably our trade
would have increased no less had the Canal never been
constructed. Moreover, the trade of other countries
has increased even more rapidly. Italy, France,
Russia, Germany, and Austria have gained more in proportion
than we have. In the olden days, when all the
trade with the East came to Europe via the
Cape, England was the great centre of the world.
Everything was shipped to England, and then despatched
to different parts of Europe. We were the great
carriers of the ocean. But the Suez Canal has
disturbed this arrangement, and the European nations
can more easily obtain their supplies direct through
the Canal, to the detriment of our labour market.
Gordon recognised that it was too late for the mistake
to be remedied, but he was most anxious that we should
attach more importance to our hold on the Cape, as
the natural route to India in the event of war, and
not be deceived by the fictitious advantages of the
Suez Canal, which only offers the saving of a few days
at enormous risk.
He took the opportunity of stopping
at Suez to pay a visit to the grave of his friend
and lieutenant, Gessi, who had lost his life and
died at Suez from the hardships through which he passed
on the Nile, partly owing to the blocking of that
river by the “sudd,” which had re-formed
after Gordon left the Soudan, all precautionary measures
having been neglected, and partly owing to the cruel
neglect of the authorities, who might have taken more
prompt measures for his relief. As his master
was to do a few years later, Gessi practically
sacrificed his life in the crusade against slavery.
He had been an interpreter in the Crimean war, and
in the Soudan he exhibited such great military skill
that he was given a high independent command, with
the result that he was, it will be remembered, the
means of capturing and breaking up Suleiman’s
band of slave-dealers.
Colonel Gordon arrived at the Mauritius
at the end of May 1881, and he left in March 1882,
so he was only for about ten months on the island.
He went out to command the Royal Engineers, but as
the officer commanding the island was promoted and
sent home, he succeeded by seniority to the chief
command. During this period there is not much
to mention beyond the fact that here, as elsewhere,
he used every opportunity to do acts of kindness to
others. Two men of the Royal Artillery had, when
the worse for liquor, gone out in a boat, without
oars. For eight days they were drifting about
in the currents that surround the Mauritius.
At last they reached the Island of Bourbon, and in
attempting to land, one of them got drowned. The
other was sent back to his battery, and the owner
of the lost boat at once demanded compensation.
Thinking that the poor fellow had already suffered
enough for his misdeeds, Colonel Gordon paid for the
boat, and took the receipt to the man’s commanding
officer, stipulating that he should not tell the man
who had got him out of trouble. He always took
the greatest interest in the men, and also in the
agent of the Army Scripture Readers’ Society,
who worked among them. He told the officer who
collected funds for that Society to put him down for
a subscription of R per annum, and said that if
more was wanted he would be delighted to give it.
In March 1882 he received a telegram
from the Premier of the Cape Government, asking for
his aid in bringing about a termination of the Basuto
war. He had previously in April 1881 offered his
services on L700 per annum for this purpose, but the
Government then in office at the Cape had not even
replied to his telegram, either by mail or by wire,
and so Gordon had thought no more about the matter.
Troubles had thickened, and a new Government had come
into office. Hence the offer, accompanied by
the statement that they did not expect him to be bound
to the salary formerly proposed. Gordon at once
accepted the offer, but he could not get a ship going
to the Cape direct. Fortunately there was a small
coasting vessel called the Scotia bound for
the Cape, so Gordon at once took his passage, and
stated that he would arrive on board at a certain
hour. The hour came, but no passenger arrived.
The afternoon wore away, evening came and passed,
night arrived, and still the Colonel did not put in
an appearance. At last, about midnight, a gentleman
quietly came on deck, saying that he was Colonel Gordon,
and hastened to explain his reasons for being so late.
Some of the officers and people on the island, hearing
that he was going to sail, had intended to give him
an ovation. In order to escape this, he had walked
twelve miles into the interior, returning after dark
so that no one should know where he was. Next
day, however, crowds came on board to wish him “good-bye,”
among them many children in whom he had as usual taken
an interest. One of these, whom he introduced
as his “pet lamb” to the wife of the captain
of the ship, brought him a couple of bottles of sherry,
and other friends gave him a case of champagne.
As he was almost a total abstainer and frequently
did not touch stimulants for days together, he had
no use for the wine, but he accepted the gifts in
order to please the givers.
He made himself perfectly at home
on board the little ship, and soon became very friendly
with the captain and his wife. He spoke a great
deal about the Seychelles Islands, situated to the
north-east of Madagascar, which he believed to be
the site of the Garden of Eden, and he showed them
wood from the coco-de-mer, or nut of the sea, which
he believed to be the veritable tree that produced
the forbidden fruit which our ancestors tasted.
The voyage, though not more than three thousand miles
in length, lasted a whole month, and there was some
rough weather, which he felt terribly, for he was not
a particularly good sailor, and the ship was very
small. Writing to his sister he said:
“You will not care overmuch for
my secular history, but will say, ‘What
did you learn on the passage?’ Well, the passage
was truly a fearful trial; dirt prevailed in everything;
the bilge-water literally, when pumped out from
decayed sugar, tore up the very inmost parts of
the stomach, and showed me that, if that was wrong,
life was unendurable. I am not generally sick
at sea, but I was nearly dead with it; perhaps
it was Mauritius fever coming out. Salt water
had got into the tank and we had to drink it.
I was very, very ill, but through it all I would
not have changed one iota of the voyage....
“I am a rag; that voyage
in the Scotia has killed me. I went to
Dr. Abercromby, and he told me I was on the verge
of an attack of jaundice. I am certainly
better, but feel far from well. Listless, worried
in body, not a bit in spirits, and as if I had
eaten copper. I want to get into the position
of delighting to accept and do His will, yet I
feel so very much inclined to wish His will might
be my release....
“Earth’s joys grow very
dim, its glories have faded. My Mauritius sojourn
has quenched to a great degree my desire for anything
but to be with Jesus. Everybody is very kind
here and complimentary, but all compliments are
to me but sounds of the wind. If it was Jesus’
will, how delighted I should be to be called away,
to be a nail in His footstool, and how willingly
I would have every one to be higher than me in
heaven!”
There was, however, some mitigation
to the horrors of this voyage, for, during it, he
heard of his promotion to the rank of major-general,
which gave him very great satisfaction, as he was beginning
to fear that, as the War Office authorities had failed
to offer him an appointment worthy of his merits,
they might also see fit to pass him over in the matter
of promotion. Before he had heard the news he
had written:
“Why am I not in the Gazette?
I will not move, but it seems odd. Anyway,
if they do not promote me, I shall hope for strength
to bear it. He is ruler, and I love Jesus
irrespective of His mighty rank and power.
At Communion this morning I asked Christ to let me
rest, and then He should take the post of COMMANDANT-GENERAL,
and that I should be passive in the matter.
Good-bye, my dear Augusta, fifteen years more.”
He arrived at the Cape on May 3rd,
1882, and at once made the acquaintance of the Governor,
Sir Hercules Robinson, and the Premier, Mr. Merriman.
He found things in a very unsatisfactory condition,
and nearly decided to have nothing to do with them.
The Cape Government were in an awkward position, the
affairs of the Basuto war being in the hands of Mr.
Orpen, in whom the Government had no confidence, but
whom, for party reasons, they did not like to remove.
Consequently they could not entrust matters entirely
to General Gordon. He good-naturedly yielded
to pressure, accepted the post of Commandant-General,
on L1200 per annum, and undertook to report to the
Cape Government his suggestions for the improvement
of the army generally, as well as the best means for
bringing the Basuto trouble to a speedy termination.
The arrangement was a very unsatisfactory one, but,
with that public spiritedness which so characterised
him, Gordon threw himself thoroughly into the business,
and, before the end of the month, he drew up a most
able, statesman-like paper on the whole subject.
With most it would have been a piece of presumption
for a man during a single month, much of which was
spent in travelling, to attempt such a task, more
especially as some of the questions were extremely
difficult. But such was Gordon’s capacity
for work, and for grasping complex questions, that
not only was the paper he drew up most exhaustive,
but, read in the light of subsequent events, it shows
how well-informed he was, and what an impartial mind
he brought to bear on the subjects before him.
He read very quickly, he could at a glance grasp the
salient points of any question, and, having a wonderfully
retentive memory, no important detail was lost sight
of. He wrote both quickly and clearly, and had
the faculty of presenting his points in a lucid manner.
Like many military men, who are, when young, taken
from their studies, he did not always write in the
best of English, but he made up for this in the remarkable
manner in which he could marshal facts and arguments,
and the ease with which he carried his reader along.
In his letters and journals he does not do himself
justice as a writer, but in his official despatches
and memoranda he shows that, not least among his accomplishments,
was the gift of being able to write well, and to the
point. His memorandum on the reform of the Cape
army was very able, though too long to reproduce here.
Briefly stated it showed how an army of 8000 men could
be maintained instead of the 1600 men then under arms,
and at a reduced cost of L7000 per annum! He also
pointed out how unjustly the Basutos had been treated,
and suggested as a remedy that they should be invited
to assemble a general council in which to ventilate
their grievances, and that steps should be taken to
remove these grievances. He advocated giving
them a semi-independent position, with power to manage
their own affairs, and to administer justice without
the intervention of foreign magistrates, some of whom,
in Gordon’s opinion, were very corrupt.
Those who have studied the affairs
of South Africa, and the history of Christian missions
there, will not need to be told what an interesting
people the Basutos are. But for others, it may
be as well to say that this branch of the Kaffir race
are not only among the most civilised of all the African
races, but a large proportion of them are Christian
in something more than name. The old chieftain
Moshesh, who reigned some fifty years ago, was a man
of marked ability, and, though a great soldier, he
hated war. Having heard of the work of the celebrated
Dr. Moffat among the Korannas, he sent to invite this
“man of prayer, and teacher of the Christian
religion,” to visit him. To cut a long story
short, some French Protestant missionaries responded
to the invitation, and were wonderfully blessed in
their work. Hundreds of converts were received
into the Christian Church, and instead of war and bloodshed
prevailing, men were instructed how to cultivate fields
and build houses.
In the Kaffir war of 1852 Sir George
Cathcart was informed that Moshesh was the centre
of intrigue, and, ill-advised, he attacked that chieftain
and was defeated. When the attack was about to
be renewed, he received from Moshesh the following
message: “O my master, I am still your
servant; I am still the child of the Queen. Sometimes
a man beats his dog, and the dog puts his teeth into
his hands, and gives him a bite: nevertheless
the dog loves the master, and the master loves the
dog, and will not kill it. I am vexed at what
happened yesterday; let it be forgotten.”
Fortunately Sir George Cathcart had sufficient nobility
of character to appreciate this message. Peace
was made, and Sir George afterwards said of Moshesh,
“I found him not only to be the most enlightened,
but the most upright chief in South Africa, and one
in whose good faith I put the most perfect confidence,
and for whom, therefore, I have a sincere respect
and regard.” Moshesh died in 1870, and
the policy he had initiated was carried on by his successor
Masupha.
Unfortunately the Cape Government
wanted to deprive the Basutos of their right to carry
arms, and this they resented. Gordon’s sympathies
were entirely with them. There were other abuses,
such as bad magistrates, which were even admitted
by the Secretary for Native Affairs, and Gordon came
to the conclusion that the Basutos had been very badly
treated. They were loyal to the Queen, but objected
to being put under the Cape Government, disliking
the Dutch element which has such influence at the
Cape.
On the 18th July, 1882, the Cape Government
proposed that General Gordon should visit Basutoland,
but he was of opinion that unless the Government saw
their way to grant what he suggested, there was little
use in his going. In August, Mr. Sauer, the Secretary
for Native Affairs, came to King William’s Town,
and asked Gordon to accompany him into the Basuto
country. Much against his own opinion Gordon yielded,
and went as far as Leribe; but finding that the idea
in the mind of Mr. Sauer was that he might employ
one portion of the Basutos to fight against the other,
he remonstrated very strongly. Mr. Sauer then
asked him privately to visit Masupha, but gave him
no instructions officially. Gordon consented
to do this much, but he let Mr. Sauer clearly understand
that nothing would induce him to fight the Basutos,
with the object of forcing bad magistrates on them,
or treating them unjustly. Hoping to avert the
horrors of war, Gordon, unarmed and without a flag
of truce or any commission, went into the middle of
a hostile people, who had never even heard his name.
The charm of manner which he ever manifested in his
dealings with native races gained the day, and he
secured the confidence of these people. In his
speech to them he said:
“I have come here as a friend
of the Basutos. I showed myself a friend,
for when asked to come and fight, I would not.
Now, when I come, I want first to do good for
Basutos. The Basutos are of a good disposition.
I say to the chief and people, How can Basutoland
belong to Basutos? I tell all that the Government
want to do good to the people. The Queen
does not want the Colony to take land of Basutos,
and what the Colony and the Queen are afraid of is
that if abandoned the Basutos would be eaten up.
I like the Boers; they are brave, and like their
own government; and when they fought, they fought
for their own government. England could have beaten
the Boers if they liked, but thought it unjust.
Which do Basutos think Dutch like best Basutos
or land? I think they like land best. Supposing
Colony abandoned this country, by-and-by they have
trouble with Free State; after that begins fighting;
then I look forward ten years, and I see Dutch
farms close here. I do not want that, the
Colony does not, and the Queen does not, and no Basuto
either. Then I say, Basutos, make friends
with the Government....
“Suppose Boers drive you away,
for me it would be all the same, and not much
difference when you are put in the ground. I wish
the Basutos would do what I say. What I want
is for all to speak with one tongue. I cannot
make myself black. I cannot make Masupha and
his people do what I want, so I leave it to Jesus,
who works everything. This is all I have
to say Do what you like; think well;
pray to Jesus for advice.”
No sooner had General Gordon gone
on his peaceful mission than he discovered that Mr.
Sauer had actually induced Lerethodi, a rival chief,
to attack Masupha. This action not only endangered
Gordon’s life, but outraged his sense of honour
to such an extent, that he decided forthwith to sever
all connection with the Cape Government. It was,
to say the least, extraordinary conduct, to send a
messenger of peace to a rebel chief, and then, without
waiting for any reply, to induce some of his own countrymen
to attack and coerce him. It would perhaps not
be fair to hold the whole of the Cape Government responsible
for the action of a single man, but this curious proceeding
confirmed General Gordon in an opinion he held, that
white men often fail to practise towards the despised
coloured men that honourable, upright dealing that
might be expected from the leaders of civilised nations.
Mr. Arthur Pattison, writing to the
Times on the 20th August 1885, after Gordon’s
death, said of Masupha, “If you trust him straightforwardly,
he is as nice a man as possible, and even kind and
thoughtful; but if you treat him the other way, he
is a fiend incarnate. The late General Gordon
divined his character marvellously, and was the only
man Masupha had the slightest regard for.”
If our Government had more men of the type of General
Gordon, we may rest assured that we should have fewer
of these petty little “nigger wars,” which,
more often than not, are brought on by incapacity and
want of sympathy on the part of our representatives
abroad. One great charm about Gordon’s
character was his sympathy for the weak and helpless.
It mattered not whether the helpless one were a king
or a slave, so long as he was weak he was sure of
having Gordon’s sympathies and assistance in
his troubles. Before leaving the Cape, Gordon
made a most noble offer, which was that he should
go on L300 per annum and live as a magistrate among
the Basutos, so as to protect them from their enemies,
but the offer was not accepted.
The way in which Gordon regarded his
position is shown in the following passages from two
of his letters:
“KING WILLIAM’S TOWN, October
6, 1882. The telegrams will show you
that the Cape Colony chapter of my life is over.
I am so glad to be free of all this turmoil.
There will be a fearful row, but these things
have not moved me at all. I have thought more
of a scuttler who shed tears when I spoke to him
of God’s living in him, than I have of all
this affair.”
“SS. KINFAUNS CASTLE,
October 20, 1882. I shall, D.V.,
be in England when you get this. I shall
go by sea to Gravesend, and on to Southampton
at once. Whether men praise you, it does not make
you better, or whether they blame you, it does
not make you worse. God judges by motives,
men by actions (Thomas a Kempis). When I went
to the Cape I prayed for glory to God and the welfare
of the people, so I am glad I got no glory
out of it.”
It may be well to introduce here a
few words he wrote of the celebrated Zulu king whom
we deposed and imprisoned at the Cape.
“May 20, 1882. I
went to see Cetewayo, and felt for him, and tried
to cheer him. I gave him a stick with an ivory
head a beauty which had
been given me by the Sultan of Perak, who was a prisoner
at the Seychelles. When I told Cetewayo that I
had always been interested in him and that he
must have hope, with a deep ‘Ah!’
he pointed upwards. He is a fine savage.”
General Gordon arrived in England
on the 8th November 1882, after the close of the Egyptian
war, little thinking how closely that war would affect
him. After a short stay at Southampton he left
on December 28th for Palestine, and nearly the whole
of the year 1883 was spent in Palestine. Writing
from Jerusalem he says:
“Everything looks small and insignificant,
but quite meets the idea I had of the worldly
position of the Jews and of our Lord. In fact,
the Scriptures tell the story without any pretence
that either the country, people, or our Lord were
of any great importance in the world.
They are expositors of how very low the position
to which He, the Lord of lords, descended. You
can realise the fact as well in England as here,
by substituting a Scripture-reader of dubious
birth and humble parents, exposing the fallacy
of a ceremonial church-going religion, and pointing
out how impossible it is to please God by such
religious formalities....
“The Temple of Solomon was fine
for those days, but, setting aside its Divine
significance, it was only about six times as long as
the room you are in, and not much wider 60
cubits = 90 feet = 30 yards long, by 20 cubits
= 30 feet = 10 yards wide. You could walk round
the city in less than an hour; it is not quite
three miles round....
“The ravines round Jerusalem are
full of the dust of men, for over a million bodies
must have been slain there. What a terrific sight
the resurrection there will be! I suppose
there is no place in the world where so many bodies
are concentrated....
“It is nice sauntering
about, conjuring up scenes of days gone
by real scenes,
actions on the stage of life; all gone! It quiets
ambition!
“I came back from Gaza yesterday,
after a ten days’ sojourn there, returning
through Askelon, where there are very fine ruins,
enormous columns, marbles, &c, lying in all directions:
it is a wonderful place. Like all the coast,
it is most dreary, yet one sees that all the country
was once thickly populated. Sand from the shore
is creeping in steadily, and makes it mournful.
Napoleon I., Alexander the Great, Sennacherib,
Nebuchadnezzar, and a host of great men passed
by this route. Titus came up by Gaza to Jerusalem.
Richard Coeur de Lion was years at Askelon.
All gone, ’those old familiar faces’!”
The supposed sites of the holy places
seem to have had peculiar fascination for his active
brain, and he came to the conclusion that most, if
not all, of them were wrong. It would, however,
occupy too much space to give the reasons which led
him to this conclusion. Though we cannot gather
it from his own letters, a good deal of his time was
more profitably spent than in hunting up old sites.
Dr. Cunningham Geikie, who was in Jerusalem when Gordon
was killed at Khartoum, tells us:
“A poor dragoman told me that
General Gordon used to come often to his house
in Jerusalem when he and his wife lay ill, and that
he would take a mat, and put it on the floor as
a seat, there being no chairs or furniture, and
sit down with his Testament to read and speak
to them about Christ. Ascertaining that a doctor’s
account had been incurred, he went off secretly
and paid it. He gave away all he had to the
poor in Jerusalem and the villages round, and the
people mourn for him as for their father.”
He made friends with some of the missionaries of the Church
Missionary Society, with whom he found himself much in sympathy. Speaking of the
Rev. J. R. L. Hall, he says, I have found a nice man now here (Jaffa), but his
mission is at Gaza. He is a Jew by birth, but a man after my own heart.
I may drop down there ere long and help him. He
belongs to the C.M.S.”
This Mr. Hall, in a speech afterwards
made at Exeter Hall, told some interesting things
about General Gordon at this period of his life, which
for want of space, cannot be reproduced at length here.
He thoroughly identified himself with mission work,
showing how much he valued Christianity over all other
religious systems. When he met Mr. Hall he said,
“I am very restless; I came here for rest and
quiet, to study the Word of God, and at the same time
to discover different sacred sites. I am not
satisfied; I am restless; I want Christian work.
Do you think that if I were to come to Jaffa, you could
give me any work to do?” He went to live at
Jaffa for eight months. While he was there instructions
came from the central society for a mission-house to
be built at Nablous. There was no architect nearer
than at Jerusalem, and his fee and expenses would
have been very high. The missionaries agreed
to consult General Gordon about drawing up the plans
for the house, but were afraid of presuming too much
on his kindness. When the deputation from them
arrived, he cut them short in their apology. “I
know what you want; you want a contribution,”
said he. When told that they wanted something
much more valuable, he was delighted, and seizing
a pencil and paper wrote down exactly all they needed
in the way of accommodation. He set to work,
and before the day was over he had drawn up admirable
plans and calculations. The mission-house was
built on those plans, and his estimate proved to be
almost exactly the cost of the building. He said
to Mr. Hall:
“You thought that I should be
annoyed at being asked to draw out plans for a
mission-house. If there is anything that I can
do for the cause of missions I am delighted to
do it. What did I come to Jaffa for?
Did I not tell you at Haifa that if you could give
me some work to do for the Lord, that would set
my mind at rest? I was restless because I
had been shutting myself up in Palestine, and had
not been putting out my powers for service in the Lord’s
work.”
There are among Christian people some
who take a deep interest in the spread of the Gospel
at home, but do not exhibit the same interest in the
spread of Christianity abroad, and vice versa.
During Gordon’s stay at Gravesend he showed
what a real interest he took in home mission work,
and in his letters he frequently used to say that he
should like to end his days working in the east end
of London. The time he spent among the missionaries
in Palestine shows that he took an equally deep interest
in foreign missions, and before leaving that country
he wrote, in reference to a conference of missionaries
that was about to be held at Gaza, “I should
like to go down there and meet the brethren who assemble;
it may be the last time that I can have any intercourse
with a number of missionaries.”
On the 15th October 1883 General Gordon
received a telegram from the King of the Belgians,
asking him to go to Central Africa to govern the territory
that had been acquired by the International Association.
The King had once before pressed him to join this
movement, which had for its object the opening up
of Africa to trade and civilisation, and the consequent
abolition of slavery and cruelty. Mr. H. M. Stanley
was at the head of the movement, and Gordon offered
to serve under him, and had promised the Belgian king
that when his services were required they would be
given. Stanley had resigned his post, and the
time had come for Gordon to redeem his promise.
He at once telegraphed home for leave, and the reply
came back, “The Secretary of State has decided
to sanction your going to the Congo.” A
telegraph clerk had made a mistake, and the correct
message was, “The Secretary of State has declined
to sanction your going to the Congo.” As
Gordon had, however, already promised the King of
the Belgians to go, there was no alternative but for
him to sever his connection with the British army.
With the full intention of placing his resignation
in the hands of the Secretary of State for War, as
well as to interview King Leopold, he left Palestine
at the end of the year 1883. He was travelling
on the last night of the old year, and he tells us
that he spent that night in prayer in the railway
carriage, of which he was the solitary occupant.
As the new year was ushered in, the lonely traveller between Genoa and Brussels
little thought that it was to be almost his last, and that soon he would
be permitted to throw off the earthly tabernacle, and
put on the crown of glory. His active brain was
busily employed at this time in considering how best
he could wage war with human cruelty. He was
to have started on January 26, 1885, for the Congo,
but a telegram reached him at his sister’s house
at Southampton, from Lord Wolseley, requesting his
presence in London, as an outcry was being made by
certain well-informed persons that the only man who
was capable of solving the Soudan difficulties was
being permitted to leave the British army, and to
go into the service of a foreign power, to busy himself
in the wilds of Africa.