General Gordon Part 9

Zebehr's son, Suleiman, was at the head of his army of some 3000 fighting men, as plucky as Gordon's men were cowardly. When the father was detained at Cairo, he telegraphed in cipher to his son to break into open revolt, and even to attack the Government. Gordon knew that his men were utterly unable to meet Suleiman's troops in the field, so he tried another method to intimidate the rebels. He rode on alone ahead of his escort, covering eighty-five miles in a day and a half, in the heat of August, and dashing into the camp of these robbers, summoned their chief to an interview. Suleiman and his followers were dumbfounded by this bold act, and offered no resistance. The Governor-General then told Suleiman that he was aware of the meditated revolt, and that if he did not submit to his authority, his band should be broken up and disarmed. Suleiman and his chiefs went off to consider their course of action. Of course many were for making Gordon a prisoner, and he had, humanly speaking, a narrow escape. However, Suleiman decided to submit, and though afterwards we hear of him again in open revolt, for the time being Gordon carried the day. Nothing but his daring courage preserved him on that occasion. He even accepted an invitation to visit Suleiman at Shaka, where he spent two days. When Suleiman asked for an appointment, it was refused, on the ground that he had not yet shown his loyalty to the Khedive. Gordon, however, made him a present of his own gun, and taught him to use it.

Gordon often used to speak of this adventure as a most remarkable answer to prayer. He had prayed for Suleiman before starting, and had also asked for guidance for himself, and G.o.d heard him. It has sometimes been represented as a mad freak on Gordon's part to put himself into the lion's den in this way, but it was nothing of the kind. Suleiman was in revolt, supported by a splendid army. Gordon was absolutely at his mercy, for he could not rely on his troops. It was only Gordon's daring courage that intimidated Suleiman, and made him think Gordon was stronger than he really was.

After obtaining the submission of Suleiman, Gordon returned to Khartoum, and again for a time resumed his ordinary official duties.

But this was not for long; he had before him another visit to Walad el Michael, the turbulent Abyssinian chief, whom he had visited before taking up his duties at Khartoum. Gordon's object was to persuade Walad to submit to the authority of King Johannis of Abyssinia. But nothing would induce Walad to do this. He was surrounded by 7000 soldiers, and Gordon felt himself, in spite of the denials of the rebel chief, practically a prisoner. Walad demanded authority to go on attacking Johannis, but to this of course the Governor-General could not a.s.sent.

He therefore compromised matters by offering Walad 1000 per mensem, on condition that he should leave his old king alone.

Having settled Walad, Gordon left, intending to return to Khartoum, but was intercepted by a telegram from the Khedive begging him to go to Cairo to help him in his financial difficulties, and he started for Cairo on February 3, 1878, having completed one year's service as Governor-General of the Soudan.

In spite of the hard rough life of the Soudan, he infinitely preferred it to the more artificial civilised existence which the officials were living at Cairo. He arrived there on March 7th, and left again on the 30th; and during the whole of his stay he was wretched. At first the Khedive paid great attention to him, receiving him with a splendour which suggested the "Arabian Nights." He asked him to be the president of a commission of inquiry into the finances of the country, with the condition attached that he should use his influence to arrange with the representatives of the different countries that the commissioners of the debt or the representatives of the creditors who had lent money to Egypt should not serve on that commission of inquiry. After a good deal of discussion, it was finally ascertained that this condition would not be consented to by the foreign Governments. This of course relieved Colonel Gordon of any obligations in the matter, and he, seeing that he could be of no further service, decided to return to his province.

Considering how much Gordon had done to try and accomplish the desires of the Khedive, there can be little question that he was in this matter treated very badly. "I left Cairo," said he, "with no honours, by the ordinary train, paying my own pa.s.sage. The sun which rose with such splendour set in the deepest obscurity. I calculate my financial episode cost me 800. His Highness was bored with me after my failure, and could not bear the sight of me."

Fortunately for Gordon, he cared very little for official favour. "I now only look," said he in a letter written a short time after this, "to benefiting the people." It was in this spirit he visited Harrar, a small province detached from the Soudan, and lying to the south of Abyssinia, on the eastern coast of Africa, almost opposite to Aden.

This province had once belonged to Turkey, but had been transferred to the Khedive in exchange for 15,000 per annum extra tribute. The governor of the province was Raouf Pasha, whom Colonel Gordon, it will be remembered, had refused to employ on account of his cruel treatment of the natives in the Equatorial Province four years before. Again he had been playing the tyrant, and Gordon felt it to be his duty to turn him out. As this man afterwards succeeded Colonel Gordon as Governor-General of the Soudan, it is to him more than any one that the present Khedive is indebted for having lost the whole of the Soudan. By his tyranny, following after Gordon's kindness, the province was stirred into revolt, and the Mahdi enabled to usurp authority. We are, however, antic.i.p.ating events.

Having freed Harrar of this tyrant, he went to Ma.s.sowah, and thence on May 22nd to Khartoum. Back once more at his capital, he devoted himself first to a thorough reform of the prisons and the administration of the law. "The prisons," he wrote, "were dens of injustice, and I am glad to have had time to go into the question of each individual prisoner."

Although he used to tell amusing stories against himself and his own personal expenditure of money, yet Gordon had great apt.i.tude for finance, and could make money go farther than most men. Had his views been adopted for Egypt, it is more than likely that we should have been saved the Egyptian war, to say nothing of the loss of the Soudan, and all that was a.s.sociated with it. In the Soudan province there was an annual deficit amounting to something like 259,000. By dint of cutting down expenditure and increasing the receipts, Gordon reduced this during the second year to 50,600! Had he continued Governor-General for many years, there can be no question that he would have not only made the two ends meet, but would have obtained sufficient to carry out his schemes of opening up the country by railways and steamers, thus at the same time developing trade and reducing slavery. He calculated that with great economy, and utilising the machinery and the rails that were already lying idle in the country, a highway from Cairo to Khartoum might have been opened up for 70,000, a sum of money which over and over again has been frittered away in building great useless palaces for the Khedive or some other Egyptian official, which bring in no income, and are a great expense to keep up. The traffic, especially the conveyance of ivory and other merchandise, would soon have recouped the Government for their original outlay. The way in which Colonel Gordon was thwarted in every possible manner at this time troubled him a good deal. "As for myself," he writes, "I am exceedingly weary, and wish, with a degree of bitterness, that it was all over. I am cooped up here now, but am much occupied with finances, which are in a very low state.

My life is burthensome and weary, but I feel that it is better to be employed here than to be idle elsewhere."

Writing on November 20, 1878, he says:--

"I will give you an instance of the miserable way the Cairo Government treats the Soudan. I asked H.H.[8] a long time ago to send up a man A. H.H. replied he wanted the man A., and could not send him. To-day I got a request for 7, 10s., stating that I had asked for A., who was at Port Said; that in consequence A. went to Cairo and said that he did not want to come; so they ask me to pay the 7, 10s. for his pa.s.sage from Port Said to Cairo and return, which I have refused to do."

[8] The abbreviation he generally used for His Highness the Khedive.

Closely a.s.sociated with this question of finance was the still more important question of slavery. The Khedive's Government were at this time at their wit's end for money. They wrote to Colonel Gordon asking him to send them 12,000, and he replied that he had no funds available. Nubar Pasha, who was Minister at the time, was casting about to see how money could be raised, and not being troubled with conscientious scruples on the subject of slavery, he made overtures to the great slave-dealer Zebehr, who, it will be remembered, was practically a prisoner in Cairo. Zebehr jumped at the offer, and promised to send 25,000 per annum to Cairo from the Soudan, if he were made Governor-General in place of Gordon. This of course meant that he would be allowed a perfectly free hand to kidnap as many slaves as possible, in order to make up the annual deficit in addition to this subsidy of 25,000. Writing from Khartoum on February 18, 1879, Gordon says that he was ordered to return to Cairo for consultation. This, however, he steadily refused to do, on the ground of certain disturbances which had occurred. There was a simultaneous rebellion of slave-dealers in the Bahr-Gazelle, and also risings in Darfour and Kordofan, and Gordon felt it to be his duty to go and a.s.sist his lieutenant, Gessi, who was endeavouring to crush Zebehr's gang. Again all the horrors of the slave-trade were forced upon Gordon's mind.

"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? To die quickly would be to me nothing; but the long crucifixion that a residence in these horrid countries entails appalls me. Yet I feel that, if I could screw up my mind to it, I could cause the trade to cease, for its roots are in these countries.... I have written to the Khedive to say I will not remain as Governor-General, for I feel I cannot govern the country to satisfy myself.... Now as I will not stay as Governor-General of the whole of the Soudan, query, shall I stay as Governor of the West Soudan, and crush the slave-dealers? I agree, if the death was speedy; but oh! it is a long and weary one, and for the moment I cannot face it."

Again, writing from Kalaka at the beginning of May 1879, he says:--

"All the road from here to Shaka is marked by the camping-places of the slave-dealers, and there are numerous skulls by the side of the road. What thousands have pa.s.sed along here! I hear some districts are completely depopulated, all the inhabitants having been captured or starved to death."

But though Gordon could not do all he desired, he was enabled to do more perhaps than any other man could have accomplished in the circ.u.mstances, and by the end of June 1879, Suleiman, the son of the great Zebehr, had been hunted down by Gessi, who discovered papers clearly proving the guilt of both father and son. The latter was tried by court-martial and shot, and Gordon sent the evidence against the father to the Khedive. No notice was taken of it, and Gordon bitterly complains that, instead of being punished, Zebehr was _pensioned_!

"What pensions," he asks, "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 dragged 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?"

s.p.a.ce does not permit a detailed account of the interesting and exciting campaign in which Gessi delivered this crushing blow against the great slave-dealer. No man had imbibed more of Gordon's detestation to the slave trade than Gessi, and with quite a small force he captured the redoubtable Suleiman, who had a large force at his disposal. Gordon made him a Pasha and gave him a reward of 2000, which he richly deserved.

CHAPTER XII

ABYSSINIA, INDIA, AND CHINA

Colonel Gordon's work of putting a stop to slave-hunting and other evils in the Soudan was about to terminate. At Fogia on the 1st July 1879 he received a telegram announcing that Ismail had abdicated, and that his son Tewfik reigned at Cairo in his place. Gordon at once decided to go to Cairo. He writes:--

"I am a wreck, like the portion of the _Victory_ towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar; but G.o.d has enabled me, or rather has used me, to do what I wished to do--that is, break down the slave-trade.... To-day I had a telegram from Darfour, saying, 'Haroun [another great slave-dealer, second only in importance to Zebehr] had been killed and his forces dispersed.' G.o.d has truly been good to me. 'Those that honour Me I will honour.' May I be ground to dust, if He will glorify Himself in me; but give me a _humble heart_, for then He dwells there in comfort."

"The new Khedive is most civil," he writes from Cairo, "but I no longer distress myself with such things. G.o.d is the sole ruler, and I try to walk sincerely before Him." In spite of his treatment by the deposed Khedive, he always had a real affection for him, and he says: "It pains me what sufferings my poor Khedive Ismail has had to go through;" but later on he writes: "Do not fret about Ismail Pasha; he is a philosopher, and has plenty of money. He played high stakes and lost.

He is the cleverest man in Europe. I am one of those he fooled, but I bear him no grudge. It is a blessing for Egypt that he has gone."

Colonel Gordon had quite determined not to remain under the new Khedive, so he terminated, as he then thought for ever, his connection with the Soudan, little thinking how inseparably his name was yet to be a.s.sociated with that country. It may give us some idea of the energy of the man when it is mentioned that during the last three years he had ridden 8500 miles on camels or mules. Such violent exertion in a hot country was greatly to the detriment of his health. In one of his letters he says:--

"From not having worn a bandage across the chest, I have shaken my heart or my lungs out of their places; and I have the same feeling in my chest as you have when you have a crick in the neck. In camel-riding you ought to wear a sash round the waist, and another close up under the armpits; otherwise, all the internal machinery gets disturbed."

Before finally quitting the service of the Khedive, Gordon felt that he would like to put affairs between Egypt and Abyssinia on a more satisfactory footing, though it was through no fault of his that they were in such a bad condition. In spite, therefore, of his state of health, he left Cairo on August 30, 1879, on a mission to the Abyssinian king, Johannis. Writing home he playfully alludes to a ridiculous report that was being circulated, that he intended to throw off allegiance to Egypt, and set up as an independent Sultan, similar to what the American adventurer, Burgevine, proposed to do in China.

"The Khedive said, after some circ.u.mlocution, 'Was I not too friendly with Johannis?' In fact, the general report in Cairo was that I was going in for being Sultan; but it would not suit our family. I hope to finish off Johannis soon, and then to come home." There seem to have been some other evil reports circulated at this time about Colonel Gordon, for he says again in his humorous manner: "I wrote to the secretary of the Foreign Office man, who is a friend of mine, asking him to tell his chief, who is of the council, 'That if, on my return, I hear any of the Council of Ministers have said anything against me, I will beg the Khedive to make the evil speaker Governor-General of the Soudan,' which is equivalent to a sentence of death to these Cairo Pashas."

Though he was sick in body his brave spirit showed no signs of yielding as long as there was duty to be done, and off he went to Abyssinia. On September 2nd, 1879, he writes:--

"The heat is terrible, but I am quiet and that is a great thing. I fear, through this Abyssinian affair, I shall have to wend my weary way to Senheit; however, G.o.d knows what is best for me. I would sooner have come home straight, but I had it not in my heart to forsake Tewfik till this affair is finished. I have begun to be very tired of the continual wear and tear of my last six years.

However, I cannot think of leaving Egypt exposed to her enemies."

On September 12th he writes, when _en route_ to meet Aloula, the Abyssinian commander-in-chief:--

"We have met a caravan coming from Aloula's. They confirm the news that Walad el Michael and all his officers are prisoners, by orders sent to Aloula by King Johannis, and Metfin [Walad el Michael's son, whom Gordon disliked very much] is dead--killed by some one. I heard just as I left Ma.s.sowah that Abdulga.s.sin--the last of the leaders of Zebehr's slave-dealers--had been taken, and I ordered him to be shot.[9] Thus gaps, one by one, are made in my prayers for my enemies."

[9] This man had started his career by a cold-blooded murder.

When he first set up his standard of revolt, the wind blew it down, so in order to turn away the anger of heaven four oxen were slaughtered, and then a negro boy. In the poor wretch's blood a flag was dipped, and the standard was raised a second time, a second time to fall.

This last remark is made in reference to his custom of always praying for his enemies by name.

He went on this Abyssinian emba.s.sy with a heavy heart, for the Khedive had telegraphed to him, "Give up nothing, but do not fight." It really mattered little what happened, considering that soon Egypt was to give up even the lands over which she had a legal right, but in November 1879 this could not be foreseen. Khedive Ismail had undoubtedly behaved very badly to Abyssinia, and had treated the Abyssinian envoy with a great want of courtesy. Tewfik, however, was not to blame for this, and he wanted to express his regret at the past and his desire to renew the old friendship between Egypt and Abyssinia. Johannis was a tyrannical king, hated by his own people, who thought him partly mad, and he took to heart Ismail's conduct to his representative and refused to distinguish between one Khedive and another. Gordon's description of the Abyssinian king is as follows:--

"Johannis, oddly enough, is like myself--a religious fanatic. He has a mission, and will fulfil it, and that mission is _to Christianise!! all Mussulmans_. He has forbidden the smoking of tobacco in his country, and cuts off the right hand and left foot of any man he catches doing so! When Christ comes again, how truly He may say to us all 'I know ye not.'"

Gordon had foreseen that the Abyssinians would probably revenge themselves upon him for the treatment which their envoy had received at Cairo, and this probability was rendered a certainty by the fact that he had nothing to offer by way of compensation. From the day he entered Abyssinia to the day he left it, he was constantly insulted, and he gained very little by the journey, in which he risked his life. He saw King Johannis, and got him to make certain definite demands, but the king would not put them into writing. When Gordon referred him to the Khedive's letter it was not forthcoming, and could not even be found for some time. When it was found the chief clerk received forty blows for not having before translated it! Amid a pile of letters which were disregarded, Gordon saw one from the British Government and one from the French Government.

At first the king tried to distinguish between Gordon and the Khedive, but the former was too loyal to allow this, and informed the king that he must look on him as a Mahommedan and an Egyptian, and not as a Christian and an Englishman. On this point Gordon held very conscientious views. In the event of a foreigner entering the service of an Oriental Power, he contended, "He shall for the time entirely abandon his relations with his native land; he shall resist his own government, and those of other powers, and keep intact the sovereignty of the Oriental State whose bread he eats."

When Johannis saw that Gordon had nothing to offer, and nothing was to be got out of him, he dismissed him. It is unnecessary to retail all the unpleasant incidents of his journey to Ma.s.sowah. The only thing of importance is, that Gordon, antic.i.p.ating that there might be disturbances at Ma.s.sowah, telegraphed to the Khedive to send a battalion of infantry there, a request to which no attention was paid.

This neglect on the part of the Khedive ultimately led to an open rupture between him and Gordon. Fortunately the British Government had sent a gunboat across from Aden at Gordon's request. "The whole town was in a ferment," Gordon writes, "and had it not been for H.M.S.

_Seagull_, Ma.s.sowah would no doubt have been attacked and sacked." The Khedive asked Gordon to come at once to Cairo, but this he refused to do till the battalion arrived, as he felt that his presence was necessary there, "in order to give confidence to the people, until the troops came."

Ultimately, however, Gordon went to Cairo, and gave the Khedive a piece of his mind, with regard to the publication of confidential telegrams, as well as other things. It was on this occasion that he received the reply from the ruler of Egypt, "I am a young man; it is not my fault,"

which caused some little amus.e.m.e.nt in England, when it was made known.

The rupture was made, Gordon had decided to serve the Khedive no longer, and at the beginning of the year 1880 he returned home for the rest that he required, mentally and physically, after six years'

incessant hard work in the thankless task of governing the Soudan.

When Gordon was leaving Alexandria he was medically examined by Dr.

Mackie, the surgeon to the British Consulate, who stated that he was "suffering from symptoms of nervous exhaustion, and alteration of the blood, giving rise to haemorrhagic spots on the skin, &c." "I have,"

said the same authority, "recommended him 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 indigestible food.