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THE 



STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 



BY 

A. EGMONT HAKE, 

AUTHOR OF 'PARIS ORIGINALS,' 'FLATTERING TALES/ ETC 



"One horuit inant one wue man^ one peactfid man commands a hundred million^t 
teithout a baton and loitJtout a charger. He wanU no fortress to protect him : he stands 
higher than any citadel can raise Aim, brightly conspicuous to <A< vunt distant nations, 
Gods servant by electiont Qod!s image ly beneficence." 

Lakdob. 



WITH TWO PORTRAITS A^D TWO MAPS. 



ELEVENTH EDIT 10 X. 



LONDON : 
K E M I N G T O N AND CO., 

Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 

1884. 

[All Rights Beserved.] 

213 



bft 



/ .D -•- 






7 



TO 

MjL ADMIEEES of CHINESE GOEDON, 

AND ESPECIALLY TO M7 FRIEND, 

WILLIAM EENEST HENLEY, 

^hi0 fBBUnli is itu^mbcb 

BY 

THE AUTHOE. 






PEEFACE. 



-•o*- 



To have known the true story of Chinese Gordon's life 
has heen an education ; to have written it is a privilege 
and an honour. For assistance in the perfection of 
my history, I am grateful to many; for its publica- 
tion I need only apologize to one : this is Major- 
General Gordon himself. I have given his life to the 
world not only without his consent, but even without 

his knowledge. 

THE AUTHOR. 



NOTE, --In this book Hit autJior has included many fads already 
published by the late Andrew Wilson in Aw * Ever-Victorious 
Army,' and by Dr. Birkbeck Hill in his ' Colonel Gordon in 
Central Africa.' This was inev^UaUe^ these fads forming part of 
*he enormous mass of documents— private letters, despatches, maps, and 
so forth — of tchich the author has been privileged to dispose. 



CONTENTS. 



I. THE GORDONS AND THE ENDERBTS 
n. THE CRIMEA — BESSARABIA — ^ARMENU 
nL THE TAI-PING REBELLION 
IV. FUSHAN— TAITSAN— QUINSAN . 
V. BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 
VL THE MT7RDER OF THE KINGS . 
VIL FINAL VICTORIES 
Vm. THE END OF THE REBELLION . 
IX. 'GOD BLESS THE KERNEL' 
X IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS 
XL THE LITTLE KHEDIVE • » 

Xn. 'CHILDE ROLAND' 
Xm. THE ROBBERS' DEN 
XrV. THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS 
XV. AN ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY . 
XVI. *THE UNCROWNED KING' 
XVIL THE FIRST FAILURE 
XVm. THE HOLY LAND 



PAOX 

1 

14 
31 

54 
91 
124 
159 
195 
219 
236 
258 
282 
303 
327 
355 
369 
38ff 
399 



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4 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

is made up of incidents the most romantic and adven- 
tures the most desperate. This is the characteristic in 
one gifted with a mysterious power of fascinating his 
fellow-men, whether of the Western or the Eastern 
world. It is small wonder if to many its possessor 
is not merely heroic, but unique among men. 

Before recounting his adventures, it will be interesting 
to say something of the family to which he belongs, if 
only to trace to their source the qualities which have 
contributed to the making of his strange and brilliant 
career. His father, the late Lieutenant^General Henry 
William Gordon, of the Boyal Artillery, left a memoir 
of his family. Scanty as it is, it contains some facts 
worth noting. General Gordon relates, for instance, 
that his grandfather, David Gordon (bom in 1715), a 
Highlander and a soldier, was taken prisoner at 
Preston-Pans while serving under Sir John Cope in 
Lascelles' Begiment (late 47th Begiment), his kinsman. 
Sir William Gordon of Park, fighting on the same 
field under the Pretender. David was released upon 
parole through the influence of the Duke of Cum- 
berland whom he had met at Edinburgh, and to 
whom he was previously known, the Duke having 
some six years before stood sponsor for his son — - 
Charles Gordon's grandfather — and given him his 
name of William Augustus. After CuUoden, David 
Gordon, with his son, embarked for North America. 



THE 



STORY OF CHINKE GORDON. 



BY 

A. EGMONT HAKE, 

AUTHOR OF * PARIS ORIGINALS,' 'FLATTERING TALES,' ETC 



"One honest nian^ one teUc man, one peae^ul man oommandt a hundred millioMf 
without a baton and wit?iout a charger. He wants no fortress to protect him : he stands 
higher than any citadel can raise him^ brightly conspicuotts to the viost distant nations, 
GocTs sciTant by eleetionf Qod^s mage ly beneficence." 

Landob. 



WITH TWO PORTRAITS AIh^D TWO MAPS. 



ELEVENTH EDITION, 



LONDON : 
KEMINGTON AND CO., 

Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 

1884. 

[AU Rights Ittservtd.] 

213 



6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

family has been a family of soldiers — and that without 
threatening extinction, for there is a new generation 
in the service; and that it has culminated in the 
genius of Charles Gordon, the most famous of his 
adventurous and distinguished clan. 

Charles Gordon's father, whom many still recollect, 
was a man of marked individuality. He was a good 
and complete soldier, with a cultivated knowledge of 
his profession. He will be long remembered by 
those who served under him, as well as by his family 
and his friends, for his firm yet genial character, and 
his very striking figure. He was of a peculiar type- 
Those who knew him can never forget his lively and 
expressive face ; his great round head— bald, and sur- 
rounded by short curly hair, black in his best days ; his 
robust playfulness of manner ; and above all the twinkle 
of fun in his clear blue eyes. In his company it was 
not possible to be dull ; he had a look which diffused 
cheerfulness, and an inexhaustible fund of humour. 
On occasions he could be stem ; for the essence of his 
character was a decision which turned to severity when 
others deviated from their duty, or did it amiss. He 
lived by the * code of honour :' it was the motive of all 
his actions, and he expected those with whom he dealt 
to be guided by its precepts. It is said that no man 
succeeds in his calling unless he considers it the best 
and highest. This was General Gordon's feeling for 



THE GORDONS AND THE ENDERBYS. 7 

the army. So deeply did he revere the ideal of the 
Britiah officer, that Charles Gordon's acceptance of a 
foreign command, despite its smgular and momentous 
results, gave him no pleasure : he was proud of his 
son, but he did not like to think that he was serving 
among foreigners, and not, as a Gordon should, with 
the men of his own race and faith. He was greatly 
beloved : for he was kind-hearted, generous, genial in 
his nature, al^s just in his practice and in his aims. 
He spent a long life in the service, and, like his son, 
was less fitted to obey than to command. More than 
once, well as he knew the value of discipline, it was his 
to resist his superiors, and to protest against dictates 
which he would hold to be superfluous and unjust. 
No portrait"^ left of him does him justice, or in the 
least recalls a face which all who knew it remember 
as noble and commanding. 

His wife, Charles Gordon's mother, was no less 
remarkable a character. She possessed a perfect 
temper ; she was always cheerful under the most trying 
circumstances, and she was always thoughtful of others ; 
she contended with difficulties without the slightest 
display of effort ; and she had a genius for making the 
best of everything. During the Crimean War her 

* One which pictures him as a cadet of the Royal Woolwich 
Academy, by Dr. Walcott (Peter Pindar), is in possession of his 
eldest soa 



8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

anxieties were interminable : she had three sons and 
several near kinsmen at the front. She was perfectly 
equal to the strain. Her hopefulness remained nn- 
clouded ; all day long did she busy herself with the 
wants of others at home and in the field; while a 
duty remained to do, or a kindness to bestow, her 
sunny energy maintained her at her work. She came 
of a family— originally from Leicestershire — of 
merchants and explorers : a family which presented a 
marked contrast with that race of the ^ gay Gordons ' 
with which in her person it was allied. Her father, 
Samuel Enderby, made himself in connection with 
geographical research a name which still has a con- 
spicuous place on the map of the world. A London 
merchant for many years, he took a prominent part 
in opening up the resources of the Southern Hemi- 
sphere. Previous to the War of Lidependence, he 
worked and traded much in America. There he 
trafficked in the whale fishery, the ships engaged in it 
being his own, and their crews in his pay. The 
produce he sent on to England in vessels also his own 
property. Two of these, outward bound for Boston 
from the Thames, were chartered by the English 
Government to carry the tea which proved the 
occasion of the Revolution. Their arrival in Boston 
harbour is matter of history. Both were boarded by 
the rebels. They broke open the chests of tea, and 



THE GORDONS AND THE ENDERBYS. 9 

emptied them over the side; and so was strnck the 
first blow for American independence. 

In those days colonial ships were not often permitted 
to sail from England with British registers. Samuel 
Enderby was a favoured exception among owners. The 
bottoms he owned in America, and in which he traded 
between that colony and his own country, were specially 
licensed — ^for the whaling trafl&c only — to sail from 
London as well as from Boston or New York, and. to 
pursue adventure in all quarters of the ocean. The 
practice of this privilege had some important results. 
Under the terms of the East India Company's charter, 
it was unlawful for any ship to go east of the Cape 
without the Company's license, or to trade in those 
waters except under conditions in the Company's gift. 
Such a license was not easily obtained, the H.E.I.C. 
being in the enjoyment of a monopoly of the largest 
and richest tj^e, which it was bent upon working 
entirely to its own advantage. As the ways of the 
Southern Ocean were very little known, except to such 
bold and hardy navigators as Cook and La Ferouse, 
whose aims were purely geographical and scientific, and 
as there was no trade to be done in them by private 
owners, they were practically no more than a vast 
whaling-ground, frequented only by fishermen in search 
of oil and spermaceti, and closed and barren to all the 
world besides. Samuel Enderby, as I have said, was 



lo THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

one of the boldest of all the whaling owners : and it 
is thanks to his enterprise and constancy, and to those 
of the men who followed in his wake, that the Southern 
Hemisphere was opened up so soon. This was par- 
ticularly the case with Australia and New Zealand. 
They lay outside the limits of the H.E.I.C/s 
adventure, and they offered the H.EJ.C. no induce- 
ment either to traffic or explore; so that but for 
the Enderby whalers they might have remained 
in idleness and desolation much longer than they 
did. It was on the occasion of the foundation of 
our first penal settlement that the Enderby fleet 
became directly useful. It had been decided that such 
an establishment should be essayed ; and it had been 
found that the expense of carrying convicts out in 
bottoms for which there was no chance of finding a 
return freight was an almost insurmountable objection. 
The practice of the Enderby whalers removed the 
difficulty. They were in the habit of going out to the 
fishing-grounds in ballast, and of picking up a return 
freight at the voyage-end. It was seen that they 
might as well be laden with men as with casks of 
water ; and the issue was that they took out to Botany 
Bay the first batch of convicts ever settled on Aus- 
tralian shores. The communication thus established 
was by their means continued : they took out settlers 
as well as ^ lags ;' more than once they saved the 



THE GORDONS AND THE ENDERBYS. n 

commnnity of exiles from starvation ; they may 
certainly be said to have borne no unimportant part in 
the settlement of our greatest dependency. And their 
presence in Southern waters was fraught with issues 
hardly less momentous for New Zealand than Australia. 
It was mainly by runaways from them and their sisters 
and rivals that the two islands were first settled. The 
habits and customs of these gentry — who plied the 
Maoris with firearms and rum, and cheated them in 
return of great expanses of territory — obliged the 
Home Government to interfere. To put a stop to their 
depredations it was found necessary to annex the whole 
country ; and this — although the English Government 
was loth to do it — is what was actually done. 

Nor is this all. The Enderby whalers were the first 
to frequent the Pacific round the dreadful Horn, and 
abolish the bugbear that for centuries had perched 
upon its clifiTs. To the southward they explored the 
Antarctic Ocean, and under the command of Briscoe and 
of Bellamy discovered the Auckland Islands, with Enderby 
and Graham's Lands. Their initiative has since been 
followed up by the English, French, and American Govern- 
ments, under Sir James Boss, Admiral d'Urville, and 
Commodore Wilkes, who — it may be added — ^have done 
little more than confirm the correctness of their 
researches. To the northward they made themselves 
useful to Pitt, and were active in the contraband trade 



12 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

with the western states of South America, which the 
Heaven-Bom Minister designed and encouraged to the 
prejudice of the natural enemy.* They were the first 
to attempt the whale fishery in Japanese waters ; 
and they did their hest to open trade with the Middle 
Kingdom. It will be seen that they were the primary 
cause of our acquaintance with and settlement of all 
the important colonies in the Southern Ocean, from 
Australia to the Fijian Archipelago. 

Gordon was educated at Taunton, and at the 
Koyal Military Academy, Woolwich. There is but 
little to say about his early life. He was not strong, 
and this may account for his doing nothing really 
noteworthy either at school or in his later examina- 
tions. 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 them- 
selves 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 

* The story goes that the Spanish Govemment had issued a 
proclamation to the effect that any ship caught within fifty miles of 
these coasts should be confiscated. The prohibition pressed hard 
upon Enderby's undertakings, and he complained of it to Pitt 
Pitt asked him, ' What distance would satisfy you V and was told 
that he would be content with twenty miles. ' Make it five,' says 
Pitt ; ' and if you are caught within that limit, say you are short of 
water and need a supply.' 



THE GORDONS AND THE ENDERBYS, 13 

that he would never make an officer ; whereupon he 
tore the epaulets from his shoulders and flung them at 
his superior's feet. 

On leaving the Eoyal Academy of Woolwich for 
service as an officer of Engineers, he was ordered to 
Pembroke. Here he was engaged in making plans 
for forts at the entrance of the Haven. This was 
in August, 1854, and in November in the same year 
he got orders for Corfu. These were in one sense 
disappointing to him, for he had lived in the hope of 
being sent to the Crimea ; on the other hand, he was 
in fear of being drafted liO the West Indies or to 
New Zealand, and thus of being removed out of reach of 
the war. It was natural that he should display no 
great eagerness to revisit the Ionian Islands, inasmuch 
as his father had commanded the artillery for some 
years at Corfu during Charles Gordon's boyhood. He 
therefore asked two months' leave, to be spent on 
duty at Femhroke. This he obtained; and early in 
December his route was changed, and he was making 
arrangements to leave for the Crimea, 



CHAPTER n. 

THE CRIMEA BESSARABIA ARMENIA. 

He left England in company with the Honourable 
P. Keane, now Major-General Keane, C.B,, who 
was then in charge of a battery. 

At Constantinople, he saw, for the first time, blows 
struck in real earnest, as he was present at a serious 
fracas between the Native police and the French 
troops, in which some of the latter were badly 
wounded. On January 1st, 1855, he reached Bala- 
clava in the Golden Fleece, and reported himself at 
headquarters ; but as he was not detailed for any duty 
for some weeks, he had plenty of time to look about 
him. His letters home give a vivid picture of the 
position of affairs. He tells us that though the 
French were advancing in their works, the English 
were at a standstill. Supplies were short, and officers 
and men were engaged in foragmg expeditions, as 
the Commissariat had completely broken down. The 
streets and villages were crowded with a military 



THE CRIME ABBESS ARABIA^ ARMENIA. 15 

rabble. English cavalry and artillery, Turks, Zouaves 
and camp-followers of every description mingled with 
the sickly troops of Omar Pasha, who were nearly 
as ill-fed as their own half-starved camels that 
helped to block the roads. The cold, which was in- 
tense, was fatal to many, while others were perishing 
of suffocation by the fumes of charcoal fires. Every- 
thing was in confusion, and everybody more or less 
despondent. Food, how and where to get it, was 
the one absorbing interest ; and no one seemed to 
know — or even care to know — ^what progress was 
being made in the siege. 

So things went on for nearly a month, when Gordon 
was detailed for duty in the trenches before Sebastopol. 
His letter home, dated February 14th, describes 
accurately the kind of work he had to do; and 
gives an account of how, after being fired upon first 
by the English sentries, and then by the Russian 
pickets, and how after the working party and sentries 
under his command had bolted, he was able to carry 
out his first definite order on active service. This 
was to effect a junction by means of rifle-pits 
between the French and English sentries who were 
stationed in advance of the trenches. 

The manner and the circumstances of this, Gordon's 
first important duty, are in some sort typical of his 
whole achievement. As will be seen later on, he was 



1 6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

frequently fired upon by friends as well as by foes, and 
several of his most notable conquests were made 
almost single-handed, after those whom he had under 
his command had mutinied or deserted him. 

The siege of Sebastopol extended over a period of 
nearly eleven months, as it was begun in October, 
1854, and only completed in September, 1855. 
Balaclava was fought on October 25th, 1854, and 
Inkerman on November 5th in the same year. 
Gordon's first experience of active service was in 
February, 1855 ; and it is with affairs from that date 
up to the final assault upon Sebastopol on Sep- 
tember 8th, that I have now to deal. 

The impressions, or, perhaps more correctly, the 
expressions of a young subaltern, during the early part 
of his military career, have only a special interest for 
the public after that subaltern has developed into a 
more important person. It is because Gordon has 
become famous, not only as a leader of men, but also 
as a planner of campaigns, that I am tempted to 
deal at some length with the comparatively trivial 
work he did in the Crimea, especially as it gives me 
an opportunity of quoting his opinion upon some few 
of those matters of history which took place under 
his eye. 

Evidence of military capacity is not wanting even 
at this early period of his soldiering, and the 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA— ARMENIA. 17 

serene earnest and religious fervour which has since 
been characteristic of the man, was at this time distinctly 
marked. Years have only served to strengthen, not 
to change it. 

From February 28th to April 9th Gordon's duty 
was limited to the making of new batteries in the 
advance trenches. During the whole of this time 
active operations against the enemy seemed to have 
almost ceased, save for a prolonged and feeble 
duel between the French rocket battery and the 
Bussian artillery, the effect of which was very slight 
on either side. Now and then the wearisome work 
of throwing up battery after battery was relieved by 
the excitement of a dropping fire, either from the 
enemy's trenches or from the heights in the rear, and 
this was returned by the working-party under the 
command of the Engineer officers. 

It was during this time that Gordon met with a very 
narrow escape from a bullet fired at him from one of 
the lower Bussian rifle-pits, some 180 yards away. 
The missile passed within an inch of his head ; but in 
referring to the incident in one of his letters home his 
only comment is : ' They (the Bussians) are very good 
marksmen ; their bullet is large and pointed.' 

A few days after this one of his captains, named 
Craigie, was killed by a splinter from the enemy's 
shellSf and Gordon writing home of the casualty winds 

2 



1 8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

np by saying: ^I am glad to say that he (Captain 
Graigie) was a serious man. The shell bm*st above 
him, and hy what is called chance struck him in the 
back, killing him at once.' The words italicised are 
noteworthy. They are the words of a fatalist; and 
they furnish the first written evidence we have of the 
religious convictions which have controlled the writer's 
actions. That all things are ordained by God is 
the belief he held even when he wrote of Craigie's 
death. That it has been greatly strengthened by 
strange personal adventures in later years there is 
no doubt ; but through all its development it has 
remained essentially the same. Milton's lines, 

'Necessity or chance 
Approach not me, and what I will is fate,' 

are applicable to Gordon's belief in himself. His will 
he holds to be identical with God's — with God's, 
whose instrument he feels and knows he is. 

At the time of the Czar's death, which took place 
in March, 1855, the number of French troops in the 
Crimea was 80,000, the number of the English 
23,000. Of the former Gordon speaks in rather 
disparaging terms, for he says in one letter : * The 
Russians are brave, better I think than the French, 
who begin to fear them ;' and again, in another letter 
of a later date : ^ I cannot say much for our allies; they 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA— ARMENIA, 19 

are a&aid to do anything, and consequently quite 
cramp our movements. The Russians certainly are 
inferior to none ; their work is stupendous, and their 
shell-practice beautiful.' 

On April 9th heavy firing was resumed on both 
sides, and continued, with short intervals of cessation, 
up to the 30th inst. During this time the casualties 
in the trenches were many, with a large proportion of 
officers. to men among the killed. Gordon was un- 
touched, though actively engaged during the whole 
time, and present at several sorties in front of the 
Bedan, in one of which several officers and seventy 
men were killed and wounded. Writing on April 20th 
he refers to the weakness of our ally. He says : 
'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 after- 
wards that only 800 men were in the place, so the rest 
had' gone to repel an attack (fancied) of ours at Inker« 
man.' And on April 30th he says: ^We are still 
pushing batteries forward as much as possible, but 
cannot advance our trenches until the French take the 
Mamelon, as it enfilades our advance works. Until 
that occurs, things are at a stand-still.' This was on 
April 30th. Thenceforward, until early in the month 
of June, active operations ceased : and though in- 
numerable councils of war were held, nothing definite 

2—2 



20 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

was done or decided upon. Gordon's letters home 
daring this time have no special interest. I shall 
make hat a single extract which is certainly worth 
reading: ^We have a great deal to regret in the 
want of good working clergymen, there being none here 
that I know of who interest themselves about the men/ 
On the 6th of June the English opened fire from all 
their batteries, and there ensaed a tremendous artillery 
duel, in which 1,000 guns were engaged. The 
casualties on the Russian side were numerous, while 
our own were few. Gordon, who was in the trenches 
during the whole time, was returned as among the . 
wounded, but his injury was such that he was able 
to continue his duty. A stone thrown up by a round 
shot stunned him for a second, but did him no further 
hurt. On the following day the French attacked the 
Mamelon, and the redoubts of Selinghinck and Yol- 
hynia. The Russians retreated towards the Malakoff, 
and were rapidly followed by the French; but the 
latter were so piunished by the guns from the tower 
that they had to retire, pursued by the very enemy 
they had been pursuing. However, they attacked 
again, and while we secured the quarries, they carried 
the Mamelon, as well as the redoubts before-named. 
* Only a few lines,' writes his brother from the scene 
of action, ' to say Charley is all right, and has escaped 
amidst a terrific shower of grape and shells of every 



THE CRIMEA^BESSARABIA— ARMENIA. 21 

description. Yon 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 cannonade until 7 last night, and again 
from 12,30 this morning until noon/ Gordon in his 
account of this successful assault says: ^I do not 
think the place (Sebastopol) can hold out another ten 
days; and once taken, the Crimea is ours.' Sebas- 
topol did hold out for nearly ten times ten days, but 
many officers in high command have since expressed 
their belief that the siege might have been brought 
to an end in June instead of in September. When 
Gordon wrote, the allied armies numbered nearly 
165,000; the French were erecting a battery on the 
Mamelon; the Bussian works had been completely 
ruined ; and their iSeet — its old position made untenable 
by the capture of the redoubts — ^had moved out into 
the middle of the harbour. There was an armistice 
for a few days, for the burial of the dead ; and had 
it been succeeded by a bold assault upon the Malakoff 
Tower, the Bedan, and the Central Bastion, the pro- 
bability is that Gordon's impression as to the duration 
of the siege would have proved correct. Instead of 
this, however, there ensued a period of inactivity, 
during which Gordon in his letters home for the first 
and only time alludes to his wants, — a map of tbo 



82 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Crimea and a bottle of Bowland's Odonto. From this 
time forth to the evacnation of Sebastopol on Sep* 
tember Sth, the siege operations were proceeded with 
slowly and deliberately, but with a lack of energy and 
activity that was wearisome and irritating. Gordon's 
duty kept him in the trenches during the whole time ; 
but beyond stating that his officers speak of his zeal 
and intelligence in terms of admiration and affection, 
I can say little or nothing definite of his actions. I 
am, however, disposed to select from his letters home 
the following paragraphs, inasmuch as they will enable 
the reader to gain some insight into the farther progress 
of the siege, as well as into the character and disposi- 
tion of the writer. 

^ Junt 15th. — The Russians are down-hearted, 
although determined; they are much to be admired, 
and their officers are quite as cool as our officers under 
fire.' 

^June 30th. — ^Lord Baglan died on the evening of 
the 26th, of tear and wear and general debility. He 
was universally regretted, as he was so kind. I am 
really sorry for him, his life has been entirely spent 
in the service of his country. I hope he was prepared, 
hut do not know J 

^August Srd. — ^We are disappointed that General 
Jones did not mention Brown in the attack on the 
Quarries. I, for one, do not care about being 
** lamented " after death. I am tired of the in- 
activity, but when we move again in advance or 
assault it will break the monotony.' 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA-^ARMENIA. 23 

* August nth. — Sebastopol is now in every part 
under our fire, bat the caves nnderground protect the 
men to a great degree. They have fired shot into, 
around, and over our camp from gnns placed or slung 
as the guns were in the Baltic, at a high elevation of 
35^ or 40^ Two shots went within three yards of my 
pony, which, however, Government would repay if 
killed. I am not ambitious, but what easily-earned 
CB.'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 perseverance than any man before 
did. I am obliged to conclude, but can tell you that 
this opening fire is only to reduce the fire from the 
place, so that they may not annoy us by shell or shot 
for a few days.' 

^ August 2^th. — Our fire has ceased again after four 
days, and now we are still in uncertainty as to what is 
to be done. I think the French will go in at the 
Malakoff Tower in a fortnight, they have been working 
up pretty close during our firing. The Bedan looks 
very sickly as we fire platoons of musketry to prevent 
the Bussians repairing it, and give them shells all 
night. The Bussians repay us by baskets of shells, 
perhaps twelve at a time, 5^ each, fired from a big 
mortar ; it requires to be lively to get out of their way. 
What a consolation it will be to get the place. I have 
now been thirty-four times twenty-four hours in the 
trenches, more than a month straight on end ; it gets 
tedious after a time, but if anything is going on one 
does not mind. The Bussian prisoners taken the other 
day seem to say that they are obliged to attack us as 
they have no provisions, and also say that their army 
is desperate. From what I can hear, I imagine that if 



24 THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDON. 

(as I do not think likely) we fail this next assault, 
we shall make some great effort elsewhere/ 

' August SI St. — The Bnssians still keep ns on the 
qui Vive, but they have not much chance, as we are 
quite awake to their endeavours, and have entrenched 
ourselves well on every side. How I should like a week 
in September partridge-shooting ! it is very tedious here, 
with nothing going on. The French still continue to 
sap into the Malakoff. I expect the Bussians have 
had almost enough of it, as their work must be very 
hard. I send a sketch of the Mamelon ; it will be a 
well-known place in after years. Captain Du Cane* 
has gone sick to Corfu, and Captain Wolseleyt (90th 
Begiment), an assistant Engineer, has been slightly 
wounded with a stone.' 

* September 7th. — I hope by the time this reaches you, 
you will have received the news of our having taken 
the south side of Sebastopol. We attempt it to-morrow, 
and I think with better chance of success than last time. 
We opened fire on the 6th, and have continued it ever 
since. I have nothiug more to tell until next mail, 
when I do hope to give you good news.' 

The day after this letter was written the Malakoff 
was taken by the French at noon, when the tricolour 
was hoisted on the tower as a signal for us to attack 
the Bedan. Our men went forward in high spirits, 
and with comparatively small loss succeeded in planting 
their ladders in the ditch and entering the Bedan, 

♦ Now Sir R Du Cane, KC.B. 

t Now Lord Wolseley, who although a captain in the army, 
gerved under lieutenants of Engineers in the trenches, and did 
excellent service, being twice wounded, and yet no promotion. 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA— ARMENIA. 25 

which they held for half an hour, bat were then driven 
out with terrible loss by an enormons Bussian reserve. 
At the same time the French were repulsed in their 
assault on the Central Bastion, when they lost four 
general officers. Thus, the immediate result of the 
day's work was the taking of the Malakoff only. In 
the evening it was decided that the Bedan should be 
stormed next morning by the Highlanders. This 
operation, however, was not undertaken, for the 
Bussians evacuated Sebastopol before it could be 
carried into effect. 

Gordon had been as usual detailed for the trenches 
on the morning of the 9th, and his account of what he 
saw at daybreak is best given in his own words. 
He says : ' During the night of the 8th I heard 
terrific explosions, and on going down to the trenches 
at four the next morning I saw a splendid sight. 
The whole of Sebastopol was in flames, and every 
now and then terrible explosions took place, while 
the rising sun shining on the place had a most 
beautiful effect. The Bussians 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 Bedan, where a dreadful sight 
was presented. The dead were buried in the ditch — 



26 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the Bnssians with the English — ^Mr. Wright reading 
the Burial Service over them/ The fires in the town 
continued until the following day, so that it was not 
safe for the English troops to attempt to efiEect an 
entry until the evening of the 10th. 

Shortly after the surrender of Sebastopol, Gordon 
joined the force that laid siege to Einbum, and was 
present at the capture of that fortress. He then re- 
turned to the Crimea and from that time until February, 
1856, a period of four months, was engaged, almost 
without interruption, in destroying the dockyard, forts, 
quays, barracks, and store-houses of the fallen strong- 
hold. With this work of demolition — a work as un- 
interesting as it was arduous — ^his duties in the 
Crimea came to an end. 

What I have written has been taken chiefly from 
private letters sent by Gordon to his friends and rela- 
tives. From such documents it is quite impossible to 
learn how he stood in the estimation of others, or what 
were his real deserts as regards the performance of his 
duties in the trenches and elsewhere. But, for- 
tunately, there is other testimony at hand, and in 
quoting that of one officer, I am quoting the sub- 
stance of that of many others. Colonel C. C. 
Chesney, in writing on Gordon's after-career in China, 
says: 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA— ARMENIA. 27 

' Gordon had first seen war in the hard school of the 
"black winter *' of the Crimea. In his humble position 
as an Engineer subaltern he attracted the notice of his 
superiors, not merely by his energy and activity, but by 
a special aptitude for war, developing itself amid the 
trench work before Sebastopol in a personal knowledge of 
the enemy's movements mch as no other officer attained. 
We used to send him to find out what new move the 
Bussians were making/ 

General Jones especially mentioned him as an officer 
who had done gallant service, but who, from the con- 
stitution of the corps, wherein promotion goes by 
seniority, could not be promoted. Add to this that 
he was decorated with the Legion of Honour — a 
special mark of distinction not often conferred upon so 
young an officer — and the proof of his valour and 
conduct are complete. It will be seen that young as 
he was he had made his mark, and had begun to do 
the best that was in him. 

In May, 1856, Gordon was appointed Assistant 
Commissioner, and ordered to join Major Stanton* in 
Bessarabia, to help in the work of laying down the 
new frontiers of Sussia, Turkey, and Boumania. 
Besides Major Stanton, the Commissioners for the 
new boundary consisted of representative French, 
Bussian, and Austrian officers. There was also a 
representative of Moldavia, to whom the Bussian 

* Now Lieutenant-General Sir K Stanton. 



28 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Commissioner objected, probably to gain time, on the 
ground that he was not mentioned in the treaty. 

The duties of Gordon and his colleague James were 
to trace a boundary about 100 miles in lengthy and then 
to compare the Kussian maps with their own — ^to dis- 
cover, in fact, whether the former were correct, and, 
in case they were not, to survey the ground afresh. 
To go about in the summer days and nights, with 
Eastern citi3s to visit and a new and delightful country 
to explore, was no unpleasant change for two young 
fellows, war-worn and weary with a year's service in 
the Crimea, and with month after month of bitter 
work in the trenches. Gordon enjoyed himself greatly, 
and was keenly interested in all he saw. 

The old boundary extended from Tchemowitz along 
the Pruth to Kili on the Black Sea, the territory lying 
between the river and Bessarabia having been ceded to 
Eussia in 1812. By the Treaty of Paris of 1856 
that territory was to be given back to the principality; 
and the new boundary eventually determined by the 
Commissioners extended from Bouma Sola on the 
Black Sea to Bolgrad, and thence to Kotimore, from 
which point the frontier of 1812 remained unaltered. 
So many disputes arose between the various repre- 
sentatives that the settlement of the question detained 
the Commissioners eleven months in these districts. 
During this period Gordon was engaged in travelling 



THE CRIMEA— BESSARABIA— ARMENIA. 39 

from place to place, now on surveying expeditions, 
now as the bearer of despatches, now as the maker of 
fresh maps of disputed points. In this way he 
visited Akerman, Bolgrad, Kotimore, Eichenev (where 
the Commissioners resided), Beni, Seratzika, and Jassy. 
There was great variety in the life he led, and with his 
inquiring mind and sunny temper he was not the man 
to let time hang heavily on his hands ; yet when the 
survey came to an end, he was sorry to find himself 
ordered to undertake similar duties in another country. 
Indeed, in April, 1857, when he received instructions 
to join Colonel Simmons* for delimitating the 
boundary in Asia, he sent a telegram home asking 
whether it were possible for him to exchange. But 
his value was already known, and the answer said : 
* Lieutenant Gordon must go.' 

The details of his sojourn in Armenia would be 
hardly more interesting, except to his immediate kins- 
men and friends, than the particulars of his experience 
in the Danubian Principality and on the Bussian 
frontier. While, in the execution of his duties as Com- 
missioner, he visited many places — Erzeroum, Ears, 
Erivan, the ruins of Ami — he yet found time to 
study the strategic points of a country illustrious and 
interesting as the scene of many battles. And while 
at Erivan he ascended Little and Great Ararat, with 

* Now General Sir Lintome Simmons, G.C.B. 



30 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the view of personally ascertaining their respective 
heights. Here it was that he first met with un- 
civilized tribes — ^tribes not unlike those with which 
in later life he was so brilliantly to deal; and he 
already showed how he would one day influence such 
in the manner in which he mixed with Kurds and 
fraternized with their chiefs. 

After six months thus spent in these regions, he 
went back to Constantinople to be present at a Confer- 
ence of the Commission. Here he remained longer 
than he 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 1858 until nearly 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 Bussian and Turkish dominions. 

During the next year he was engaged at Chatham 
as Field-work Instructor and Adjutant. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TAI-PINa REBELLION. 



In fihe middle of July, 1860, he left home for China, 
travelling by Paris and Marseilles, and visiting in turn 
Malta, Alexandria, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, and Hong- 
Eong, On his arrival at the last-named place, the 
mail from the north oame in, bringing the news of 
the capture of the Taku forts. As, however, no 
counter-orders arrived relative to the stopping of 
officers going north, he was ordered a passage, and left 
on the 11th of September for Shanghai, whence, after 
one day's stay, he continued his journey for Tientsin, 
having travelled in aU sixty-eight days. He had not 
been there long before he learned that his colleague. 
De Norman, with Mr. Parkes, Mr. Loch, Captains 
Anderson and Brabazon, Mr. Bowlby, and fourteen 
others, had been taken prisoners by San-ko-lin-sin. In 
consequence of this outrage, the allies marched on 
Pekin in October, and the city was invested. Gordon 
took part in the operations, and was present at the 



32 THE TAI-PING REBELLION. 

sacking and the burning of the Summer Palace on 
October the 12th. 

The following is an account he gives of the part he 
took in that famous affair : 

* On the 11th October we were sent down 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. 
They were also required to give up all the prisoners. 
You will be sorry to hear that the treatment they have 
suffered has been very bad. Poor De Norman, who 
was with me in Asia, is one of the victims^ It appears 
that they were tied so tight by the wrists that the 
flesh mortified, and they died in the greatest torture. 
Up to the time that elapsed before they arrived at the 
Summer Palace they were well treated, but then the 
ill-treatment began. The Emperor is supposed to have 
been there at the time. 

' To go back to the work — the Chinese were given 
until twelve on the 13th to give up the gate. We 
made a lot of batteries, and everything was ready for 
the assault of the wall, which is battlemented, and 
forty feet high, but of inferior masonry. At 11.30 p.m., 
however, the gate was opened, and we took possession ; 
so our work was of no avail. The Chinese had then 
until the 23rd to think over our terms of treaty, and to 
pay up j610,000 for each Englishman and JE500 for each 
native soldier who died during their captivity. This 
they did, and the money was paid and the treaty 
signed yesterday. I could not witness it, as all officers 
commanding companies were obliged to remain in camp, 
owing to the ill-treatment the prisoners experienced at 
the Summer Palace. The General ordered it to be 




Smnibrafc ft — ^* '**^^ ' ''"''^^*'^^ ^1 



THE TAI'PING REBELLION. 33 

destroyed, and stuck up proclamations to say why it 
was ordered. We accordingly went out, and, after 
pillaging it, burned the whole place, destroying in a 
Vandal-like manner most valuable property, which 
could not be replaced for four millions. We got 
upwards of ^648 apiece prize-money before we went 
out here ; and although I have not as much as many, I 

have done well. Imagine D giving 16s. for a 

string of pearls which he sold the next day for J6500. 
. . . The people are civil, but I think the grandees 
hate us, as they must after what we did to the palace. 
You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence 
of the places we burnt. It made one's heart sore to 
bum them ; in fact, these palaces 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 
demoralizing work for an army. Everybody was wild 
for plunder. 

* You would scarcely conceive the magnificence of 
this residence, 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 oi all shapes and kinds, clocks, watches, musical 
boxes with puppets on them, magnificent china of every 
description, heaps and heaps of silks of all colours, 
embroidery, and as much splendour and civilization as 
you would see at Windsor; carved ivory screens, 
coral screens, large amounts of treasure, etc. The 
^French have smashed everything in the most wanton 
way. 

' It was a scene of utter destruction which passes my 
description.' 

For a month after these events Gordon remained in 

3 



34 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

camp before Pekin, paying occasional visits to the 
capital, and making his observations on the Chinese and 
their modes of living. On November the 8th the two 
armies left for Tientsin, there to take up their winter 
quarters ; and Gordon, with his regiment, went as 
commanding Royal Engineer. His stay there was 
prolonged, however, over a much longer period than 
he had expected; for, with the exception of a few 
excursions, he remained there till the spring of 1862. 
During this time he was engaged in providing for the 
wants of his troops, m surveying the neighbouring 
country in parts where no European had ever been 
seen, and in occasional rides to the Taku forts and 
back, a distance of 140 miles ; indeed his longest 
absence from Tientsin did not exceed two months, and 
this was on the occasion of an expedition he made on 
horseback to the Outer Wall, with his comrade, 
Lieutenant Cardew — a tour full of adventure, and for 
which they gained great credit, having visited, in the 
course of their journeys, regions before unknown to 
Europeans. 

Beyond this excursion, his many rides, and surveying 
expeditions, there is little to record of his doings at 
Tientsin, An account he gives, however, of a terrific 
dust-storm in which he was caught on April 6th, 1862, 
is not without interest : 



THE TAX PING REBELLION. 35 

*We had a tremendous dust-storm on the 26th at 
3 p.m. The sky was as dark as night ; huge colunms 
of dust came sweepmg down, and it blew a regular 
hurricane, the blue sky appearing now and then through 
the breaks. The quantity of dust was indescribable. 
A canal about 50 miles long, and 18 feet wide and 
7 feet deep, was completely filled up ; and boats which 
had been floating merrily down to Tientsin found them- 
selves at the end of the storm on a bank of sand, 
the canal having been filled up, and the waters absorbed. 
They will have to be carried to the Peiho, and have 
already commenced to move. The canal was every- 
where passable, and will have to be re-excavated. The 
boat-owners looked very much disgusted at their pre- 
dicament, which was not pleasant. The storm lasted 
sixteen hours, and the vibrations of the aneroid 
barometer were very extraordinary. I, of course, was 
caught in it coming from Taku, and, after vainly 
attempting to get on, was obliged to stop at a village. 
The darkness was such that it enforced candles being 
lighted at 3 p.m., and it came on very suddenly. I 
left my house for a few yards, and could not find it 
again for ten minutes. ... Of course, I came in for 
it, because I am peculiarly lucky in this way in my 
rides from Taku. Numbers of junks were lost, and 
forty-five Chinamen drowned, at Taku. Two officers of 
the 81st Eegiment were m route for Taku by boat, and 
one of them started to get a coat when the storm 
began. He lost his way, fell into every ditch he could 
find in the neighbourhood (and there are not a few), 
and had to sleep in a grave all night. He was brought 
in quite wild and blind the next morning. The 
thermometer fell to 25^ from 60° during the night, so 
we did not have a comfortable time of it.' 



S6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

In May, 1862, the Tai-ping rebels becoming 
troublesome in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, it was 
considered necessary to undertake some operations 
against them. 700 of the 31st Regiment and 200 
of the 67th Regiment were consequently ordered up 
to that port, and Gordon having despatched them from 
the Taku forts, himself followed in a few days. He 
was at once appointed to the conunand of the district, 
and was given the charge of the Engineers' part in an 
expedition against the rebels. He led his men to 
Singpoo, stormed and entered it, taking a number of 
rebels prisoners ; and thence he moved to other parts 
in the possession of the Tai-pings, and drove them 
from their strongholds. The towns were stored with rice 
stolen from the neighbouring peasants, and their misery 
was intense. For some months no further steps were 
taken to keep off the rebels, and Gordon returned to 
Shanghai to resume his official duties there. In 
October, however, he started for Kahding, on a more 
difficult enterprise than his previous ones, for in order 
to reach it broken bridges had to be repaired. 5,000 
rebels had taken refuge in the town, and on the first 
night of attack they made some resistance; but the 
walls being escaladed by the English troops the 
Tai-pings made their escape to Taitsan, an important 
stronghold on the road to Soochow. This was the 
last of the attacks made on these marauders, with the 



THE TALPING REBELLION. 37 

view to clearing a radius of thirty miles round* 
Shanghai for the protection of its citizens. The 
step was indeed necessary, for when least ex- 
pected these robbers made raids on the outlying 
suburbs, forcing the peasants to take refuge in the 
city. Gordon constantly refers to the depredations 
of these ruthless land-pirates. 

* We had a visit from the marauding Tai-pings the 
other day,' he says. * 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, etc. . . . You can scarcely conceive the 
crowds 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 strapping fellows who could easily defend 
themselves come running in with old women and 
children. 

* The people on the confines are suflfering very 
greatly, and are in fact dying of starvation. It is 
most sad, this state of affairs, and our Government 
really ought to put the rebellion down. Words could 
not depict the horrors these people suffer from the 
rebels, or describe the utter desert they have made of 
this rich province/ 

During the next few months he was engaged on a 
survey of the thirty miles radius round Shanghai, a 



38 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

task fraught with the greatest difficulty and danger 
owing to the disturbed state of the country; but 
its prosecution, as will be afterwards seen, turned 
out to be of infinite value to Gordon a little 
later, 

* I have been now in every town and village in the 
thirty miles radius/ he says, on the completion of the 
work. * The country is the same everywhere — a dead 
flat with innumerable creeks and bad pathways. The 
people 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. I do 
not write what we saw, as it amounts to nothing. There 
is nothing of any interest in China ; if you have seen 
one village, you have seen the whole country. I have 
really an immensity to do. It will be a good thing 
if the Government support the propositions which are 
made to the Chinese. 

* The weather here is delightful : a fine cold clear 
air which is quite invigorating after the summer heats. 
There is very good pheasant- shooting in the half- 
populated districts, and some quail at uncertain times. 
It is extraordinary to see the quantities of fishing- 
cormorants there are in the creeks. These cormorants 
are in flocks of forty and fifty, and the owner in a 
small canoe travels about with them ; they fish three or 
four times a day, and are encouraged by the shouts 
of their owners to dive. I have scarcely ever seen 
them come up without a fish in their beaks, which 
they swallow ; but not for any distance, for there is a 
ring to prevent it going down altogether. They get 



THE TAI'PING REBELLION. 39 

snch dreadful attacks of mumps, their throats beicg 
distended by the fish which are alive, when the birds 
seem as if they were pouter pigeons ; they are hoisted 
into the boats, and there are very sea-sick. Would 
yon consider the fish a dainty T 

We now approach the most romantic incidents of 
Gordon's career — the incidents which won him the 
name of Chinese Gordon, But before following the 
yonng commander in his desperate onslaught upon the 
Tai-ping rebels, it will be necessary for me to state, 
in few words, the causes which led to the then 
disturbed state of China, and to sketch the attempts 
of others before him to grapple with the now 
vast power that threatened dominion over the whole 
empire. 

The Tai-ping Eebellion was the outcome of an 
egoism such as the world has rarely seen — the 
egoism of one man who, assisted by the accidents 
of general discontent, gathered to him millions of 
adherents, and, deluding them into the belief that they 
were the soldiers of a divine cause, spread ruin, fire, 
and famine over the length and breadth of the Flowery 
Land. 

At a time when the province of Kwang-tung was 
infested by pirates, bandits, and secret societies ; when 
discontent was rife, and, in the Opium War of 1842, 
the discontented had learned the nse of arms ; a village 



40 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

schoolmaster named Hmig-tsue-schnen declared himself 
to be inspired— inspured to the usurpation of the 
Dragon throne. Some thought him mad ; but as his 
clansmen numbered 20,000, and the means he employed 
to convert them were masterly to a degree, he soon 
collected about him a band of followers not unlike 
an army. He was a seer of visions, a prophet of 
vengeance and freedom, an agent of the Divine Wrath, 
a champion of the poor and the oppressed. To the 
persecuted Hakkas* he gave out that his mission was 
the extermination of the hated Manchoo race and the 
glorious reinstatement of the Mings. He had seen 
God, and the Almighty had Himself appealed to him 
as the Second Celestial Brother. So he said, and so 
his lieges were mad enough to believe. What he really 
had seen was a missionary in flowing robes, who gave 
him a bundle of tracts, and told him that he should 
attain to the highest rank in China. Thus it is not 
the least curious point in this man's history that his 
ideas originated in certain tracts which were given 
him by a European missionary — that, in fact, the 
Tai-ping RebelUon, of which Hung was the leader, 
was in some sort the outcome of an attempt to spread 
the Gospel among the Chinese. 

The mandarins were more insolent than ever to the 
oppressed race of Hung, and the future rebel king 

♦ The Hakka, or * Stranger.* 



THE TALPING REBELLION. 41 

was incensed at not passing certain examinations 
which would give him a worthy place among the literati. 
With his little army of converts he traversed his 
province on a proselytizing tour, breaking the idols 
and effacing the Confucian texts from the walls of 
schools and temples. The doctrine of extermination, 
thus early practised by the Tai-pings, soon brought 
them into coUision with the mandarins, aad many 
disturbances arose, in which sometimes the authorities, 
and sometimes the Tai-pings, gained the day. Hung*s 
tactics the while were worthy so great and able a 
trickster. Once, for example, finding himself and his 
followers hard pressed, and obliged to shift their 
ground for want of provisions, he left his quarters 
secretly, while a squadron of boys aiid women went 
on drumming within the walls. His enemy believed 
him still on the ground, when he and his men were 
miles away. 

Defeat and victory alike drew new recruits to his 
following; and, in 1851, having got together an army 
some hundreds of thousands strong, he proclaimed 
himself the Heavenly King, the Emperor of the 
Great Peace. Then, with five Wangs, or warrior 
kings, chosen from among his kinsmen, he marched 
through China, devastating the country and augmenting 
his legions as he went. He brought over not only 
the piratical bands which infested the seaboard of 



42 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Kwang-tung, but even such ancient and powerful secret 
societies as the Triad; while two desperate women 
brought 4,000 warriors, all of whom bowed to his 
authority, and adopted his creed. Their tawdry dress, 
their many-coloured banners and flags, their long lank 
hair, lent to these predatory hordes a fierce barbaric 
air, so that as they passed from city to city and from 
province to province, armed with cutlasses and knives, 
the quiet, docile, clean-shom Chinese were terror- 
stricken at thq sight of these monsters — at these 
land-pirates, who robbed them of their rice-harvests 
and the products of their farms. A march of nearly 
700 miles brought his huge army to Nanking, 
which fell and became the capital of the Heavenly 
King. 

Here, under the shadow of the Porcelain Tower, he 
established himself in royal state. He gave to his 
kinsmen who had most distinguished themselves in the 
campaign against the reigning dynasty the titles of 
Wangs, or kings. There were the Chung Wang, or 
Faithful King ; the Eastern King and the Western King ; 
the Warrior King and the Attendant King. Many had 
gained for themselves nicknames, in addition to their 
high-sounding titles; the sobriquets of the Yellow 
Tiger, the One-Eyed Dog, and Cock Eye were famous 
among their ranks. Both titles and names alike had 
been won in battle, and were often the records of deeds 



THE TAI-PING REBELLION. 43 

of valonr. These kingships at last became so nnmerons 
that they numbered several hundreds, and Tien Wang, 
the Emperor of the Great Peace, found himself con- 
strained to cease conferring them on his great 
adherents. One of the amusements of the chief, who 
soon developed a t3nranny almost without parallel, was 
to kick his many wives and concubines to death. The 
wonder is that the Wangs, who were all desperate 
leaders of armies, continued their allegiance to one 
who never hesitated to behead them for even a trivial 
offence. But so it was. They believed him to be the 
Junior Lord, come down to earth to save the suffering 
Mings. One of the Wangs, more ambitious than his 
comrades, did venture on an occasion to assert himself 
— ^to call himself the Holy Ghost — and for this he was 
sent straightway to his grave. It is almost incon- 
ceivable that in this latter half of the nineteenth century 
such an organized imposture as this of Hung-tsue- 
schuen's could exist. It must not be forgotten, how- 
ever, that his pseudo-religious tenets appealed to a 
people saturated with superstition, and that the methods 
he employed to impress himself upon them were of a 
kind singularly suited to their moods. It is not easy 
to give an idea of this huge harlequinade of worship 
and war, of which much will be said hereafter in 
these pages. Meanwhile, it may be well to read the 
impresssions of a missionary — Mr. J. L. Holmes — who 



44 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

visited Nanking, and saw how these warlike devotees 
of the so-called Great Peace comported themselves in 
their palaces and the palace of their Emperor : 

* At night/ says this authority, * we witnessed their 
worship. It occurred at the beginning of their Sabbath, 
midnight of Friday. The place of worship was the 
Chung Wang's private audience-room. He was him- 
self seated in the midst of his attendants — ^no females 
were present. They first sang, or rather chanted; after 
which a written prayer was read and burned by an 
officer, upon which they rose and sang again, and then 
separated. The Chung Wang sent for me again before 
he left his seat, and asked me if I understood their 
mode of worship. I replied that I had just seen it for 
the first time. He asked what our mode was. I 
replied that we endeavoured to follow the rules laid 
down in the Scriptures, and thought all departure 
therefrom to be erroneous. He then proceeded to 
explain the ground upon which they departed from this 
rule. The Tien Wang had been to heaven, he said, 
and had seen the Heavenly Father. Our revelation 
had been handed down for 1,800 years. They had 
received a new, additional revelation; and upon this 
they could adopt a different mode of worship. I replied 
that if the Tien Wang had obtained a revelation we 
could determine its genuineness by comparing it with 
the Scriptures. If they coincided, they might be parts 
of the same ; if not, the new revelation could not be true, 
as God did not change. He suggested that there might 
be a sort of disparagement, which was yet appropriate, 
as in the Chinese garment^ which is buttoned at one 
side. To this comparison I objected, as comparing a 
piece of man's work with God's work. Ours were little 



THE TAPPING REBELLION. 45 

and imperfect; His great and glorious. We should 
compare God's works with each other. The sun did 
not rise in the east to-day, and in the west to-morrow. 
Winter and summer did not exchange their respective 
characters. Neither would the Heavenly Father 
capriciously make a law at one time and contradict it 
at another. His Majesty seemed rather disconcerted at 
thus being carried out of the usual track in which he 
was in the habit of discoursing, and we parted, pro- 
posing to talk further upon the subject at another 
time. 

* At daylight we started for the Tien Wang's palace. 
The procession was headed by a number of brilliantly 
coloured banners, after which followed a troop of armed 
soldiers ; then came the Chung Wang in a large sedan, 
covered with yellow satin and embroidery, and borne 
by eight coolies ; next came the foreigner on horse- 
back, in company with the Chung Wang's chief officer, 
followed by a number of other officers on horseback. 
On our way several of the other kings who were in the 
city fell in ahead of us with similar retinues. Music 
added discord to the scene, and curious gazers lined the 
streets on either side, who had no doubt seen kings 
before, but probably never witnessed such an apparition 

as that Beaching at length the palace 

of the Tien Wang, a largo building resembling 
very much the best of the Confucian temples, though 
of much greater size than these generally are, we 
entered the outer gate and proceeded to a large 
building to the eastward of the palace proper, and 
called the "Morning Palace." Here we were ^pre- 
sented to the Tsau Wang and his son, with several 
others. After resting a little while, during which two 
of the attendants testified their familiarity with, and 
consequent irreverence for^ the royal place by con- 



\ 



46 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

eluding a misunderstanding in fisticuffs, we proceeded 
to the audience-hall of the Tien Wang. I was here 
presented to the Tien Wang's two brothers, two 
nephews, and son-in-law, in addition to those whom 
I had before met at the *^ Morning Palace." They 
were seated at the entrance of a deep recess, over the 
entrance of which was written, " Illustrious Heavenly 
Door/' At the end of this recess, far within, was 
pointed out to us his Majesty Tien Wang's seat, 
which was as yet vacant. The company awaited 
for some time the arrival of the Western King, whose 
presence seemed to be necessary before they could 
proceed with the ceremonies. That dignitary, a boy 
of twelve or fourteen, directly made his appearance, 
and entering at the ^* Holy Heavenly Gate," took his 
place with the royal group. They then proceeded 
with their ceremonies as follows : First they kneeled 
with their faces to the Tien Wang's seat and uttered a 
prayer to the Heavenly Brother ; then kneeling with 
their faces in the opposite direction, they prayed to 
the Heavenly Father ; after which they again kneeled 
with their faces to the Tien Wang's seat, and in like 
manner repeated a prayer to him. They then con- 
cluded by singing in a standing position. A roast pig 
and the body of a goat were lying with other articles 
on tables in the outer court, and a fire was kept 
burning on a stone altar in front of the Tien Wang's 
seat, in a sort of court which intervened between it 
and the termination of the recess leading to it. He 
had not yet appeared, and though all waited for him 
for some time after the conclusion of the ceremonies, 
he did not appear at all. He had probably changed 
his mind, concluding that it would be a bad precedent 
to allow a foreigner to see him without first signifying 
submission to him ; or it may be that he did not 



THE TAI-PING REBELLION. 47 

mean to see me after learning the stubborn nature of 
our principles; but, anxious to have us carry away 
some account of the grandeur and magnificence of his 
Court, had taken this mode of making an appropriate 
impression, leaving the imagination to supply the 
Vacant chau- which his own ample dimensions should 
have filled. We retired to the " Morning Palace " 
again, where kings, princes, foreigner, and all were 
called upon to ply the *^ nimble lads " upon a breakfast 
which had been prepared for us, after which we retired 
in the order in which we came. 

* In the course of the afternoon, after our return, the 
Chung Wang invited me in to see him privately. I 
was led through a number of rooms and intervening 
courts into one of his private sittmg-rooms, where he 
sat clothed loosely in white silk, with a red kerchief 
round his head and a jewel in front. He was seated 
in an easy-chair, and fanned by a pretty slipshod 
girl. Another similar chair was placed near him, on 
which he invited me to be seated, and at once began to 
question me about foreign machinery, etc. He had 
been puzzled with a map with paralled lines running 
each way, said to have been made by foreigners, which 
he asked me to explain. He then submitted to my 
inspection a spy-glass and a music-box, asking various 
questions about each, evidently supposing every 
foreigner to be an adept in the construction of such 
articles. After this he became quite familiar, and 
was ready to see me at any hour. At the next inter- 
view, which occurred on the day following, I referred 
him to various passages in the New Testament, 
which conflicted with the doctrines of Tieu Wang. 
I found it impossible to gain his attention to these 
matters. He was ready enough to declaim in set 
speech about all men being brethren, but it was easy 



48 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

to perceive that his religion, such as it was, had little 
hold upon his heart. He confessed carelessly that 
the revelation of Tien Wang did not agree with the 
Bible, but said that of Tien Wang, being later, was more 
authoritative. I found him but little disposed to have 
his faith tested, either by reason or revelation, or 
indeed to think about it at all when it was abstracted 
firom public affairs. 

* The two days which yet elapsed before our de- 
parture were spent mostly in conversation with various 
persons connected with the establishment of the Chung 
Wang and other kings. These conversations, informal 
and desultory, gave me an opportunity to ascertain some- 
thing of the practical working of Hung tsue-schuen's 
principles upon the masses of his adherents. I could 
not perceive that there was any elevation of character 
or sentiment to distinguish them from the great mass 
of the Chinese population ; indeed, the effect of his 
pretensions to a commission to *^ slay the imps '' 
appears to have annihilated in their minds all conscious- 
ness of crimes committed against those who are not 
of their own faith. To rob and murder an adherent 
of the Manchou dynasty is a virtuous deed. To carry 
away his wife or daughter for infamous purposes, or 
his son to train up for the army, are all legitimate 
acts. We questioned some of the boys who were 
sent to wait upon us as to their nativity ; some were 
from Ngang-hu-ai, some from Hupeh, some from 
Honan, and others from Kiang-si. Wherever their 
armies had overrun the country they had captured the 
boys and led them away with them. The large pro- 
portion of comely-looking women to be seen looking 
out at the doors and windows showed the summary 
way in which these celestial soldiers provided them- 
selves with wives.' 



THE TALPING REBELLION. 49 

Up to the year 1860 this monstrous civil war was 
waged solely between the followers of the Heavenly 
King and the Imperial Government. There had been 
romonrs of foreign aid being given to the one and to 
the other ; bnt there was an odd prejudice in favour of 
Hung on account of the mad impossible Christianity 
of his pretensions and ambitions ; a feeling prevailed 
that the Tai-pings might after all be in the right ; and, 
owing to our hostile relations with the Chinese Govern* 
ment, our representatives refused to take arms against 
the rebels, though our aid was invited on the very eve 
of a battle between the allied forces of England and 
France and the army of Sankolinsin. The tactics of 
the Imperialist leaders had all along been to drive 
the rebels towards the sea. The consequence was that 
Shanghai and other consular ports were menaced by 
the insurgents, and had become, as well, the refuge of 
distracted and destitute peasants, whose villages were 
burned and whose lands were laid waste by the ruthless 
Tai-pings. These tactics on the part of the Imperial 
authorities were the worst possible, for the rebels had 
everything to gain from being driven towards the 
wealthy cities along the coast, which contained 
sufficient war material to supply all their armies. 
Before long the Chinese Government were awakened 
to their folly; but they nevertheless clung to their 
policy, for they counted on the frightened foreign 

4 



50 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

community to protect the ports, if only to save them- 
selves and their property. Seeing, at a critical junc- 
ture, that nothing was being done, two great Chinese 
officials applied to the Allies for certain help. The 
English and French Ambassadors considered the re- 
quest ; and it was decided that, without - taking 
any part in the civil contest or expressing any 
opinion on the rights of the contending parties, we 
might protect Shanghai from attack and assist the 
authorities in preserving tranquillity within its walls, 
on the ground that it was an open port, and that there 
was a complete community of interest between the 
town and the foreign settlement. In the meantime 
as was expected the wealthy traders of Shanghai had 
taken the alarm, and the more influential among 
them had subscribed for a foreign force to keep the 
enemy at bay. Two American ci-devant filibusters 
named Ward and Burgevine were commissioned to 
raise a contingent. A reward was oflfered to them for 
the capture of a place called Sung-kiang — some 
twenty miles from the city — held by the rebels. 
About a hundred seamen were got together, and Ward, 
who had been a sailor and had served under Walker 
in Nicaragua, led them to the attack, and was repulsed 
with considerable loss: He, however, made another 
attempt, and, with the help of an Imperialist force, suc- 
ceeded in taking the city. Then, encouraged by the 



THE TAI'PING REBELLION. 51 

reward he had won, and with his force augmented by a 
bevy of rowdies, he proceeded to make farther raids 
on the rebels. Bat the Faithfal King, one of the 
Tai-ping leaders, hearing of his people's defeat, led a 
new army against Ward and his ^ foreign devils/ as they 
were termed, and drove them back into Song-kiang ; 
to keep Ward m darance and in check he left a part 
of his force before the city, and with the rest of his 
troops marched on Shanghai, ravaging the inter- 
vening country as he went. 

Bat at this time the war was not to be entirely 
between the Imperialists and the rebels; for when 
the Faithfal King advanced upon Shanghai, the allied 
French and British troops that were in the city joined 
the Imperialists, and drove the rebels back with 
heavy loss. This was on the 18th of Angast, 1860, 
and npon the following day the Faithfal One re- 
newed his attack, bnt was again repulsed, and had to 
retire to Soochow. From this place he was summoned 
to Nanking by the Heavenly King; and from that 
city in October, 1860, four great armies were sent 
forth under four mighty Wangs, to drive the Imperialists 
from the cities immediately north and south of the 
Yangtze river, over a district extending from Nanking 
to Hankow, a distance of about 400 miles. No 
sooner, however, had these four armies been set in 

motion, than the British naval Commander-in-Chief, 

4—2 



52 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Admirial Sir James Hope, thought it necessary to 
visit those ports on the Yangtze which had been 
opened up to foreign trade by the Convention of 
Fekin. In Febmary, 1861 , therefore, the Admiral 
sailed up the river, and, anchoring at Nanking, entered 
into communication with the Heavenly King, The 
result of his negotiation was that an arrangement was 
agreed upon by which the Yangtze trade was not to be 
interfered with, nor was Shanghai to be in any way 
molested by the Armies of the Great Peace for the 
space of one year. The rebel leader kept his word^ 
and during the whole of 1861 his followers were 
actively engaged in endeavouring to take Hankow and 
to re-establish themselves in the Yangtze valley. 
They met with constant reverses; and, after a year 
of defeats, were driven back into the neighbourhood 
of Shanghai, The Heavenly King then informed the 
British Admiral that he intended to attack Shanghai 
as soon as the year's truce had expired. Sir James 
Hope warned him against any such proceeding; but 
the warning was disregarded, and the Faithful King 
was ordered to march on Shanghai in January of 
1862. This led to the allied forces co-operating with 
Ward; who was then at Sung-kiang with a thousand 
drilled Chinese; and it is from this that British 
interference in the Tai-ping Bebellion may be said to 
date. From February to June the allied forces 



THE TAI'PING REBELLION. 53 

assisted Ward and the Imperialists; and in May, 
Captain Dew, B.N., was appointed to a naval com- 
mandy and drove the Tai-pings from Ning-po. In 
September, Ward was killed, and Burgevine succeeded 
him in the command of the Ever Yictorions Army; 
bnt in January, 1863, the new commander was 
cashiered for corrupt practices, and the British Govern- 
ment was formally applied to, and requested to pro- 
vide the army with a captain in his stead. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FUSHAN TAITSAN QUINSAN. 

The Governor-General of the Kiang Provinces was 
Li Futai, better known as Li-Hung-Chang — the Chinese 
Bismarck as he has since been called — the most famous 
soldier and statesman of modem China. He had been 
sent by Tseng-kwo-fan,* Generalissimo of the Impe- 
rialists, to Shanghai, to take the command there, and 
to crown his ten years' service against the rebels by 
saving that port from them, and so in some sort 
reversing the foolish policy which, as I have shown, 
was insisted npon at Pekin. On his arrival he was 
told by General Staveley that though the French and 
English would continue to guard the frontier np to a 
radius of thirty miles round Shanghai, the actual 
treatment of the rebellion must be given over to the 
Chinese ; so, like a skilful commander, he at once 
began to train the native troops to the use of foreign 
arms. 

* The famous Tseng-kwo-fan was the father of the even more 
famous Marquess Tseng. 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN^QUINSAN. 55 

Neither he, however, nor any other Chinese was 
competent to assume the command of Ward's adven- 
turers. Burgevine, too, was wholly unsuited to the 
work which was now in his hands. On his arrival at 
Shanghai with a bodyguard of a hundred picked men, 
armed with rifles, he had entered the premises of a 
mandarin, who was the local treasurer of the Govern- 
ment, and demanded money for arrears of pay. This 
demand not being immediately complied with, Bur- 
gevine struck the treasurer with his fist, led his men 
into the treasury, and ordered them to carry off 
40,000 dollars. For this insult the authorities, under 
the seal of Li-Hung-Chang, degraded him, as I have 
said, and dismissed him their service. 

This outrage and its consequences led to a vacancy 
in the command of the Ever Victorious Army, and Li- 
Hung-Chang — always in sympathy with foreigners — at 
once evinced his capacity as a statesman and his under- 
standing of the true position of affairs, by soliciting 
General Staveley to appoint a British officer to the 
post. With a kindly feeling towards the Chinese, 
Staveley entertained the request conditionally. It was 
necessary first to refer the matter to the Horse Guards : 
meantime he had not far to look for the right man. 
His choice fell on Gordon, one who had never com- 
manded; but who above all other men had impressed 
those who knew him with a sense of his great abilities. 



S6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON 

Tho reputation he had won before Sebastopol, and which 
had accompanied him into Bessarabia and Armenia, he 
had more than sustained before Fekin and at Shanghai. 
Wherever he had been he had improved his opportunities 
and made the most of his talents. Even now, when 
the tempting offer of this command was made him, such 
was his desire to be thoroughly competent for its duties, 
that instead of rushing upon the task, and trusting 
wholly to fortune, as so many had done before him, he 
modestly asked that his appointment might be deferred 
until he had finished the military survey of the 
thirty miles round Shanghai which he had in hand, 
on the ground that it would be of the utmost service 
to him on the campaign. This was conceded him, and 
Captain Holland, of the Marine Light Infantry, by 
the advice of Sir James Hope, Admiral of the naval 
forces in China, took temporary command. 

Holland believed in himself^ and with a mixed force 
of men, 2,500 of all arms, two pieces of ordnance, and 
an Imperial Brigade about 5,000 strong, he at once 
laid siege to the walled city of Taitsan. For informa- 
tion as to its defences he depended solely on the 
mandarins. They had assured him that the ciiy was 
surrounded by a dry ditch — which proved to be a 
deep moat thirty yards wide — and no means of crossing 
it were at hand. He contrived to breach the walls. 
But the bamboo ladder, upon which the storming-pprty 



FUSBAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 57 

managed to cross the moat, broke down; a repulse 
ensued under a galling fire from the walls; three 
hnndred men and four foreign officers were killed and 
wounded, and the two thirty-two-pounders which had 
been placed ' in the open ' without cover got embedded 
in the mud, and had to be abandoned. 

This was a triumph for the Tai-pings ; and how they 
regarded the generalship of * Foreign Devils ' will be 
seen from the following account of the affair, written by 
one of their principal Wangs : 

^ Oh, how we laughed, on the morning of the assault, 
as they advanced nearer to the creek which they 
brought no bridges to throw over I how we laughed as 
we saw the ladder they had thrown over getting weaker 
and weaker beneath them, and at last fall into the creek, 
leaving half the party on one side, and half on the 
other. "What general is he," cried our chief, ** who 
sends his men to storm a city without first ascertaining 
that there is a moat ?" " And what general is he," 
cried another of our leaders, " who allows a storming- 
party to advance without bridges ? See^ chief, these 
unfortunates 1'' 

* So we laughed, and so we jested, as we saw the 
slaves of the Tartar usurper advancing to destruction. 
But our chief was wroth when he saw the handful of 
men who had come out against him. " Do they think 
we are cowards, even as the impish soldiers of the 
mandarins,'' cried he, "that they thus dare to bring 
out hundreds against our thousands T' " Not so, 
Chief," replied a valiant captain, " but they have for- 
gotten that they had foreigners to aid them at Kah-ding 



S8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

and Na-joWy Cho-lin and Wong-ka and other places 
in the neighhonrhood of Shanghai." Lond and long 
was the laughter of our leader as the idea hurst 
upon him ; hnt his laughter soon changed to wrath at 
the presumption. " Arise," cried he, " inheritors of 
eternal peace ; arise and drive these imps from the face 
of our land." And we arose at his word as one man ; 
the cry of ** Blood !" was in our mouths, and the thirst 
for hlood consumed us ; we sallied forth on the '^ ever- 
victorious " troops, and behold, they retired so soon as 
they saw the brandishing of our spears. Many fled, 
flinging away their arms in their haste ; their ammuni- 
tion and their belts also they cast upon the ground in 
their fear. The impish followers of the mandarins set 
them the example, and many followed it. Little cared 
they for bridges in their haste ; they scattered them- 
selves over the face of the country, and we pursued 
them as they fled. There were English officers too. 
recorder of events, how they ran! One of them 
flung away his pistol and his sword, and swam the 
creek in his haste. Another also lost his sword, which 
the Sung-kiang men picked up, and, I am told, have it 
now in Sung-kiang. But they needed not. We know 
the policy of your nation — not to attack us beyond the 
thirty-mile boundary, and we should not have hurt them, 
knowing that they only came to witness our prowess. 
We know likewise full well that the English Chuntai 
did wrong in overstepping the boundary, but he has 
Buffered for it ; let him rest. We thank him for the 
8 2 -pounders which he has left in our hands; and 
we will keep them as a memento of our victory, and 
will mount them on our walls as a warning to the 
troops of Sung-kiang never again to attack us in our 
stronghold. I will be just, though, and true. Many 
of the Sung-kiang men fought bravely, and their officers 



FUSHAN^TAITSAN^QUINSAN. 59 

as heroes. They tried long to carry off their two guns, 
but could not stand our fire. Mightily were we sur- 
prised, recorder of events, at the conduct of the English 
Chuntai. Can you believe it, recorder of events : 
he removed the smaller guns first, instead of leaving 
them to the last to protect the removal of the big ones. 
Then, too, were we surprised to see him leading the 
retreat in his boat. We know that such is the practice 
of the impish mandarins ; but we thought that English 
ofiScers always sought the post of danger. We thought, 
truly, that he would have brought up the rear, instead 
of leaving it to his second in command. 

* We retired before the face of the foreigners, because 
we know their might; we withdrew beyond the line 
which they chalked out, and we will not transgress be- 
yond it ; but the country we possess will we hold, and 
scatter to the four winds of heaven any impish fiends 
who come against us. Let not the mandarin slaves 
think that in their service alone are foreigners em- 
ployed, and that they alone reap the benefit of their 
warlike experience. Numbers of them have acknow- 
ledged the supremacy of our Heavenly King, and joined 
us in our efforts to make Great Peace prevail. Many 
were in Taitsan, and a Frenchman pointed the gun 
which carried death into the ranks of our foes. 
recorder of events, we, too, have disciplined troops ; 
and we, too, have European firearms, as the imps 
found to their cost. They have essayed our might, and 
have experienced the strength of our arm. Let them 
rest in Sung-kiang. They thought they could take 
Nanking, but they failed before Taitsan. ' 

This defeat — the greatest triumph the Tai-pings had 
yet attained — showed that the Ever- Victorious Army, 



6o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

as it was obligingly called, still wanted a leader. At 
this juncture Gordon left his survey unfinished, and 
took command of it at Sung-kiang on the 26th of 
March. From this time it lacked a leader no longer 
— a leader, too, who could perpetuate and justify its 
name. 

* I am afraid you will be much vexed at my having 
taken the command of the Sung-kiang force, and that I 
am now a mandarin,' he says, writing home on the 24th 
March, 1863. 'I have taken the step on considera- 
tion. I think that anyone who contributes to putting 
down this rebellion fulfils a humane task, and I also 
think tends a great deal to open China to civilization. 
I will not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon to 
return to England ; at the same time I will remember 
your and my father's wishes, and endeavour to re- 
main as short a time as possible. I can say that if I 
had not accepted the command I believe the force 
would have been broken up and the rebellion gone on 
in its misery for years. I trust this wiU not now be 
the case, and that I may soon be able to comfort you 
on this subject. You must not firet on this matter ; 
I think I am doing a good service. ... I keep your like- 
ness before me, and can assure yon and my father 
that I will not be rash, and that as soon as I can 
conveniently, and with due regard to the object I have 
in view, I wUl return home.' 

There was a great deal of eagerness to avenge the 
defeat at Taitsan. But it is clear, judging from what 
followed, that Gordon, with his concentrated experience 



FUSBAN^TAITSAN—Q UINSAN. 6i 

of war, listened to no one : he looked only to the grand 
result, and exercised his military genins in determining 
at once on the best and surest means of striking the 
rebellion at its very heart, and restoring as speedily 
as possible the provinces to the Imperial power. 
He had learned enough from the past history of the 
war to see that the petty operations of defence and 
skirmish against the Tai-pings — such as clearing 
Shanghai from their raids over a circle of thirty miles 
radius, and attacking strongholds like Taitsan, with 
doubtfrd and often disastrous results — were merely 
calculated to prolong the rebellion. He could see, 
too — ^what was even more to the purpose — that by 
rapidly changing his ground, and striking sudden 
blows at points where he was least expected, he 
would not only hearten and inspire his followers, but 
constrain the rebels in all their holds to adopt an 
attitude of defence, and leave them neither time nor 
courage to molest Shanghai, or threaten Imperial 
ports. 

His mind once made up, it was not many days 
ere he was steaming into the Yangtze estuary to- 
wards Fushan, which lies on its southern bank. He 
carried with him some 200 of his artillery, also 
as many of his infantry — about 1,000 in all — as 
the two steamers he had at his command would 
transport. An Imperialist force was entrenched not far 



6i THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

from Fnshan; and, under cover of this he landed un- 
opposed, though a large body of Tai-pings watched his 
movements in the open field. On the 3rd of April he 
reached Fushan with all his force, and went at once to 
its attack. 

The little place had a history. It had long been a 
haunt of pirates; but it had submitted to the rebel 
arms, had freed itself, and had been recaptured and 
garrisoned with Tai-pings. It was important as com- 
manding the river as far as Chanzu, a loyal city ten 
miles inland, hard pressed by a Tai-ping force, 
Chanzu, too, had its history; and it is thus told by 
Mr. Wilson : 

* The garrison of Chanzu itself had a curious story 
to tell. They had all been rebels, but had suddenly 
transferred the town and their services to the other side. 
Their chief, Lo Kuo-chung, had persuaded them to 
shave their heads and declare for the Imperialist cause 
early in the year, and this they did in conjunction with 
the garrison of Fushan ; but no sooner had they done so 
than, to their dismay, the Faithful King came down 
upon them with a large force, took Fushan, and laid 
siege to them, trying to overcome them by various 
kinds of assault and surprise. He brought against 
them the two 3 2 -pounders which had been recovered 
after having been taken at Taitsan, and partially 
breached the wall. He offered any terms to the 
soldiers if they would come over ; and, in order to 
show his great success, sent in the heads of three 
European officers who had been killed at Taitsan. Lo, 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—Q UINSAN. 63 

in these trying circnmstances, had been obliged to do a 
good deal of beheading in order to keep his garrison 
staunch ; but he, and probably most of his followers, 
felt they had committed too unpardonable a sin ever to 
thrust themselves again into Tai-ping hands/ 

The motive of Gordon's advance on Chanzu is clear. 
Its object was twofold : to carry the war into the 
enemy's own country, and to relieve a suffering garrison 
in danger of falling a second time into the merciless 
hands of the rebel king. Gordon lost no time in 
planting his guns among the deserted ruins, which 
afforded excellent cover during the bombardment. He 
opened fire from his 8 2 -pounder and from four 12- 
pounder howitzers, on a strong stockade built by the 
rebels on the left bank of the creek towards Chanzu. 
The fire of another 12-pounder howitzer was directed 
at the same time against a second stockade on tho 
opposite bank. The creek was bridged with boats; 
and, after three hours' bombardment, a storming-party, 
under Captain Belcher, advanced to the assault, and 
earried the position. The rebels, receiving large 
reinforcements from the direction of Chanzu, then 
showed so threatening a front that Gordon drew into 
his stockade for the night. Next morning, however, 
the enemy was abandoning his positions and retreating 
towards Soochow, a great rebel centre on the Grand 
Canal, lying inland about thirty miles to the south-west. 



64 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

This vigorous action, the work of a single day, enabled 
Gordon with equal celerity to relieve Chanza itself. As 
far as that place, the country was now open along 
both sides of the creek, and Gordon's force, together 
with a large body of mandarin troops, made their way 
unmolested up to its gates. Its crowded population, 
swelled by multitudes of refugees from the surrounding 
villages, were rejoiced at their relief. The Mandarins 
received Gordon and his officers in state. ^ I saw the 
young rebel chiefs who had come over,' he says ;' 
* they are very intelligent, and splendidly dressed in 
silks, and 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 violently, regretting his 
inability to give me a present, which I told him was 
not the custom with us people.' The young General 
left three hundred men to garrison a stockade, and 
returned inland by the river to his headquarters, at 
Sung-kiang. 

When Gordon took on himself the command of his 
little army he found its discipline extremely bad. 
This he almost instantly improved ; he had the 
great commander's capacity of making men both love 
and obey him. Nothing at this time could have 
gratified him more than the circumstance that on his 
appointment, several applications were made by British 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 65 

* ^^ 

officers to General Brown (who had succeeded General 
Staveley) for leave to join Gordon's force, and enter 
the Chmese service nnder him. These would have 
been no doubt more numerous but for the terms of the 
Order in Council placing such officers on half-pay. 
A certain number of permits were given, subject to 
Gordon's approval.' One of the officers who thus 
joined the force, and the only one who served from 
first to last, was Surgeon Moffit, of the 67th Eegi- 
ment, who proved himself to be of invaluable aid. So, 
surrounded by his brother officers, who knew his high 
qualitieSy and greatly strengthened, Gordon was able 
to purge his staff of incompetent men. The general 
confidence bad been fully justified and confirmed 
by his brilliant march on Fushan and Chanzu, an 
achievement which won him, by Imperial decree, the 
grade of Tsung-Ping, or Brigadier-General. 

At Sung-kiang he went at once to work upon his 
army and his plans. He took forthwith a high place 
in the estimation both of his men and of Li Hung- 
Chang. The latter, a Mandarin of the Yellow Button, 
he treated loyally, and without the aristocratic airs 
which had rendered his predecessors offensive to native 
authority. When Burgevine was intriguing at Pekin 
to get reinstated in his command, Li had warmly 
advocated Gordon's appointment and Burgevine's in- 
trigues had thus been brought to an end. After being 

5 



66 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

degraded and dismissed, that American adventurer had 
gone to the capital, and it was made to appear for the 
moment that Prince Enng himself was in his favour. 
This arose ont of two very cnrions circumstances : one 
was that the American Minister warmly advocated 
Burgevine's cause, and gave a history of his past 
career which, however, did not coincide with facts ; 
the other, that our own Ambassador, Sir Frederick 
Bruce, was under the diplomatic feeling that it would 
be discourteous to refuse his support to the claims of a 
man about whom he knew nothing, save that he had 
impressed him favourably. Under these circumstances 
Prince Eung had played a very pleasant part by appear- 
ing to listen to the Ambassadors, at the same time 
stating that the final settlement of the matter rested 
with Li, the Governor of the Province, and that it 
should be formally referred to him. Burgevine's con- 
duct, infamous in many ways, and crowned by his 
assault on the treasury, had made, as Prince Eung 
well knew, his pardon impossible. Li would not 
consent to his reinstalment on any terms whatever, 
and in this way the filibuster's career was broken and 
ended. 

After all this it will easily be understood that Li was 
anxious to forward Gordon's views on his return to 
headquarters. In truth, there was much to be done. 
The young Captain was determined upon reorganizing 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 67 

his little army on the English model; and his first 
move in this direction was to establish regular pay 
on a liberal scale, and to abolish the abominable 
practice of rewards for captures. Under Burgevine and 
Ward it had been customary to bargain with the troops 
for the performance of special service : they on their 
side were to do the work, and when it was done they 
were to have as much as they could make by looting 
the fallen city. Gordon saw at once that it was im- 
possible to maintain the morality of a body of men 
under circumstances such as these; and by securing 
them a regular fee for their services, and absolutely 
breaking them of the habit of plunder, he made the 
work of re-organization on which he had resolutely 
set his heart a mere matter of time. 

His force was from 3,000 to 4,000 strong. It 
consisted of five or six infantry regiments, four siege 
batteiiesi and two field-batteries. Its men were, for 
the most part, armed with smooth-bore muskets, while 
a chosen few were entrusted with Enfield rifles; the 
uniforms consisted of dark serge, with green turbans. 
Its Colonels or Lieutenant-Colonels were to receive 
from J675 to £85 a month, while the pay of Majors, 
Captains, and Adjutants was in a diminishing ratio 
between these sums and the pay of its Lieutenants, 
which was fixed at Jg30 a month. The pay of its 
privates^ who were all Chinese, was from £4 10s. 

5—2 



68 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

downwards^ according to grade, certain rations being 
allowed while in the field. The pay of the Com- 
mander himself was high. ^It is X260 per months 
or jE3,120 per annum/ says Gordon; ^bat that is a 
minor consideration/ 

It is to be remarked that the commissioned officers 
were all foreigners — ^Englishmen, Americans, Germans, 
Frenchmen, and Spaniards ; and that, as a mle, they 
were brave, reckless, quick in adapting themselves to 
circumstances, steady in action, but greatly given to 
quarrelling among themselves. 

Payment was made monthly by a Chinese official of 
high civil rank named Eah, a good man of business and 
very popular. He was well educated, honest, and of 
pleasing manners, and he paid the force in the presence 
of the Commander. The monthly cost to the Govern- 
ment was from fourteen to twenty-six thousand pounds, 
and it is said that the men were never kept in arrears 
more than ten days. The army had a uniform which 
the men at first greatly objected to, as it exposed them 
to the satire of their countrymen, who called them 
* Imitation Foreign Devils.* Gordon's purpose was to 
make the rebels imagine that they had foreign soldiers 
to fight. When the troops became victorious their uni- 
form was a source of pride to them ; they would have 
strongly objected to change it for a native dress. 
Woo, the Tautai of Shanghai, was so full of the idea 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 69 

that the very foot-prints of the disciplined Chinese 
impressed the rebels with fear, that he purchased, 
for general distribation, some thousands of pairs of 
European boots, such as were worn by Gordon's 
troops, that their marks might be everywhere visible. 

But Gordon did more than feed and pay and dis- 
cipline his men. He provided himself with a heavy 
force of artillery, amply supplied with ammunition, and 
with every means of transport in the way of gun- 
carriages and boats. He had mantlets to protect his 
gunners ; a pontoon equipment, bamboo ladders, planks 
for short tramways, and many other provisions for 
rapid movement in a country abounding in water. 
And he trained up his men in the drill of her 
Majesty's army. He practised his artillery both in 
breaching fortifications and in covering storming-parties. 
He instituted a system of punishments for the native 
force, and one for the foreign officers, who were subject 
even to instant dismissal, but this only by the order of 
the Oommander himself. With an army thus organized, 
and with a flotilla of steamers and Chinese gunboatSi 
he was soon prepared again to take the field. 

Nearly to the north of Shanghai, and of Gordon's 
headquarters at Sung-kiang, lies Taitsan, from which 
a road runs south-westward through Quinsan and 
Soochow. These were then three rebel centres, of 
which the last was the chief. It was the natural 



70 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

capital of the country which was to be the seat ot 
war. Towards the district of which it was the chief 
place Gordon, before the end of Aprils proceeded with 
his force, bnt without communicating to anyone which 
of the centres was the aim of his first onset. It was 
presently seen that his object was to reduce Quinsan, 
which was of the greatest strategical importance in 
relation both to Soochow and Taitsan. The approaches 
to Soochow on the eastern side met at the city ; Taitsan 
was equally dependent upon it ; it was also the rebel 
arsenal and shot manufactory. As Gordon was making 
straight for his mark, the news reached him that the 
commander of Taitsan had made proposals of sur- 
render to Governor Li ; that accordingly an Imperialist 
column had been marched to occupy the place ; that 
' the men so sent had been treacherously made 
prisoners, and two hundred beheaded. He therefore 
abandoned his scheme, and moved swiftly upon Taitsan. 
This was a great undertaking, and ftill of peril. The 
place was garrisoned by 10,000 men, of whom 2,000 
were picked braves, with several English, French, and 
American renegades serving at the guns; while his 
own force numbered only 3,000 of all arms. That, 
however, mattered little to him. He laid siege to 
the city forthwith. He took some outlying stockades, 
and established his army in the west suburb, about 
1,500 yards from the gate; he then seized upon the 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 7 1 

two bridges of the main canal. Working round the 
town, and keeping ont of gnnshot, he captured some 
small forts which protected the Qninsan road, and so 
cut the two centres asmider. At a distance of 600 
yards from the walls he placed his guns in position, 
each covered with a portable wooden mantlet, and 
flanked with riflemen. Thus prepared, he advanced 
with his artillery to within 100 yards, when he 
opened a scorching fire upon the battlements, rapidly 
overpowering the fire of the enemy, which was brisk, 
but not as yet damaging. He bridged the moat with 
guiboats from headquarters. In two hours he breached 
the walls, and his stormers crossed to the attack. Sud- 
denly the wall was manned; a tremendous fire was 
poured down upon the heads of the column ; the bridge 
was pelted with fire-balls ; and, in the confusion, one of 
the gunboats was captured. Still, Captain Bannen 
gallantly led on his column, and succeeded in mounting 
the breach. The enemy, headed by the foreigners in 
his service, met the assault with spears; and the 
stormers, after a short and bloody conflict, were com- 
pelled to retire. Gordon now cannonaded the breach 
for twenty minutes, over the heads of his stormers. 
They mounted it once more, when the energy of those 
in front, and the impetus of the men in the rear, broke 
through all obstacles, and the breach was crowned. 
All resistance ceased, the city was captured, and the 



72 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

enemy fled in the utmost confusion, the men trampling 
each other to death in their eagerness to escape pursuit. 

Gordon's loss, in this brief and desperate struggle, 
was unusually heavy, amounting to between eight and 
nine per cent, of his force. Among the dead was the 
brave Captain Bannen, who led the assault, and several 
other officers. Of the column, whose treacherous 
capture had induced Gordon to turn aside towards 
Taitsan, 300 remained alive in the city, with two 
Mandarins. On the Tai-ping side the loss had been 
less heavy. 

The following is Gordon's own account of the affair, 
in a letter to his mother, written on his retmn to head- 
quarters : 

* I left Sung-kiang with some 8,000 men, on 24th 
April, and intended to attack Qainsan, a large town 
between Taitsan and Soochow. However, before I had 
arrived at the place, intelligence reached me that 
the Tai-ping forces at Taitsan, who professed to come 
over to the Imperialists, had treacherously seized the 
party sent to take possession. I immediately changed 
my route, and marched on Taitsan, attacked the two 
large stockades on one day, and the town on the 
next. The rebels made a good fight ; but it was no 
use, and the place fell. Taitsan was very important, 
and its captm^e well merited, after the treachery shown 
by the head chief, who was wounded in the head. 
It opens out a large tract of country ; and the Chinese 
generals were delighted, and have said all sorts of 
civil things about the force. I am now a Tsung Ping 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN^QVINSAN. 73 

Mandarin (which is the second highest grade), and 
have acquired a good deal of influence. I do not 
care about that over-much. 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. Taitsan 
is a large place, and was strongly held. It is a Fu, or 
capital city/ 

Seven among the prisoners taken later by the 
Imperialists were condemned to the punishment of 
slow and ignominious death. The execution took place 
near Waikong. They were tied up and exposed to view 
for about five hours previous to decapitation^ with an 
arrow or two forced through the skin in various parts 
of the body, and a piece of skin flayed from one arm. 
This business — of which Gordon was wholly innocent, 
which was the work of Mandarins quite independent 
of his command, and against which he protested in 
the strongest terms — is noticed in connection with the 
victory at Taitsan, because it gave rise to a curious 
piece of fiction, which — first promulgated in China, and, 
through the instrumentality of an English Bishop whose 
see was Victoria, handed on to Earl Bussell, then 
Foreign Secretary — took, through the Press, a strong 
hold on the sentimental section of the British public. 
In excuse it was stated that the unlucky seven were 
special offenders ; that they had been guilty of that act 
of bloody treachery which sacrificed the lives of half the 
Chinese column entrapped in Taitsan ; and that they 



74 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

had no claim to be treated as prisoners of war. It 
was added that according to Chinese notions the 
punishment inflicted on them was extremely mild. 
The account of these executions as above given 
was strictly verified by General Brown, who com- 
manded her Majesty's forces in China. When he had 
ascertained the facts of the case, he at once told the 
Futai, Li, that if any similar cases were reported to 
him he should withdraw his troops, and cease to en- 
courage the Imperialist cause. 

But the account did not seem sufficiently horrible for 
the public, and fiction was made stranger than truth — 
at any rate, more terrible. The story, communicated 
to the Press under a string of plausible signatures 
(such as * Eye- Witness,' * Justice and Mercy,' etc.), 
was that, from personal observation, the prisoners 
were tortured with the most refined cruelty; that 
arrows had been forcibly driven into their heads^ 
breasts, stomachs, and so forth; and that strips of 
flesh had been hacked from all parts of them. The 
colonial Bishop above alluded to gave a private 
interview to the * Eye-Witness * of the legend, and 
liked his story so well that he sent it at once to 
the Foreign Secretary, though by communicating 
with General Brown, which would have been usual, 
he might have got at the facts. He himself pre- 
ferred, however, to address Lord Bussell, to whom he 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 75 

stated that there was no doubt as to the truth of his 
report. 

At this time there was a brisk business done in 
China by persons who sat down to invent stories of 
Imperialist cruelties for the Press. These dismal epics, 
always about ' unmentionable atrocities/ were, on ex- 
amination, found to be false ; but, unfortunately, they 
reached the sentimentalists at home before their con- 
tradictions. They thus accomplished all the mischief 
that was desired, doing not a little momentary harm 
to Gordon's position and the cause that he had 
espoused. On this subject Gordon wrote a letter 
somewhat later to the Shanghai Shipping NewSf which 
runs thus: 

•Jwiic I5th, 1863. 

' I am of belief that the Chinese of this force are quite 
as merciful in action as the soldiers of any Christian 
nation could be; and, in proof of this, can point to 
over 700 prisoners, taken in the last engagement 
(Quinsan), who are now in our employ. Some have 
entered our ranks, and done service against the rebels 
since their capture. But one life has been taken out of 
this number, and that one was a rebel who tried to 
induce his comrades to fall on the guard, and who was 
shot on the spot. It is a great mistake to imagine that 
the men of this force are worthless. They will, in the 
heat of action, put their enemies to death, as the troops 
of any nation would do ; but when the fight is over, 
they will associate as freely together as if they had never 



76 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

fought. . . . If ** Observer '' and " Eye-Witness/' with 
their friend " Justice and Mercy," would come forward 
and communicate what they know, it would be far more 
satisfactory than writing statements of the nature of 
those alluded to by the Bishop of Victoria. And if 
anyone is under the impression that the inhabitants of 
the rebel districts like their rebel masters, he has only 
to come up here to be disabused of his idea. I do not 
exaggerate when I say that upwards of 1,500 rebels 
were killed in their retreat from Quinsan by the 
villagers, who rose m masse.' 

It could hardly be expected that the introduction of 
English discipline into a Chinese army, officered by so 
many nationalities, could be immediately successful, 
though whatever Gordon once determined on he 
always ended by accomplishing. EUs soldiers at Taitsan 
had been guilty of plunder, which was contrary to his 
articles of war; but the moment after the splendid 
victory they had won for him, and the heavy losses 
they had sustained, was scarcely the time for 
punishment. Punished, however, they were, in being 
marched o£f to the siege of Quinsan before oppor- 
tunity of selling their loot was allowed them. There 
Gordon ordered the Mandarins to front the walls 
with strong stockades, and man them with their 
own soldiers ; while, on his side, he took back his 
troops to Sung-kiang to be reorganized. He then issued 
a general order, thanking the officers and men for their 
gallantry at Taitsan. He added, at the same time, that 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. t^ 

he was compelled to find fault with his officers for their 
laxity of discipline ; and to improve the force in this 
respect, he filled the places of those who had been 
killed, or who had resigned, by certain officers from 
her Majesty's 99th Begiment, then quartered at 
Shanghai, who had been allowed to volunteer for the 
service. 

He was now ready again to advance on Quinsan 
when a new difficulty arose. He had found it necessary 
to place over the commissariat and the military stores 
an officer of rank, who might speak with authority to 
the majors in command of the different regiments, who 
were apt to be troublesome in the matter of rations. 
To this post accordingly he appointed the Deputy- 
Assistant Commissary-General Gooksley, of the English 
army, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. This met 
with a violent opposition from his majors, which 
threatened to pass into open mutiny. Hardly was the 
force under marching orders for Quinsan when they 
all requested an interview with their commander, 
at which they complained of the appointment, im- 
pudently insisting that they should receive the same 
rank and pay as the new Lieutenant-Colonel. Gordon 
refused point-blank, and they retired to send in their 
resignations, with a request that these should be at 
once accepted, but that they should be allowed to 
serve on the pending expedition. Gordon accepted 



78 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

their resignationB, and declined their proffered service. 
The force was to march at daybreak the next morning, 
and as late as 8 a.m. Gordon's body-guard only had 
fallen in. The officers in command came to report 
that none of their men would move. At this juncture 
the majors, finding that there was only one commander 
in that army, thought better of their conduct, and 
submitted. 

Thereupon Gordon started, with 600 artillery and 
2,800 infantry, to the attack of Quinsan. There he 
found the Imperialist force, which he had left stockaded 
before the place under General Ghing, in some peril, for 
the Tai-pings were gradually encompassing it at the 
East Gate. At this point Gordon attacked, and 
drove the enemy towards the West Gate. They 
numbered about 12,000 ; a very large force was 
encamped within the walls, which were five miles 
round. The stone forts in the neighbourhood were 
in the enemy's hands. As I have shown, this strong- 
hold was of the utmost strategical importance. Not 
only would its possession enable Gordon to hold the 
conquests he had already effected ; it was also the 
key to Soochow, which, once reduced, would restore 
the eastern half of the rebel territory to the Imperial 
Government. The aspect it presented was that of an 
isolated hill within the city walls, with a pagoda at 
the top ; while in front was an open plain. Every 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 79 

manoBUvre of the attacking force conld be distinctly 
seen, and two or three guns placed on the spurs of the 
hill would have made it a perfect citadel. Men were 
stationed on the high ground to telegraph all they saw 
to their commander, a skilful chief named Moh Wang ; 
and in addition to all these qualities of defence, a 
ditch more than forty yards wide surrounded the city. 

Gordon was not long in discovering that Quinsan, 
admirably situated as it was, had one weak spot. This 
suggested a scheme of operations which speedily led to 
its downfall. He saw that the only road between 
Quinsan and Soochow, two places all-important to each 
other, ran between a lake — that of Yansing — and a 
chain of large creeks widening out here and there into 
small lakes ; and he at once concluded that by bringing 
an armed steamer to bear upon it he could cut off 
all communication. Accordingly, after investing the 
city with his own force and 7,000 Imperialists, to pre- 
vent the retreat of the enemy upon Ghanzu, which he 
held in the north, and on Soochow along the narrow 
way leading to it from the West Gate, he ordered up 
his little steamer, the Hysorij with its guns protected 
by iron mantlets. 

It was the 80th of May, and at dawn the steamer 
was under weigh, with 300 picked riflemen of the 
disciplined corps, accompanied by field artillery in boats, 
and with about fifty small gunboats — eighty sail in all 



8o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

— with large white sails and variously coloured flags. 
On reconnoitring the coutitry, he found that the road 
could be cut at Ghunye, a village eight miles from 
Quinsan, and the key to the city. To reach this point, 
it was necessary for him to make a twenty miles' 
detour by water through the country held by the 
enemy. This was easily done ; and the rebel garrison 
in the Ghunye stockades was surprised and captured 
without the loss of a man. Leaving his 800 riflemen 
at Chunye, and the main body of his force at the East 
Gate of Quinsan, Gordon manned the Hyson only 
with her crew, well armed, under the command of 
Captain Davidson, an American of the greatest experi- 
ence, ability and tact, and proceeded to reconnoitre 
the country towards Soochow. Davidson had not gone 
far when he fell in with a large body of Tfd-pings 
marching to reinforce Quinsan, little dreaming that 
they should meet an enemy by these solitary waters. 
The steamer opened fire upon them with murderous 
effect, leaving them no alternative but to retreat along 
the canal, of which Gordon was now master. The 
steamer followed the &ying mass of men, who became 
jammed together upon this single road in fearful con- 
fusion. What increased this disorder to the utmost 
was that the retreating body met fresh reinforcements 
coming up, with whom they became inextricably 
mixed, the whole mass remaining completely at the 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 8i 

steamer's mercy. In her progress the Hyson came 
to a bridge, and fears were entertained that she 
conld not pass it. Its arch, however, proved suffi- 
ciently high to let the funnel through, and she 
continued her cruise at easy speed. At intervals on 
either bank of the canal stockades had been erected 
by the Tai-pings, as well as strong stone forts. 
On the Hyson firing a few shots, these were 
evacuated, and the fugitives were pursued. In this 
manner all the fortified posts were silenced, and 
Gordon steamed up to the very walls of Soochow, 
which was to be the next stronghold to fall. It was 
one of the boldest and most successful feats of the 
campaign; and thenceforward the name of Gordon 
struck terror into the hearts of the lieges of the 
Great Peace. 

The steamer returned during the night, and reached 
Ghunye at three in the morning. It found the 300 
riflemen in a state of great alarm : the rebel garrison 
of Quinsan, 7,000 strong, were trjdng to make their 
escape along the road to Soochow. The Hyson was 
again brought into action, driving back the panic- 
stricken rebels up to the walls of the city, and repulsing 
every advance. The crowd of desperate Tai -pings was 
80 great, that had they been well commanded they 
could have swept the Ever- Victorious Army from the 
face of the earth. The Imperialists themselves, sur- 

6 



8a THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

rounded by the enemy, were given over to terror, and 
were beginning to abandon their gnnboats, when the 
arrival of the Hyson changed the aspect of affairs. 
By firing into the Qoinsan garrison she obliged it to 
retire, with great slaughter. The shelling went on 
till half-past two in the morning, and, at a later hour, 
the force which had been left at the East Gate entered 
Quinsan unopposed. 

During this series of engagements the number of 
Tai-pings met and dealt with could not have been less 
than 15,000. Of these 5,000 were either shot or 
drowned, or afterwards murdered by the villagers, who 
had suffered the utmost cruelty at their hands, and who 
rose en masse against them. Gordon had made it a 
condition with the Imperialists that there should be 
no barbarity nor decapitation of prisoners, but that 
these should be treated as having surrendered to a 
British officer. The effect of this was to turn 
enemies into friends, and greatly to increase the 
strength of the disciplined force. About 2,000 
prisoners were taken, 700 of whom then entered the 
ranks of the Ever- Victorious Army. In fact the whole 
garrison of Quinsa^ was lost to the rebels. The 
casualties on Gordon's side were only two killed and 
five drowned. The prisoners taken were very fine, 
big men. Most of them had been impressed by the 
enemy. 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 83 

Here is a hurried letter, written by Gordon after the 
capture of Quinsan, which will give some idea of the 
state of things : 

*The rebels certainly never got such a licking 

before, and I think that there will not be much 

more severe fighting, as we have such immense 

advantages in the country in the way of steamers. 

Quinsan is a large city 4^ miles round, and has a 

hill in the centre some 600 feet high, from which 

the flat country around can be seen for upwards of 

50 miles. It is a wonderful country for creeks 

and lakes, and very rich. My occupying this city 

enables the Imperial Government to protect an 

enormous district rich in com, etc., and the people 

around are so thankful for their release that it is 

quite a pleasure. They were in a desperate plight 

before our arrival, as their way lay between the rebels 

and Imperialists ; but they had the sharpness to have 

two head men or chiefs in each village — one was 

Imperialist and the other a rebel; these paid the 

various taxes to both sides. In order to put you 

au fait as to my position, I must tell you something 

perhaps egotistical; but I suppose you want to hear 

what is the case. The Governor of the Province, 

Prince Eung, and nearly all the Mandarins are 

extremely satisfied with my appointment. I rejoice 

in the rank of Tsung-Ping or Bed Button Mandarin, 

but I do not wear the dress as you may suppose. 

They write me very handsome letters, and are 

very civil in every way. I like them, but they 

require a great deal of tact, and getting in a rage 

with their apathy is detrimental, so I put up with 

it. I have no doubt of my having been able to 

6—2 



84 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

take Soochow the other day, if the Mandarins had 
been able to take advantage of our Buccess. . • . 
Yon 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. 
If I had time I could tell such extraordinary stories of 
the way men from distant provinces meet one another, 
and the way villagers recognise m our ranks old rebels 
who have visited their villages for plunder; but I really 
. have «„ time for it. I took . Mandarin, ^ho had boi 
a rebel for three years, and have him now ; he has a 
bullet in his cheek, which he received when fighting 
against the rebels. The rebels I took into my guard 
were snake flag-bearers of head chiefs, and they are 
full of the remarks of their old masters. The snake- 
flags are the marks of head men in both armies. 
Whenever they are seen there is a chief present. 
When they go, you know the rebels will retire. At 
Taitsan the snake-flags remained till the last, and this 
accounted for a very severe fight. The rebel Wangs or 
kings knew that ^' a new English pieces 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 Jg2,000 not to attack 
Quinsan" 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 Quinsan. Bu Wang and 
ten other Wangs were drowned in the retreat; the 
former was head man of Soochow, and wrote a very 
important letter to General Staveley saying we were a 
nation of traders, and that his armies were as sand on 
seashore. I never did think the rebels were as strong 
as people said ; they do not number many fighting men. 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 85 

Ghnng Wang, the Faithful King, is away, and is said 
not to intend returning to Soochow. The Soochow 
people have removed their wives and property to the 
lakes behind Soochow ; but I think the Wangs will be 
sadly put out when they see the three steamers we 
have in the lakes, which I hope they will do 
shortly. 

* Knowledge of the country is everything, and I have 
studied it a great deal. Chanzu is within forty miles. 
I have been several times to see the city ; it now feels 
quite relieved at the capture of Quinsan. The horror 
of the rebels at the steamer is very great; when 
she whistles they cannot make it out. I suppose 
Sherard Osborne will be out in a mail or two, but 
his steamers will draw too much water for these 
creeks and lakes. We have several personal servants 
of the Bu Wang among the prisoners; they of 
course can retail their masters' remarks on the 
past affaks, and are very amusing. They issued 
a proclamation ordering powder to be put under 
the steamer, and for her to be thus blown up. The 
query was, Who should do it ? which was not 
answered. This place is much more healthy than 
Shanghai. I wish I could send you the Chinese letters 
I receive ; some are very quaint, but cleverly written. 
I dare say I shall be loudly attacked by Colonel 
Sykes, etc., in the House of Commons. I always after 
a fight write a sort of memorandum on it, and send it 
to the English general. 

' I have some four EngHsh officers with me ; we 
wear anything we can get, and the men are ahnost m 
rags. General Staveley will tell you about the rabble. 
As you say, the pay is not my motive. I really do 
think I am doing a good service in putting down this 
rebellion, and so would anyone if he saw the delight 



86 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

of the villagers at getting out of their oppressors' 
hands. 

' Since the capture of Qninsan we have only 
been out on small scouting expeditions from one 
of which we returned on Saturday, having driven 
the rebels out of their stockades 1,200 yards from 
Soochow. Having to move our head quarters has 
caused a good deal of work, and this is only just 
completed.' 

Gordon had seen with the intuition of a true general 
that Quinsan was the key to his future military opera- 
tions. It was now within gunshot of his little war 
steamer, with her 3 2 -pounder, from every side, and he 
determined to make it his head-quarters. There the men 
would be more under his control than at Sung-kiang, 
where they had been in a measure demoralized by 
the lax systems and the old traditions of Ward and 
Burgevine. By the mere fact of their presence they 
paralyzed the Tai-pings, and restored the peasantry to 
confidence. But when this change of head-quarters 
was communicated to the troops, it went sufficiently 
against the grain of the rowdy class of officers and 
the Chinese rank and file to make them imagine once 
more that they must have a hand in determining what 
was right and wrong. At Sung-kiang they could 
dispose of their loot, of which^ all regulations to the 
contrary, they doubtless had plenty on hand. Thus 
it came to pass that a mutinous spirit was again 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—QUINSAN. 87 

aroused. The artillery refused to fall in, and threatened 
to blow the officers to pieces, both European and 
Chinese. The intimation of this serious mutiny was 
conveyed to Gordon in a written proclamation, and he 
at once took measures that showed it was no easy task 
to shake him in his absolute command. Convinced 
that the non-commisioned officers were at the bottom 
of the affair, he called them up and asked who wrote 
the proclamation and why the men would not fall in ? 
They had not the courage to tell the truth, and pro- 
fessed ignorance on both points. With quiet deter- 
mination Gordon then told them that one in every 
five would be shot, an announcement which they 
received with groans. During this manifestation, the 
Commander, with great shrewdness, determined in his 
own mind that the man whose groans were the most 
emphatic and prolonged was the ringleader. This 
man was a corporal : Gordon approached him, dragged 
him out of the rank with his own hand, and ordered 
two of the infantry standing by to shoot him on the 
spot. The order was instantly obeyed. Gordon then 
sent the remaining non-commissioned officers into 
confinement for one hour, with the assurance that 
within that time, if the men did not fall in, and if 
the name of the writer of the proclamation was not 
given up, every fifth man among them would be shot. 
This brought them to their senses. The files fell in ; 



88 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the writer's name was disclosed. Gordon had done 
justice to him some hours before : it was the loud- 
voiced corporal. 

Troubles of this sort were not the only ones with 
which the young captain had at this time to contend. 
In General Ghing he found a difficult and expensive 
coadjutor — a man eager to obtain credit with his 
own Government, sometimes by taking steps contrary 
to Gordon's advice, at others by showing his jealousy 
of the Englishman's successes. Thus, Gordon's modes 
of reducing Quinsan he visited with complete dis- 
approval, writing to his colleague Li that if he had 
had artillery at the East Gate he could himself have 
taken the city by storm. Just now his anger made 
itself manifest in a manner altogether intolerable. 
Of set purpose, without doubt, some of his gun-boats 
opened fire on 150 men of the Ever- Victorious Army 
under Majors Eirkham and Lowden. He affected to 
treat the matter as a jest. He was forcibly in- 
formed that it was nothing of the kind, but he pro- 
tested his ignorance of the flag on which his troops 
had fired. This gave rise to a correspondence 
between Gordon and Li, and led to Gordon's starting 
for the scene of action, determined upon fighting 
Ching as well as the Eebels, if that general should 
permit his sense of humour to get the better of him 
again. Then Mr. McCartney was sent up by Li 



FUSHAN—TAITSAN—Q UINSAN. 89 

to arrange matters, and a humble apology was 
wrested from Ching; in this way the difficulty was 
arranged. 

And now arose another danger. Burgevine, 
smarting under the disgrace of his dismissal, was 
enlisting rowdies and renegades for sinister purposes 
of his own, and service with the armies of the Kebel 
King. He had some influence still with men 
who had served under him; they admired his 
system of plunder and his desperate methods. His 
present movement, therefore, was alarming; and it 
unsettled the minds of some of Gordon's foreign 
officers. Their discontent became apparent just as 
the commander was starting for Wokong, with a 
view to the destruction of Soochow. The artillery 
officers, unwilling to serve under Major Tapp, 
a new commander imposed upon them by their 
general, while concealing their ringleaders in the 
old-fashioned formula of a round-robin, refused to 
accompany the expedition. Gordon had not the 
power to shoot an officer, but he had all the in- 
clination to make an example of one or two. He 
therefore left them to their own devices, and by 
his personal influence collected men to serve the 
guns and to get the artillery started without the 
officers. At dusk, however a letter came from 
the ofifenders, begging that their conduct might 



90 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

be overlooked. This, as their place could not be 
effectively snpplied, was granted ; and, after all, they 
were gallant men, who had evinced mnch ability, 
and were quick in acquiring a knowledge of the 
country. 



CHAPTER V- 

BUBGEYINE BECOMES A WANG. 

At this time the reduction of Soochow, the capital of 
the province, was the great object of the Imperial 
Government. There was mnch confusion of tongues, 
and much darkening of counsel, over the matter among 
the Imperial captains. Gordon had, however, his own 
particular idea as to the ways and means by which the 
city should be taken, and he was not long in putting it 
into practice. Soochow, the famous City of Pagodas, 
is situate on the Grand Canal, and, the centre of a 
splendid system of water-ways, is by water approachable 
on every side. By water, therefore, and from every side, 
did Gordon determine on attacking it : to isolate it 
from all possible assistance, to cut and master all its 
communications and approaches. Ten miles south of 
it lies Eahpoo, where the rebels had two strong forts. 
These it was of especial importance to take ; first, 
because they secured a good junction between the 
Grand Canal and the Taho, a lake some fifty miles 



92 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

across ; and next^ because they commanded the direct 
road from Soochow to the Tai-ping cities of the south. 
At Kahpoo, therefore, and at Wokong, three miles 
south of KahpoOy and like it a key to the rebel 
positions, did Gordon resolve to strike a first 
blow. 

With about 2,200 men, infantry and artillery, in 
boats, with the armed steamers Firefly and Crichet, 
he stormed Kahpoo, and next day advanced upon 
Wokong. On his march he came upon a rebel fort 
which had been left unoccupied. The Tai-pings, 
seeing the approach of the enemy, made a rush for 
the abandoned hold; and Gordon at once pushed 
forward his 4th and 6th Eegiments to cut them off. 
They got in first ; but so close was the race that the 
6th Regiment entered almost on their heels, and drove 
them out, and not without loss. Leaving the 6th 
in occupation, Gordon went on his way, took certain 
other stockades which commanded Wokong, and by 
ten o'clock that evening had beleaguered it on 
every side. The panic-stricken garrison made some 
futile attempts to force a passage, but was soon 
compelled to surrender. The leader himself, Yang 
Wang, had escaped the night before. But 4,000 
prisoners were taken, among whom were many chiefs, 
including the second in command. On the march 
back to Quinsan, Gordon, finding that at Kahpoo 



B URGE VINE BECOMES A WANG. 93 

there were not sufficient men to hold the stockades, 
resolved to remain there himself with 100 of the Ningpo 
battalion and a good supply of ammunition. 

In the midst of these successes, Gordon had much to 
disturb that equanimity which is essential to a com- 
mander. In the first place, his colleague, Ching, had 
arrived, and was anxious to get hold of the prisoners, 
and turn them into soldiers. Some 1,500 were given 
up to him, under his promise that they should receive 
good treatment. It was not long, however, before 
Gordon heard that five had been beheaded. He saw 
that it was useless to protest against these abominable 
proceedings. The non-payment of his force, too, preyed 
heavily on his mind. Heartily sick of the business, he 
determined to throw up his command ; and to this end 
he left for Shanghai. 

A man who had proved himself to be possessed of the 
highest military instincts, who had succeeded in all his 
undertakings, who had exposed himself to so many 
dangers, deserved the ungrudging support of the 
Government whose cause he had adopted, even as he 
deserved the affection of an army he had led from 
victory to victory. Nevertheless, some of his officers 
were disaffected towards him, because he insisted on 
the maintenance of discipline, while his troops 
regarded him with disfavour because he steadily 
refused to gratify their lust of plunder. Indeed, 



94 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the capture of Qoinsan, which would have set a 
European force on fire with ardour and confidence, 
was followed by the desertion of nearly half the Ever- 
Victorious Army ; so that Gordon had been com- 
pelled to recruit from the rebel prisoners, who, 
fortunately, proved much better men than the 
deserters. Moreover, on one ground and another, 
many influential persons in his own country were 
urging him to resign. Had the Chinese Govern- 
ment frankly supported him in any measure pro- 
portionate to the dictates of their own interests, 
he certainly would not have entertained the thought 
of abandoning his command; for he perceived the 
difference it would make to the people and the 
country if he left this iniquitous rebellion to drift back 
into its former triumph, and if he left it crushed 
and broken beyond the power of revival- 
Governor Li, who presently became his .warm friend 
and admirer, and who has remained so to this day, had 
not at that time learned to appreciate his great and 
commanding qualities. He had probably never seen 
a type of complete disinterestedness before, so that 
he was naturally slow to acknowledge Gordon, whom 
he had known but a few months. The foreigners who 
had hitherto served in the force had been governed only 
by a spirit of rapine. They were mercenaries, and 
with them all had been a mere question of money. 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 95 

Gordon had not yet had time to show that he was 
utterly nnlike his predecessors. Li^ then, having only 
a limited knowledge of the new man's character, took 
no steps to discharge the debt that weighed upon the 
Anglo-Chinese army. What is worse, in less than 
three months he pledged his word to Gordon and 
broke it. The consequences of this were so serious that, 
but for certain pressing contingencies, Gordon would 
have left the Empire to its fate. 

But Gordon had no sooner reached Shanghai, with the 
resolve to throw up his commission, than he found that 
Burgevine's treachery had been fully confirmed. That 
singular adventurer, through the instrumentality of a 
renegade named Jones, who had been master of the 
KiaO'ChiaOj a small war-steamer belonging to the Chinese, 
had got together a band of foreign rowdies, and seized the 
vessel on his own account on August 1st. Having 
fiEuled to recover command of the Ever- Victorious 
Army, he had avenged himself by entering into com- 
munication with the Tai-pings, and had succeeded, in 
the KiaO'ChiaOs in reaching Soochow with a band of 
desperadoes of all nations^ thoroughly armed. It was 
not for Gordon to desert his post in such a moment. 
He saw that the campaign had entered upon a new 
and desperate phase. He rode back to Quinsan, and 
at once resumed his command and the operations ho 
had had in view. 



96 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The better to do his work, the more rigorously to 
grapple with the new peril, he had already written to 
Quinsan, which was now his head-quarters, for in- 
formation as to the humour of his officers. No unsatis- 
factory signs appeared ; but during the day there were 
reports of so serious a nature that he at once sent his 
siege-train to Taitsan for safety, and the principal part of 
his siege ammunition to Shanghai, while he despatched 
reinforcements to Kahpoo, his most advanced post. He 
had taken the decisive step of sending in his resignation 
to Li, and of enclosing a copy of it to General Brown, 
the instant the piratical capture of the Kiachiao and 
Burgevine's change of front came to his knowledge. 
In this letter he informed Li that he would remain in 
command of the force only until such time as he 
should receive replies from the British Minister and 
General. But now a crisis was imminent. To abandon 
the command would be to leave a suffering people not 
only at the mercy of the Tai-pings, but of the free- 
booter, whose treachery and love of violence might 
greatly strengthen the rebel cause. Moreover, Burge- 
vine's popularity might draw men from the already 
disaffected force who had once served under the 
renegade commander. His former followers had not 
forgotten how on an occasion he had plundered the 
Treasury in order to obtain funds for their pay, de- 
spoiled temples and robbed the images of their jewels. 



BURGEVINE BECOME^ A WANG. 97 

Gordon, therefore, with his own payments in arrear, 
was not a little anxious as to the inflnence of Burge- 
Tine's tactics on the rebel cause. 

This situation of affairs excited general uneasiness, 
and the alarm was folly shared in by Colonel Hough, 
commanding at Shanghai, who wrote to General Brown 
that Burgevine's terms with the rebels whom he 
enlisted, some 800 in number, included, besides pay, 
an unrestrained license to sack every town they took, 
including Shanghai itself, which he thought no idle 
threat, owing to the present reduced state of Gordon's 
force, all reported to be treacherously inclined to join 
Burgevine. These and yet more serious anticipations 
were not, however, reaUzed. Meantime Gordon was 
on the alert. He left Shanghai on the 1st of August 
for Quinsan, and sent for reinforcements to Eahpoo, for 
his station was seriously threatened by the rebels. 
The next day he proceeded in the Cricket to Eahpoo, 
where the rebels were in great force on all sides ; not 
less than 40,000, led by Europeans, and coming up to 
close quarters. Having a howitzer and shell, they 
blew up one gunboat ; and for the protection of the 
steamers it was necessary to reinforce the stockades by 
infantry and artillery. While all these attacks were 
repulsed, the rebels employed themselves in burning 
the villages around. 

Gordon resolutely held on to Kahpoo and Quinsan, 

7 



98 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

feeling that if those strongholds were lost Shanghai 
would soon follow. To relieve his anxiety, he was 
obliged to move constantly between Qoinsan and 
Eahpoo ; for he had no officer fit to undertake the de- 
fence of the latter place, or to keep the rebels in check. 
Some account of his movements, and his views on 
the situation of affairs at this time, may be gathered from 
the following letter, dated Quinsan, 1 2th August : 

' Since my last Burgevine has joined the rebels, and 
they have tried hard to take Eahpoo, which is on the 
Grand Canal. We have, however, repulsed all their 
attacks, and they have now retired into Soochow. I 
think the rebels will soon get very tired of their auxiliaries 
and the latter of the rebels. Thirty of them deserted 
the other day, and came back to Shanghai. We had a 
field-fight with the rebels at Eahpoo, and drove them 
back two miles, burning their camp. They had become 
very audacious, and had come up close to the stockades, 
throwing fireballs into the same. The Mandarins are 
not a particularly nice set. There is nothing interesting 
about them; in fact, the Chinese are much more 
matter-of-fact people than Europe gives them credit for. 
I dare say yon may have alarming news about the 
rebels this mail, but I can answer that this is 
exaggerated. There is no doubt but that the accession 
of Burgevine will give them some little spirit, but it 
cannot, in my opinion, last. The whole country 
around Wokong is flat, and intersected with large 
creeks. There are no roads^ except the one leading 
to Hangchow from Soochow ; and this one we now hold 
by the stockades at Eahpoo. ... I am in a very isolated 
position, and have to do most of my work myself, 



B URGE VINE BECOMES A WANG. 99 

\?hich accounts for my not writing at greater length to 
yon. We took a large number of prisoners and let 
them go, having made soldiers of some of them. They 
are only too happy to get away from the rebels/ 

A fortnight later there comes an allusion to the 
prospects of the Imperialists and of the fall of 
Soochow : 

*Quinsan, 24th August, 1863. 

' The fact that Burgevine has joined the rebels will 
no doubt very much prolong the rebellion, which, 
humanly speaking, would have almost been put down 
this year, and 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 with the 
changed aspect of affairs; added to which is the idea 
which the Imperialists have got into their heads that they 
can defeat the rebels in the field, which they cannot do. 
I did not give much credit to the rumours of Burgevine 
having joined the rebels till after the capture of Wo- 
kong, when the animated attack of the rebels suddenly 
awakened me. We repulsed their attack with success, 
and drove them back ; but I saw enough to deter me 
from attacking Soochow for the present. We hold a 
good position, and as Sherard Osborne ought to be 
soon here, I do not wish to risk anythmg. Many 
people urge me to attack, but my opinion is so much 
against it that their persuasion will be in vain for the 
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. We have 
been very fortunate up to this, losing no more than 
80 to 40 men in all our engagements, and not more 
than 60 to 80 wounded ; and though it might be a fine 

7—2 



\\ 



100 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

thing to take Soochow before Sherard Osborne arrived, 
I do not intend to run any risk. We have by the 
capture of Wokong very seriously affected the rebels ; 
and if I can carry oat my plan of taking Woosieh, 
and thus surrounding Soochow, I do not think it will 
be necessary to attack that place, but think they will 
leave. 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 contending with a faction almost blockaded, 
and drawing on exhaustible funds. The Imperialists 
are not likely to feel any great liking for foreigners 
after the way they have been treated by them. I am 
thinking of attacking a fortified post of the rebels at 
Pingwang, which threatens the city of Wokong, in a 
few days, and from which they have lately been making 
raids into the Imperialists' territory/ 

General Brown, from his headquarters at Shanghai, 
lost no time in communicating with the Secretary of 
War on the perilous position of Gordon's force. In a 
despatch of September 14, he describes Gordon as 
entirely in the hands of men formerly in the pay of 
Ward and in communication with Burgevine, who had 
already tampered with some of the officers and lured 
over many to his side. The guns and munitions of 
war in Gordon's possession, furnished to him with the 
sanction of the British Government, were in peril, 
through treachery, of falling into the hands of the 
rebels. This would render General Brown's own 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. loi 

position most critical at Shanghai^ he having no 
larger description of ordnance to contend against the 
rebels with than that which might be brought against 
him. These circumstances decided General Brown to 
visit Gordon's head-quarters in person, and to inspect 
his garrison. He found these in a very efficient state ; 
nevertheless he considered it would be rash in the 
extreme for Gordon to hazard an attack. 

Three days previous to the date of the despatch 
alluded to, Gordon was taking a more hopeful view of 
afihirs, as may be seen from the following characteristic 
letter: 

'Quinsan, 11th September, 1863. 

^ I have determined not to attack Soochow till Sherard 
Osborne arrives, for Burgevine's defection has very 
much increased the strength of the rebels, and it does 
not do to risk anything. I expect the rebels will very 
soon get sick of their men, and, in fact, cannot pay 
them what they promise. They are quiet, and our 
stockades are around two-thirds of the city, distant 
from here some twenty miles. Burgevine's boy, who 
acted as his interpreter, has run out, and says that 
Burgevine tells the Wangs all about the settlement and 
about the Force, etc., etc., which interests the Wangs 
very much. He is in good health, and very indolent ; 
he has a nice lot with him, all the scum of Shanghai, 
which may be said to be celebrated for its produce in 
that way. He is not allowed to send money out of 
Soochow, so I expect the rebels intend eventually to 
take it all back again : this would not be the first 
time they had done a similar thing. An intercepted 



I02 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

letter from Bnrgevine says he has thirty to forty men 
who are with him, and who declare they will run away 
at the first opportunity, and he does not know where to 
send them. 

' I was at first rather afraid of treachery among my 
officers, hut now have no fear. One gentleman I turned 
away I found had heen corresponding for some time 
with Burgevine, hut he was such an owlet that it made 
no difference. Burgevine wrote to me two days before 
he joined the rebels, saying that he would come and 
see me^ and that I was not to believe any of the reports 
about him, and that he would explain everything. I 
believe he now regrets his conduct. 

^The presence of Europeans has not in any way 
changed the barbarities perpetrated by the rebels ; they 
bum away as hard as ever round the city, and this 
place is foil of poor destitute people, who are fed by 
subscriptions. They did not like the repulse at Eahpoo 
at all, and have not repeated it. The agents of 
Burgevine have been trying in vain to get the men 
over.' 

In yet more hopeiul terms Gordon continues his 
narrative as follows : 



' Camp, Waiquaidong, two miles east of Soochow. 

' 25th September, 1863. 

' I am now encamped in support of the Imperialists, 
who are stockaded some 1,800 yards from the walls. 
The Imperialists having moved up so close oblige me to 
have part of my force nearer them for support, and 
the weather being delightful, it is very agreeable. The 
rebels have made great efforts to drive the Imperialists 
away, but without success, and our present position 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 103 

is extremely strong. Bnrgevine has been down at 
Shanghai, and escaped by a very little being captnred. 
The United States Marshal, who has a nephew in this 
force, was seized in a lorcha with nine others ; two 
other boats with arms were captured, and Burgevine 
jumped into the river. This shows what men these 
Americans are. This United States Marshal pretended 
that no one was on board the boat ; but the men were 
found below. I do not think I told you that Kongzu 
was taken by the Imperialists ; this is very important^ 
as they have no place but Hangchow by which they 
(the rebels) can now get arms, and I expect Burgevine 
will lose caste by his mishap ; the rebels do not generally 
make much allowance. • . A great many Europeans 
have left him, and I think there are not more than 
thirty or forty there now. The Imperialists here are 
very good, and we get on very well with them ; they 
make first-rate stockades, and work willingly. We 
have now some native troops at Quinsan, and at 
Taitsan; also some of H. M.'s 67th at the latter place. 
The rebel shells are very poor things, not one ii^ twenty 
bursts ; they have some of brass, but they are not much 
better. The rebels are not in very good spirits, and 
are moving their things southward towards Wuchu, 
through the Taho Lake.' 

Events were now progressing more favourably for 
the Ever Victorious Army, and the spirits of the Com- 
mander rose as he more clearly discerned the final 
success of his cause. His next letter is written at 
Fatachow, on the day following the capture of that 
place. 



I04 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

'Stockades, Patachow, 30th September, 1863. 

' Finding that the Imperialists were incommoded by 
the presence of some stockades at Fatachow, I deter- 
mined to attack these. The stockades were very feebly 
held, and the loss in capturing them nil. In repulsing 
an attack made to recapture them, we had five men 
wounded. The rebels are now threatened on the south 
as well as the east, and I heard to-day that the rebels 
had approached close to Woosieh. The Patachow 
Bridge is a fifty-three arched bridge, 300 yards long. 
I am very sorry to say that twenty-six of the arches 
fell in yesterday like a pack of cards, killing two men ; 
ten others escaped by running as the arches fell one 
after another as fast as a man could run. It made a 
tremendous noise, and my boat was nearly smashed by 
the ruins. I regret it immensely, as it was unique and 
very old ; in fact a thing to come some distance to see. 
I am afraid it was my fault, as I had commenced 
removing an archway to let a steamer through into the 
Taho Lake, and this caused the fall, as each arch 
rested on the other. Two men were saved, though 
they fell in the water. Matters go very badly for the 
rebels, and I expect in two or three mails to be able to 
announce the fall of Soochow. We are now two miles 
from it on the Grand Canal. The steamers do great 
execution. We attacked Patachow at 11 a.m., and 
took it by outflanking and threatening the use of the 
stockades ; it was a very simple affair.' 

One evening Gordon was seated alone on the. parapet 
of the bridge — referred to in the preceding letter — 
smoking a cigar, when two shots in succession struck 
the stone on which he sat. These shots, which were 
purely accidental, had come from his own camp, it not 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 105 

being known that he was there. On the second striking 
the seat, he thonght it time to descend, and rowed 
across the creek to make inquiries as to what was 
going on. He had not been long on the river when 
that part of the bridge on which he had been seated 
gave way, and fell into the water, nearly smashing his 
boat. This narrow escape from falling through with 
the rains, to which he does not himself allude, is one 
of those incidents which added not a little to the 
reputation he had acquired of having a charmed life. 

At Patachow negotiations were opened with him by 
the Europeans in the Tai-ping service ; many of these 
had formerly been his comrades, though now serving on 
the other side. The communication these men had to 
make was that they were by no means satisfied with 
their position at Soochow, and that they desired him 
to meet and talk on the subject with Burgevine, who 
was of the same mind. These conferences were to 
take place on a bridge between the opposing lines. 

Dangerous as the business was, Gordon at once agreed 
to it. Burgevine stated that he and his men had 
resolved to quit the rebel service ; but that they would 
not do so unless they could obtain some guarantee of 
their not being held responsible to the Imperial Govern- 
ment. On this Gordon undertook that the authorities 
at Shanghai should let the matter drop, and even 
pflfered to take as many of the men as he could, and 
assist the rest to leave the country. 



io6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The repulse of his first attempt npon Gordon in the 
field had dispirited Bnrgevine, who was slow in his 
movements, and could not contend against the brilliant 
and rapid manoBuvres of his opponent. The negotia- 
tions led to nothing at the moment, except that in a 
measure they rallied Burgevine's spirits. In his next 
interview with Gordon he betrayed an ambition he 
had long indulged in. His dream had been to found an 
empire for himself, and he had fixed on China as a fit 
country in which to fulfil it. He even proposed that 
Gordon should join him. They would seize on Soo- 
chow, expel both rebels and Imperialists, lay hands on 
the treasure contained therein, raise an army of 20,000 
men, and march on Fekin. Gordon indignantly dis- 
pelled these hallucinations, and curtly informed him he 
would entertain no such idea. 

Meantime much fighting was going on, and a des- 
perate and futile attempt was made by the rebels to 
re-take Wokong. Though the recent negotiations had 
seemed to end in nothing, they were soon to bear fruit. 
Burgevine and his gang had convinced themselves of 
one thing, that they could rely on Gordon's word ; and 
they sent him secret information to the effect that they 
purposed to make a sally, with a view to deserting and 
throwing themselves on his protection. The manner 
of doing this was agreed on : seeing a signal-rocket 
from Gordon's lines, they were to board the Kyscm as 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 107 

if intent on her capture. This they did with such a 
show of purpose that thousands of the Tai-ping troops 
rushed to their assistance^ but these were repulsed with 
shot and shell, while the Kyscm steamed back and 
safely landed the deserters in the besieging camp. 
Burgevine and several other of the Europeans were, 
however, not among them. Morton, their leader, said 
that the Moh-Wang, the commander, seemed to suspect 
them, so they thought it wise to leave at once without 
waiting for the rest. 

The majority of these deserters were seamen who 
had been lured into Soochow with little idea as to their 
destination. Their condition was pitiable in the ex- 
treme, and their gratitude on finding themselves within 
Gordon's lines was hardly less touching. Nearly all of 
them volunteered to stay and fight for him to whom 
they owed their release from starvation and death. 
Gordon, immediately he heard of Burgevine's detention, 
wrote and despatched the following letter"^ to two of 
the principal Wangs of Soochow : 

< Stockades, Patachow, 16th October, 1863. 

* To their Excellencies, Chung Wang, Moh Wang. 

* YouB Excellencies, 

^ You must be already aware that I have on 
all occasions, when it lay in my power, been merciful to 

* Some of the words in this letter were obliterated by blood- 
spots, under circumstances to be shown later. 



io8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON 

your soldiers when taken prisoners, and not only been 
so myself, but have nsed every endeavour to prevent 
the Imperial authorities from practising any inhumanity. 
Ask for the truth of this statement any of the men who 
were taken at Wokong, and who, some of them, must 
have returned to Soochow, as I placed no restriction on 
them whatever. 

' Having stated the above, I now ask your Excel- 
lencies to consider the case of the Europeans in your 
service. In every army each soldier must be actuated 
with faithful feelings to fight well. 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 to you much better 
to let these men quietly leave, your service if they wish 
it ; you would thereby get rid of a continual source of 
suspicion, gain the sympathy of the whole of the foreign 
nations, and feel that your difficulties are all from with- 
out. Your Excellencies may think that decapitation 
would soon settle the matter, but you would then be 
guilty of a crime which will bear its fruits sooner or 
later. In this force officers and men come and go at 
pleasure, and although it is inconvenient at times, I am 
never apprehensive of treason from within. Your 
Excellencies may rely on what I say, that should you 
behead the Europeans who are with you, or retain them 
against their free will, you will eventuaUy regret it. 
The men have committed no crime, and they have done 
you good service, 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. 

* The men could have done you great harm, as you 
will no doubt allow ; they have not done so, and I con- 



BURGEVINE BECOMES^ A WANG. 109 

sider that your Excellencies have reaped great benefit 
from their assistance. As far as I am personally con- 
cerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the men 
stay or leave ; but as a man who wishes to save these 
nnfortonate men, I intercede. 

< Yoor Excellencies may depend you will not suffer 
by letting these men go ; you need not fear their com- 
municating information. I knew your force, men and 
guns, long ago, and therefore care not to get that in- 
formation from them. If my entreaties are unavailing 
for these men in ... . yourself by sending down the 
wounded, and perform an action never to be regretted. 

^ I write the above with my own hand, as I do not 
wish to entrust the matter to a linguist ; and trusting 
you will accede to my request, I conclude, 

* Your Excellencies' obedient servant, 

* C. G. Gordon, 

^ Major Commanding.' 

In a letter written from the Patachow Stockades, 
dated 19th October, 1863, Gordon gives some account 
of these events : 

^ The day after the fall of the Patachow Bridge we 
saw the smoke-stack of the Kiachiao steamer under the 
bridge near Soochow, and this being suspicious, I moved 
up a boat to reconnoitre with a 24-pounder howitzer. 
The rebels remained quiet till we came up to 1,000 
yards of their position, when they opened fire from a 
82-pounder9 which they had on a boat, and from the 
Kiachiao J and made us fall back to the stockades. Their 
infantry tried at the same time to turn our flanks, but 
we made sorties and soon drove them back. The fight 



no THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON, 

began about 1 p.m., and lasted till 6 p.m. ; the loss on 
our side was trifling, the rebels lost 200 killed and 
wounded. The next day overtures were made to me 
by Burgevine and others to come over. These meet- 
ings went on from day to day owing to the difficulties 
that intervened as to coming over ; and although they 
did come over to the number of thirty-six, Burgevine 
and others were suspected and retained. The denoAment 
of the affair took place on the 1 6th October. On the 
14th October, Wokong, a town on the Grand Canal 
below this, was threatened by the head rebel chief of 
Taitsan Tsah and three Wangs with 2,000 men. The 
Imperials had tried to drive them away, but had been 
repulsed, and as the city had only three day^' provisions 
I had to go down with 600 men from this. The rebels 
were very strongly posted, and we had a very heavy 
fight for three hours, dislodging them with difficulty, but 
eventually capturing six stockades and pursuing them 
for ten miles. The rebels fought very well, and our 
loss was heavy, being thirty killed and wounded. 

^ After Burgevine had been arrested, and the thirty- 
six Europeans had come over, I wrote to the rebel 
chiefs to tell them that the men who had left him had 
done what might be expected from the way they were 
treated, and told them that the foreign nations looked 
with disfavour at the forcible retention of Europeans. 
Moh Wang answered me in very polite style, and said 
that Europeans had no reason to run away, as they were 
free to come and to go. He said he would wish much 
to see me, and would guarantee my safety, etc. ; also 
that the Europeans who had run away had taken away 
gunboats, arms, horses, etc. I answered that I sent 
back the boat and arms the men had taken, and assured 
him they had taken no horses. He said in his letter 
that Burgevine had promised him great things, and had 



B URGE VINE BECOMES A WANG. 1 1 1 

done nothing. He asked the messenger a great deal 
about me, and if it were possible to buy me over, and 
was told it was not. He asked why the Europeans 
wanted to run away, and was told that it was because 
they saw there was no chance of success. He said, 
*' Do you think that Gordon will take the city ?" and 
was told, ^^Yes." This seemed to make him reflect. 
The messenger told me the city is and was in great 
confusion, as it is not only the departure of the 
Europeans that affects them, but the fact of these 
Europeans being of opinion that the cause is lost. 
Burgevine is safe, dud not badly treated. I am trying 
my utmost to get him out ; and then, if I can see a man 
to take my place, I shall leave this service, my object 
being gained — ^namely, to show the public what they 
doubted, that there were English officers who could 
conduct operations as well as mates of ships, and also 
to rid the neighbourhood of Shanghai of these free- 
booters. I care nothing for a high name. If I had, 
I should have written far more about the various 
fights. My hope is that the Chinese Government may 
feel that they have been fairly treated by me, and learn 
that we are not aU actuated by greed. That they do 
so now I believe, as they have every confidence in me. 
'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 
to General Staveley a little time ago, I feel convinced 
that the rebel chiefs would come to terms if they had 
fair ones offered them. I mean to do my best to bring 
these about ; and I am sure that if I do so, I shall gain 
a greater victory than any captures of cities would be. 
Sherard Osborne has made what to others would be very 
tempting offers ; but he does not know my character or 
feelings. I am determined to leave the command, even 



112 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

if on the eve of certain victory, as soon as I can get a 
man to take my place. ... I am very hard-worked 
now, and, as you may imagine, have to write a great 
deal ojQSicially. The whole of the late defection has 
been a nasty business {laidA the newspapers), and so 
distasteful that I will not inflict it on yon. Now to 
leave a very distasteful subject/ 

Gordon feared that Burgevine would be decapitated 
in consequence of what had happened; and for this 
reason he had at once sent the letter and presents to 
Moh-Wang, together with all the Enfields brought into 
camp, and entreated him to spare Burgevine's life. It 
is recorded that after these events the Tai-pmg chief 
sent Burgevine away in safety, and delivered him up to 
the American Consul. At Gordon's request, all pro- 
ceedings against him were waived on condition that he 
left the country. When these affairs were investigated 
by Mr. Mayers, the acting British Consul at Shanghai, 
who was sent to inquire into them, the desperate 
character of Burgevine was fully brought to light. 
That gentleman stated in an official letter that at the 
very moment when the interviews were proceeding, in 
which Burgevine offered to surrender, he was planning 
with Jones, his lieutenant, to entrap the man on whose 
mercy he had cast himself and his followers. His 
companion, desperate as he was, had some honesty left, 
and revolted against such treachery. This, among 
other things, gave rise to much ill-feeling against him 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 113 

in his Captain's mind. Bat for the fact that Gordon's 
frankness had no untoward result^ the confidence with 
which, at the risk of his lifOi he negotiated with others, 
one would say displayed a want of that common pru- 
dence which others find so necessary. 

As has been said, the foreigners were most grateful 
to Gordon for the skill with which he had planned and 
carried out their escape on the Hyson. Their gratitude 
was warmly expressed in a deposition afterwards made 
before the United States Consul, by Jones, Morton, 
Porter, Barclay, and Whiting. This document gives a 
very full account of the plot and counter-plot between 
Burgevine and those of his friends who had not lost 
aU confidence in him, but who had resolved on desert- 
ing him after a drunken outrage of which he was 
guilty in firing on his lieutenant, Jones. It is thus 
described by Jones himself: 

* At noon I went to Burgevine, who was lying asleep 
on board a 32-pounder gunboat, and asked him whether 
I should assist him to get ashore, as many of our 
officers and men were making remarks on the condition 
he was in. On his demanding the names of those who 
had made remarks, I declined giving them, and shortly 
afterwards again attempted to remonstrate with him, 
in company with another officer. On my again declin- 
ing to give up names, Burgevine drew out his four- 
barrelled pistol, which he cocked and discharged at 
my head from a distance of about nine inches. The 
ballet entered my left cheek and passed upwards. It 

8 



114 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

has not yet been extracted. I exclaimed, ^^Yon have 
shot your best firiend !" His answer was, " I know I 
have, and I wish to God I had killed yon I'' ' 

Bnrgevine fully confirmed the truth of the above 
statement in a letter which he sent to a local paper, 
in which he said : 

^ Captain Jones's account of the afiair 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. 

Owing to the heat of the weather there had been 
great inactivity in the garrison, and the men were 
falling sick. This determined Gordon to remove from 
Quinsan and encamp at Wai-Quaidong, six miles from 
the East Gate of Soochow, the doomed city. Mean- 
time McCartney had been doing good service in various 
ways ; but the Imperialists, though in certain cases 
they fought to some purpose, were guilty of more than 
one mistake. This was owing to the blundering 
arrogance of Ching, who before attacking, steadily 
refused to consult with Gordon as to his intentions. 
The consequence was that while Gordon was making 
the greatest efforts to effect the escape of Burgevine 
and his party from Soochow, Ching, on his own account, 
was marching a force on the East Gate of that city. 
Thus the foreigners, whose release was imminent, were 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 115 

ordered by the rebel Wang within the walls to the 
point of attack, and the scheme for their escape 
was thwarted. It was brought about later on, but 
only because the feint planned by Gordon was com- 
plete. When they got away, it was at the risk of their 
lives and of those who were forced to remain behind. 
It is not necessary to give in detail the difficulties 
which Gordon encountered through the clumsy ma- 
noeuvres of his Chinese colleague. It will be enough 
to say that they were great indeed, uxasmuch as it was 
the opinion of on-lookers at Shanghai that, with Ching 
on his hands, it would be impossible for him, even after 
the successes he had achieved, ever to take Soochow. 
With the overwhelming numbers in his front, the vast 
extent of territory he had to protect, the rough and 
disorderly condition of his men, and the little support 
afforded by the Imperial Government, it seemed beyond 
hope that even he could succeed ; and many were the 
cries from all quarters that, unless Gordon were given 
the entire command of the allied troops, defeat was 
inevitable, and his death a not unlikely result of the 
campaign. With this command he was never entrusted ; 
and we shall presently see what were the fortunes of 
war in his hands, as the Captain of his mutinous and 
now sickly force. 

His advance had been checked by various attacks 
of the rebels^ now at Wokong, now at Wulungchiao, a 

8—2 



ii6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

village abont two miles to the west of Fatachow, and 
a mile and three quarters only from the South Gate of 
Soochow. But all these had been repulsed, as well 
as an assault on Chanzu. 

A letter written by him from Wulungchiao, in the 
intervals of engagements with the enemy, gives a vivid 
idea of what went on. 

* You will remember my having mentioned the fact 
of the Europeans and Burgevine having come over 
from the rebels. Since then the following have been 
our movements : We started for the Fifty-three Arch 
Bridge (alas! now only twenty-seven arched), Pata- 
chow, and made a great detour by the lakes to Eahpoo 
to throw the rebels off the scent. We left at 2 p.m., 
and although the place, Wulungchiao, which I wanted 
to attack was only 1 \ miles to the west of Fatachow, I 
made a detour of 30 miles to confuse them, on a side 
they were not prepared for. It turned out wet, and 
the night of the 23rd October was miserable enough, 
cooped up in boats as we were. However, it cleared a 
little before dawn, and about 7 a.m. we came on the 
stockades. I had asked the Imperialists, under 
General Ching, to delay their attack from Fatachow 
till I had become well engaged ; but as usual General 
Ching must needs begin at 6.30 a.m., and he got a 
good dressing from the rebels and was forced to retfre. 
His loss was 19 killed and 67 wounded, while the 
Taho gunboat admiral, who had abetted him in his 
tom-fooling, lost 30 killed and wounded. We lost 
none ; three were slightly bruised. The head chief of 
Soochow, Moh-Wang, knew we were out, but had no 
idea of our going to Wulungchiao. He is greatly 



B URGE VINE BECOMES A WANG. 1 1 7 

angered, and in addition to this has had trouble with 
his brother WangSi who reproach him for having 
tmsted the Enropeans and for neglecting them. Eleven 
out of twenty-seven Wangs refused to go out and fight. 
Yesterday afternoon a European lefk Soochow and 
came over. I had met him before, and consider that 
he had acted in a very brave manner in remaining in 
Soochow. He says Moh-Wang does not understand 
our movementSi and is very much put out at the loss 
of this place. They tried to take it back again on the 
25th at dusk, but got defeated/ 

• 29th October, 1863. 

* Since my last letter an expedition went out to drive 
the rebels away from Wokong; they had had the 
temerity to return there, after their defeat on the 13th, 
and occupied nearly the same position. I sent a 
steamer this time, and the result was a most tremendous 
victory, almost equal to the Quinsan affair, and result- 
ing from the same cause, namely, the rebels being 
driven out of their position, had to retreat along a 
narrow road running along the bank of the Grand Canal 
and close to it. They could not leave the road, and 
there are innumerable large creeks passing from it at 
right angles into the Taho Lake, and only spanned by 
bridges on this road. These bridges are narrow and 
high, and one person or two can only pass over at one 
time. Thus you may imagine the delay which occurs 
at each bridge ; frequently the road was about 3 or 4 
feet wide for 200 or 300 yards, having a lake or ditch 
on one side and the Grand Canal on the other. I will 
not give details, as I have no time ; suffice it to say that 
after the flanks of their position were turned, the rebels 
began their retreat on Pingwang, and had 12 miles of 
the above road to traverse under fire of the steamer. 



ii8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

and pnrsned by the troops. Abont 3,000 to 4,000 
got away, one Wang and 1,300 prisoners were taken, 
and one Wang and some men were drowned. The 
rush of the fugitives was met by a reinforcement from 
Pingwang on a high bridge, and the former swept the 
latter in one mass into the lake. The value of the 
victory is that we now have no fear for our rear, and I 
believe that the rebels in the silk districts seriously 
think of giving in. In the meantime I am preparing 
an attack on the north of the city, which will take 
place about the 1st November^. You will see all the 
Burgevine affair in the papers. I am afraid he is a 
rascal, but I acted to the best of my judgment. I told 
you I had been attacked here. It was Chung Wang 
and his son who attacked, and had to swim the creek 
in consequence of our having cut off their retreat.' 

The crowning mercy of the campaign was soon to 
come. After making a strong disposition of the Im- 
perial forces both at the outposts and on the Great 
Lake, Gordon swept round by the eastward of Soochow 
to the north with his siege-train and the Hyson, to 
reduce the remaining outposts held by the Tai-pings 
around the city. He carried Leeku by assault, and in 
the course of the next few days captured and occupied 
points which completed the investment of the city, 
Within it were 30,000 Tai-pings. 

In almost all these engagements, Gordon found it 
necessary to be constantly in the front, and often to 
lead in person. The oflficers of his force were brave 
men enough, but were not always ready to face their 



BVRGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 119 

desperate antagonists. Gordon, in his mild way, would 
take one or other of these by the arm, and lead him 
into the thick of the fire. He always went unarmed 
himself, even when foremost in the breach. He never 
recognised danger ; to him a shower of bullets was no 
more than a hail-storm. He carried one weapon to 
direct his troops — he had but a little cane^ and this 
soon won for itself the name of ^ Gordon's magic wand 
of victory.' His Chinese followers, seeing him always 
victorious, always foremost in the fight, concluded it 
was his wand that ensured him protection. The idea 
encouraged the Ever Victorious Army greatly, and was 
of more service to the young Commander than all the 
arms he could have borne. 

Some days previously to the assault on Leeku, 
Gordon found a letter in the handwriting of one of his 
officers, Captain Ferry. It informed a Tai-ping sym- 
pathizer of the intended movements of the force. 
Captain Ferry confessed he had written the letter, but 
declared he thought the facts were of no importance ; it 
was only meant as a piece of gossip. To this statement 
Gordon replied: ^I shall pass your fault over this 
time, on condition that, in order to show your loyalty, 
you xmdertake to lead the next forlorn hope/ But 
Gordon had forgotten the severe test to which he had 
pledged his comrade, when a few days later they stood 
together by the ditch in front of the stockade. Both 



120 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

were leading a forlorn hope, when a ball stmck Perry 
in the mouth. He fell screaming into his Captain's 
arms, and almost immediately expired. 

' I have another report to make to you of our opera- 
tions/ says Gordon in allusion to the late engagement: 
' We started from Wai-Quaidong on the 31st October, and 
slept the night at Ding-King. At 4 a.m. we left for 
Leeku, and haying met the Imperial forces some 16,000 
strong at Ghowdong, we advanced at 11 a.m: to attack. 
We began the action at 12.80 p.m., and got round their 
right flank, but as they had another road they did not 
move. We, therefore, carried it with a rush. I am 
sorry to say an officer, a very good one. Lieutenant 
Perry, was killed. Only 3 men were slightly wounded. 
The rebels fought well, and held on to the last ; they 
lost some 40 to 60 killed, and we took 3 gunboats, 
about 40 other boats, and some 60 prisoners ; I have 
no time to give details.' 

He further writes on the 3rd of November : 

^ We yesterday, after a hard fight, took all the 
stockades up to the walls along the east face of the 
city, and last night four Wangs came in to negociate a 
surrender. I think that this is likely, and the heaviest 
part of our fighting is over. The rebels are having 
great troubles among themselves, and have to pay 
largely for their food.' 

The next point of attack was Wanti, where, as well 
as at Leeku, it was Gordon's aim to station a part of 
the force. The surrender of Wanti meant the almost 



BURGEVINE BECOMES A WANG. 121 

complete investment of Soochow; for so soon as 
stockades and forts were captnred by the Ever- 
Victorious Army, they had been garrisoned by Im- 
perialist troops. With this exception, then, all the 
waterways and roads leading from the devoted city 
were now closed. 

Eleven days after his arrival at and capture of 
Leeku, Gordon went to the attack of Wanti The 
place was so strongly fortified that the heaviest shelling 
was of no avail. He, however, lost no time in sur- 
rounding it, and took it by assault in less than an 
hour. The rebels, terror-stricken at his approach, 
began to make their escape in large numbers, and 
a series of fierce hand-to-hand fights followed outside 
the walls. 

Gordon thus gives his own account of the affair : 

^ Since I last wrote we have had another fight, 
and have happily driven the rebels out of this stockade. 
We left Leeku on the 11th November, and had 
two miles to go before we came here. We managed 
to completely surround the place, and took it by 
assault in three quarters of an hour. I am sorry 
we had one officer killed and twenty men wounded. 
The casualties were more numerous from our men 
having had a cross fire from our own artillery. 
The rebels fought very bravely, and we took 600 
prisoners, and I do not think more than 10 got 
away. Their loss was heavy, some 350 ; this was 
owing in a great measure to the fire of the artillery. 



122 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

I had men fighting here who had fought against us 
a week ago at Leeku. They behaved very well. 
From what the prisoners say, the rebels are much 
disheartened. We took all their head men prisoners. 
You will see a *place called Tajowka on the map ; 
this stockade was the one attacked by Burgevine 
and Chung-Wang, and where the Kajow steamer was 
blown up. I do not know if I mentioned that Lai- 
Wang, who was in charge of the northern stockades, 
had offered to come over with his force, some 20,000 
men. Unfortunately he was killed in one of the 
skirmishes which took place after the capture of 
LeekUy and thus his defection did not take place. 
The head men here say the rebels almost despair 
of holding the city. I hope sincerely they will leave 
it, as it ruins the soldiers to plunder after the capture. 
The Burgevine party are a nice lot, but their defectioa 
has been a great thing for the Imperials, and has 
caused a corresponding depression on the side of 
the rebels. I think a map explains the advantages of 
a position far better than any description ; it will 
suffice to say that there is only one stockade to 
take to cut off the rebel retreat, which we hope to have 
in a few days. The investment of the city will be 
then complete, and dissension may work the fall of 
the place when they have only two months' rice. I sent 
an expedition into the Taho Lake about the time I 
started for the attack on Leeku, and the steamer has 
just returned, having captured six gunboats, four high 
chiefs and some hundred prisoners, and two stockades ; 
another expedition will start in a day or two of two 
steamers and infantry. The place I propose to attack 
is Mouding, on the Grand Canal ; it is only four miles 
from there to the lake, and the rebels there have 
no option but to surrender. The Imperialists will 



SURGE VINE BECOMES A WANG. 123 

guarantee their safety, and more than three-fourths 
of them would jump at the chance/ 

We shall presently see how guarantees, when assured 
by the Imperialists^ were disregarded, and what fatal 
consequences ensued from their violation. 



CHAPTER VL 

THE MUBDEB OF THE EINOS. 

In the investment of Soochow there were employed 
8ome 13,000 to 14,000 men, of which between 3,000 
and 4,000 were under Gordon's orders. But in the 
neighbourhood there were 25,000 Imperialists besides, 
whose centre was at Fushan, and who were under 
General Ching. The Tai-pings had 40,000 men at 
Soochow and the suburbs alone, with 20,000 more in 
the city of Wusieh, and 18,000 in Mahtanchiao, a 
place between Wusieh and Soochow, whence Chung 
Wang, the Faithful King, could attack on the flank any 
advance on the Grand Canal. 

Gordon knew all this, and was alive to the danger 
of such overwhelming forces. But he had made his 
calculations. He knew the Faithful King could only 
approach Soochow on the east of his outlying armies, 
at the imminent risk of exposing Nanking, and of 
losing Hangchow, as well as the city actually under 
siege. On his part, the Tai-ping leader knew that 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 125 

Nanking was hard pressed, and that should that 
capital be wrested from him, the rebellion could no 
longer be sustained. The works around the Kaiachiao 
&ate of Nanking had been already evacuated, and the 
city was beleaguered. This intelligence was in Gordon's 
possession ; it had been intercepted by the Imperialists 
at the very moment when the action of the Faithful 
King was paralyzed, and his forces could move neither 
one way nor the other without danger of rout and 
destruction. Gordon determined on a vigorous assault 
upon the north-east angle of the Soochow wall. First 
of all, however, he tried to capture a formidable inner 
line of the outer defences, and he accordingly made 
a night attack. This resulted in defeat, for the 
place was extraordinarily strong and well guarded. 
About one o'clock in the morning the young Com- 
mander himself, with Majors Howard and Williams, 
advanced to the outer stockade, leaving the remainder 
of his force under orders to come on at a given signal. 
All were dressed in white turbans, in order that 
they might not mistake each other for the enemy in 
the dark. Everything seemed quiet, and an advance- 
guard succeeded in climbing the breastwork. Scarcely 
were the troops at the front engaged on the stockade 
to support their commander, when the Tai-pings opened 
a tremendous fire of grape and musketry. The rebel 
line seemed one line of fire, while the attacking party 



126 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

were throwing rockets and* shell. The leading files, 
with Gordon at their head, held gallantly on at the 
breastwork, bat those detailed to support them failed 
to move up, and Gordon was compelled to retire; The 
rebels, though they had the best of it, did not seem to 
like fighting in the dark. The exception was Moh- 
Wang, who was in the front stockade, without shoes or 
stockings, and who fought like a private soldier, with 
twenty Europeans at his side. The attack, though 
unsuccessful, made a strong impression. The rebel 
/oss, the work of twenty guns which during three hours 
poured out shot and shell, was enormous. Of the Ever 
Victorious Army, 60 rank and file were killed, and 
130 wounded, besides a large number of officers. 

Next morning General Ching had an interview with 
the Faithful King, and learned that there was great 
dissension among the Wangs in Soochow. It appeared 
that, with the exception of Moh-Wang and 35 other 
chiefs, these were anxious to come over to the Imperialists 
with 30,000 men. It had become evident to the 
leaders that, in spite of their success of the night before, 
the fall of their city was only a work of time, and they 
therefore proposed that Gordon should make another 
attack on the East Gate, when they would shut Moh- 
Wang out of the city, and so get liberty to make terms 
for themselves. 

Accordingly Gordon brought siege guns and all his 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 127 

force into action, opened a tremendous fire on the 
stockades, and quickly reduced them to ruins. The 
advance was sounded, and the stockades were taken by 
assault. Gordon^ accompanied only by a few men, 
was cut off from his main body by a large party of the 
enemy, and, being unable to fall back, deemed it the 
safer course to press forward. He found the stockades 
on his right almost empty. He pushed through them, 
and seized the nearest stone fort. The stockades he 
had passed happened to be occupied by some of his 
own men, who followed up his advance and completed 
the victory. It cost the young Captain fifty privates, 
and many of the officers of his body-guard, chiefly his 
own countrymen. Many others were wounded, among 
them Major Earkham, the Adjutant General, whose 
energetic services could ill be spared. 

The following general order, dated Low Mun, 
Soochow, November 30, 1863, was issued at this 
time by Gordon : 

* The commanding officer congratulates the officers 
and men of the force on their gallant conduct of 
yesterday. The tenacity of the enemy, and the great 
strength of their position, have unfortunately caused 
many casualties, and the loss of many valuable officers 
and men. The enemy, however, has now felt our 
strength, and, although fully prepared and animated 
by the presence of their most popular chiefs, have 
been driven out of a position which surpasses in 



128 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

strength any yet taken from them. The loss of the 
whole of the stockades on the east side of the city, up 
to the walls, has already had its effect, and dissension 
is now rife in the garrison, who, hemmed in on all 
sides, are already, in fact, negotiating defection. The 
commanding officer feels most deeply for the heavy loss, 
but is convinced that the same will not be experienced 
again. The possession of the position of yesterday 
renders the occupation of the city by the rebels 
untenable, and thus victualling the city is lost to 
them/ 

Gordon, accompanied by Ching, now had an interview 
with the Wangs. They wished him to assault the city 
itself, promising not to assist in its defence, provided 
they were protected on the entry of the Imperialists. 
The arrangement presented many and great difficulties. 
Little more than 6,500 men were available for the 
attack. The walls were circumvallated by a ditch of an 
appalling width ; while north of the East Gate there 
were lines of stockades as far as the eye could reach. 
But the city was completely commanded from without, 
and was so cut off from all communication that it could 
have held out but little longer. When the Nar-Wang 
appealed to Gordon to carry it by assault, Gordon told 
him that if Soochow was thus taken, it would be im- 
possible to prevent his force from sacking and burmng 
it. He added that if the Wangs were sincere in their 
wish to surrender, their course should be to give over a 
gate as a warranty of their good faith ; that if they could 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 129 

not do this, they might either vacate the place, or fight 
it oat. They agreed to hand over a gate, and the 
arrangement of the terms of capitulation were left to 
General Ching, Gordon himself starting ofif to see Li, to 
negotiate for the safety of any prisoners. 

Meantime Moh-Wang, who was obstinate^ and re- 
solved to hold oat to the very last, had learned some- 
thing of these parleys, and had his suspicions thoroughly 
aroused. He sent for his six brother kings that he might 
speak with them on the subject. After certain cere- 
monies, they adjourned to the reception-hall, where 
Moh-Wang seated himself at the head of a table, which 
was on a dais. Unfortunately for the rebel cause, the 
chiefs thus collected together in council had each a 
separate command, and were therefore able to enforce 
their differences of opinion. Moh-Wang was captain 
of the city. He was not wise, but he was brave as a 
lion, and would have shed the last drop of his blood 
rather than surrender. Gordon knew this^ and had a 
great respect for his character. He had in person 
extorted a pledge from Governor Li that Moh-Wang's 
life should be spared, but this pledge he was never to 
call upon Li to keep. The council was the last at 
which Moh-Wang was ever to preside. The question 
of capitulation was raised and discussed : Moh-Wang 
and another voted against surrender ; all the rest were 
loua in its favour. Hot words ensued, when Kong 





130 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Wang jmnped up, threw aside his robes, drew oat a 
dagger, and stabbed Moh-Wang nine times in the back. 
Assisted by the others, he then bore his victim into the 
outer court, and severed his head from his body. This 
was the story told to Gordon on his return to the lines 
before Soochow, after pleading the cause of Moh-Wang 
and his followers with Li. 

Soochow surrendered that very night. Gordon, to 
prevent looting, withdrew his troops to some distance, 
and went a second time to confer with Li. To him 
he applied for two months' extra pay for officers and 
men, as a reward for what they had gone through^ as 
compensation for their abstaining from plunder, and 
as an inducement for them to push on with him for 
the attack of Wusieh. This boon, small as it was, 
was denied him. Later on General Ching came to him 
with an offer from Li of one month's extra pay. This 
meanness disgusted the men, who were by this time 
almost mutinous, and would rather have had a day's 
loot than four months' pay. Gordon, unable to trust 
them in the neighbourhood of a fallen city, marched 
them at once to Quinsan. 

Nearly all the fighting which led to the capitulation 
had been done, as all knew, by Gordon and Gordon's 
men. He little thought that the influence he had so 
brilliantly acquired would be set aside so soon in favour 
of Chinese principles. It was fully understood by Li 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 131 

and by Ching that humanity, as practised by the nations 
of the West, must be observed so long as Gordon was 
in command. The English leader had been promised 
as much, and looked to his Chinese comrades that the 
promise should be kept. But no sooner had Soochow 
surrendered, than he found himself completely be- 
trayed. He had exposed himself to danger with 
the coolness and daring of one who believed himself 
invulnerable, and he might well think that in thus 
perilling his life, he had earned a right to plead for the 
lives of others. Though he does not appear to have 
had any emphatic and express promise from Li that the 
rebel Wangs should be spared, it is quite certain, as 
will be seen, that Li so far acquiesced ixx his views 
and wishes as to leave him in the belief that the 
Wangs would be humanely treated. This may be 
said to have amounted to a complete understanding, 
which was unhesitatingly confirmed on every occasion 
by General Ching, who, as far as can bo gathered from 
the various accounts, was conscious of Gordon's just 
expectations in regard to what should happen when 
Soochow was given up to the Imperialists. What 
actually happened was this. Beturning from Quinsan, 
Gordon entered the city for the first time and alone. 
He was met by Ching, who informed him that Li had 
extended mercy to all. This pleased and satisfied 
Gordon, for in his negotiations with the Wangs he 

9—2 



132 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON, 

had made them the promise, endorsed by Li, that 
they should receive honourable treatment. The next 
day, December 6, Gordon again went into Soochow, to 
the house of Nar-Wang, which he reached before noon. 
He then found that the Wangs were to go out to Li, 
and formally give over the keys of the city. Gordon, 
proceeding alone towards the East Gate, met a large 
party of Imperialists who were yelling and firing their 
muskets into the air. He remonstrated with them, 
saying that their conduct would frighten the rebels, 
and lead to misunderstandings. Immediately after 
this, Ching came in at the gate, and on seeing 
Gordon became much agitated, and turned pale. The 
time of the interview between Li and the chiefs had 
passed. Gordon anxiously inquired what had been 
the result; but Ching only equivocated, and would 
give him no definite information. Gordon, who was 
on horseback, unaccompanied by anyone but his inter- 
preter, at once suspected that something had gone 
wrong, and rode towards Nar-Wang's palace to see what 
he could learn there. On his arrival he found the 
place gutted ; the Imperialists aad already begun their 
plunder. An uncle of Nar-Wang entreated him to go 
along with him to his house, and to help him in 
escorting thither the ladies of Nar- Wang's family. 
Matters already looked so threatening that Gordon 
hesitated, as he was unarmed. At length he yielded, 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 133 

pnrposing first to see the women safe^ and then to go out 
for some of his own troops, and pnt a stop to the loot- 
ing of his allies. 

So ill-organized was the local Chinese Government, 
and so independent was Li of the military com- 
manders, to whom he owed the supremacy he enjoyed, 
that he not only executed his own plans without 
reference to others, hut did not even intimate to 
Gordon — ^who was, he may possihly have helieved, 
in quarters at Quisan — ^the danger of entering the city. 
By this time he had beheaded the principal Wangs, 
and given up Soochow to plunder. Gordon's situation 
was most perilous ; what made it worse was that 
he was wholly ignorant of the massacre which had 
been secretly effected outside the town, and of which 
Ching had not had the courage to inform him. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that when he entered 
the courtyard of the house with Nar-Wang's uncle and 
his family, he at once was surrounded by some thousands 
of armed Tai-pings, who shut the gates on him as 
he went in, and declined to allow him to send out 
his interpreter with a message to his troops. Fortu- 
nately it happened that the Tai-pings no more knew 
than Gordon himself that their chiefs had been put 
to death. Had they done so, cney would have held 
Gordon responsible, and might nave put him to torture. 
As it was, they held him as a hostage for the good 



134 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

treatment of their leaders. He was kept powerless in 
the palace from the afternoon of the 6th till the 
morning of the next day, surrounded by Tai-pings, 
who knew that the city was being plundered contrary to 
treaty, and who must have surmised that bloodshed 
was going on, and that some untoward fate had over- 
taken the Wangs who had gone out to Governor Li. 
Such a suspicion might have made Gordon their victim; 
but he was left unharmed, probably from the forlorn 
hope that his presence might yet be a protection to 
themselves. Few men have looked upon death under 
circumstances so intricate and so threatening. But 
Gordon's life was to be preserved for other times and 
other events. 

By two in the morning he had prevailed on his 
captors to let his interpreter take out a letter to 
his boat, which lay at anchor under the South Gate. 
It is characteristic of him that his message contained 
no reference to himself, but consisted of an order to the 
captain of his flotilla to seize on the Governor's 
person and lay him by the heels until the Wangs were 
given up. This was a fine stroke of policy and 
perfectly sincere ; but it failed. The guide in charge 
returned alone, stating that the interpreter had 
been seized by the Imperialists, and the letter taken 
and torn up. At three o'clock the Tai-pings were 
60 far persuaded as to allow Gordon himself to go out 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 135 

in search of the missing interpreter. He reached the 
South Gate, where some Imperialist soldiers, not knoW' 
ing probably who he was, took him prisoner for being 
in the company of rebels. From them he made his 
escape, and found his way round to the East Gate where 
his body-guard was camped under Major Brookes. 
True to his purpose and to his word, he sent the 
guard at once to the protection of the Tai-pings he had 
quitted an hour before. Soon after General Ghing 
made his appearance ; but Gordon, after aU that had 
happened to himself, and all that he had witnessed 
in the city, refused to hold communication with him. 
Ghing then sent an artillery officer named Bailey 
to explain matters. But this gentleman had not 
courage to tell the truth ; and when Gordon asked him 
what had become of the Wangs, and if they were still 
prisoners, he replied that he did not know, but that he 
would bring in Nar-Wang's son, who was in his 
tent. 

The interview which followed opened Gordon's eyes. 
He learned that the Wangs had been executed on the 
previous day, and was so deeply moved at the intelli- 
gence that he burst into tears. He at once crossed the 
creek, on the other banks of which the Wangs had been 
murdered, and there he was not long in discovering 
their bodies, headless and frightfully gashed. 

It was probably the most trying moment of his life, 



136 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

and never perhaps had he before given way to so angry 
an outburst of sorrow. Not only was this butchery 
needless and brutal, but the feeling came bitterly home 
to him that his own honour was at stake. He had not 
pledged himself for their safety, but he had negotiated 
with them on the understanding, as a primary condition, 
that their lives would be spared. As we have seen, he 
had refused to hold any parley with Ching. That 
General, however, had seen enough of his state of mind 
to greatly fear the consequences, and to feel that the 
Governor's life was in danger should Gordon come in 
contact with him. Not the least offence to Gordon, 
a very flagrant one in itself — and this had not even 
been notified to him — ^was that the Imperialists had 
sacked the city. Owing to this discourtesy the man 
through whose daring and skill Soochow had fallen, 
saw himself made a prisoner and in peril of his life. 
It is not to be wondered at if Gordon was enraged 
beyond bounds ; it 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 Ching was on the alert. He was scared at the 
terrible form of Gordon's anger and contrived to give 
the Governor the alarm. Gordon boarded Li's boat, 
only to find that Li had taken refuge in the plundered 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 137 

city. Thither he hastened in pnrsuit. Li, however, 
went into hiding, and though Gordon was ^hot and 
instant in his trace ' for many days, he never came up 
With him. He had ordered up his troops to assist him 
in mnning the fugitive to earth ; hut when he'fonnd his 
efforts were in vain, he marched them hack into quarters 
at Quinsan. There, with the deepest emotion, he read 
them an account of what had happened. He intimated 
to his ofiScers that it was impossible for a British soldier 
to serve any longer under Governor Li; that he did 
not purpose to disband his force, but that he should 
hand it over to General Brown, the commander of the 
troops at Shanghai, until such time as the Government 
at Fekin should inflict on Li the punishment that was 
his due. 

Li his official investigation into the details of the 
massacre, Mr. Mayers discovered that it was doubtful 
whether the Futai and Ching ever intended to keep 
the engagement entered into. Whilst Li was panic- 
stricken about the numbers of rebel troops in the city, 
his colleague was secretly fearful lest Nar-Wang should 
eventually supplant him as commander, and had re- 
solved to destroy him. It appears, says Mr. Mayers 
in his despatch of December 14th, to Acting-Consul 
Markham, that the chiefs, on reaching the camp on 
the 6th instant, were received with friendly demonstra- 
tions by Li, who mentioned to each the decoration and 



138 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

rank he was to expect from the thronOy and then 
handed them over to General Ghing, who held them in 
colloquy until the executioners suddenly rushed upon 
them. No sooner was this act committed than the 
order was given for the troops to rush into the city 
on the east side, in the hope of terrifying the rebels and 
driving them — as actually occurred — in panic through 
the western gates.* 

So much was written at the time of this supreme 
crisis, so varying were the details recorded, that many 
will welcome Gordon's own account of the circum- 
stances. He narrated them immediately after their 
occurrence, and told the part he played during these 
eventful days. This was in a memorandum on the 
events occurring between November 28th and Decem- 
ber 6th, the day of the execution of the Wangs. On 
reading this, it becomes at once clear that Gordon 
had good reason to rely on faith being kept with the 
Wangs ; nor can one fail to be struck by the persistency 
with which General Ching strove to confirm him in his 
belief. 

* On the morning of the 28th November the head- 
quarters were moved up from Waiquaidong to General 
Ching's stockades, and General Ching came to see me ; 
he said that Kong- Wang had been to see him, and that 
he had proposed to come over with Nar-Wang, Pe- 

♦ Blue Book, * China/ No. a 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 139 

Wang, Ling- Wang, and Such-Wang, thirty-five Tiench- 
Wangs, and three-fourths of the garrison of Soochow. 
General Ghing asked me if I thought it a good thing ; 
I told him that, with the small force at my disposal, it 
would be a far safer mode, and one more likely to bring 
the rebellion to a close, than if we had to take the city 
by assault. He said that Kong-Wang was desirous to 
get Moh-Wang out of the way with his troops, and pro- 
posed to shut him out of the city if we renewed our 
attack on the stockades from which we had been re- 
pulsed in our night attack. 

' The attack of the 29th November has already been 
reported. After it General Ching came to me and told 
me that Nar-Wang had sent him a message to say that 
Chung- Wang had arrived at two o'clock a.m. on the 
29th November, and had by his presence prevented the 
execution of their designs. General Ching came to me 
again on the 1st December, to tell me that Chung- Wang 
had left the city at three o'clock a.m., and that Nar- 
Wang would send out three Tiench-Wangs to him 
(General Ching) that evening. General Ching asked 
me to see them, which I did that evening in his boat, 
they having come into our lines. Some desultory con- 
versation of no importance took place, and I left. On 
the morning of the 2nd December General Ching came 
to me again, and asked me if I would see Nar-Wang, 
whom he had agreed to meet that night ; I said not 
unless there was any necessity for my doing so. He said 
he thought it would be a good thing, and finally urged 
me to go with him that night. I agreed to do so, and 
went up to the evacuated stockades off the North Gate. 
Nar-Wang arrived at nine o'clock p.m., and saw General 
Ching first. General Ching then asked me to come, whick 
I did, and found Nar-Wang and tw^o Tiench-Wangs whom 
I had previously seen in Ching's boat. Nar-Wang was 



140 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

a man of medium height, dark complexion, and about 
thirty years of age, with a very intelligent and pleasing 
countenance. He was a native of Woopoo, and dressed 
simply in silk, with a black handkerchief on his head. 
His first expression after seeing me was that he wished 
me to help him, to which I replied that I should be 
most happy if he could inform me of the way I could 
do so. 

^ I should have mentioned previously that General 
Ching had told me that Nar-Wang had some difiSculty 
about the Moh-Wang and his soldiers, and had proposed 
to General Ching that we should attack the city, and 
had promised that his men should remain neutral and 
wear white turbans, if their property and lives were 
spared. I therefore at once entered into this question 
with Nar-Wang, and told him that the proposition 
General Ching had spoken to me of was impracticable, 
that if the city was assaulted and taken the pillage 
would be universal, and I should be only deceiving 
him if I told him I could maintain the terms ; that it 
would be better for him and his men to fight if they 
could arrange no other means, and that if they were 
desirous of coming over, and could make their terms 
with the Imperialists, they could give over one gate as 
a guarantee. 

*He said he wouH consult the other Wangs, and 
see what could be done with respect to Moh-Wang 
and his men. I then asked him to delay as little as 
possible. He said he wanted to the 6th instant, and I 
told him that if General Ching asked me to wait I 
would do so. I then asked Nar-Wang to settle with 
Ching the terms of the compact. After having told 
him what I thought of the prospects of the rebellion, 
how anxious the foreign Governments were for the 
cessation of hostilities which led to nothing but misery 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS 141 

to the inhabitants, how I longed to make the rebels and 
Imperialists good friends, etc., etc., I took leave, and 
left Nar-Wang and General Ching to settle matters. 

^ I may here remark that the Imperialists had behaved 
very well in their negotiations with the rebels. The 
city of Chanzn had faith strictly kept with it, and the 
Mandarin camps were full of chiefs who had come over 
from time to time. 

' I had, therefore, not the very remotest idea but that 
perfect faith would be kept with the Wangs. I ex- 
pressed to Nar-Wang a hope that the negotiations might 
not be of much length, as I was apprehensive that 
Moh-Wang might hear of it. He replied that his 
men were sufiScient to protect him, and that he did 
not care. 

' On the morning of the 3rd December General Ching 
came to me. He was in high spirits, and told me that 
my interview with Nar-Wang had been most successful, 
and he thought there was no doubt of their coming out. 
He came to me again in the afternoon, and I told him 
that, after my heavy loss in officers and men on the 
27th and 28th November, it could not be looked on as 
a certainty that I could take the city, as any hitch with 
the bridge, which was 70 yards long, might cause a 
repulse, and that therefore I looked on the Futai as 
bound to aid the negotiations with all his means. I saw 
the Futai immediately after, and told him he must show 
mercy to these people, to which he gladly assented. I 
was the more anxious for this as I knew the disorders 
which were sure to arise if we took the city, many 
Mandarins having been to me to request that the 
women, etc., might be protected, as they were so numer- 
ous. 

* The morning of the 4th December General Ching 
came to me and told me that Nar-Wang had sent out 



142 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

to say that he had arranged with the other Wangs to 
get Moh-Wang on the wall to see our preparations for 
the attacks which were daily going on, and that they 
would then throw him down, and have a boat with an 
escort to convey him to our side. I told General 
Ching that Moh-Wang must be my prisoner, to which 
Ching, who knew Moh-Wang before, gladly assented. 
I then went to the Futai, who was out. I saw Faon, 
the Mandarin, who owns most of the property around 
Soochow, and who is of very high rank ; he said he 
would tell the Futai, and I then told him I had asked 
what I had power to take, and that he must not refuse. 
I had not returned to my boat five minutes before General 
Ching sent me two Frenchmen who had ridden out of 
Soochow. This was at four p.m. They said that an 
assembly of all the Wangs had taken place at Moh- 
Wang's palace at eleven o'clock a.m., and that after a 
great dinner they had offered up prayers and adjourned 
to the great hall of reception. They had all put on 
their crowns and robes of ceremony, and taken their 
seats on the raised dais. Moh-Wang mounted his 
throne and commenced a long discourse, expatiating 
on their difficulties, and praising the Cantonese and 
Kwangzi rebels, saying the others were not trustworthy 
(it appeared afterwards that Moh-Wang had some idea 
of what was going on, and was anxious to try a cowp 
d*etat himself). Another Wang then got up, and the 
altercation became hotter and hotter, till Kong- Wang 
got up and took oflf his robes. Moh-Wang asked him 
what he was doing. He drew a short dagger and 
stabbed Moh-Wang in the shoulder. Moh-Wang called 
out and fell over the table ; the other Wangs seized 
him and dragged him down from the dais, and a 
Tiench-Wang cut off his head. The chiefs then 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 143 

monnted their horses and rode ofif to theu* troops. The 
head of Moh-Wang was afterwards sent to General 
Ching. 

^ The Frenchmen said that Moh-Wang had heen most 
anxious to see me for several days, that he had asked 
them to write to me and ask for an interview, he coming 
to see me in disguise. 

* Nar-Wang told General Ching afterwards that my 
letters which I had written to him respecting coming to 
terms fell out from his (Moh- Wang's) pockets when 
they seized him, and I found them myself near the 
raised dsos. 

* I should have mentioned before that Nar-Wang had 
told General Ching, the night of the 8rd December, 
that Chung- Wang had assembled the chiefs after his 
defeat, on the 29th November, and had proposed to 
them to vacate Soochow and Nankin and return to the 
south. Moh-Wang would not accede to it, as he hoped 
to hold the city, and had all his property there. The 
other Wangs, knowing of the negotiations, did not also 
entertain the idea. Another reason for Moh- Wang's 
holding out was that his father and mother were 
hostages at Nankin with Tien- Wang. 

^ On the morning of the 5th December there was some 
musquetry to be heard in the city, but it soon ceased, 
and General Ching advanced some of his men to the 
East Gate, while some of our men went to the North 
Gate ; but I soon withdrew them, as I knew their pro- 
pensities, and I then went to the Futai and asked him 
to give the men two months' pay, and let the force 
push on to Wusieh and Chan-chufut 

*He objected, although the tlroops had had no re- 
muneration for any of the places that had fallen, and 
had had very hard and continuous fighting. I told 



144 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

him I conld not keep them in hand unless he assented, 
and gave him until three o'clock p.m., and after that 
time I could not remain in command. This was a 
hard fact, but both ofiScers and men were of the same 
mind, and I had no option. I then went into the city, 
and passed down to Nar- Wang's house, and there met 
all the Wangs. I asked them if everything had gone 
on properly, and if they were content ; they said yes, 
and appeared quite at ease. Their troops were in the 
streets, and everything appeared orderly. I then went 
down to Moh- Wang's palace, and tried to get his body 
buried, but the people would not touch it. I then 
went out to the troops who were under arms, and soon 
after General Ching came in on the part of the Futai 
to arrange terms. I referred him to the officers com- 
manding regiments, but they could not agree. Ching 
then came to me and begged me to try and get the 
force to accept one month's pay. After some demur I 
determined on making the force accept, as night was 
coming on, and I was afraid of the troops within 
making an attack on the Futai, as also on the rebels 
in the city. 

^ I therefore assembled them, and addressing them I 
let them know that I had succeeded in obtaining one 
month's pay. The men made a slight disturbance, 
which was quickly quelled, and after one attempt to 
march down on the Futai, dismissed I left a guard on 
the Futai's boat that night, and being apprehensive of 
farther trouble if the troops remained, I marched them 
back at 8 o'clock am. on the 6th December, and 
anticipating no further trouble with the men, I ordered 
the steamers Tsatlee and Hyson round to Wuhlungchaio, 
directing my chop to come up to the Pou-miin or South 
Gate. I then went into the city, to Nar- Wang's house, 
reaching it at 11.30 o'clock a.m. I had heard that the 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 145 

Wangs had to go out to the Fntai at 12 o'clock noon, 
and that then the city would be given over. I should 
mention that General Ching had told me on the after- 
noon of the 5th December that the Futai had written 
to Fekin respecting the capture of Soochow, and stating 
that he had amnestied the prisoners* At the Nar- 
Wang's house I met all the Wangs, with their horses 
saddled, to leave for the Futai. I took Nar-Wang aside 
and asked him if everything was all right. He said, 
" Yes." I then told him I had the intention of going 
to the Taho Lake to look for the Fireflxj. He said he 
was coming down to see me, and would like me to stop 
two or three days. I said, unless he thought there was 
an absolute necessity, the business I was going on was too 
important for me to stop ; but that if he thought he had 
any reason for wishing me to stay, I would do so. He 
said " No," and I bid him and the other Wangs good- 
bye, and they all passed me a few minutes afterwards 
with twenty attendants going towards the Low-miin, or 
East Gate, on their way to the Futai. 

* I went down to Moh- Wang's palace, andsaw General 
Ching's men come down to bury Moh-Wang's body 
according to my request. I then went on the East 
Gate, or Low-miin, to while away the time until the 
steamers got round to Wuhlungchaio, intending to go 
round the wall to the Pou-mun, or South Gate. Just 
as we arrived at the gate I saw a large crowd on the 
bank opposite the Futai's boat, and soon afterwards a 
large force of Lnperialists came into the city and ran 
off to the right and left along the wall and into the 
city, yelling, as they usually do when they enter a 
vacated stockade, and firing off their muskets in the air. 
I remonstrated with the Mandarins and soldiers, as their 
conduct was liable to irighcen tho rebels, who might 
retaliate and cause a row. After a few minutes General 

10 



146 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Ghing came in, and I noticed he looked disturbed. I 
asked him eagerly if the interview was over and had 
been satisfactory. He said the Wangs had never come 
to the Fntai. I said I had seen them going, and asked 
him what conld have become of them. He said he did 
not know, but thought they might have rmi away. I 
asked him what could have induced them to do so. He 
said they had sent ont to the Fntai to ask to keep 
20,000 men, and to have half of the city, building a 
wall inside; that Nar-Wang had said before that he 
wanted only 2,500, and that at another time he said 
he wanted no soldiers, but merely to retire home ; that 
the Futai had objected to his demand, and that he had 
told him to go to the Tch-mtin, and stockade his men 
outside that gate, and that he supposed Nar-Wang had 
taken alarm and gone off. He said further that Nar- 
Wang had sent to Chung- Wang for assistance. I asked 
him if he thought Nar-Wang and the other Wangs had 
gone back to the rebels. He said no ; but they would 
go back to their own homes and live there. I did not 
feel very well satisfied, and asked Mr. Macartney, who 
was by, to go tD Nar- Wang's house and see if he was 
there, and to re-assure him if he was alarmed at any- 
thing. General Ching was anxious I should not go ; 
and as I had no suspicion, I went round the wall with 
him to the Fou-miin, which we reached at five o'clock 
p.m. I had . frequently returned to the question of 
Nar-Wang, but found that both General Ching and my 
interpreter seemed to evade the questions. When I 
got to the Fou-miin, I told General Ching I should go 
no further, as I felt uncomfortable about Nar-Wang, and 
also heard volleys of musketry in the city, but not of 
any great amount. I asked General Ching what it was. 
He said there were some Kwangzi and Canton men who 
would not shave, and they were driving them out of the 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 147 

city, having left two gates open for their retreat ; but 
they were only frightening them out. General Ching 
then left, and I asked my interpreter what he thought 
of the state of affairs. He said that he thought the 
Imperialists, having got the city, did not care about 
keeping their agreement. I therefore decided on riding 
to Nar- Wang's house and seeing him if possible. I 
rode through the streets with my interpreter, which 
were full of rebels standing to their arms, and Imperialist 
soldiers looting. I went to Nar- Wang's palace, and 
found it ransacked. I met Nar- Wang's uncle, a second 
in command, and he begged me to come to his house 
and protect it. He then withdrew the female house- 
hold of Nar- Wang and accompanied them to his house, 
where there were some thousand rebels under arms in 
a barricaded street. It was now dark, and having seen 
the state of affairs, I wished much for Nar- Wang's uncle 
to let my interpreter go, taking orders for the steamers 
to come round and take the Futai prisoner (as he, the 
interpreter, thought that the Futai had not yet beheaded 
the Wangs), and also an order to bring up my force. 
They unfortunately would not let my interpreter go, and 
I remained with them until 2 o'clock a.m. on the 7th, 
when I persuaded them to let him go and procure 
assistance. I had kept several bands from looting the 
house by my presence. About 8 a.m. one of the men 
who had gone out with the interpreter returned, and 
said that a body of Imperialists had seized the inter- 
preter and wounded him. I was now apprehensive of 
a general massacre, as the man made me understand 
that the order I had sent had been torn up, and there- 
fore went out to go to the Fou-mtln to send by my boat 
additional orders, and also to look for the interpreter. 
I found no traces of him, and proceeding to the Fou-mun 
was detained an hour by the Imperialists. It was then 

10—2 



148 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

5 a.m., and I determined on proceeding for my guard 
to the Low-mun, or • East Gate, hoping to be able to 
seize the Futai, and to get back in time to save the 
house of Nar -Wang's uncle. 

^ I got to the Low-mun at 6 a.m., and sent on my 
guard to the house. It was, however, too late, it had 
been ransacked. I then left the city and met General 
Ching at the gate. I told him what I thought, and then 
proceeded to the stockade to await the steamers. As I 
was still ignorant that the Wangs had been beheaded, I 
thought that they were prisoners, and might still be 
rescued if the Futai could be secured. When awaiting 
the steamers, General Ching sent down Major Bailey, 
one of the officers I had sent him to command his 
artillery, who told me that General Ching had gone into 
the city, and sat down and cried. He then, to alleviate 
his grief, shot down twenty of his men for looting, and 
sent Major Bailey to tell me he had nothing to do with 
the matter, that the Futai ordered him to do what he 
did, and that the Futai had ordered the city to be 
looted. I asked Major Bailey if the Wangs had been 
beheaded ; he said that he had heard so ; he then told 
me he had Nar- Wang's son in the boat and had brought 
him to me. The son came up and pointing to the other 
side said that his father and the Wangs had been 
beheaded there. I went over and found six bodies, and 
recognised Nar- Wang's head. The hands and bodies 
were gashed in a frightful way, and cut down the 
middle. Nar- Wang's body was partially buried. I 
took Nar-Wang's head, and just then the steamers were 
seen coming up. The Futai, however, had received 
some warning, and left for Soochow by some other 
route. I then went to his boat and left him a note in 
English informing him of what my intention had been, 
and also my opinion of his treachery. I regret to say 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 149 

that did not think fit to have this translated to 

him. 

^ The two steamers then left for Qninsan, and one 
was sent down with Prince F. de Wittgenstein to inform 
the General of the state of affairs ; this officer had been 
with the force nearly a month, and had been informed 
in detail by me of the whole that had passed as above 
related. 

* On the 8th December the Futai sent to 

persuade me that he could not have done otherwise, 
and I blush to think that he could have got an Enghsh- 
man to undertake a mission of such a nature. 

• * C. G. Gordon, 

^ Major Commanding. 

* Deumber 12tky 1863. 

* P.S. — To continue. On the 8th December I started 
with an escort and a steamer to General Ching's stockade 
to obtain Nar- Wang's body and some of his family, who 
had been retained prisoners in General Ching's stockade. 
These I obtained, and also the body. 

* General Brown arrived on the afternoon of the 9th, 
and took the protection of the force under his command. 
I had already spoken to the officers and got them to 
agree to leave the solution to the British General. The 
disgust and abhorrence felt by all of them was and is so 
great, as to lead me to feai* their going over in mass to 
the rebels ; but I have shown them that the sin would 
then be visited on the Chinese people, and not on the 
culprits who committed it. The rebels have no govern- 
ment at all, while the Imperialists can lay claim to 
some. 

* C. G. Gordon.* 



ISO THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

It will be observed that Gordon, according to his 
wonty omits all mention of the perilous position in 
which he was placed while in the hands of the Tai-* 
pings during the night he passed at Nar- Wang's 
palace. 

This is what Gordon wrote home from Quinsan a 
fortnight after the slaughter of the chiefs : 

' You will be glr.d to hear we are all quietly back 
at Quinsan — not likely to move again for a very 
long time, if, in fact, we ever do. I have not 
time to give you any details of our fight at the 
East Gate or of the treachery at Soochow, and hope 
you will see the same in the papers. I have Nar- 
Wang's son. He is a very sharp young fellow, and 
very lively — about eighteen years old. His poor 
father was a very good Wang, and very far superior 
to any of the Imperialists I have met. You can have 
little idea of the regret I have for several reasons on 
account of the last affair. In the first place, if faith 
had been kept, there would have been no more fighting, 
as every to^vn would have given in ; in the next, we 
had accomplished the suppression of the rebellion with 
very little loss of life to rebels or Imperialists, and not 
much injury to the inhabitants, as our quick move- 
ments prevented the rebels devastating the neighbouring 
villages ; in the next, if I had not seen Nar-Wang, he 
would not have come. over ; and, in the next, I fear that 
all my work has been thrown away. My only consola- 
tion is that everything is for the best. It is quite 
incomprehensible to me the reason which actuated the 
Futai ; he must have known from his previous ac- 
quaintance with me of what a row would be produced. 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 151 

and of what a personal risk he ran, for, when it hap- 
pened, my troops were not two hours' march from him. 
I have sent H the Friend of Chinaj which is some- 
what abusive, and therefore you had better not see it, as 
weU B& the North China Herald. • • • I have just heard 
from Shanghai that the merchants, Chinese and foreign, 
are very irate with the Futai, and will go a great length 
to get him released/ 

Soon after, Gordon arrived at head quarters with his 
force. General Brown visited him, and learnt what 
had happened at Soochow. The following is the ac- 
count the General forwarded to Sir Frederick Bruce 
and Lord de Grey of this visit, and one he paid later 
i^o Li-Hung-Chang : 

* The circumstances attending and preceding the oc- 
cupation of Soochow by the Imperialists are so calcu- 
lated to produce an impression on public opinion 
unfavourable to the line of policy adopted by her 
Majesty's Government in China, that I trust I need not 
apologize for entreating your most earnest consideration 
of the whole subject. 

* I received the first intimation of events passing in 
Soochow by a hurried note from Major Gordon, which 
reached me during the forenoon of the 8th instant ; 
a second note, which, although written previously, did 
not reach me until a later period, produced the impres- 
sion that afiairs were proceeding favourably, conse- 
quently I was so far from apprehending the gravity of 
the crisis, that I decided to carry out my intention of 
proceeding to Hong Eong by the mail-steamer, and 
was on board when Prince Wittgenstein, despatched by 



152 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Major Gordon in the steamer Tsatlee, brought a more 
complete and detailed narrative of events. 

* The additional information thns received determined 
mc to accede to the urgent entreaties of Major Gordon, 
of wliich the Prince was the bearer, and to proceed to 
Quinsan, the head quarters of Major Gordon's force, at 
once. I arrived at Quinsan about 8 o'clock, p.m., the 
following day, and immediately received from Major 
Gordon a report which differed but slightly from the 
more carefully compiled narrative enclosed. Major 
Gordon has been unable to express in writing the 
intense mdignation and disgust with which the 
infamous and dastardly conduct of the Futai had 
inspired him. 

* You will perceive by Major Gordon's narrative that 
he was unable to withdraw his force from before 
Soochow to Quinsan only under the formal promise 
from the Futai of one month's pay to the oflScers and 
soldiers, and that it required all his influence to prevail 
on them to accept these terms. The subsequent 
treachery of the Imperial authorities had, however, 
destroyed the confidence of all ranks ; their cruelties 
had turned the sympathies of Europeans in favour of 
the rebels, and I found it necessary in order to restore 
discipline, and to avert a perhaps total defection of the 
force, to take Major Gordon and his force formally under 
my command. 

' This move on my part, I am happy to inform yonr 
Excellency, had the best effect ; all ranks now express 
their perfect satisfaction and reliance, and every symptom 
of hesitation has dissappeared from the force under 
Major Gordon's command. 

* I considered it expedient to have an interview with 
the Futai, with the view of hearing any explanatory 
statement he might have to offer, and to communicate 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 153 

to him my views on recent events, and explain the 
future relations between himself and Major Gordon. 

' I therefore despatcl^ed the interpreter to the Con- 
sulate (Mr. Mayers), accompanied by two of my 
officers, to convey to him my desire for an interview. 

* Having thus prepared the way, I proceeded the 
following day to Soochow, but was met at Ching's 
stockade by the Futai, who had come out from the city 
to meet me. 

' I speedily ascertained that, though the Futai was 
prepared to take on himself the whole responsibility of 
the murder of the Wangs, and sacking of the city, and 
fully to exonerate Major Gordon from all blame, he 
was either unable or unwilling to offer any exculpation 
or explanation of his conduct, and it only remamed for 
me to express my opinion and future intentions. 

' This I did in as few words as possible. I expressed 
the indignation and grief with which the English 
people, together with all the civilized nations of the 
world, would regard his cruelty and perfidy. I exposed 
to him my views on the impolicy of a fruitless severity 
which paralyzed his friends, and drove the rebels to 
desperation, at the time when we had good reason to 
believe they were prepared to capitulate and return to 
their homes in peace. I then informed him that I 
should insist on the promised reward of one month's 
pay; that I deemed it my duty to refer the whole 
matter to our minister at Fekin ; and that pending such 
reference. Major Gordon had received instructions from 
me to suspend all active aid to the Imperialist cause« 
further than protecting Soochow, knowing its unport- 
ance to the safety of Shanghai ; and warning the rebels 
to abstain from attacking his position, I concluded by 
expressmg my unhesitatmg conviction that after what 
had occurred my Government would withdraw all 



154 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

assistance hitherto afforded to the Imperial canse^ 
recall Major Gordon and all English subjects serving 
under him, and disband the Anglo-Chinese force/ 

For two months, pending the inquiry instituted on his 
demand at Fekin, Gordon remained in quarters. For 
many reasons his position was endangered by the in- 
activity of his troops. Governor Li in his despatches, 
while making highly honourable mention of Gordon's 
services, had taken to himself the credit which attached 
to the fall of Soochow. The truth was that the Com- 
mander of the Ever Victorious Army, taking post after 
post with his own troops, had garrisoned them as he 
took them with Imperialist forces in Li's command, and 
that to him was due all the strategy and all the fighting 
which led to the surrender. There yet remained some 
half-dozen cities in the rebel occupation. But with 
the fall of Soochow the backbone of the rebellion was 
broken ; and, as the whole of the guns and munition 
which were captured in that siege were handed over to 
General Ching and put under the command of Major 
Bailey, one of Gordon's old officers, the Imperialists 
may .have felt themselves now competent to reduce the 
remaining strongholds without assistance. This may 
have emboldened them to take up the independent 
position they assumed with regard to the causes of 
Gordon's wrath and the pertinence of Gordon's demand. 
Matters connected with the execution of the chiefs 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 155 

were in the hands of Major-General Brown at Shanghai, 
and Sir Frederick Bruce at Pekin; but before they 
could take cognizance of the affair, Li had sent his 
despatches to Pekin, and had received the congratula- 
tions of Prince Kung, together with the honour of the 
Yellow Jacket, which carries with it the highest 
military grade of the empire. This was on the 14th 
of December, 1863. Then an Imperial decree was 
issued, stating that Gordon, a Tsung-Ping (a Brigadier- 
General) of the province of Kiangsoo, in command of 
Li's auxUiary force, had displayed thorough strategy 
and skill, and put forth most distinguished exertions, 
and ordaining that a medal of distinction of the highest 
class be conferred upon him; and further, that he 
receive a donation of 10,000 taels in token of the 
Imperial approbation. A private decree, issued on the 
same day, enjoins the Governor to conmiunicate this 
document to Gordon, and to provide and send him the 
donation. It also signifies that foreign nations already 
possess orders of merit under the name of stars, and 
that the decoration of the first class which is conferred 
on Gordon be arranged in accordance with their system. 
This gift, with many other presents, was sent to 
Gordon by the Governor, together with extra pay for 
his troops, and sums of money for his wounded. The 
latter Gordon received; the former he indignantly 
refused. When the treasure - bearers entered his 



iS6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

presence, with bowls of bullion on their heads — ^like 
a train from the * Arabian Nights' — ^he flogged them 
from the chamber with his * magic wand.' The con^ 
stemation was extraordinary. To refuse the Imperial 
treasure — to batoon the Imperial Envoys I If the sun 
had started from his sphere, they would have been less 
frightened and less amazed. This is the answer Gordon 
returned to the Imperial decrees : 

* Major Gordon receives the approbation of his 
Majesty the Emperor with every gratification, but 
regrets most sincerely that, owmg to the cu-cumstances 
which occurred since the capture of Soochow, he is 
unable to receive any mark of his Majesty the 
Emperor's recognition, and therefore respectftilly begs 
his Majesty to receive his thanks for his intended 
kindness, and to allow him to decline the same.' 

On writing home a little later, Gordon thus refers to 
the honours which the Chinese Government desired to 
confer on him. 

* To tell you truly, I do not want anything, either 
money or honours, from either the Chinese Govern- 
ment or our own. As for the honours, I do not value 
them at all, and never did. I know that I am doing a 
great deal of good, and, liking my profession, do not 
mind going on with the work under the circumstances 

which I have related in my letter to . I 

should have refused the 10,000 taels even if everything 
had gone well, and there had been no trouble at 



THE MURDER OF THE KINGS. 157 

Soochow, I am fnlly aware of the false step I took 
in writing my account of the Soochow transactions to 
the paper — ^not that anyone has told me so — ^but must 
say that allowances must be made for the disgust I 
felt. I know you feel for my position, which is no 
easy one, and am sure you are glad of my success. 
The rebels are a ruthless lot. Chung-Wang beheaded 
2,000 unfortunates, who ran to him from Soochow, 
after the execution of the Wangs by the Futai. This 
was at Wusieh. I have read the Futai a lesson he 
will not forget.' 

It was not difficult for Governor Li to make an 
impression on the Pekin Government, nor was it un- 
natural that the Emperor, in a new decree which was 
to be read by his people, should, in announcing the 
recent victories, give the pre-eminence to his own army 
and his own commander. In this document he set 
forth and acknowledged the services of the various high 
officers concerned. Li Hung Chang, he says, reports 
that the army under his command has captured the city 
of Soochow ; that, acting under his orders, it has taken 
in succession the lines of rebel works outside the four 
gates of the city, and struck terror into the enemy ; 
that General Ching has attacked the different gates of 
the city incessantly, and that Gordon has established 
himself close to the city walls, and opened a cannonade 
against them. 

All this may be taken as a sample of Chinese history. 
Its truthfulness will appear the more questionable when 



iS8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

it is mentioned that Governor Li, while in person he 
was achieving all these great resalts before Soochow, was 
actually living at Shanghai, from which city he hardly 
ever stirred. Those who wished to know the tmth, or 
those who wished to falsify it, held long newspaper dis- 
cussions. The one set wrote history for the Chinese, 
the other, history for the world at large. 

Defences of Li's conduct in the treatment of the 
Wangs were not wanting. These state that the "Wangs 
were insolent and threatening, that the terms they pro- 
posed were such as would have imperilled the Imperialist 
cause, and that the Governor, as a patriot and a states- 
man, had nothing to do but put them to the sword. 
Whatever the truth of these statements of his, there 
is something to be said for his policy of ending the 
rebellion by cutting off its chiefs. But nothing can be 
advanced in palliation of his behaviour in making use 
of Gordon as a negotiator between himself and the 
men he had made up his mind to massacre. 



CHAPTER Vn. 



FINAL YICTOBIES. 



The massacre at Soochow had placed Gordon in a 
position of unparalleled difficulty. To continue the 
campaign he had so brilliantly carried on, would be to 
endorse the conduct of his colleague ; while to leave 
the rebellion to its fate^ would be to undo all that 
had been done. Already his own force was showing 
signs of mutiny at the sudden suspension of hostilities, 
and sixteen of his officers had to be dismissed, while 
the rebel bands were fast gaining ground to the west 
of the fallen city. He knew that to waver was to fail ; 
that on his action depended the lives of millions of 
innocent people. He therefore ignored the world's 
opinion, put aside his own feelings, and entered on 
terms of cordiality with Li Hung Chang once more. 

The slaughter of the Wangs, unmerciful as it was 
and unnecessary, was an act not contrary to Chinese 
military law. As the excitement died away, and 
Gordon came to hear the Futai's explanation of what 
had transpired at the moment of their execution, he 



i6o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

was so far softened by it as to reconsider his position, 
and to question whether he was justified in abandoning 
the cause of humanity. So earnest was his desire to rid 
China of its cruel oppressors, and to relieve the suffer- 
ing millions, that he felt the more what a calamity 
it would prove if the work so far achieved wera 
thrown away. His force, disciplined in the main and 
attached to him, was above all things mercenary and 
ready to desert for better pay; and he was aware 
that this period of inactivity was demoralizing the 
men yet further, and that if he dissolved his little 
army, many would go over to the other side. 

All this might undoubtedly have occurred ; while, 
on the other hand, Gordon was convinced that, by 
resuming hostilities, he could in six months quash the 
rebellion : so it was that he chose to set aside private 
resentments, to communicate once more with the Futai, 
and to complete the work he had begun. 

Mr. Hart, an Englishman of high standing, who 
was in China at the time, penetrated Gordon's views, 
and accurately described them. He wrote : 

* The destiny of China is, at the present moment, in 
the hands of Gordon more than of any other man, and, 
if he be encouraged to act vigorously, the knotty 
question of Tai-pingdom versus " union in the cause 
of law and order" will be solved before the end of 
May, and quiet will at length be restored to this un- 
fortunate and sorely-tried country. 



FINAL VICTORIES. i6i 

- Personally, Gordon's wish is to leave the force as 
soon as he can. How that Soochow has fallen, there 
is nothing more that he can do, whether to add to his 
own reputation or to retrieve that of British officers 
generally, tarnished by Holland's defeat at ' Taitsan. 
He has little or nothing personally to gain from future 
successes ; and as he has himself to lead in all critical 
moments, and is constantly exposed to danger, he has 
before him the not very improbable contingency of 
being hit sooner or later. But he lays aside his 
personal feelings ; and seeing well that, if he were now 
to leave the force, it would in all probability go at 
once to the rebels, or cause some other disaster, he 
consents to remain with it for a time.' 

To make his way clear, Gordon paid a visit to Li- 
Hung-Chang at Soochow. There an arrangement was 
entered into that the Futai should issue a proclamation 
exonerating him from all participation in the massacre. 
His reasons for taking this step are fully explained in 
the following letter written to Sir Frederick Bruce after 
the Soochow conference : 

Soochow, February 6th, 1864. 

* My dear Sir Frederick Bruce, 

' In consequence of the danger which will arise 
by my inaction (with the force any longer in a state 
of uncertainty), I have arranged with the Futai to issue 
a proclamation (which he will send to you), clearing 
me of any participation in the late execution of the 
"Wangs, and have determined to act immediately. 

* The reasons which actuate me are as follows : — I 
know of a certainty that Burgevine meditates a return 

11 



i62 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

to the rebels ; that there are upwards of 300 Europeans 
ready to join them, of no character, and that the Futai 
will not accept another British officer if I leave the 
service ; and therefore the Government may have some 
foreigner put in, or else the force put under men of 
Ward's and Burgevine's stamp, of whose action at times 
we should never feel certain. 

' I am aware that I am open to very grave censure 
for the course I am about to pursue; but in the 
absence of advice, and knowing as I do that the 
Peking authorities will support the Futai in what he 
has done, 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 success- 
ful. But the rabble called the Quinsan force is a 
dangerous body, and it will be my duty to see that it 
is dissolved as quietly as possible, and that while in 
course of dissolution it should serve to benefit the 
Imperial Government. 

' I do not apprehend the rebellion will last six 
months longer if I take the field. It may take six 
years if I leave, and the Government does not support 
the Imperialists. I propose to cut through the heart 
of the rebellion, and to divide it into two parts by the 
capture of Yesing and Liyang. 

^ 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. However, I know that I 
am not actuated by personal considerations, but merely 
as I think will be most conducive to the interests of 
our Government. 

' The Futai does not want the force to move against 
Nanking, I imagine, as Tseng Kwo-fan has the wish to 
capture it himself. 

* The Futai, if he is to be believed, has some ex- 



FINAL VICTORIES. 163 

tennating circumstances in his favour for his action, 
and although I feel deeply on the subject, I think that 
we can scarcely expect the same discernment that we 
should from a European Governor. 

* This letter will relieve you from any responsibility 
on this matter ; and thanking you very much for your 
kind letter, which I will answer shortly. 

* I am, etc. 

* 0. G. Gordon. 

*P.S. — If you would let the matter drop, and make 
me responsible for my action in the matter, I think it 
would be more conducive to our good relations with 
the Peking Government than pressing them to punish 
or degrade the Futai.' 

The proclamation referred to was issued on February 
14th. I give it in extenso. It will be seen that Li not 
only clears Gordon of all blame, but states his motives 
for the course he had pursued. 

* The Ever- Victorious Force, since the command was 
taken by General Gordon, has assisted with uniform 
success in the operations against the rebels, and the 
Futai has on repeated occasions obtained decrees of 
approbation for its services in reply to his memorials to 
the throne. At the time when the rebel Kao, falsely 
known as the Har-Wang, and his associates were sum- 
marily put to death, the overthrow of settled arrange- 
ments was imminent from one moment to another, and 
General Gordon, not being on the spot, could not be 
cognizant of the circumstances involved. He was thus 
led to conceive that the course of action adopted was in 
opposition to the agreement previously entered into ; 

H— 2 



i64 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

and now, as both Chinese and foreigners appear to 
attach credence to mere rumours, and are ignorant that 
the Futai's intentions, although seemingly at variance 
with those of General Gordon, were in jfact identical 
with them, it behoves him to remove all doubt upon 
this subject by the issue of one distinct proclamation. 
The facts to be stated are these : 

^ At the moment when the operations against Soochow 
were on the point of being crowned with success, the 
rebel Kao and his associates, findmg themselves in 
straits, besought permission to surrender. A great dis- 
tinction existed between this act and the submission 
tendered before the arrival of the besieging force by the 
rebel garrisons of Nawei, Changshu, and other places. 
When General Gordon obtained the Futai's consent to 
admit them to surrender, in order to avert the slaughter 
that must ensue upon the storming of the city, it was 
from a desire to spare the myriads of the population, 
and not simply with the wish at all hazards to secure 
the lives of the rebel Eao and his associates. Still less 
can it be said that when once the agreement was entered 
into, no alteration was possible, so that these men could 
have been empowered, in tendering their submission, to 
enforce claims on their own behalf, and in despite of all, 
be still held as pardoned, whilst their rebellious tenden- 
cies were arising afresh I This principle is perfectly 
clear, and both the law of China and foreign practice 
are identical upon this point, respecting which there can 
be no doubt. 

* At first, in the negotiations for the submission for the 
murder of the so- styled Moh-Wang, the surrender of the 
North-east Gate, and the fixing of a time for their inter- 
view at the camp, every step was known to General 
Gordon ; but on his arrival at the camp, the so-styled 
Nar-Wang had not shaved his head, and his rebellious 



FINAL VICTORIES, 165 

designs were patent to view. He both refused to dis- 
band his men, and insisted on their being enrolled in 
the army, to the number of several tens of battalions, 
and further urged the demand that the ranks of Brigadier- 
General, etc., should be obtained from the throne for 
his adherents, who were to be left at the head of their 
men as garrison for Soochow. Not only was no sign 
of contrition evinced, but, on the contrary, there was a 
design of preparing the way for an eventual return to 
rebellion. Whilst his speech was evasive and ambi- 
guous, his expression of countenance was ferocious and 
bold to an extreme \ and all this took place after the 
surrender had been completed. The Futai could, there- 
fore, for his own safety, do no otherwise than guard 
against a [dangerous] departure from the arranged con- 
ditions ; and these were all particulars with which 
General Gordon was not acquainted. As regards the 
outset, when the Futai agreed with General Gordon to 
accept the submission of these men he had no conception 
that hesitation would take place at the last moment ; 
and with respect to subsequent occurrences, the signs 
of danger were disclosed in a single instant, when, if no 
action could have been taken until after communicating 
with General Gordon, not only would it have become 
too late, but all the advantages secured would have 
been sacrificed. Supposing that the Futai had adhered 
rigidly [to his agreement], so that these few bandits had 
been enabled to ensure their own safety and resort to 
rebellious practices, it was many tens of thousands who 
would have suffered by the consequent misfortune ; and 
the result would have been far from what was contem- 
plated when first these men were admitted to surrender. 
Fortunately, however, by a summary decision at the 
vital instant, by which these few bandits only were put 
to death, and the mass of their followers scattered to the 



1 66 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

windS) benefit was secured to the same vast number of the 
people, whom to protect was the main object held m view. 
< From first to last what was aimed at was the pre- 
vention of slaughter in the moment of victory at 
Soochow; and therefore has the Futai said that his 
intentions, though seemingly at variance, were in reality 
identical with those of Major Gordon. When, in fact, 
on the 6th of December, the so-styled Nar-Wang came 
with his associates to the camp, General Gordon, having 
previously looked upon the matter as securely settled, did 
not accompany them; and, after the occurrence, he 
returned to Quinsan. He was thus both not an eye- 
witness to what actually occurred on the spot, and he 
was misled by the rumours which were spread abroad 
after the affair had taken place. He was impressed 
with the conviction that, the terms of surrender having 
been agreed to, the subsequent execution of the indi- 
viduals was a breach of the convention entered into ; 
but he was totally unaware of the pressing urgency and 
extreme danger of the consequences involved, which left 
not an instant for delay, and which led the Futai to 
inflict at once the penalty prescribed by military law. 

* The Futai has already written a minute account of 
the circumstances to the Board of Foreign Affairs for 
communication to the Foreign Ministers ; and, in addi- 
tion to this, he now publishes this proclamation for the 
ixiformation of Chinese and foreigners alike. 

* He will take stringent measures to prohibit the cir- 
culation of false and inflammatory reports. 

* Tung-Chih, Srd year, 1st moon, 

7th day (February 14, 1864).' 

Prince Kung and his Government could not be made 
to see that Li had acted otherwise than in the interests 



FINAL VICTORIES, 167 

of his country. It was not to be expected either that 
at the dictation of foreigners Eong would recommend 
the dismissal of a high Chinese official. Nevertheless, 
Sir Frederick Bruce obtained a promise from the 
Chinese Government, that, when employing a foreign 
officer, they should strictly observe the rules of warfare 
as practised among foreign nations. This being done 
he gave his approval and support to Gordon on his 
resuming operations, and wrote him as follows : 

' My concurrence in the step you have taken is 
founded in no small measure on my knowledge of the 
high motives which have guided you while in command 
of the Chinese force, of the disinterested conduct you 
have observed in pecuniary questions, and of the influ- 
ence in favour of humanity you exercised in rescuing 
Burgevine and his misguided associates from Soochow. 
I am aware of the perseverance with which, in the 
face of serious obstacles and much discouragement, you 
have steadily pursued the pacification of the province of 
Eiangsoo, in relieving it from being the battlefield of the 
insurrection, and in restoring to its suffering inhabi- 
tants the enjoyments of their homes and the uninter- 
rupted exercise of their industry, and you may console 
yourself with the assurance that you are rendering a 
service to true humanity, as well as to great material 
interests. It would be a serious calamity and addition 
to our embarrassments in China, were you compelled to 
leave your work incomplete, and were a sudden dis- 
solution or dispersion of the Chinese force to lead to the 
recurrence of that state of danger and anxiety from 
which, during the last two years, Shanghai has suffered. 



i68 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

I approve of your not awaiting the result of the inquiry 
into the Futai's proceedings at Soochow, provided you 
take care that your efforts in favour of humanity are not 
in future defeated hy Chinese authorities/ 

This letter was followed by another, which was of a 
more private nature, and exhibits a large view of the 
situation, as regards both Chinese and British interests. 

• I only yesterday received your letter telling me that 
you had again taken the field. I have not yet seen the 
Governor's proclamation, but I have obtained a positive 
promise in writing from this Gbvemment, that in cases 
of capitulations where you are present, nothing is to be 
done without your consent ; and I will inform the 
Prince of Kung that it is upon the faith of this engage- 
ment that you are authorized to act. If it is observed, 
scenes like that of Soochow will not be repeated, and 
the interests of humanity will have the benefit of you 
as a protector, instead of being committed to the un- 
checked mercies of Chinese officials. 

* I do not ask for the Governor's dismissal. I 
confined myself in the first instance to asking for an 
inquiry to which he was entitled before being punished, 
and to supporting you in the course you had taken. 
If he has been generally successful as Governor, it is 
not to be expected that this Government would venture 
to remove him for an act with respect to which they are 
more impressed by the extenuating circumstances than 
by the treachery. In the decree condemning Shung 
Pow to death, one of the chief charges against him was 
that he had pardoned some rebel leaders who a year 
afterwards rose again in insurrection. If it be true that 
the chiefs of Soochow insisted upon a quasi-indepen- 



FINAL VICTORIES. 169 

dent command, which would virtually have left Soochow 
in their power, and would have enabled them to take ad- 
vantage of any favourable circumstance to begin again 
their career of pillage, I can understand that Governor Li 
shrank from the responsibility of granting such terms 
to them, and preferred treating them as contumacious, 
and setting the Government at defiance by their attitude 
and by their demands. Such a proceeding, though 
abhorrent to our ideas, can hardly be termed a gross 
and deliberate act of treachery. 

' It is impossible for us to change suddenly the ideas 
and conduct of the Chinese ; and the Taitsan affair 
showed that the Tai-pings were not one whit more 
advanced in good faith than the Imperialists. But the 
interests of trade and of the population of China demand 
the restoration of peace and tranquillity, and we do a good 
act in assisting the Government with that view. If 
this insurrection continues in force in the sea-board 
provinces, I see a great danger not far off arising from 
filibusters and corsairs. 

' Burgevine is a Southerner, the trading interests of 
America in China are Northern, and Burgevine attri- 
butes his treatment to the British authorities at 
Shanghai. It would not surprise me if he and the 
Alabama^ etc., were to make common cause with the 
insurgents, and then, you may depend upon it, they 
would directly attack the foreign settlements, where 
most plunder is to be had. You will do well to urge 
the Governor to take measures, either by steamers or 
by batteries, to prevent lorchas or armed vessels going 
up the Yangtsze river. It might be easy for a force of 
these adventurers to raise the siege of Nanking, and 
then advance again on the province of Kiangsoo. It 
will depend much on his future conduct and on the 
readiness he shows to adopt good suggestions, how far 



X70 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

I press the affair of Soochow. I am not implacable 
where offences are not repeated. 

^ I beg you to do nothing rash under the pressure of 
excitement, and, above all, to avoid publishing in news- 
papers accounts of your differences with the Chinese 
authorities. We have supported this Government from 
motives of interest, not from sentiment ; and as our 
interests remain the same, we must endeavour to get 
over our difficulties without taking any steps which 
would neutralize all the results of the policy we have 
hitherto pursued, and which you have carried out so 
successfully. In the resolution you have now come to 
you are acting wisely and rightly, and you may depend 
on my lightening your responsibility by giving you 
the most cordial official support. Fortunately, I have 
not committed myself with respect to Li so far as to 
make it difficult for me to be friends with him, provided 
he gives rise to no more scandals, and deals with 
foreigners and foreign interests so as not to give grounds 
for complaint. If you think it expedient, you may hmt 
this to him. 

* The objects we ought to keep in view are to restore 
order in Kiangsoo and Chekiang, to cut off the insurgents 
from communication with fiUbusters, and to reduce 
gradually the disciplined corps, so that it may not become 
a source of danger. If the Chinese will put down 
piracy and stop vessels not conforming to the regula- 
tions limiting arms, etc., I will direct the gunboats to 
support them. But vessels under foreign flags can only 
be searched by a Chinese authority ; and all we can do 
is to support him if he is resisted in trjdng to search.' 

On the 19th February, 1864, Gordon took the field 
once more. There was yet much work to be done, for 



FINAL VICTORIES 171 

the western half of the rebel country was still in the 
hands of the Tai-pings, and defended by hordes of 
broken and desperate men. 

A line drawn from Soochow westward, passing in 
a wavy direction through Ye-sing, Liyang, and Kin- 
tang, and leaving Nanking at the upper extremity, 
and Hangchow at the base, cuts this country in half. 
Gordon at once directed his attention to this central 
line, leaving a Franco-Chinese force, under Captain 
d'Aiguibelle, to operate against Hangchow, and the 
Imperialists under one of the Mandarins to reduce 
Nanking. 

Far greater difficulties attended him than he had 
hitherto experienced. He was going into the enemy's 
country with none of the resources which had been 
previously at his command. His easy communication 
with Shanghai had secured him an abundance of muni- 
tions and stores ; supplies could now no longer be had 
from that quarter; and his force had to carry with 
them enough for their consumption in the field. With 
this extra encumbrance, he started from Qumsan in 
snow and hail. He marched to Woosieh ; but the 
city was in so ruinous a state that no quarters could be 
found, and at the recommendation of his guide he led 
his men to a small village at the foot of a hill. Here 
he was met by an old woman, who came out from a 
large pagoda, and told him that, some two months 



172 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

before, four * barbarians ' like themselves had been 
killed at the foot of the pagoda. She led the way to a 
paved yard, and there Gordon witnessed a sight as 
horrible as that of the headless chiefs at Soochow. 
In a grave — ^the way to which was strewn with frag- 
ments of burnt bones, a pen-knife, and rags and scraps 
of clothing — were four charred skeletons; and Gordon 
saw that the murder of the chiefs had been avenged. 
A mystery had for some time hung about the fate of an 
Imperialist steamer, the Firefly ^ officered by four Euro- 
peans. These men, it now tmned out, had fallen into 
the hands of Chung-Wang, the Faithful King, who, it 
will be remembered, had played a considerable part in 
those consultations which led to the fall of Soochow. 
Before the surrender he had escaped with his army to 
Nankin ; on his way to the city he had learned the fate 
of his brother chiefs, and had captured the four 
Europeans, tortured and burned them to death, and left 
their remains near the pagoda where they were now 
found. It was the first instance that came to light 
of any ill-treatment of foreigners by the rebels, and 
the murder may be fairly attributed to Li-Hung-Ohang's 
treatment of the Wangs. This at least was the common 
opinion ; and it was generally regretted that Gordon 
should again have taken the field in conjunction with 
the Futai, inasmuch as the discovery of the murdered 
men afforded fair ground for inferring that he was held 



FINAL VICT0RI£S. 173 

responsible by the Tai-pings for the massacre at Soo- 
chow. 

It was a melancholy march jfrom Woosieh to Yesing. 
The country had been depopulated by the rebels, and 
the few poor wretches who still haunted its fields were 
dying of starvation. Yesing was a small city, about 
two miles in circumference, surrounded by walls and 
a broad, but not very formidable, ditch. A recon- 
noitring party which had been sent out, however, was 
soon driven away by an accurate fire from the ram- 
parts. Gordon therefore determined to cross the lake 
on the eastern side, where the Hyson was expected, 
seize its outworks, and so cut the communications 
between the city and Liyang. His first step was to 
capture an outlying village, which, as he said, was a 
piteous sight to behold. Bobbed by the Tai-pings of 
their last means of subsistence, the people had been 
brought to feed on the bodies of their dead. It is not 
surprising that, as soon as the East Grate was taken, 
the mass of the population instantly quitted the city, 
and that the rebels made no effectual resistance. A 
few shells were thrown in by the troops as they 
advanced to the assault, and many of the garrison took 
to their heels and ran. They fell back into some forts 
outside the South Gate, where they were reinforced by 
a contingent from Liyang. This enabled them to take 
the field in considerable force, and there was some sharp 



174 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Bkirmishing outside the walls. Gordon, however, dealt 
with the newcomers very summarily indeed. Amusing 
them with a distant fire of musketry in front, he flung 
some 1,500 men — round some neighbouring hills — 
upon them in the rear. The rebels fled, and were 
pursued with great slaughter. During the night many 
escaped from Yesing, which surrendered next day, those 
who remained shaving their heads in token of sub- 
mission; 

Yesing capitulated on the 1st of March — eleven days 
after Gordon had left Quinsan, ten of them spent on the 
road. A few hours after, news came in that 3,000 
Tai-pings in garrison at Tajowka, a town on the Taho 
Lake, were desirous of coming over to the Imperialists ; 
but that the rebel Captain, with 1,000 desperadoes of 
his own temper, had sworn to fight it to the last. 
Gordon at once proceeded to Tajowka. There on the 
3rd of March, he completely quelled the bolder spirits 
among the garrison ; and he brought the willing 2,000 
back with him to Yesing. 

On March 5th he advanced against Liyang, with a 
repetition of the difficulties that constantly beset him in 
the command of troops with no heart in the cause but 
the heart to plunder. When he absolutely forbade his 
men to enter Yesing, they showed symptoms of in- 
subordination, which had to be repressed by picking a 
man out and shooting him on parade. Of course the 



FINAL VICTORIES. 175 

starving villagers were allowed to enter the city and to 
take out rice for food. At Liyang the rebels were 
disheartened, and they j^elded almost without a protest. 
The Commandant had intended to defend the place. 
On the approach of the attacking force he sallied forth 
to meet them with part of his army, but the others shut 
the gates upon him, and compelled him to surrender. 
Bearing in mind the disasters and confusion attendant 
on the sacking of Soochow, Gordon sternly refused to 
allow the Mandarin troops to enter the city. Posting 
his own guards at the Gate, to prevent bloodshed and 
pillage, he now pursued his march northward towards 
Eintang. The tidings of his approach struck terror 
into the garrison, and it instantly prepared to sur- 
render. Suddenly, however, it was largely reinforced 
from Chanchu-fu, so that Gordon had to endure a 
repulse. The garrison having expressed its willing- 
ness to surrender, would have done so had the Im- 
perialists performed their task of keeping Chanchu-fu 
in check, as they had undertaken to do, while Gordon 
attacked Eintang; now Eintang, which would have 
fallen without a blow, was held by the most desperate 
of the rebels — ^men brave, but cruel beyond anything 
ever recorded by their opponents. 

Gordon brought his forces to within 1,200 yards of 
the walls. He fixed on the north-east angle as 
the best point of attack, and under cover of night he 



176 THL STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

stationed near it a Hotilla of heavy boats with artillery* 
Everything was ready, when despatches came in 
from Governor li with disastrous news. Some 7,000 
rebels, under Chung-Wang's son, had left Ghanchu-fu, 
and had turned the flank of the Imperialists ; 
they were threatening Woosieh ; they had captured 
Fushan; and they were now besieging Chanzu, only 
thirty miles from the head-quarters and depot of the 
Ever- Victorious Army. 

Startling aS^his news was, Gordon felt that to 
abandon the attapk- of Kin tang would be to afford great 
encouragement to the rebels. He accordingly opened 
fire, and in three hours made a breach in the walls ; 
but whenever his stormers appeared, the Tai-pings 
crowded to the breach, swarmed on the ramparts, and 
hurled down every sort of missile. This so intimidated 
the crews of Gordon's gun-boats that they could not be 
got to advance, and the stormers were driven back. The 
troops were therefore withdrawn and re-formed. The 
Artillery cleared the breach at once, but a second 
storming party was repulsed, and Major Kirkham was 
severely wounded. Gordon, who himself led the assaults, 
was shot through the leg. One of his body-guard cried 
out that the Commander was wounded ; but Gordon 
silenced him, and stood giving orders till he nearly 
fainted from loss of blood. Still he would not retire, 
and Andrew Moffit, Principal Medical Officer to the 



FINAL VICTORIES. 177 

force, came out and carried him by main force into 
his boat. Even then Gordon struggled to get away. 
The stormers sustained heavy losses. Major Brown,* 
Gordon's aide-de-camp, headed a third assault, and 
carried his Commander's flag into the breach; but 
the attack failed, and he too was wounded. 

Gordon, having no fresh regiments on hand with 
which to make another effort, withdrew without 
further loss, the troops resuming their former posi- 
tions. It was found that 100 of the assailants were 
killed and wounded, among them were 15 officers, 
two of whom, Major Taite and Captain Banning, lost 
their lives. 

When the news of Gordon's wound — the first and 
only one he got — was known, much anxiety was 
naturally evinced as to what would be its effect on the 
campaign. The Emperor, it is said, was sadly grieved. 
He at once issued the following proclamation : 

* Li-Hung-Chang reports that General Gordon some 
time since started from Liyang to attack Kintang. He 
carried with him mortars to breach the walls. At the 
attack he was wounded in the leg ; Li has therefore 
recommended him to remain at rest. Such is the 
despatch. Now, Gordon being excessively brave and 
fearless, was wounded in consequence. We are on this 
account deeply moved with grief and admiration. On 
the other hand, we are informed that the wound is not 

* Son of General Brown, commanding H.M. forces in China. 

12 



178 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

serious. We order Li-Hung-Chang to visit Gordon 
and inquire for him daily, so as to keep his mind at 
rest, requesting him to wait until he shall be perfectly 
restored to health and strength. Bespect this !' 

Li's instructions to keep Gordon's mind at rest 
were more easily issued than carried out. Even 
Dr. Moffit's influence was of no avail; and before 
long Gordon returned with his men to Liyang. Here 
more bad news awaited him. The Faithful King himself 
had occupied Fushan, his first conquest. He was bodily 
disabled by his wound, but on hearing this he started 
forthwith for Woosieh. Leaving the greater portion 
of his force in garrison behind him under General 
Li-Adong, he proceeded with his light artillery and a 
regiment only 400 strong, together with 600 Liyang 
men, all Taipings only a few days before, who had 
willingly enlisted to take part against their former 
masters. At this point. Dr. Wilson remarks, and 
Colonel Chesney echoes him : One scarcely knows here 
whether most to admire the pluck or to wonder at the 
confidence of the wounded commander ! 

On reaching Woosieh, Gordon found despatches of a 
more promising kind. The enemy had been driven back 
from that place ; Chanzu continued to hold out, though 
Fushan had been retaken ; and the Imperialists still held 
the stockades before Chanchu-fu. Advancing at once 
about ten miles to the south-west, he drove the rebels 



FINAL VICTORIES. 179 

before him, and cut off the retreat of Chung- Wang's son, 
who had already been defeated at Chanzu. In spite of 
bis wound and weakness, he still pushed on through 
a district where not only had the wretched inhabitants 
been plundered and butchered, but their villages burned 
by their rapacious rulers. After driving the rebel force 
away from three of these burning villages, he halted 
for the night. A most anxious night it was, for until 
dawn the enemy was firing on his sentries, and trying 
hard to ride through the lines of his little force. In 
the morning Gordon drove the rebels out of a village 
in front of his position; but he had to retire in the 
face of a large force which came down on his boats. 
Of this body, however, he managed to cut off and 
separate a part from the rest, and these were bayoneted, 
while the others were driven, under fire of a howitzer, 
across a bridge. Beaching a range of hills near 
Chanchu, he thrust the rebels over them before him, 
and concentrated his troops to operate against the 
left of the rebel line. The rapidity of these movements 
— ^which dealt with a vast expanse of country strewn 
with the dead and the dying — ^was extraordinary. 

*A terrible picture is drawn of the desolation 
of the country, and the misery of the inhabi- 
tants,' wrote one who was not far from the scene. 
'Hundreds of gaunt, starving wretches, with hardly 

any other means of sustenance than human flesh, and 

12—2 



i8o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the few scraps of refnse they can pick np from the 
Imperialist troops, wander hopelessly about, more dead 
than alive, amid the ruins of their villages and of the 
suburbs. The living are too weak to bury the dead, 
and the latter lie about on the ground in every stage of 
decomposition, tainting the air and horrifying the be- 
holder.' A correspondent writing from the camp, says : 
^ It is horrible to relate ; it is horrible to witness. To 
read that people are eating human flesh is one thing ; 
to see the bodies from which the flesh has been cut 
is another. No one can eat a meal here without a 
certain degree of loathing. The poor wretches have 
a wolfish look that is indescribable, 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. I ought to be tolerably 
callous by this time, but no one could witness unmoved 
such scenes as these. The rebels have evidently swept 
up everything edible^ and left the unfortunate inhabitants 
to die.' 

Gordon took advantage of the water system, which 
was good and complete, to command from his boat. 
In her he lay disabled, accompanied by the flotilla 
which held his artillery. The Tai -pings, who had 
issued out of Chanchu-fu, had taken a bend towards 
the shore of the Yang-tse, and had resolved on getting 



FINAL VICTORIES. i8i 

possession of Quinsan. The centre of this movement 
was at Waissoo. Gordon, alive to the advantage 
of sometimes dividing his forces, advanced by water 
on that place with his artillery, while he sent Colonels 
Howard and Bhode by land, with orders to incline to 
the right before reaching the rebel stockades, and there 
to join his boats. But new troubles were in store 
for him. The infantry on the 81st of March stumbled 
on the Tai -pings' camp, which was strongly stockaded 
and entrenched. The officers committed an unfortunate 
mistake in the distribution of their little force by 
separating it ; the consequence was that the Tai-pings, 
who had a large body of cavalry in ambush, came forth 
from their hiding-places in thousands, and struck panic 
among the men. The newly-raised Liyang regiment 
fled, together with the 4th, which was the best 
regiment of the Ever- Victorious Army. The greatest 
confusion prevailed; 400 soldiers were either killed 
or taken prisoners; three captains were killed or 
captured, and afterwards decapitated or subjected to 
mutilation. 

When Gordon reached the enemy's position with his 
artillery, he found himself unsupported an4 in great 
danger, inasmuch as when the enemy came out to the 
attack, owing to the steepness of the banks, he was 
unable to fire upon them. Nothing was left him but 
retreat upon his own encampment. Here everything 



i82 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

was in the utmost disorder, the enemy having pursued 
his land forces up to his very tents. This calamitous 
affair incensed him greatly against the surviving 
officers, for not having kept proper reserves, and for 
neglecting to look to their flanks. To these mistakes 
they owed their defeat hy a mere rahble, armed with 
spears and knives. 

These events entailed some loss of time. Gordon 
had once more to reorganize his force. He did so 
by withdrawing to Si-yangchow, about thirteen miles 
to the south-west. He then ordered up his 3rd regi- 
ment; and having spent some days in working his 
demoralised troops into discipline and order, he en- 
camped once more near Waissoo, where he was joined 
by Li-Hnng-Chang, who had come from Soochow with 
6ome 6,000 Imperials. 

Elsewhere the Imperialist forces had meanwhile 
been doing good service. General Ching had been 
operating to the south, and Tso, with the Franco- 
Chinese, assisted by Colonel Bailey, whom Gordon had 
given him for artillery instruction, had been engaged 
in investing Hangchow. In storming Kashing-fu Ching 
had killed two of the chiefs, but was himself wounded 
in the head by a bullet, from the effects of which he 
died. The Franco-Chinese, under D'Aiguibelle, had 
made an attack on Hangchow, in combination with 
Tso's Imperialists, and. after some repulses, due to a 



FINAL VICTORIES, 183 

bad choice of points of attack, had succeeded in 
capturing the city. After this the Tai-pings evacuated 
place after place, and finally fell back on the south- 
west comer of the Taho Lake, which was thus almost 
entirely clear of them. Many took refuge in the 
mountains, whither the Imperialists did not care to 
follow them, knowing that in those sterile regions 
starvation would be their certain end. 

Gordon was keenly affected by the death of General 
Ching, and shed tears when it was announced to 
him. As we have seen, the relations existing between 
the two commanders were not of the cordial descrip- 
tion which characterizes those of men of the same 
nationality. Ching had his own part to play before 
his own Government ; and, taking a liberal view of 
his conduct, much that he did to promote his own 
glory when he had the opportunity, must be over- 
lookeds in consideration of his many high qualities. 
When Gordon had successfully carried out assaults 
and taken stockades and fortified towns, Ching 
was ready at all times to garrison them with his 
troops, and to hold them, while Gordon pressed on 
with his artillery and disciplined troops to make new 
conquests. General Ching was a man of undaunted 
courage and of sound judgment in all matters relating 
to the conflict in which he was engaged. He did 
not die immediately from the effect of his wound; 



1 84 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

indeed; for a time he was restored to consciousness, 
and his mind grew perfectly clear. According to Li- 
Hnng-Ohang he passed this interval in earnest thoughts 
of what was yet to happen, though fully convinced that 
his death was near at hand. Addressing his colleague, 
he said that although the rebels had been defeated, 
their strength was still not to be despised, and he 
begged him to order the olKcers to be careful in battle. 
He remarked that brave men were not easily found, 
and he bitterly regretted his own fate, by which he was 
prevented from doing his duty to his country. Later, 
while gradually sinking, he called his servant and 
ordered him to bring the yellow jacket presented to 
him by the Emperor, and to assist him on with it. 
He then bowed his head towards the Imperial Palace. 
His last act was to send the Superintendent of the 
Camp to his colleague, Li, with a message entreating 
him to follow out his design and exterminate the 
rebels wherever he found them. 

From Li's record of him, it appears that General 
Ching, who, having been formerly among the rebels, 
knew their mode of thought, had strongly urged 
the execution of the chiefs at Soochow. * Cut off the 
heads of their leaders,' he said, * and their myriads of 
followers will instantly subside into insignificance. 
You will thus secure the tranquillity of the city. Their 
crimes,' he said, * have been outrageous ; their punish- 



FINAL VICTORIES. 185 

ment should be proportionately severe/ On this same 
authority it is stated that so highly did Gordon value 
General Ching, that he begged Governor Li to give 
him the dead captain's battle-flags, that he might bear 
them to his own country and thus preserve the memory 
of one he loved so well. Gordon is always unwilling 
to converse on the past ; and when a near relative of 
his brought him Ching's portrait, he would not look 
at it, but turned away in great agitation. 

By the 6th of April Gordon had nearly recovered 
from his wound, and had brought his augmented force 
to bear on Waissoo, taking up his position on the 
south-east. The Imperialist troops were well disposed 
on the south-west. To the north-west was Kongyin, 
now in the hands of the Imperialists, and on the 
Yang-tse Biver, to the north, were the Imperialist 
fleets. Farther, all the bridges past Eongyin had 
been broken, but in such a fashion that the rebels 
still imagined that the road was open for retreat. 
Gordon, advancing with great caution upon Waissoo, 
found it surrounded by strong stockades and breast- 
works- His first step was to open fire, by way of 
feint, from his 24-pounder howitzers, while he moved 
his 4th Begiment and two mounted guns to the 
north, which was really the weakest side of the city. 
The Tai-pings were thus taken by surprise, fully 
believing that the direction from which the howitzers 



i86 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

were fired was to be the only point of attack. The 
result of this mancBuvre was that the stockades on 
the north were quickly taken, and the rebels, for their 
own safety, instantly vacated the place. They retreated 
as best they conld into the country, where Li, now 
engaged in active operations, drove them towards the 
broken bridges. Next day Gordon took up the pursuit. 
Then the villagers came forth, armed with rude weapons 
of every kind. Their rice had been plundered and 
their cottages had been burned, and they attacked 
the Tai-pings with the utmost fury, and slaughtered 
them without mercy. The town was full of stolen 
rice. But they had the satisfaction of knowing that 
two of the chief rebel Wangs were caught and put 
to death. 

Though these successes dealt almost a final blow to 
the rebellion, there was still much to be done against 
forces so large. Only, indeed, by superior strategy 
was their complete destruction possible even at this 
period. The next place of attack was to be Chanchu- 
fu, which the Imperialists had been besieging for a 
considerable time without making any impression on 
it; indeed, it was thought the troops were willing to 
delay its capture on the ground that with its fall the 
rebellion would collapse and their services be brought 
to a close. Their sentiments throughout the campaign 
were those of mercenaries. So slow, in fact, were 



FINAL VICTORIES. 187 

the military Mandarins in their operations against the 
place, where they had been quartered three months, 
that Li was fain to threaten them with degradation. 

When Gordon reached Chanchu-fu, with his 3,000 
disciplined troops, he impressed upon Li the importance 
of wholly investing the city. It held a large force, he 
urged, of the most desperate among the rebel band ; 
and if these escaped they would spread devastation 
over the neighbouring districts, and develop into new 
centres of revolt. But the Lnperialist troops were 
stm unwilling to end the campaign in too great a hurry. 
This was shown in an unmistakable manner at mid- 
night on the 25th of April. There is no way of 
explaining what then happened, except on the supposi- 
tion that a deep and preconcerted scheme was laid to 
put an end to Gordon, who as they knew would take 
the city by a couip de main. He and his artillery officer. 
Major Tapp, were superintending the construction of a 
battery. The work was being done by a party of 
Imperialists, supported by a strong picket on both 
sides, and by a covering party in the rear. The work 
was nearly completed when the picket on the left fired 
into the battery, and on this the covering party also 
fired into it — an act which was followed by a second 
volley from the left. This roused the Tai-pings, who 
in their turn directed their guns on the same point, so 
that those who were engaged at the battery were in 



i88 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the centre of a fire from the enemy in front and from 
their own troops in flank and rear. Many of the 
sappers were killed and wounded. Major Tapp re- 
ceived a ball in the stomach and died in a few minntes. 
Gordon escaped unhurt, and proved anew that his was 
a charmed life. 

The loss of such a man as Major Tapp, at this pass, 
was a calamity equal almost to the loss of a battle. 
He was a singularly energetic and courageous man, 
and his influence over the force was greater than that 
of any other ofl&cer. 

The habitual savagery of the Tai-pings was mani- 
fested in the preliminary fighting. Some of the 
soldiers who wanted to quit the city had escaped to 
the walls ; they were retaken and beheaded on the 
ramparts as an example to others who might have it 
in their minds to desert. Li-Hung-Chang, it is to be 
noted, was most eager to distinguish himself, and to 
take Chanchu-fo for himself with his own troops. 
He accordingly ordered Colonel Bailey, in command 
of the artillery under Ching, to open fire and breach 
the wall between the South and West Gates, while 
Gordon's artillery played upon the town. He then 
made the assault alone, and was repulsed with great 
loss. The next day, Li, finding that Gordon had 
completed his batteries at the south-east angle of the 
wall, agreed that they should open fire. He also 



FINAL VICTORIES. 189 

arranged that a body of Imperialists should join the 
Ever-Victorious Army in the assault. But when 
Gordon went forward to the attack the Imperialists 
were wanting. The rebels manned the walls in great 
numbers, led by Hu-Wang, or * Cock Eye/ as he was 
called, in person ; the resistance was desperate, and the 
burden fell on Gordon's men. Ten or twelve officers 
succeeded in mounting the breach, but the rebels out- 
nxunbered them, and the force had to be recalled. Li, 
deeply disappointed with the issue of his manoeuvre, 
sent round to Gordon, entreating him to renew the 
assault. This was done, and a combined movement 
was made at the two points of the breached wall. 
But the Tai-pings were desperate, and set no sort of 
value on their lives. The artillery played on them 
with shell and canister, but no sooner was one party 
blown away than another took its place. Colonels 
Cawte, Howard, and Chapman, Captain Winstanley, 
and other officers, reached the crest of the breach ; but 
the men hung back, and the retreat was sounded. 
The loss of officers was very great ; 1 9 were wounded, 
while Colonel Morton, Captains Bhode, Hammond, 
Donald, and Smith, together with Lieutenants Brown, 
Gibb, Chowerie, Bobinson, and Williamson were killed. 
Gordon declined to expose his officers to this 
butchery any longer, and set to work to teach the 
Mandarins how to approach the wall by trenches. 



190 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

They took to the work, and did it well. Meanwhile 
Li-Hnng-Chang put up proclamations in characters 
large enough to be read from the walls. In these he 
o£fered pardon to all who would leave the city, Hu- 
Wang excepted. This step proved most successful; 
deserters came in shoals, in spite of Hu-Wang's efforts 
to keep them in. The truth is, that Hu-Wang and 
his following were hateful to the vast mass of the 
garrison ; they were Cantonese of the worst type, 
while the others were peasants who had been captured 
and pressed mto the service. It is not surprising then 
that, finding the opportunity of escape, they went over 
to the Imperialist camp at the rate of 800 a day. 

Very soon the chiefs of one party in the garrison 
sent Gordon a very treasonable letter. They requested 
him to send his troops to the breach and make a 
false attack or two ; and they promised thereupon to 
give him up the place The letter shows that Gordon 
had already been in communication with them ; for 
it tells how they made their signal with strips of white 
cloth, and lighted a fire in the city, while they threw 
fire-balls and rockets from the wall, without seeing 
anything of him, or of the * floating-bridge,' up to the 
time of the fourth watch. They add that their signals 
were discovered and reported to Hu-Wang, and that 
they had only narrowly escaped being beheaded ; that 
they still looked to him to carry out the scheme, and 



FINAL VICTORIES. 191 

that they proposed to distinguish themselves by wearing 
white bands, or by going with the left arms out of 
their sleeves. * Should you intend coming to-night/ 
they go on to say^ ^hang up two lamps at the East 
Gate as a signal ; then send troops to the North and 
West Gates to make false attacks, whilst another 
body lie in ambush near the South Gate; also open 
fire on the new city. The rebels will rush to defend 
the North and West Gates, and, on our throwing two 
fire-balls, you should instantly scale the walls. Our 
party are on guard during the fifth watch, and wiU 
assist you, our cry being ** Death to the rebels!" 
Should you not come, hoist one lamp to the East 
Gate. No future time for your attack need be fixed, 
as we can be guided by your signals. We are talked 
about as traitors, and should anything be proved against 
us, 2,000 of us would lose our lives. Our movements 
will be regulated by what is going on outside the city ; 
and after the place falls we shall collect at the East 
Gate and await your Excellency. You must have no 
misgivings as to our sincerity. May heaven and 
earth conspire against us if we be found liars ! Fray 
keep our communications quiet, lest anyone coming 
into the city betray us.' 

Nothing seems to have come of this correspondence. 
On the anniversary of the city's capture by the Faithful 
King, Governor Li proposed to celebrate it by a new 



192 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

assault, in which the Imperialists should take the 
leading part. The artillery hronght down great masses 
of wall ; the Imperialist generals crossed the ditches 
and crowded the ramparts, where they met with a 
desperate resistance. The colmnns hegan to give way. 
The moment was critical in the extreme, when Gordon 
led on a storming-party, supported by his 1st Regi- 
ment and 200 yolmiteers, crossed the bridges and 
monnted the breach. The Imperialists rallied; the 
Tai-pings were swept away at the point of the bayonet, 
and the besiegers swarmed into the city. Four of 
the Wangs were taken prisoners and beheaded. The 
rout was complete. Hn-Wang came up in haste with 
a large body of troops, bnt he was driven back. He 
fought to the last, however. When he was taken 
prisoner in his palace it took ten men to bind him. 
He was brought before Li-Hung-Chang, but he refused 
him submission. ^ Were it not,' he said, * for aid of 
Gordon and his men, he defied all the Futai hosts to 
take the city from him;' He and all the Cantonese 
among the prisoners were executed; the rest were 
spared. 

The garrison was 20,000 strong. The slaughter 
was proportionately great. 

Even before this crowning mercy Gordon was 
considering the necessity of disbanding his little 
army. The following note, written to his mother on 



FINAL VICTORIES. 193 

May 10, the day before the last assault, shows what 
his views were at this time : 

' I shall of course make myself quite sure that the 
rebels are quashed before I break up the Force, as 
otherwise I should incur great responsibUity, 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, I hope, but I think if 
I am spared I shall be home by Christmas. The losses 
I have sustained in this campaign have been no joke : 
out of 100 officers I have had 48 killed and wounded, 
and out of 3,500 men nearly 1,000 killed and wounded; 
but I have the satisfaction of knowing that as far as 
mortal can see, six months will see the end of this 
rebellion, while if I had continued inactive it might 
have lingered on for six years. Do not think I am ill- 
tempered, but I do not care one jot about my promotion 
or what people may say. I know I shall leave China 
as poor as I entered it, but with the knowledge that 
through my weak instrumentality upwards of eighty to 
one hundred thousand lives have been spared. I want 
no further satisfaction than this. The rebels of Chan- 
chu-fu are the ' originals ' of the rebellion, and though 
there may be some innocent, still the mass of them are 
deserving the fate that awaits them. If you could see 
the horrible cruelties they have everywhere perpetrated, 
you would say with me that it is impossible to intercede. 

*They are the runaways of Soochow, Quinsan, * 
Taitsan, Woosieh, Yesing, and many other towns; they 
cut off the heads of the unfortunate country people 
inside at the rate of 30 to 40 per diem for attempting 
to run away/ 

IS 



194 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The following was scratched off in pencil on a small 
strip of paper two hours after the fall of Chanchn-fd : 

ll/Aifay, 1864, 4p.iiL 

Mt dbab Mothbb, — 

' Chanchn-fd was carried by assault by the 
Qninsan force and Imperialists at 2 p.m. this day, 
with little loss. I go back to Qninsan on May 13, and 
shall not again take the field. The rebels are now 
done; they have only Tayan and Nankin, and the 
former will fiEdl probably in a day or two, and Nankin 
in about two months. I am happy to say I got off 
safe. 

' Your affectionate son, 

*C. G. GOBDON/ 



CHAPTER Vm. 

THE END OF THE BEBELLIOX. 

On his return to Qninsan Gordon received information 
that the Order in Council which permitted British 
officers to take service under the Chinese Government 
was withdrawn. Tliis would have been a serious blow 
to China, but for the extraordinary rapidity of his 
recent movements, which left the rebellion so shattered 
that it fell to pieces almost of its own accord. Several 
strongholds surrendered as a mere consequence of the 
leaguer of Chanchu-fu. But Nanking, though it had 
been long invested, and was gradually being starved, 
held out in a surprising manner. This made Gordon 
extremely anxious: the permanent success of his 
work was dear to him ; and to see the smouldering 
embers of the rebellion again bursting into flame would 
have been matter for a lifelong sorrow. 

So, after taking the necessary steps to disband his 
immortal army, he visited Tseng Ewo-fan, at Nanking, 
and had a most important interview with him re- 

13—2 



196 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

garding the best method of completing the saccess of 
the Imperial anns. On his way thither up the Yang- 
tse he visited Ewo-tsnn, the Governor of the Province 
of Chekiang, who commanded all the troops round the 
rebel capital, and resided oh one of the hills behind the 
Porcelain Tower. He inspected the siege-works, and 
was greatly impressed by the perseverance of the 
Imperialists. From the summit of the hill above the 
Porcelain Tower he viewed Nanking and all its 
palaces. Within the walls were large empty spaces, 
and for miles the ramparts were completely deserted ; 
not a flag was flying, while a death-like stillness hung 
about the city. The wall was 40 feet high and 80 feet 
thick. Some Tai-pings were being lowered from it by 
a rope, to gather lentils outside. They were not 
molested by the Imperialists, though their stockades 
were within 80 or a 100 yards of the spot. The 
Imperial lines stretched for miles, with a double line 
of breastworks and 140 mud forts standing 600 yards 
apart, each containing 500 men. No one appeared to 
be on the look-out, and a free-and-easy style pervaded 
the whole force. This is what Gordon wrote on his 
way to Tseng-kwo-fan : 

' Off Nankin, 19/A June, 1864. 

' I came up here to see Tseng-kwo-fan, and also to 
see what chance the Imperialists had of taking Nankin. 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 197 

I arrived on the 1 6th Jnn6 and went np to see Tsen- 
kwp-jen (Tseng-kwo-fan's brother who commands here) 
the next day. He was uncommonly civil, but I found 
that both he and his Mandarins preferred fighting on 
in their own way to any change ; they did not see the 
advantage of big guns, and thought they could take the 
place by themselves. I went i)und the works and 
found the Imperialist lines extend some twelve miles, 
closing in the place most effectually, but still not proof 
against a determined attack on the part of the rebels. 
I also visited the galleries which they are driving under 
the walls, some fourteen in number. They exploded 
one charge two months ago, but although they got in 
they were driven out again. Nankin is a large place, 
but seemingly deserted, no men being seen on the walls 
or in the city, which you can see into from the hills 
around. It would be easy to capture, but I doubt if 
the Imperialists will manage it for some time, although 
they are going to try in about fourteen days. They 
are badly armed, while the rebels have plenty of muskets, 
etc. The Chinese are a wonderful people : they seem 
so apathetic about any changes that I am much afraid 
for Uiem. The only man I have seen worth anything 
is the Futai of Kiang-soo, Li, who is stigmatised by 
Osbom as anprincipled, etc., etc. That the execution 
of the Wangs at Soochow was a breach of faith there 
is no doubt ; but there were many reasons to exculpate 
the Futai for his action, which is not at all a bad act in 
the eyes of the Chinese. In my opinion (and I have 
not seen Tseng-kwo-fan yet), Li-Hung-Chang is the best 
man in the Empire ; has correct ideas of his position, 
and, for a Chinaman, has most liberal tendencies. To 
support him — and he has a most difficult card to play 
with the other Mandarins — I should say would be the 
best policy of our Government. 



igS THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDOH. 

' The Imperial troops are fine sieii, bat, as I said^ 
most inefficiently armecL 

' Borgevine has again joined the rebds ; he will do 
no harm inside Nankin, if he gets there, and is ixt safer 
with the rebels than when concocting conspiracy at 
Shanghai and seizing steamers. 

' I go up to-night to see Tseng-kwo-fan, and to speak 
to him about the absolute necessity of attending to the 
reorganization of the Imperial forces. Lord de Grey 
may rest assured that our Government's policy has been 
the best that could have been followed.' 



During his stay with Tseng-kwo-£EUQ, Gordon dis- 
cussed with him such military matters as affected 
China, and gave him his reasons for dissolving the 
Ever- Victorious Army. Composed as it was, he con- 
sidered that it would prove a danger rather than an 
aid. He pointed out the importance of strengthening 
the Imperial force, of adopting the system of regular 
payments, and of instructing the natives in the use of 
foreign arms. He told the Chinese general that 
10,000 men so trained would suffice, and that men 
and officers should be carefully chosen oA hoc for the 
purpose. Tseng-kwo-fan listened attentively, and ac 
cepted a memorandum of these and other matters of 
moment. Besides advising, Gordon lent the generals 
a helping hand, and assisted them considerably in their 
siege operations. He had seen enough to satisfy 
himself that Nanking must shortly fall, and taking 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 199 

into detailed consideration the condition of the few 
remaining cities which still held out, he felt that the 
Bebellion was dead. 

Some of the opinions he had formed of the Chinese 
were expressed at this very time in a letter dated 
Nanking, 19th June, '64. They serve to show the 
coarse he had pursued in his relations with them : 

* What I think is this, that if we try to drive the 
Chinese into sudden reforms, they will strike and resist 
with the greatest obstinacy, and will relapse back again 
into old habits when the pressure is removed ; but if we 
lead them, we shall find them willing to a degree, and 
more easy to manage. They like to have an option, 
and hate having a course struck out for them as if they 
were of no account in the matter. They also like to 
see the utility of the course proposed, and to have the 
reasons for the same explained over and over again, 
and they are also quick in seeing advantages and dis- 
advantages. 

* What we have tried to do is to force them into a 
certain course, making them pay for the same, and 
thinking it not worth while discussing the matter with 
them at alL I have got on by proposing to them a 
course of action in such a way as to give them a certain 
option as to whether they will follow it or not, and have 
always endeavoured to recommend nothing which would 
clash utterly with their prejudices ; by this means I 
have led them on to change many things, which I 
should never have succeeded in doing if I had tried to 
force them to do all at once. I can say that few men 
have so much faith put in them by the Chinese as 
myself. I always consider the great difficulty the 



too THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Mandarins have to contend with: they may perfectly 
agree in everything that may be urged on them by ns, 
but cannot carry it out ; and we mast confess that it is 
far easier to say ' go and do this or that ' than to do it. 
We row the poor devils if they do not make reforms in 
their army, bnt do not consider that changes must be 
gradual, and palatable as far as possible. My idea is, 
that the change should be made in their army gradually, 
and on a small scale at first, and through the Futais, 
not through the Pekin Government, who are a very 
helpless lot. There are 60,000 troops here, and 40 
Futais, or Generals of Division. What a task it would 
be for Tseng to try and suddenly change the organiza- 
tion of this force — with our organization, 40 indepen- 
dent commanders would be impossible. But how is 
Tseng to get rid of them, with their troops some six 
months in arrears of pay ^ I would say much more for 
the Imperialists : they have many faults, but have 
suffered much wrong from foreigners, who have preyed 
on their country The utter waste of money through 
Lay's fleet is quite painful to think of/ 

He had dissolved the Ever- Victorious Army on his 
own responsibility, though at the suggestion of Li, who 
saw that so costly a machine was no longer needed. 
Li, however, found great difficulty in meeting its 
demands. Our ambassador was averse to its dissolu- 
tion, and the foreign merchants at Shanghai were panic- 
stricken by Gordon's determination. But he was right 
in his resolve. The army might have been reorganized 
under its foreign officers ; it might, following on the 
traditions of Burgevine, have formed a party of con- 



7HE END OF THE REBELLION. 201 

quest on its own account. It might have gone over 
to the enemy and revived the Bebellion. ' I can 
say now/ writes Gordon, ^ that a more turbulent set 
of men (?) who formed the officers have not often 
been collected together, or a more -dangerous lot, if 
they had been headed by one of their ovm style.' 
He stipulated for rewards to his officers and men 
proportionate to their services they had rendered : the 
former to receive large sums — ^in fact, little fortunes — 
the men to have such amounts as would provide for 
them and take them to their homes. His terms were 
readily granted, the more so probably as he himself 
refused all pecuniary rewards, though Li had been 
again commissioned ly the Imperial Government to 
vote him a large sum of money. This he refused, as 
on a previous occasion he had declined the smaller 
reward of 10,000 taels. He had spent his pay of 
£1,200 a year in comforts for his army and in the 
relief of the victims of the Heavenly King. To these 
ends he had even taxed his own private means. It 
was not likely, then, that he should now do anything 
to give a mercenary stamp to his services, or deprive 
him of the reflection that he had acted in the cause 
of humanity alone. It might have been better, perhaps, 
if our Government at home had permitted him to be 
present when the last gun was fired over the dead 
Bebellion. But they were time-servers ; the shriek of 



202 THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDON: 

the sentimentalists still reached their ears, stories of 
cmelties committed by the Ever-Victorions Army were 
still afoot; the missionary cliques were still danming 
and denonncing ; and a policy of good sense had to give 
way to one of expediency. Happily, though bigotry 
and ignorance had done their worst, the end had been 
achieved. 

When Gordon went to take leave of Li, he was re- 
ceived with the highest distinction. The Fatai had 
learned to recognise the greatness of his character. 
He had met with no man of that stamp in his own 
country, and his intercourse with foreigners had shown 
him that their ruling principle was the desire of gain. 
He had a new experience of human nature, and from 
then till now his admiration and love of Gordon have 
undergone no change. 

Other acknowledgments of his services awaited the 
Captain of the Ever- Victorious Army — from the 
Imperial Government itself, from the merchants resi- 
dent in China, and from the Press both in that country 
and in this. On the 12th of July, 1864, our Ambas- 
sador, Sir Frederick Bruce, wrote as follows to Earl 
Eussell : 

'I enclose translation of a despatch from Prince 
Eung, containing the decree published by the Em- 
peror, acknowledging the services of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Gordon, Boyal Engineers, and requesting that her 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 203 

Majesty's Government be pleased to recognise them. 
This step has been spontaneously taken. 

' 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 eyes of the Chinese. Not 
only has he refused any pecuniary reward, but he has 
spent more than his pay in contributing to the comfort 
of the officers who served under him, and in assuaging 
the distress of the starving population whom he relieved 
from the yoke of their oppressors. Indeed, the feeling 
that impelled him to resume operations after the fall of 
Soochow was one of the purest humanity. He sought 
to save the people of the districts that had been re- 
covered from a repetition of the misery entailed upon 
them by this cruel civil war/ 

The Prince's communication rxms thus : — 

' Some time has elapsed since his Excellency, the 
British Minister, profoundly animated by the feeling of 
friendliness towards China entertained by the British 
Government, did, in view of the fact that rebellion was 
still rife in Kiangsoo, authorize Gordon and other 
officers of the British army to co-operate, heart and 
hand, with the forces of the Chmese Government against 
the rebels. 

* On the 11th of the 6th moon of the 8rd year of 
Tung-che (14th June, 1864), Li, the Governor of 
Kiangsoo, in a memorial reporting a series of dis- 
tinguished services rendered in action by Gordon, now 
a Tsung-Ping, with the title of Ti-Tu, together with the 
particulars of his conduct and discipline of the Ever- 
Victorious Army, requested his Majesty the Emperor to 
be pleased to commend him ; and on the same day the 



»o4 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Grand Secretariat had the honour to receive the foUow- 
mg decree : — 

^ ^' On the occasion of the recovery of Chanchn, we 
issued a decree conferring on Gordon, Provisional General 
of Division of the Army of Eiangsoo, for his co-opera- 
tion with the force he commanded, the title of Ti-Tu 
(Commander-in-Chief of a Provisional Army) ; and we 
further presented him with banners and decorations of 
honour. This was to distinguish his extraordinary 
merit, and Li-Hung-Chang was to address us again 
whenever he (Gordon) should have brought the Ever- 
Victorious Battalions under his command into a satis- 
factory state of drill and discipline, and to request us 
to signify our approval of his conduct in laudatoiy 
terms. Li-Hung-Chang now writes to say that, both 
as regards their movements and its discipline, the Ever- 
Victorious Battalions under Gordon are in a very satis- 
factory state, and requests us to signify our pleasure 
accordingly. 

^ *' Since the spring of last year Gordon has dis- 
tinguished himself in a series of actions with the Ever- 
Victorious Force under his command ; he has co-operated 
with the Forces of Government (with such e£fect that) 
Fushan has been recovered, the siege of Chanzu has 
been raised, and the sub-prefectural city of Taitsan, 
with the district cities of Quinsan and Wokong, have 
also been retaken, as well as the provincial capital of 
Soochow. This year he has retaken Yesing and Liyang ; 
he has driven off the rebels who had worked their way 
to Yanshe, and he has recaptured Chanchu. He has 
now brought the Ever- Victorious Force to such a degree 
of improvement that it will prove a body of enduring 
utility. Not only has he shown himself throughout 
both brave and energetic, but his thorough appreciation 
of that important question, a friendly understanding 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 205 

between China and foreign nations, is also deserving of 
the highest praise. We command that Gordon be re- 
warded with a yellow riding-jacket to be worn on his 
person, and a peacock's feather to be carried on his cap ; 
also that there be bestowed on him fonr suits of the 
uniform proper to his rank of Ti-Tu, in token of our 
favour and desire to do him honour. Bespect this." 

* A copy of the above having been reverently made 
and forwarded to the Tsung-Li Yamun, the Prince and 
the Ministers^ members of it, have to observe that 
General Gordon, ever since he began to co-operate with 
the forces of the Chinese Government against the rebels, 
has been alike remarkable for his courage and intelli- 
gence, and displayed extraordinary energy. But the 
fact that he was further able to improve the drill and 
discipline of the Ever- Victorious Force shows him to be 
in very eminent degree both able and respectable, 
while his success in supporting the friendly policy of 
the British Government, whose subject he is, entitles 
him to the admission that he has not shown himself 
unworthy of the language ever held by the British 
Minister regarding him. 

^ ^^ In respectful obedience to the will of his Imperial 
Majesty, the Yamun is preparing the uniforms and 
other articles for transmission to him. The banners 
and decorations will be cared for by Li, the Governor 
of Eiangsoo. 

* Meanwhile it becomes the duty of the Prince to 
address the British Minister, that his Excellency may 
bring these things to the notice of Her Majesty the 
Queen of England, in evidence of the desire of the 
Chinese Government, by its consideration of (Colonel 
Gordon's) merits, and its bestowal of rewards, to 
strengthen the entente cordiale. 

^General Gordon's title, Ti-Tu, gives him the 



ao6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

highest rank m 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 
General Gordon, the British Minister will bring the 
matter forward, that all may know that his achieve- 
ments and his character are equally deserving of 
praise/ 

This despatch of Prince Eung, with the Imperial 
Decree which it embodies, is unquestionably a high- 
minded and generous acknowledgment of Gordon's 
services and achievements. The rank of Ti-Tu is the 
highest ever conferred on a subject; for the banner 
and the Order of the Star we have parallels of our 
own; the Yellow Jacket and the Peacock's Feather 
are Chinese equivalents for the Garter and the Bath. 
The inference is obvious that in China they know a 
good man when they find one, and delight to honour 
him as he deserves. 

The pigeon-holes of the Pekin Administration are 
more promptly emptied than those in Downing Street, 
which must have the depth of wells. Prince Rung's 
despatch was acted upon to the minutest particulars ; 
Sir Frederick Brace's is buried to this day. All that 
Gordon received from his own Government was one 
step in^ the army ; somewhat later he was made a 
Companion of the Bath. Had he been a Clive, taken 
all the money he could get, and entered Parliament and 
voted straight, perhaps the Ministers would have been 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. aoj 

kinder judges of his claims. But it was not for him 
to play their part ; he had one of his own. 

That he would have preferred to go unhonoured is 
certain. To him the good work done was an ample 
reward. Indeed, the wonder and admiration evinced 
at his triumphs rather pained than pleased him ; his 
one desire was to get home and be forgotten* 

VThe Yellow Jacket,' he says in one of his letters, 
^ which has been conferred on me, is a regular Chinese 
distinction, with which some twenty Mandarins have 
been decorated ; it constitutes the recipient one of the 
Emperor's body-guard. I will send you a short history 
of its institution, etc., as soon as I can. I do not care 
twopence about these things, but know that you and 
my father like them. I will try and get Sir F. Bruce to 
bring home Chung- Wang's sword, which is wrapped up 
in a rebel flag belonging to a Tien- Wang, who' was 
killed on it at Chunchu-fu. You will see marks of his 
blood on the flag. Chung-Wang's sword was given by 
him to Lye-Wang (the rebel chief of Liyang), at 
Wasieh in December, '68, after the fall of Soochow, 
and at the time that Chung- Wang, disgusted, determined 
to return on Nankin, and take for the time no further 
operation. It is more than an ordinary sword. The 
Emperor of China gave one to Tseng-kwo-fan, and this 
gift was accompanied with permission to Tseng-kwo- 
£eui to execute anyone, whatever his rank might be, 
without reference to Pekin ; in fact, it was the symbol 
of the power of Dictator. 

* I have sent my journal (of 1863) home to H . 

I do not want the same published, as I think if my pro- 
ceedings sink into oblivion it would be better for every 



2o8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

one, and my reason for this is that it is a very contesM 
point whether we ought to have interfered or not, on 
which point I am perfectly satisfied that it was fhe 
proper and humane course to pursue ; but I still do not 
expect people who do not know much about it to concur 
in the same It is absurd to talk about ManchooB 
and Chinese ; the former are extinct, and the latter 
are in every part. And it is equally absurd to 
talk of the Mandarins as a class distinct from tho 
people of the country; they are not so, but are merely 
the officials who hold offices which are obtainable by 
every Chinese, without respect to birth, I wiU not say 
money, as certainly there \% some amount of cor<* 
ruption in the sale of offices ; but Eussia is equally 
corrupt for that matter in her distant provinces, and 
it is not so very long ago that we were also somewhat 
tainted in the same way/ 

As bearing on the conduct of our Government, how- 
ever, it is worth while that a letter from * A Student of 
History,' of a later date, addressed to and printed in 
the Timesj should even now be resuscitated. The 
following extract from it will have a deep interest for 
Gordon's many friends and admirers : — 

^It has been already pointed out that Colonel 
Gordon's being an engineer, no less than his peculiarly 
retiring character, has kept him from the employment 
for which his genius seemed to indicate him, and which 
less exploits than his might fairly have claimed. But 
there is probably another reason for this apparent 
neglect, of which 1 have only become aware since 
writing to you last week. A gentleman, himself in the 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 209 

public service and well acquainted with China, happen- 
ing to identify at a guess the writer of the Times letter, 
has just communicated to me the following account of 
matters intimately connected with the fall of the Tai- 
pings, and our share in it, which I take the liberty of 
introducing in his own words to your readers' notice. 
He states: — 

^ '^ Being at Shanghai in the summer of 1864, 1 met 
the late Sir Frederick Bruce, our minister, on his way 
to England. He told me that the very day before he 
left Fekin he was astonished at receiving a personal 
visit from Prince Kung, the then Regent of China, who 
had some days before come to say good-bye to him. 
The Prince said, ^You will be astonished to see me 
again, but I felt I could not allow you to leave without 
coming to see you about Gordon. We do not know 
what to do. He will not receive money from us, and 
we have already given him every honour which it is in 
the power of the Emperor to bestow ; but as these can 
be of little value in his eyes, I have brought you this 
letter, and ask you to give it to the Queen of England, 
that she may bestow on him some reward which would 
be more valuable in his eyes.' Sir Frederick showed 
me a translation of Prince Eung's letter. I only 
remember that it was couched in the most charming 
terms, and that it pleaded Gordon's services as to what 
he had done to * promote the kindly intercourse between 
the two nations,' while fully acknowledging the immense 
services he had rendered to China. I went," adds my» 
informant, " to Pekin in the autumn of that year, where 
Gordon had been officially invited ; but his dislike of 
being made a hero of prevented his going. Had he 
done so, he would have been received with almost royal 
honours." 

*Now, sir, receiving as I have done this narrative 

14 



9IO THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

from a man of honour , who speaks earnestly and in 
good faith, and conpUng it with the weU-known fact 
that when Colonel Gordon presented himself at the War 
Office some months later, the Minister seemed hardly 
to have heard of his name, and to know nothing what- 
ever of his suceesses, may it not be true — as a weekly 
contemporary of yours seems to suggest — that the letter 
of Prince Eung never reached its destination at all; 
indeed, never got beyond the pigeon-holes of the 
Foreign Office ? At least, in the interest of historical 
truth, I would hope that some active-minded member 
of Parliament may not think it too late to draw atten- 
tion to the subject, and to seek the production of the 
missing despatch, the absence of which possibly has 
excused that extraordinary neglect of a great soldier 
with which the War Office authorities have been 
charged/ 

The fact is that Gordon, instead of allowing himself 
to be made the hero of official fetes at Pekin, was 
carrying out a new plan for the good of the country he 
had saved. The cry of surprise and alarm raised by 
the traders of Shanghai on the disbandment of the 
Ever- Victorious Army had by no means been lost on 
him. He had conceived the idea of organizing a 
disciplined Chinese contingent with an English officer 
in command. The scheme had for its object the in- 
struction of native troops in foreign drill, that the 
city, in the event of a new outbreak, might possess a 
more trustworthy force than a Mandarin army for its 
protection. The advantages of the idea were at once 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 211 

perceived by Li-Hung-Chang, and several officers were 
selected from the 67th Begiment as drill instructors. 
But it was agreed that in the event of the corps 
taking the field, all these, with Gordon at their head, 
should be at once withdrawn. Judging from the letters 
which the Ever- Victorious General wrote home at this 
time, the enjoyment he got out of teaching his Chinese 
recruits the various manoeuvres and exercises was not 
small. *I am getting on very well instructing the 
Chinese officers in artillery, etc., in Chinese,' he says, 
^ and they make great progress, knowing the manual, 
platoon, and gun drill already, and I hope will know 
the simple manoeuvres of battalion drill shortly. It 
is much easier than I supposed it would be.' 

Nankin was by this time reduced and captured, so 
that the Bebellion had received its death-blow before 
Gordon left China. He had, indeed, done more than 
preside at the Councils of the Imperialists; he had 
advanced to far within the city wall. The rebels 
fought to the last, and defended themselves desperately, 
even when in the Palace of the Heavenly King. 
The arch-impostor himself had been urged to escape 
and resign the city when, its investment being com- 
plete over an area of thirty miles, and its inhabitants 
in a state of starvation, it could no longer be defended. 
But the man had a certain respect for the character he 
had assumed. He wished to be remembered by pos- 

14—2 



aia THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

terity as inspired of Heaven — as the Heavenly King. 
He scouted the suggestion that one so great as himself 
shonld fly: he had received, he said, the command 
of God and Jesus to come down upon earth and rule it. 
' I am the sole Lord of ten thousand nations/ he cried ; 
'what should I fear?' He told how he held the 
empire, the hills, and the streams with an iron grasp. 
Whether all this was mere cynicism, or the outcome of 
a diseased brain, is of little moment. Certain it is that 
he had ceased to take any account of public affairs. 
His subordinates might act as they pleased, except in 
one respect : he demanded the implicit observance of 
etiquette, in addressing him in theological phrase and 
in professing absolute submission to his decrees. He 
had been guilty of cruelties greater than are accredited 
to any other human being : flaying alive and pounding 
to death were his ordinary modes of punishment. When 
he knew the end was come, he hanged all his wives ; 
then, like Mokanna, he committed suicide. Thus was 
destroyed the horrible hope that some other fanatic 
might adopt and preach his hideous creed ; if there is any- 
thing that will wipe out the belief that a man is inspired 
by God, it is the self-slaughter of the prophet. Few 
atrocities were committed by the Imperialists on the 
surrender of the city; this was attributed to Gordon's 
influence over the Mandarins. The great soldier, 
Chung- Wang, or the Faithful King, the right arm of 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 213 

the Bebellion, who was taken prisoner with otlier rebel 
warriors, was however decapitated. 

*I know/ says Gordon, *you will be glad to hear of 
the fall of Nankin, which virtually ends the rebellion. 
I expect the rebels will soon run, and then disperse 
over the country. The city is in a very ruinous state, 
and looks the picture of desolation. I was only there 
two days, and those days were very hot. It is a grand 
thing the fall of Nankin, and will do a deal of good in 
every way. Having lost their chief, the rebels will 
soon disperse and break up, 

' As long as it held out, my officers were ready to 
join the rebels if there was a chance of success ; now 
they will see the futility of such a course, and disperse 
over the globe. It is the greatest blessing for the 
Mandarins, who did not see their danger from these 
men who do not want for talent. 

^ I never want anything published. I am sure it 
does no good, and maJ^es people chary of writing.' 

Having completed his work and taken public leave 
of all with whom he had been associated in his duties, 
Gordon was now at liberty to return home. But 
before quitting China, the press had begun to shower 
on him such eulogies as are seldom the portion of the 
^^7 greatest. An engrossed and illuminated address 
from the merchants of Shanghai was presented to him ; 
and this, as the expression of large and important firms 
of business-men who are for the most part excellent 
judges of whatever affects a national interest, may be 
taken as a sober estimate of the good he had done. It 



a 14 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

IB signed by nearly sixty firms, including fhe great 
banks; and as most of the signatories were only a 
year before opposed to the policy of British interference 
with the rebellion, it is too significant to be omitted. 
Thus it rons : 

' On the eve of yonr departure for your native country, 
we, the undersigned, mostly fellow-countrymen of your 
own, but also representing various other nationalities, 
desire to express to you our earnest wish for a successfiil 
voyage and happy return to your friends and the land 
of your birth. 

*Your career during the last two years of your resi- 
dence in the East has been, so far as we know, without 
a parallel in the history of the intercourse of foreign 
nations with China ; and, without entering at all upon 
the political bearings of the great question with which 
your name must ever remain so intimately connected, 
we feel that we should be alike wanting towards you 
and towards ourselves were we to pass by this oppor- 
tunity without expressing our appreciation and admira- 
tion of the line of conduct which you personally have 
pursued. 

' In a position of unequalled difficulty, and surrounded 
Dy complications of every possible nature, you have 
succeeded in offering to the eyes of the Chinese nation, 
no less by your loyal and, throughout, disinterested line 
of action, than by your conspicuous gallantry and talent 
for organization and command, the example of a foreign 
officer serving the Government of this country with 
honourable fidelity and undeviating self-respect. 

^ It is by such examples that we may trust to see 
many of the prejudices which warp the Chinese mind, 
as regards foreigners, removed, and from such expe- 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 215 

rience that we may look forward with hope to the day 
when, not only in the art of war, bat in the more 
peaceftil occupations of commerce and civilization, the 
Chinese Government may see fit to level the barriers 
hitherto existing, and to identify itself more and more 
with that progressive course of action which, though 
springing from the West, must prove ultimately of equal 
benefit to the countries of the East. 

' Once more wishing you a prosperous voyage and a 
long career of usefulness and success. . • •' 

This was Gordon's answer : 

' Shanghai, November 25th, 1864. 

* Gentlemen, 

^ I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt 
of your handsome letter of this day's date, and to ex- 
press to you the great satisfaction which I feel at the 
honourable mention you have made therein of my ser- 
vices in China. 

^ It will always be a matter of gratification to me to 
have received your approval, and, deeply impressed 
with the honour you have paid me, 

^ I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

* Yours obediently, 

* C. G. GOBDON.' 

other expressions of admiration and gratitude poured 
in. The press at home and abroad were loud in Gordon's 
praise ; and when he left Shanghai for England, it 
was universally felt that China was parting with her 
greatest hero and her best friend. The following lines, 
written by one who well knew how deeply the Empire 



3i6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

was indebted to him, may be taken as fairly represents- 
tive of the nniversal feeling : 

' Can China tell how much she is indebted to Colonel 
Gordon ? Would twenty million taels repay the actual 
service he has rendered to the Empire ? 

* While ordinary Chinese cominanders were sitting 
down before a city, Gordon was walking round it, re- 
gardless of shots from the walls. He never permitted 
an hour to elapse before putting his ideas into practice, 
and this very rapidity quite appalled his too confident 
adversaries. They, accustomed to conquest, and to 
constant superiority, began to get confused by the cool- 
ness with which they were handled, even in the most 
difficult circumstances, until it came to pass that the 
name of Gordon paralyzed their hearts, and became 
equivalent to the word " surrender." Whether this be 
the case or no, recent facts have since proved that the 
Colonel's operations have completely broken the back 
of the rebellion. Chinese commanders, with all their 
conceit, have given ample testimony to the skill and 
prowess of the ever-gallant Colonel. Gordon's name 
alone has a weight in the province of Eaang-su which 
is not at all approached by any Chinaman lower than 
Tseng-Kwo-Fan himself. 

^ It seems like a dream to us to think that the traders 
in Shanghai were trembling only the other day for the 
safety of their lives and property, and that now they 
are as free from fear as if they were sitting in a Lom- 
bard Street counting-house. Again we say that the 
rebellion is finished ; and we do not suppose that there 
breathes the man who regrets it. Even to scenes of 
slaughter we have become callous, knowing that out of 
the misery will rise joy, out of chaos order, and out of 
depression prosperity,' 



THE END OF THE REBELLION. 217 

Even the rebels, to whom his name was a terror, 
admired and loved him. A letter written by a Tai-ping 
chief, after the massacres of Quinsan and Soochow, 
shows what a splendid estimate they took of their most 
formidable foe : 

* Far be it from me to assert that Gordon was privy 
to the massacres committed. Well as we are accus- 
tomed to the ruffianly conduct of many of the low 
scoundrels who disgrace the name of Enghshman, and 
whom we know to be capable of any atrocity, we do 
not imagine that the great leader of the army would 
ever consent to the perpetration of murders so horrible. 
Yet never did the plains of China blush with blood 
more unrighteously spilled than on the day succeeding 
the capture of Quinsan, when the disorganized Hua con- 
tingent satiated itself with outrage. No, not even in the 
ancient days, when the men of Han fought valiantly 
with Mongol and Manchu, not even in the sanguinary 
but glorious days of Chu, did undisciplined and semi-bar- 
barous troops equal the atrocities of the English drilled 
army, I have heard that Gordon grieved bitterly over the 
cruelties which he could not prevent, and that his heart 
burned when he thought that in your happy and pros- 
perous country beyond the Western Ocean, these horrors 
would be ascribed to him. It may gratify him to think 
that even amongst those who would willingly be his 
friends, but are forced to be his enemies, he does not 
receive the blame of the events he could not control. I 
have spent so much room already in speaking of Gordon 
that I may as well say a few words more. Would to 
Heaven that some unworthy adventurer would take 
command, some one that could be slain without regret, 
and, if necessary, slaughtered without mercy ! Ofun 



2i8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

have I seen the deadly musket strticJc from the hand of a 
dastardly Englishman (tempted by love of loot to join our 
ranks) when he attempted from his place of safety to hill 
Gordony who ever rashly exposed himself This has been 
the act of a chief — yea^ of the Shield King himself. How 
then can we be accused of blind haired even to our enemies?' 



CHAPTER IX. 

*GOD BLESS THE KEKNEL/ 

That Gordon was gratified by the appreciation of those 
who had watched his career in China there can be no 
doubt ; but to be praised, courted, and called a hero for 
doing his duty was more than he cared to approve. 
The few lines announcmg his intention of coming home 
show that his one idea on arriving in England was to 
enjoy the quiet of his own family circle. * The indi- 
vidual is coming home/ he writes to his mother on 
the 17th November, 1864, *but does not wish it known, 
for it would be a signal for the disbanded to come to 
Southampton ; and although the waits at Christmas are 
bad, these others are worse/ No sooner, however, had 
he set foot in this country, than invitations came in 
upon him from all quarters, and to have him for a 
guest was the season's ideal : friends and kinsmen were 
made the bearers of superb invitations, all of which 
he had the courage to decline. In truth, he was in no 
humour for personal congratulations from the great. 



220 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

He had gracefully received the acknowledgment of 
those whom he had served ; he had read with pleasure 
the appreciations of the pubUc press ; but when he saw 
a tendency to pronounce him a hero, he ceased from 
reading and listening. He even implored a fellow- 
officer who had written a narrative of the campaign, to 
let the subject drop. 

In his home letters he had earnestly requested that 
his part in putting down the rebellion should not be 
made public ; he had said, indeed, that the sooner it 
was forgotten the better. On his return, then, none, 
save his relatives, heard anything more of the cam- 
paign. By the fireside at Southampton, once more 
he told the strange and splendid romance of those 
fifteen months— a story teeming with the noblest and 
most lofty incidents of war, with singular encounters, 
disastrous chances, and moving accidents by flood and 
field. To listen to it was a new and unique experience ; 
and as Gordon stood every evening for three or four 
hours descanting on the things he had seen, now point- 
ing to the map before him to explain a position, now 
raising his voice in sudden anger at defeat, or dropping 
it with victory in mercy for the fallen, the company 
was spell-bound and amazed. The wonderful scenes 
he described, and the simple enthusiasm with which he 
described them, left the impression of a new ' Arabian 
Kight.^ Kever was the unrecorded better worth re- 



* GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 121 

cording. But though nothing of it was written down, 
its effect on those who listened still remains — unfor- 
gettable and nnforgot. 

Had Gordon been touched with the ambition incident 
to snccessfnl men, he would have seized the oppor- 
tunities so abundantly afforded him of mingling with the 
dignitaries of the world, whose invitations and courtesies 
were many. Had he accepted them, there can be little 
doubt that he would have been made to ^ shine in use ' 
till England had cause to bless him for one of the 
greatest of her sons ; but to push and to intrigue was im- 
possible. The consequence was that he soon dropped 
out of the recollection of those in whose power it was 
to promote his professional and worldly interests. For 
his own party he had no desire to enjoy advantages 
above the lot of his brother officers; he was content 
to rejoin his corps, and to resume his duty as a 
Royal Engineer. 

Many circumstances tend to show that, as part of 
his mental constitution, he had a temper, well under 
control, but on occasion hasty and impatient. His 
anger never found such vent as against those who 
praised him. His mother used to show her friends a 
beautifully executed map, torn through the middle and 
pasted together again ; it was a relic of Woolwich 
Academy. One day she was exhibiting it, when her 
son suddenly entered the room, saw the admiration of 



222 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the lookers-on» and at once took the map from her, tore it 
in half, and flung it on the back of the fire. The journal 
of the Tai-ping War, illustrated by his own hand, met, 
it is to be feared, with a worse fate still. He had sent 
it home from China, not wishing it (as has been seen 
by one of his letters) to be seen outside his family. 
A Minister interested in the Bebellion heard of the 
manuscript, borrowed it, and was so struck by its 
contents that he sent it to the press, in order that his 
colleagues might have the benefit of reading it. Late 
one evening it so happened that Gordon inquired about 
his journal. He was told what had occurred. He 
rose from table, left the house, and posted off to the 
Minister's residence. Not finding him at home, he 
went to the printer's, demanded his manuscript, and 
gave orders that what copies had been printed should 
be destroyed, and the type broken up. What eventually 
befell the manuscript is unknown ; but it is certain that 
no one has since seen it ; in fact there is every proba- 
bility of its having been destroyed. 

In 1865 he received the appointment of Commanding 
Boyal Engineer at Gravesend, where he remained until 
1871. These six years, different from any other 
period of his career, were perhaps the happiest in his 
life. Among his earliest tasks, in addition to the fulfil- 
ment of his official duties — the construction of the 
Thames Defences — was the distribution of the various 



• GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 223 

medals and rewards to such of his old comrades of 
the Eyer-Yictorions Army, as had in any way distin- 
guished themselves. This was done for the most 
part by correspondence, his foUowers being scattered 
oyer all parts of the world. He received a great number 
of acknowledgments. There is not one of these but 
showd how reverently he was beloved by all who had 
served with him. 

To the world his life at Gravesend was a life of self- 
suppression and self-denial ; to himself it was one of 
happiness and pure peace. He lived wholly for others. 
His house was school, and hospital, and almshouse in 
turn — ^was more like the abode of a missionary than 
of a Colonel of Engineers. The troubles of all in- 
terested him alike. The poor, the sick, the unfortunate, 
were ever welcome, and never did suppliant knock 
vainly at his door. He always took a great delight 
in children, 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 home. For their benefit he established 
evening classes^ over which he himself presided, reading 
to and teaching 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 over his 



224 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

mantelpiece; he was told that they marked and fol- 
lowed 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, day 
by day. The light in which he was held by these lads 
was shown by inscriptions in chalk on the fences. A 
favomite 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 
Eagged Schools, and ^ was a pleasant thing to watch 
the attention with which his wild scholars listened to 
his words. 

'His benevolence embraced all,* writes one who 
saw much of him at this time. ' Misery was quite 
sufficient claim for him, without going into the ques- 
tion of merit; and of course sometimes he was de- 
ceived. But very seldom, for he had an eye that saw 
through and through people ; it seemed useless to try 
to hide anything from him; I have often wondered 
how much this wonderftil power was due to natural 
astuteness, or how much to his own clear singleness of 
mind and freedom from self, that the truth about every- 
thing seemed revealed to him. The workhouse and 
the infirmary were his constant haunts, and of pen- 
sioners he had a countless number all over the neigh- 
bourhood. Many of the dying sent for him in preference 
to the clergy, and ever ready was he to visit them, no 
matter in what weather or at what distance. But he 
would never take the chair at a religious meeting, or be 
in any way prominent He was always willing to 



• GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 225 

condnct services for the poor and address a sweeps' 
tea-meeting ; bat ' all public speechifying, especially 
where complimentary speeches were made in his 
honour, he loathed. All eating and drinking he was 
indifferent to. Coming home with us one afternoon 
late, we found his tea waiting for him — a most un* 
appetizing stale loaf and a teapot of tea. I remarked 
upon the drjmess of the bread, when he took the whole 
loaf (a small one), crammed it into the slop-basin, and 
poured all the tea upon it, saying it would soon be 
ready for him to eat, and in half an honr it would not 
matter what he had eaten. He always had dry, 
humorous little speeches at command that flavoured 
all his talk, and I remember the merry twinkle with 
which he told us that many of the boys, thinking that 
being invited to live with the Colonel meant delicate 
fare and luxury, were unpleasantly enlightened upon 
that point when they found he sat down with them to 
salt beef and just the necessary food. He kindly gave 
us a key to his garden, thinking our children might like 
to walk there sometimes. The first time my husband 
and I visited it, we remarked what nice peas and vege- 
tables of all kinds there were, and the housekeeper 
coming out, we made some such remark to her. She 
at once told us that the Colonel never tasted them — 
that nearly all the garden, a large one, was cultivated 
by different poor people to whom he gave permission 
to plant what they chose, and to take the proceeds. 
She added that it often happened that presents of fine ' 
fruit and flowers would be sent to the Colonel, and that 
he would never so much as taste them, but take them 
or send them at once to the hospital or workhouse for 
the sick. He always thanked the donors, but never 
told them how their gifts had been appropriated. We 
used to say he had no self, in that following his Divine 

15 



226 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Master. He would never talk of himself and his 
doings. Therefore his life never can and never will be 
written. It was in these years that the first book about 
him came oat. He allowed the author to come and 
stay at Fort House, and gave him every facility towards 
brmging out his book — all the particulars about the 
Tai-pmg Eebellion, even to lending him his diary. 
Then, from something that was said, he discovered that 
personal acts of his own (bravery, possibly) were de- 
scribed, and he asked to see what had been written. 
Then he tore out page after page the parts about him- 
self, to the poor author's chagrm, who told him he had 
spoiled his book. I tried to get at the bottom of this 
feeling of his, telling him he might be justly proud of 
these things; but was answered that no man has a 
right to be proud of anything, inasmuch as he has 
no native good in him — he has received it all; and 
he maintained that there was deep cause for intense 
humiliation on the part of everyone, that all wearing of 
medals, adorning the body, or any form of self-glorifica- 
tion, was quite out of place. Also, he said, he had 
no right to possess anything, having once given himself 
to God. What was he to keep back ? He knew no 
limit. He said to me, '^ You who profess the same 
have no right to the gold chain you wear ; it ought to be 
sold for the poor." But he acknowledged the difficulty 
of others regarding all earthly things in the light that 
he did : his purse was always empty from his constant 
liberality. He told us the silver tea-service that he 
kept (a present from Sir William Gordon) would be 
sufficient to pay for his burial without troubling his 
family. But though he would never speak of his own 
acts, he would talk freely of his thoughts, and long 
and intensely interesting conversations have we had 
with him : his mystical turn of mind lent a great charm 



« COD BLESS THE KERNEL: 217 

to his words, and we learned a great deal from him. I 
have often wished I had recorded at the time many of 
his aphorisms. We saw him very frequently, hat there 
was a tacit understanding that we never were to invite 
him nor to ask him to stay longer when he rose to go. 
To ask him to dinner would have heen a great offence. 
He would say, ^' Ask the poor and sick; don't ask me, 
who have enough I" ' 

He had a great number of medals, for which he 
cared nothing. There was a gold one, however, given 
to him by the Empress of China, with a special in- 
scription engraved upon it, for which he had a great 
liking. But it suddenly disappeared ; no one knew 
where or how. Years afterwards it was found out, 
by a curious accident, that Gordon had erased the in- 
scription, and sent the medal anonymously to Canon 
Miller for the relief of the sufferers from the cotton 
famine at Manchester. 

Thus he spent the next six years of his life: in slums, 
hospitals, and workhouse, or knee-deep in the river at 
work upon the Thames defence. Then in 1871 he was 
appointed British Commissioner to the European Com- 
mission of the Danube. In taking leave of Gravesend, 
he presented a number of splendid Chinese flags of all 
colours — the trophies of his victories — to his * kings ' 
at the Bagged Schools. These are still yearly exhibited 
on the occasion of school-treats, and the donor's name 
is cheered to the echo. The expressions of regret on 

15—2 



22S THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

his departure from the town were unanimons. Here is 
one tribute out of many, which shows how deep was 
the loss and how genuine the sorrow and the sense 
of gratitude he left behind : 

* Our readers, without exception, will learn with 
regret of the departure of Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, 
C.B., K.E., from the town, in which he has resided for 
six years, gaining a name by the most exquisite charity 
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 attendance and ministra- 
tions on the sick and dying ; by the kindly giving of 
advice; by attendance at the Ragged School, Work- 
house, and Infirmary ; in fact, by general and continual 
beneficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied in 
well-doing that his departure will be felt by many as a 
personal calamity. There are those who even now are 
reaping the rewards of his kindness. His charity was 
essentially charity, and had its root in deep philan- 
thropic feeling and goodness of heart ; shunning the 
light of publicity, but coming even as the rain in the 
night-time, that in the morning is noted not, but only 
the flowers bloom and give a greater fragrance. Colonel 
Gordon, although comparatively a young man, has seen 
something of service, having obtained his brevet and 
order of Companion of the Bath by distinguished service 
in China. He is thus eminently fitted for his new 
post, and there is no doubt but that he will prove as 
beneficent in his station under the Foreign Office as he 
was whilom at Gravesend ; for it was evidently with 
him a natural heart-gift, and not to be eradicated. 
Colonel Gordon's duties at Gravesend terminated on 
the 30th of September, and by this time he is on his 



^GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 229 

way to Galatz in Torkeyy where he will take up his 
residence as British Commissioner on the Danube. He 
is succeeded by Colonel the Hon. G. Wrottesley, as 
Commandant of Eoyal Engineers for the Gravesend 
district. All will wish him well in his new sphere, and 
we have less hesitation in penning these Imes 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/ Galatz, was by no means new to 
him, for he had worked there more than once, as we 
know, in early years. His labours, scarcely more 
interesting than those on the Th^unes, were devoted 
to the improvement of the mouth of the Danube. 
People wondered why so able an officer should be 
wasted upon work which many another would have 
done as well. The wonder found public utterance a 
year and half after his departure from England. 

The question what to do with the Ashantees was 
uppermost in the public mind. The way in which 
they were planning an attack on Cape Coast Castle, 
after the destruction of a town and a couple of bad 
defeats at our hands, proved them an enemy not 
easy of conquest. A general feeling prevailed that a 
leader was wanted, and, as has often since happened 
in like emergencies, Chinese Gordon was the name 
that rose to many lips. Letters were written to the 
papers in which his exploits were revived, and leading 



230 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

articles appeared in the T%mt$ and elsewhere, in which 
the Government was nrged to employ the services of 
the matchless soldier, who had been told off to firitter 
away his genius as a Yice-Oonsul on the Danube. 

Among the communications sent to the papers, was 
one of such deep interest that I make no apology for 
reproducing it. It is a letter addressed to the TimeSj 
from one signing himself ' Mandarin/ who fought with 
Gordon in the campaign against the Tai-pings. It 
throws new light on the subject. It is from the pen of 
one who knew the true quality of the commander 
under whom it had been his fortune to serve : 

* It is really surprising/ says this writer, * how scanty 
a knowledge English people have of the wonderful feats 
performed not many years since by an ofl&cer whose 
name has lately been rather prominently mentioned — 
Colonel, or Chinese Gordon. Having served under him 
during the most eventful period of his command of the 
*' Ever- Victorious Army" — an epithet, you may be 
sure, not given by himself — I might fill many of your 
columns with traits of General Gordon's amazing activity 
and wonderful foresight, his mdomitable energy and 
quiet unassuming modesty, his perseverance, kindness, 
cool courage, and even heroism. My individual opinion 
may not be worth much, but is it not notorious that 
every man who has ever served under or with General 
(as you must allow me to style him) Gordon is an 
enthusiastic believer in his military genius and capacity ? 
There are not many commanders of whom the subor- 
dinates would speak with such unanimous praise. What 
is, perhaps^ most striking in Gordon's career in China is 



« GOD BLESS THE KERNEL.* 231 

the entire devotion with which the native soldiery 
served him, and the implicit faith they had in the resnlt 
of operations in which he was personally present. In 
their eyes General Gordon was literaUy a magician, to 
whom all things were possible. They believed him to 
bear a charmed life, and a short stick or rattan cane 
which he invariably carried about, and with which he 
always pointed in directing the fire of artillery or other 
operations, was firmly looked on as a wand or talisman. 
These things have been repeated to me again and again 
by my own men, and I know they were accepted all 
over the contingent. These notions, especially the 
men's idea that their General had a charmed existence, 
were substantially aided by Gordon's constant habit, 
when the troops were under fire, of appearing suddenly, 
usually unattended, and calmly standing in the very 
hottest part of the fire. 

* Besides his favourite cane, he carried nothing except 
field-glasses — never a sword or revolver ; or rather, if 
the latter, it was carried unostentatiously and out of 
sight ; and nothing could exceed the contrast between 
General Gordon's quiet undress uniform, without sword, 
belts, or buckles, and apparently no weapon but a 
two-foot rod, and the buccaneering, brigand-like costume 
of the American officers, strapped, armed, and booted 
like theatrical banditti. 

* I only know one occasion on which General GordoLi 
drew a revolver. The contingent had been lying idle 
in Quinsan for three months of the summer without 
taking the field. This time had been employed in 
drilling the men, and in laying in large stores of war 
material preparatory to the approaching attack on Soo- 
chow. The heat all this time was fearfully oppressive ; 
dysentery and cholera had carried off many men and 
officers, and drill towards the end of the term was 



332 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

somewhat relaxed. This in some measure affected the 
discipline of the men, and, indeedy of the officers also. 
Bat the chief cause of the deteriorated discipline was, 
perhaps, to be found in another direction. On the 
march and in the field the men were unable to obtain 
opium, the officers but slender stores of liquor ; in 
garrison, on the contrary, they could indulge to the full 
extent of their monthly pay. 

' But, whatever the causes, it is certain that when, 
towards September, orders to prepare for an expedition 
against strong forts and stockades barring the way by 
canal from Quiusan to Soochow were issued, the dis- 
cipline of the troops was greatly inferior to what it had 
been three months earlier. The artillery, in particular, 
showed decided insubordination. One company of it 
refused to embark m the barges which were to take it 
up the canal, the men declining to take the field before 
the approaching pay-day. The officers managed to make 
the men **fall in," but from the parade-ground they 
refused to move, although the luggage was already on 
board the boats, lying fifty yards off. At this juncture 
General Gordon, who had been apprised by messengers 
of the state of affairs, airived on the spot with his 
interpreter. He was on foot, in undress, apparently 
unarmed, and, as usual, exceedingly cool, quiet, and 
undemonstrative. 

* Directly he approached the company he ordered his 
interpreter to direct every man who refused to embark 
to step to the front. One man only advanced. General 
Gordon drew his revolver from an inside breast-pocket, 
presented it at the soldier's head, and desired the inter- 
preter to direct the man to march straight to the barge 
and embark. The order v/as immediately complied 
with, and then General Gordon, giving the necessary 
words of command, the company followed without hesi- 



• GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 233 

tation x)r demur. It may be said that any other deter- 
mined officer might have done likewise, and with the 
same results. Not so. It was generally allowed by 
the officers, when the event became known, that the 
success in this instance was solely due to the awe and 
respect in which General Gordon was held by the men ; 
and that such was the spirit of the troops at the time« 
that had any other but he attempted what he did» the 
•company would have broken into open mutiny, shot 
their officers, and committed the wildest excesses. 

^ In less than a week the spirit of the troops was 
as excellent as before, and gradually the whole garrison 
joined in a series of movements which culminated in 
the fall of Soochow. 

* Considering the materials Gordon had to work with, 
the admirable state of discipline and military efficiency 
which his contingent eventually attained is really 
amazing. He certainly had a few first-rate officers — 
rough and ready ones, no doubt — perhaps half a dozen 
altogether, of which General Kirkham, at present in 
Abyssinia, is one. But as for the remainder, or the 
great majority of the remainder, I scarcely like to use 
the epithets which would be most applicable to them. 
This I remember ; during the month of July, when the 
•corps was in Quinsan, out of 130 or 140 officers, 
eleven died of delirium tremens. There was no picking 
or choosing ; the General was 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 requi- 
site. 

* Well, notwithstanding such drawbacks, every regi- 
ment could go through the manual and platoon and 
bayonet exercises to English words of command with 
a smartness and precision to which not many Yolunteex 



234 '^HE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

companies can attain ; could manoBuvre very fairly Id 
companies or as a battalion, and each regiment had 
been put through a regular course of musketry instruc- 
tion, every man firing his ninety rounds at the regular 
distances up to 300 yards, the scores and returns being 
satisfactorily kept and the good shots rewarded. 

' It was a most fortunate thing for General Gordon 
that a few years before he accepted the Chinese com- 
mand he had been employed in surveying and mapping 
precisely that portion of the country in which his future 
operations were carried on. This part of China is & 
vast network of canals and towpaths ; there are abso- 
lutely no roads, wheeled vehicles are never used, and 
the bridges still remaining were scarce and precarious. 
It was an immense advantage to know what canals- 
were still navigable, which choked with weeds, and 
what bridges were left standing; where the ground 
would be likely to bear artillery, and where it was im- 
passable swamp. Gordon knew every feature of the 
country better than any other person, native or foreigner 
— far better even than the rebels who had overrun it 
and been in partial possession for years. 

* But even these advantages would go but a short way 
towards accounting for the complete and thorough suc- 
cess which marked Gordon's career where his predeces- 
sors had gained merely temporary advantages, fruitless 
towards securing the main object in view, the expulsion 
of the enemy from the province. The reasons for 
Gordon's great successes, for his unparalleled feat, must 
be sought for elsewhere ; and they are, without doubt,, 
firstly his military genius, and secondly his character 
and qualities, which were such as to cause all brought 
in contact with or serving under him to have unbounded 
faith in his capacity, and to feel firmly that the best 
means at his disposal would be used to the best purpose* 



• GOD BLESS THE KERNEL: 235 

* To persons who know General Gordon, his unas- 
summg ways and quiet retiring manners, it speaks 
Tolumes that the ignorant men and rowdy officers com- 
posing his contingent should have looked on him in the 
light they did, and in the manner I have attempted to 
describe. 

* That a swaggering, ostentatious, dashing, and suc- 
cessful General should be looked up to by such men would 
be natural enough. If one were to draw inferences one 
might, perhaps, say the ignorant Chinamen were better 
judges than certain well-educated folk nearer home.' 

Admirable as is the above testimony to Gordon's in- 
fluence over his men, it contains a statement which is 
quite incorrect. Gordon knew nothing of the country he 
was destined to traverse, except that portion of it which 
represented the thirty miles radius round Shanghai, 
marked out by the Government as a protection against 
the inroads of the rebels. 

But such reminiscences, backed as they were by the 
people and the press, failed of the desired effect. 
Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. 
Wiser than wisdom, Government declined to place the 
'Ever-Victorious General,' as Gordon was now called 
by many, in any position of command. 

The voice of the press and the voice of the public 
died away in an echo of the old strain that in this 
country to be an engineer is to be unfit for stafif 
employ. When the authorities were called upon by 
the Khedive, however, a few months later to allow 
Gordon to enter the Egyptian service and settle a 
question of more importance to Egypt than to Eng- 
land, they readily gave their consent. 



CHAPTER X. 

IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 

He left GalatiS towards the end of 1878. Early next 

year he took service with the Ehedive, and succeeded 

Sir Samnel Baker as Governor of the Tribes in Upper 

Egypt. While at Constantinople in the summer of 

18729 he had been asked by Nubar Pasha, whom he 

had greatly impressed during the sitting of the 

Danubian Commission, to recommend some officer of 

Engineers to fill the post. A year later, he tendered 

his own services, subject always to the approval of the 

British Government. No objection was raised ; so he 

came to London, made his preparations, and started 

forthwith for Central Africa, calling at Cairo on his way 

for final instructions. 

The Khedive proposed to give him J6 10,000 a year ; 
but he would not hear of it. He declined to accept 
more than JS2,000. This very unusual conduct gave 
rise to a great deal of comment at the time, and has 
ednce been the subject of much criticism ; but to those 
who knew the man, and the way in which Ismail filled 




OF QODDON M OOVERNORaENERAL OF THE SOUDAN. 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 237 

liis treasury, the refusal was intelligible enough. In 
the first place, while acting as English Commissioner 
at Galatz^ he had been in receipt of J62,OOU a year 
from his own Government ; and it did not fall in with 
his theory of patriotism nor his sense of honour to accept 
a larger stipend from a foreign GoYemment than he 
had been receiving from his own. He knew well, too, 
that the larger sum would in point of fact be blood- 
money wrung from the wretches under his rule. He 
decided therefore to take no more than would pay 
his expenses. 

Egypt's advance into Central Africa since 1853 had 
been considerable. In that year her possessions on 
the Nile did not extend much farther than 100 miles 
south of Khartoum. Now her rule has touched the 
Albert and Victoria Lakes, while the conquest of 
Darfour has brought her western frontier within fifteen 
days' march of Lake Tchad, and her eastern to the 
lower Bed Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The country 
south of Khartoum — Baker's Ismailia — was first 
opened up by European traders, whose main object 
was the acquisition of ivory. They were not long in 
finding out that ' black ivory * was far more profitable 
than white^ and they soon established fortified posts, 
garrisoned them with armed bands, captained them 
with Arab bravos, and kidnapped and sold the negroes 
far and near. At last the traffic grew so large and 



238 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

shameless, that it became the scandal of the world. 
There was a hue and cry, and the European traders 
were obliged to withdraw. This did not, however, 
prevent them from selling their stations to the Arabs, 
who paid a tax to the Egyptian Government, and so 
bought toleration and impunity. In less than ten years 
from the date of this new arrangement, the slave-trade 
became a government monopoly. The suffering tribes 
suffered tenfold. The Arab captains, being under no 
control as heretofore, increased their bands by pressing 
the boy slaves taken in their raids. They trained 
them up in the arts of kidnapping and plunder ; and 
they set them to the very work of which they were 
the victims. In this way the hunters of men became 
a power, and their horrible traffic a dominant interest. 
At last the Government got at once afraid and ashamed 
of them. Their hordes were a standing menace 
to its peace, whilst the outcry against them was a 
blemish on its fame. Moreover, so successful and 
strong were they, and so confident withal in their^ 
strength, that they refused to pay the tax. One of 
them, indeed, a certain Sebehr Eahama — called the 
Black Pasha — set up as the equal and rival of the 
Khedive himself. He was lord of over thirty stations ; 
and Dr. Schweinfurth found him surrounded by a court, 
and living in little less than princely state. 

Sebehr, indeed, was not a man to be trifled with. 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 239 

An officer named Belial was sent out to humble his 
pride, and put him in his proper place ; but he met 
Belial in battle, and routed him with great slaughter. 
The IDiedive seems at first to have been exasperated 
by his defeat, but he was afterwards compelled to 
submit to it ; for Sebehr grew stronger year by year, 
and was soon confirmed in his position as the king of the 
slave-dealers in Equatorial Africa. Then the Ehedive 
grew thoroughly afraid of him. He made the scoundrel 
a Bey, and in his invasion of Darfour he accepted him 
as an ally. Sebehr marched on the enemy from the 
south, while Ismail Pasha Yacoob, who represented 
the Ehedive, supported the slave-dealer from the north. 
The Sultan of Darfour and his two sons were slain ; 
the country was subdued ; and Sebehr was made a 
Pasha. But this was not enough for him ; he wanted 
to be Governor-General. The Khedive, who had en- 
couraged slave-dealing while it served to increase his 
revenue, was converted to active and sonorous philan- 
thropy the moment he saw his own supremacy at stake. 
He began to regard the traffic with a holy horror, and 
he gave out to the admiring world of Europe that he 
was determined to suppress and stamp it out. To 
this end (he said) he engaged the services of Sir 
Samuel Baker; to this end he called to his aid the 
genius of Gordon. The lesson must be made clear — 
to use his own words — even in those remote parts, that 



240 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

a mere difference of colour does not make men a com- 
modity, and that life and liberty are sacred things* 
Under this mask of philanthropy, Gordon, who was 
known for one of the most {)hilanthropic of men as 
well as one of the most daring and brilliant of com- 
manders, was chosen by him as his new Governor. 
Under this mask of philanthropy he formed Upper 
Egypt into a separate Government, and claimed as a 
monopoly of the State the whole of its trade with 
the outside world. 

Gordon grew restless during his few days' sojourn at 
Cairo. The fact is that before he had been many hours 
in the place he had, with his rapid perception, gone 
to the heart of the whole scheme. Almost his first 
words on writing home from Egypt were these : 
'I think I can see the true motive of the expedi- 
tion, and believe it to be a sham to catch the attention 
of the English people/ Nevertheless, he was deter- 
mined to go through with his undertaking, and do his 
utmost to relieve the sufferings of the miserable tribes. 
We shall see him in the course of this narrative sur- 
rounded by a thousand difficulties and dangers, over 
which he triumphed with a force of will, an energy, 
and a genius of enterprise and resource almost 
unmatched. The spirit in which he pursued his 
perilous task may be gathered, from his own words, 
uttered at a later period : ' I will do it, for I value my 



/W THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 241 

life as naughty and should only leave much weariness 
for perfect peace/ 

It had been Gordon's wish to proceed by ordinary 
steamer down the Bed Sea to Suakim, but Nubar Pasha, 
who in many ways had tried his patience, declared that 
the Governor of Upper Egypt must go in state. So a 
number of servants were engaged, and leaving his staff 
to follow, the new Governor, with an equerry of the 
Viceroy, departed on his way. A special train was in 
readiness to take him to Suez, but the engine broke 
down, and he had to continue the journey by ordinary 
train. This delighted him greatly : ^ They had begun 
in glory,' he said, ^and ended in shame.' He reached 
Suakim on February 25. On his arrival he was put in 
quarantine for the night, probably because the Governor 
was not ready to receive him. There were some 
220 troops on board, destined to serve him as an 
escort across the desert to Berber. It was a fortnight's 
march ; but the length was rather welcome, as Gordon, 
strong in his Chinese experience, felt that it would 
enable his soldiers, who were the merest ragamuffins, 
to know him better. 

His staff consisted of Bomulus Gessi, an able and 
daring Italian, whom he had known as an inter* 
preter in the Crimea; Mr. Kemp, engineer; the 
two Linants ; Mr. Bussell, son of Dr. W. H. Bussell ; 
Mr. Anson ; Mr. Long, an American ; and Abon Saoud, 

16 



242 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

an ex-slayer whom Gordon, in the teeth of all sorts of 
opposition, had determined on converting to honesty and 
nsefidness. They were thus divided : — Gessi and Anson, 
presently to take charge of Khartoum, were sent to 
the Bahr Gazelle to make friends with the natives, and 
observe what they could of the workings of the slave- 
trade ; Kemp and Bussell were despatched to the foot 
of certain falls, fifteen miles north of Gondokoro, to 
discover how far the river was navigable towards the 
Albert Nyanza, and eventually to launch a steamer on 
the lake ; Linant was deputed to make excursions 
among the tribes. Colonel Long to take charge of 
Gondokoro ; while Abou Saoud, known up country as the 
* Sultan,' was to help his captain to a knowledge of the 
enemy's movements, Gordon, I may note, had found 
this fellow a prisoner at Cairo. The Khedive knew not 
how to deal with him, when Gordon, seeing the use to 
which his knowledge of the country could be turned, 
offered to take him on his staff. The Khedive and 
Nubar Pasha refused to sanction the scheme. They 
knew that in employing one who had already shown 
himself to be a treacherous desperado, the Governor 
would be risking his life. Nevertheless, at his request^ 
an interview was arranged; and as he still persisted 
in his determination, the slave-hunter was set at liberty 
and sent with him into the Soudan. 

The party left Berber by boat on March 9th, and 
after three days' sail arrived at Khartoum, a place well 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 243 

Bitnatedy but of flat-roofed mad houses. The Qoyemor- 
General, in full uniform, came out to meet Gordon, 
and he landed to salutes of artillery and the strains 
of a brass band. He was greeted with excellent 
news ; the * sudd/ a grassy growth on the river, had 
been cleared away by the soldiers, so that the journey 
from Khartoum to Gondokoro, which had taken Sir 
Samuel Baker upwards of fourteen months, was re- 
duced to no more than three weeks. 

He remained at Khartoum eight days. During this 
time he busied himself, notwithstanding the excessive 
heat and dryness of the air, to which he was not yet 
habituated, in holding a review, in visiting the hospital 
and the schools, and in issuing this decree : 

* By reason of the authority of the Governor of the 
Provinces of the Equatorial Lakes, with which his 
Highness the Khedive has invested me, and the irregu- 
larities which until now have been committed^ it is 
henceforth decreed : 

* 1 . That the traffic in ivory is the monopoly of the 
Government. 

* 2. No person may enter these Provinces without a 
" teskere " from the Governor-General of Soudan, such 
** teskere " being available only after it shall have 
received the mm of the competent authority at Gon^>o- 
koro or elsewhere. 

' 3. No person may recruit or organize armed bands 
within those Provinces. 

^ 4. The importation of firearms and gunpowder is 
prohibited. 

16—2 



344 ^^^ STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

^ 6. Whosoever shall disobey this decree will be 
pnnished with all the rigour of the military laws. 

* Gordon.* 

On the 22nd of March he sailed for Gondokoro. 
Great crocodiles basked on the Nilotic mud; flocks 
of migratory birds wheeled through the burning air. 
Here were storks, and pelicans, and tiny egrets ; while 
huge riverhorses splashed and blew, and troops of 
monkeys, their tails ^ stuck up straight over their backs 
like swords,' came down to drink of the sacred stream. 
The banks were thickly wooded with gum and tama- 
risk. Some of the inhabitants wore gourds for hats ; 
others wore nothing at all, not even gourds, and fled 
affrighted at a pointing telescope. As the staff had not 
yet come up, Gordon had to look after nearly everything 
himself. Nevertheless his spirits were good, and his 
remarks on his strange surroundings are often full of 
humour. One moonlight night, for mstance, as he was 
thinking of home behind and the difficulties ahead, 
there came a loud laughing from a large bush on the 
bank. * I felt put out,' he writes ; * but the irony came 
only from birds, that laughed at us from the bushes for 
some time in a very rude way. They were 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.* Six days up the river he 
met a steamer from Gondokoro, in which, being a 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 245 

faster one, he continued his jonmey. No one had the 
slightest idea that he was coming ; and he foresaw a 
surprise both general and unwelcome. 

They entered Saubat river on the 2nd of April* 
Lingering here to cut wood for the steamer's fires, they 
surprised a tribe of Dinkas — a black, pastoral people, 
who worship wizards. The chief was with great diffi- 
culty induced to come on board with four of his tribe. 
He was in full dress, says Gordon : — a necklace. His 
form of salutation was first to softly lick the back of 
the white man's hands ; then to hold his face to his 
own and make as if he were spitting. He proved him* 
self a glutton and a tyrant by devouring his neighbour's 
portion of the general meal. After this he and his 
liege-men sang a hymn of praise and thanks to Gordon. 
They then proceeded to crawl to kiss his feet, but this 
luxury was not allowed them. They were enriched 
with a splendid present of beads, and went off rejoicing. 

Besuming her way the steamer cleared the Bahr 
Gazelle in twelve hours ; for though the river is very 
narrow there, and the banks are marshy, the ^ sudd,' as 
I have said, had been cleared, and the passage was easy. 
Gordon did not find the look of the place so bad 
as might have been expected, considering the many 
that have died there. What troubled him most was 
the mosquitoes. He found them worse than any he had 
ever endured : in China, at Batoum, or on the Danube 
itself. 



j?46 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

On April 4th they reached the Bahr Gazelle, where 
it joins the Gondokoro river, and forms a small lake 
rimmed with morasses. As they steamed on they met 
gwarms of natives, many of whom had rubbed their 
&ces with wood-ash, and made unto themselves com- 
plexions the colour of slate-pencil. These, the 
Governor-General found, were badly fed and in much 
suffering. ^ What a mystery, is it not T he writes, 
* why they are created ! — a life of fear and misery 
night and day 1 One does not wonder at their not 
fearing death. No one can conceive the utter misery 
of these lands — heat and mosquitoes day and night all 
the year round. But I like the work, for I believe I 
can do a great deal to ameliorate the lot of the 
people.' 

At Bohr, a slavers' hold, the inhabitants were any- 
thing but civil ; they had heard of the Khartoum decree. 
At the mission at Sainte-Croix, on the other hand, the 
people came out with songs and dances as the steamer 
went by. She cast anchor off Gondokoro on the 16th 
of April, twenty-four days after leaving Khartoum. The 
townsmen were amazed by Gordon's advent, for they had 
not even heard of his nomination. He found his seat 
of Government scarce less dangerous than wretched. 
Half a mile from its walls, owing to the ill-treatment to 
which the natives had been subjected, the Governor- 
General himself would have gone in peril of his life. 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 247 

Still, though the state of the people was as bad as it 
could well be, he was confident that he could relieve 
their sufferings and bring about a better state of things 
for them. The toughest part of his task, he felt, would 
be to win their confidence. 

In this spirit we find him constantly travelling be* 
tween point and point, making friends with his subjects 
as he goes. To some he gives grain ; others he employs 
in planting maize — an occupation they had hitherto 
feared to follow, as always when they sowed a patch of 
ground, their little harvest was taken from them ; till 
it came to pass that these poor negroes flocked about 
him in great numbers. They mostly had a grievance : 
sometimes they wanted him to buy their children, 
whom they were too poor to feed themselves. Im- 
portant in the achievement of this admirable result 
was his prompt and resolute action with their tyrants, 
the slavers. These blackguards, he found, were often 
in collusion with the Government. They stole the 
cattle and kidnapped their owners, and they shared 
the double booty with officials of a liberal turn of 
mind. Thus, in these early days, through the curiosity 
of his interpreter, who got possession of some letters 
from a gang of man-hunters to the Governor of Fashoda, 
he discovered that 2,000 stolen cows and a number of 
kidnapped negroes were on their way from these gentry 
to their estimable correspondent. He confiscated all 



248 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON 

the cattle, as he could not return them to their owners, 
who were too far off. The slaves he either sent home 
or bought himself. They, poor creatures, were only 
too glad to be with him ; they showed it by coming up 
and trying to touch his hands, and even the hem of his 
garment ; and he did not hesitate to go among them 
alone. One of the slaves recaptured on this occasion 
was a Dinka chief, and him he turned to good account. 
The chief slavers he took and cast into prison. After- 
wards he discovered useful qualities in them, and took 
them into his employ : dealing with them, in fact, as 
he had dealt with the Chinese rebels, whom he first 
conquered and then enlisted. 

In the middle of May he went down to Berber to 
fetch his baggage which had been left behind. An 
interesting account of what happened to him on the 
journey is given by one of his staff : * Colonel Gordon 
turned up last Saturday, having run down from Khar- 
toum in three days ; but he very nearly came to grief on 
the way at one of the cataracts. There were two 
fellows at the wheel, and one wanted to go to the left 
and the other to the right of the reef, and between 
them were making straight on it, when Gordon rushed 
to the helm and just made a shave of it ; but as it was 
they carried away a lot of paddles, and had rather a 
smash. Wlitn he arrived lie put us all to rights at 
Bei'her, and was very kind and considerate. He soon 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 249 

put the very troublesome gentleman who was ordering 
us about in his proper place, and was surprised to find 
him with us at all/ 

At this time, and for a period of nearly two months, 
Gordon was at Saubat river. The country was utterly 
forlorn and desolate ; the slavers had passed that way, 
and scarcely a soul was to be seen for miles. But for 
his passionate interest in humanity, the solitude must 
have proved overpowering. The land lay so remote 
from even Cairene civilization, that the Arab troops 
were deported there for punishment, as the Russians to 
Siberia. Nevertheless Gordon retained his health and 
spirits. He was never idle ; and when his public 
duties were done, he amused himself by inventing traps 
for the huge rats who shared his cabin. 

He had no reason to regret his investment in cap- 
tured slaves. They were strong, hardy rascals, and 
they worked well for him, especially in transferring the 
station to the other side of the river, to a drier site 
and better water. There he awaited the slave convoy, 
and a drove of asses (180 strong) from Khartoum. 
Meanwhile he interested himself in the natives who 
sought his aid, and dealt, as he knew how, with a 
captured cargo of slaves. He forgot no ministration, 
however trivial ; he left no duty, however small, un- 
done. ^ She had her tobacco up to the last,' he writes 
of a poor old woman, whom he fed up for weeks, but 



250 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

who died at last. ' What a change from her misery ! 
I suppose she filled her place in life as well as Qaeen 
Elizabeth/ To him she was as much as his ' kings ' 
at Gravesend— as anyone in need of solace or aid. 

Towards the end of August he left this miserable 
place for Gondokoro, where much trouble awaited him. 
As he expected, he found his staff in discontent, and 
intrigue at height among his officials. He arrived 
on the 4th of September ; and with Baouf Bey, com- 
mander of the troops at Gondokoro, a man hostile to 
him, and Abou Saoud, his lieutenant, he went to receive 
the salaams of the functionaries, officers, and soldiers. 
Through the influence of Abou Saoud, all seemed 
quiet among the tribes ; the chiefs had submitted, and 
were peaceably disposed. But Baouf Bey was jealous 
of Abou Saoud ; he was angry, too, because Gessi and 
Anson had been sent to Bahr Gazelle, with three large 
boats and twenty Arab soldiers, to reconnoitre for 
stations and make friends with the tribes. With all 
his opportunities, as Gordon knew, he had done abso- 
lutely nothing ; so of Eaouf he had resolved to be rid, 
and to start him for Cairo with letters to the Khedive. 
Another heavy trouble was that his staff was down with 
ague and fever to a man, so that, worn to a shadow 
himself, he had to play sick-nurse day and night. 
Linant, Campbell, and Bussell were very ill (the latter 
in Gordon's own tent) ; and Gessi, before his departure 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 251 

for Bahr Gazelle, had only recently recovered from 
fever. Even his servants were helpless. Add to this 
that he had all the money arrangements and officers' 
accounts on his hands, and the picture will be complete. 
Linant died the day he left Gondokoro. 

Gordon's next move was to Bageef : to build a new 
station on higher and healthier ground. There he found 
that Abou Saoud had been taking elephant-tusks from 
the chiefs, and deceiving him in other ways. It was 
the beginning of the end for the ex-slaver. He made 
himself so objectionable by bullying the people, and 
coming into the Governor's cabin and usurping the 
Governor's functions, that there was nothing for it but 
there and then to get rid of him. Gordon dictated 
the following letter, and sent Abou down to Gondo- 
koro ; 

' 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 protestation, and 
did so. When I got to Gondokoro, you were behaving 
properly, and I congratulated myself on your appoint- 
ment to the high post I gave you. Soon, however, I 
came little by little to repent my action, and to find 
out my fair treatment was thrown away. You tried to 

deceive me about , about , and about ; 

you misstated ; you told me falsely about , 

etc., etc. To come to more personal matters, you 
strangely forgot our relative positions ; you have forced 
your way into my private apartments at all times, have 
disputed my orders in my presence, and treated all my 



252 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

other officers with arrogance, showing me that yon are 
an ambitions, grasping man, and njiworthy of the 
anthority I gave you. If you do this under my eyes, 
and at the beginning of your work, what mil you do 
when away from me ? Now hear my decision. Your 
appointment is cancelled, and you will return to G-on- 
dokoro and wait my orders. Remember, though I 
remove you from your office, you are still a Govern- 
ment officer, subject to its laws, which I shall not hesi- 
tate to put in force against you if I find you intriguing. 
* I then went on to say,' writes Gordon, * that his 
scheme to cause the troops to revolt had never alarmed 
me, and that I felt confident that they would see their 
interest lay with me and not with him ; so it ended 
with my saying that I would be merciful to him, and 
let him go away on leave, not to return.' 

It was fortunate that Gordon was thus summary, 
for there is no doubt that he would have been in 
peril of his life. Abou Saoud had tried to get up a 
mutiny among his own soldiers, a set of cannibals from 
the Niam-Niam, in order to force Gordon to let him go 
to Duffli with the steamer, which was in parts, and had 
to be pieced together at that place. The black soldiers 
said they would not go without him ; so Gordon, who 
had some time before proclaimed as a motto for all the 
word 'Hurryat,' or * Liberty,' said, 'Do not go at all then; 
but you will not make me send Abou Saoud with you ; 
that would infiringe my Hurryat.* He then added that 
as they were in receipt of Government pay, he ex- 
pected that they would obey him. This seems to have 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 253 

frightened them ; so they came and begged him to let 
them go with the steamer. 

So very little help had he from some of his subor- 
dinates, that the Commandant at Gondokoro sent up to 
him/with a mountain howitzer, old ammunition tubes 
instead of new ones ; they had been recently used 
for a salute. This humorous proceeding imperilled 
Gordon's life. It left him defenceless, and with only 
ten men, in a place where no Arab would have stayed 
without a hundred. 

The climate at Bageef was much better than at 
Gondokoro, and the country had better features. 
Gordon set to work to instruct the people in the use 
of money. This was not easy, as the custom was for 
the chiefs to farm their men, and take payment in beads 
or calico. Gordon's first aim was to stop the system, 
and to this end he showed the people that they might 
earn for themselves. First, he gave a man so many 
beads for his work ; next, he gave him half a piastre, 
or one penny, and offered to sell him beads for that 
amount. The men soon caught the idea, and Gordon 
fixed certain prices for certain things, and put together 
little lots for sale : in fact, as he himself says, he made 
a regular shop, much to the discontent of all the old 
hands, who were dead against ' these new-fangled ideas.' 
He found that many of the negroes did not work well 
on daily wages, so he introduced the system of task- 



254 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

work. He gave himself np to the smnsement of the 
soldiers^ and delighted them with a magic lantern and 
a magnesinm-wire light, and by firing a gun 150 
yards off with a magnetic exploder. 

Meantime, three weeks having gone by since Abon 
Saond's dismissal, Gessi and Eemp asked Gordon to 
reinstate him. Gordon forgave his ex-lientenant. 
' One wants some forgiveness one's self,' he said, ' and 
it is not a dear article.' He wrote to Abon, saying 
that if he liked he could join Eemp at Dnffli, and take 
Bageef on his way. On the night of his arrival at 
Bageef, Abon asked for his old post. Gordon gave 
him what he asked, and talked about his journey to 
Duffli ; whereupon Abou said he could not go without 
100 soldiers. As there were not so many on hand, 
he had to stay where he was. He hated the new 
system of buying for money ; and later on, while some 
ivory was selling, he was seen in earnest conversation 
with a certain chief. After this not a negro came near 
the place, though crowds had been there regularly 
before his arrival. Presently Gessi wrote that some 
one was with Gordon whom the blacks did not like, and 
that they would not come over while he was there. 
Gordon was wroth that no name was given, but he at 
once concluded that Abou was the man. The mystery 
was soon cleared up. Gordon soon found that the chief 
referred to, who had hitherto shown himself friendly, 



JN THE LAND OP THE BLACKS. 255 

had been intrigning with another for a canoe to be used 
in an attack on the station. Gordon opined that pro- 
bably Abon had egged him on — ^had told him the Pasha 
was coming to take his cows ; or that the sight alone 
of the ex-slaver had aroused his fears; In any case, 
a conspiracy was nndonbtedly afoot when Gordon 
came back to Bageef. He had been to Gondokoro to 
arrange for Abou's departure, when he met the hostile 
chief on the road, and was invited mto his hut. As 
it was dark, he declined to go. Next day the chief 
visited him with a great bulk of armed men, and after 
some apparently friendly intercourse withdrew. Soon 
after he and his following returned, and surrounded the 
tent. Gordon, who had watched their movements, 
got down his guns; he then told the would-be rebel 
to walk off, and the would-be rebel at once obeyed. 
He was bent on mischief; but the lonely hero was 
too much for him. 

Abou was by no means the only traitor in the 
camp. It was not long ere Gordon learned that the 
passage of a convoy of slaves on their way to Fashoda 
had been connived at by his Mudir. This piece of ill 
news was soon followed by another. Eemp, the 
engineer, came in from Duffli, at the head of the 
cataract, 184 miles from Bageef, where he had been 
trying to build and launch the steamer, thence to work 
down to the Albert Nyanza. Some tribesmen there 



256 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

had come to blows with the slave soldiers and then 
robbed them, so that he had to come back, leaving the 
greater part of the steamer behind. But in other 
directions the prospect was more cheering. Long re- 
tnmed from a visit to Mtesa, King of Uganda, to 
report a good reception from that suspicious monarch. 
The discovery of a water-passage between Umndogani 
and Foweira was another important event, and is com- 
mented on by Gordon in one of his letters as matter 
for great congratulation. 

During these months, November and December, there 
was a great deal of illness among the members of the 
staff. In fact, the majority were down with fever, and 
had to leave one after the other, their leader being 
almost alone in resisting the climate, though he was 
fast making himself ill by nursing and waiting on the 
others. At length things got so bad that he had to 
give orders that all illness should be kept away from 
him, and that the staff should not come near him 
except on duty. Sickness, however, so increased 
— probably owing to a heat unusual even in these 
horrible regions — that at last only one of the original 
staff was left, eight having gone from the place. 
Then Gordon made up his mind to move the station 
twelve miles off, to Lardo, which stood higher above 
the marshes. This involved a great deal of work ; but 



IN THE LAND OF THE BLACKS. 257 

in four days he got clear of Gondokoro, and before the 
end of the year was settled in his new quarters. 

' Gordon has certainly done wonders since his stay, 
in this country/ says one of his staff. 'When he 
arrived, only ten months ago, he found 700 soldiers in 
Gondokoro, who did not dare to go a hundred yards 
from that place, except when armed and in small bands, 
on account of the Baris, who were exasperated at the 
way Baker had treated them. With these 700 men 
Gordon has garrisoned eight stations, namely, at 
Saubat, at Batachambe Bohr, Lardo, Bageef, Fatiko, 
Duffli, and Makrake, the frontier of the Niam-Niam 
country. Baker's expedition cost the Egyptian Govern- 
ment £1,170,247, while Gordon has already sent up 
sufficient money to Cairo to pay for all the expenses of 
his expedition, including not only the sums required 
for last year, but the amount estimated for the actual 
one as well.' 



17 



CHAPTER XL 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 



Chief among Gordon's projects for 1875 was the junc- 
tion of the stations of Gondokoro and Foweira by a 
chain of fortified posts a day's jonmey apart. The 
stations werjB a six months' march from each other ; 
the jonmey conld only be undertaken by a body of 100 
men. After the change, travelling was much more 
rapid ; and a company of ten was large and strong 
enough for safety. Gordon also proposed to concen- 
trate himself in the south, and open a route to Mombaz 
Bay, 250 miles north of Zanzibar ; and should Victoria 
Lake turn out as large as it was reported, he looked to 
making it much easier of access. These plans he had 
laid before the Khedive, and had asked him to send a 
steamer with 150 men to Mombaz Bay, there to 
estabUsh a station, and so push towards Mtesa's 
country. All these reforms were important, for in the 
then state of affairs the whole north of his province was 
worthless marsh and desert, and the navigation to Ehar- 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 259 

tonm was extremely difficult, the Arab manners being 
quite unskilled, while firewood was growing scarce. It 
was part of the Khedive's purpose to hoist the Egyptian 
flag on the Albert Nyanza. To do this, Gordon chosid 
the western bank of the river, and worked his way 
along to Duffli, which lies some 800 miles due south 
of Khartoum towards Lake Victoria ; with the stream 
on his left, he could only be attacked from the right. 

Meantime he had received news from Foweira, 100 
miles farther south of Duffli, that Kaba Bega, King of 
XJnyoro, in league with the old slavers now ostensibly 
in tibe Khedive's service, was planning an attack 
thereon. The officers of the station had expelled the 
slave-hunters from their service. Some fifty came 
•down to Gordon, and were ordered on to Khartoum, 
with ninety other bandits from the Fatiko province. 
He had recaptured fifty-two slaves, and he describes 
ihe lamentations of the kidnappers as terrible.- He 
now determined to drive Kaba Bega out of his kingdom, 
and give it to Bionga, who, in 1872, had been Sir 
Samuel Baker's Vakeel. 

But before these plans could be even set in train, 
lie had to deal with a troublesome chief named Bedden. 
"To Bedden, in the autumn of the previous year, he 
had sent an envoy with presents. Bedden replied 
that the next ambassador would be killed. Next, 
Bedden, who ruled a district very near the station at 

17—2 



26o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Bageefy attacked a friendly chief in the neighbonrhood. 
Gordon, though averse from the step, felt that the only 
means of bringing about his submission would be to 
make a raid, and drive off his cattle. He therefore 
sent sixty men east of the river, while he himself, with 
one officer and ten men, sailed up the western bank to 
the islands where the cattle-pens were. It was moon- 
light when the raiders landed; and as they marched 
along the shore to Bedden's camp, which was fifteen 
miles off, they fell in with some mighty hippopotami. 
Gordon, as they stood with their vast hides glistening 
in the moonlight, playfully waved his handkerchief at 
them, but they answered the friendly greeting by 
* plumping into the river with a great splash.' 

The boat then struck a shoal, and Gordon, fearing 
for the men in her, sent her back. While he was 
giving these orders, nine of his party went on without 
him. He, with the two men left and an interpreter, 
soon found himself within earshot of the cattle-pens. 
They were, he writes, in a very bad military position, 
inasmuch as they were open to attack from the front 
and the left alike. On starting, the two detachments 
had had orders to close in on their commander. There 
was, however, not much faith to be placed in them. 
The Soudanese, indeed, were in such a state of panic, 
that they mistook some rocks on the rising ground for 
villages. The plight was a bad one ; but there was no 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 261 

help for it, and Gordon lay down and slept, till he 
was roused by the dawn and the sound of a drum from 
the kraals. He thus describes the end of the affair : 

' The cattle at night are enclosed in seribas or 
kraals, with one entrance. The warriors sleep inside. 
The mode of attack is to put a few men near the 
entrance, with orders to fire three shots at dawn/ before 
the cattle are let out ; for if once out, you can scarcely 
catch one of them. On hearing the shots the warriors 
escape, beating the war-drum if they have time. They 
never defend the seribas; and it is always the best 
policy to let them go harmless, as the cows are the 
great object. As the red glow of a hot day increased, 
we heard, on the far-away hill opposite to us, to the 
east, the three signal-shots ; and then our island seriba 
sounded its nozan or drum. It was a mild one, and 
was not taken up by other drums, as I expected ; then 
silence ensued. As day advanced, we saw the supposed 
villages of the soldiers were rocks, and not a native 
was to be seen. Soon afterwards some appeared, but 
they seemed puzzled by the three signals, and went off. 
Before long our allies — the friendly Sheikh's people — 
came up ; and some of their little warriors swam across 
to the island, but reported that the Bedden warriors 
were in the midst of the cows, and shot arrows at them 
when they approached. However, these soon went 
off, and we got the cows. We rewarded, with what 
was not our own, the * friendlies,' and came back. The 
other party on the east coolly passed down the other 
side with herds of cattle, and never paid any attention 
to us. The party on the west were never seen by us. 
It appears that they reached the scene of their opera- 
tions at midnight, and sent a guide on to explore. 



262 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

This guide met a woman going for water ; he tried to 
catch her ; she cried out and gave the alarm, so the 
natives let out the cows. However, including onr herd 
of 600 head of cattle, we got altogether 2,600 head ; 
so that without any effusion of hlood on either side, or 
huming of villages, we punished Bedden severely/ 



Next day Gordon made a similar expedition against 
a chief named Lococo. He, however, had had warning 
from a neighbouring tribe into whose territory he drove 
his herds ; some 600 cows were taken all the same. 
About a fortnight later the Governor was out riding, 
when he suddenly came upon Bedden, and found 
him old and blind. Seeing some natives seated under 
a tree, he asked them if they were Beddeu's people ; 
whereupon they pointed to an old man among them, 
and said ' Bedden/ Gordon went up to him, gave him 
his whistle and some tobacco, and told him that if his 
tribe behaved well, nothing would be taken from them. 
Two days after the old chief returned the visit, when 
Gordon returned him twenty of his cows : a piece of 
generosity which had an excellent effect on the tribes. 

For some time Gordon moved from one station to 
another, shooting hippopotami, cleaning guns, mending 
watches and musical-boxes. He was waiting for the 
Nile to fall, that he might get his steamers up from 
Khartoum, and find out whether there was any means 
of passing the rapids at Duffli. First of all, however^ 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 263 

he had to march some thirty miles to southward, with 
forty Soudanese, fifty Makraka recruits, and a gang of 
porters. He got as far as Eerri, and, returning to 
Bageef, found that the Nile was navigable between. 
While encamped at Eerri, a thunderstorm gave his 
ragamuffins an opportunity of pillaging some houses 
under pretence of taking shelter. Gordon would not 
allow them to enter the villages, and got them camped 
under some trees. Suddenly, in the midst of the storm, 
shots were fired, and the cry arose that they were 
attacked. A reconnaissance showed no enemy of any 
kind. Nevertheless the men insisted they had been 
attacked, and fell to sacking the houses, while some 
actually fired on the natives on the opposite bank, to 
give their abominable stratagem an appearance of truth. 
Of such was his material for the regeneration of the 
Soudan. 

From Bageef he went north again to Lardo, and 
then, with 100 soldiers to form a station, back to Eerri. 
He had to get three nuggars (strong boats used on the 
Nile) to withstand the charges of the hippopotami 
To put these nuggars through the violent eddies was 
both difficult and dangerous. Sixty or eighty went 
hauling at the boat ; and if the strain was slackened 
for an instant, the boat capsized. No sooner had 
Gordon settled things, to some extent, at Eerri, than 
he was off again to Lardo, to upset the do-nothing 



264 ^^^ STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Governor, and transport him to Ehartoom (which he 
called his Botany Bay). Here, while waiting for his 
steamers (stack fast at Khartoum for some five months 
through mismanagement), he made up for the ex- 
Governor's loss of time by himself attending to every 
detail of the administration. His extraordinary energy 
received a new impulse from the inactivity of his Arabs. 
All day long they stood and stared at their strange 
Governor — * the little Khedive ' as they called him — 
watching his every movement as if it were something 
miraculous ; noting, in an ecstasy of amazement, how 
he would come down from his divan and put his king- 
ship behind him, while he cleaned his guns or con- 
trived a rocket-machine out of an old pump. 

At last the nuggars were started up the river, and a 
tremendous business it was to get the lazy Arabs to 
work. They went * as if they were at a funeral ;' 
they hid in the grass whenever they could get a 
chance of shirking. Sometimes a rope would break, 
and a nuggar go off on a six-knot current ; sometimes 
the waters would rush from both sides of the rocks, and 
tear the mast right out. Then there were the difficul- 
ties with shy and unknown tribes to be encountered ; 
there was the encumbrance of over 100 women and 
children who accompanied the soldiers to be dealt 
with ; there was the army of wizards beating the water 
and shrieking incantations to speed the white men on. 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 265 

In this last amusement, Gordon, taking the lead, would 
' pray the nnggars np/ he says ; as he used to pray np 
the men of the Ever-Victorious Army when they 
wavered in the breaches. It was a picture unmatched 
in its contrasts of torpor and energy, of Eastern and 
Western faith. 

All this time it was impossible to judge what real 
progress they had made, or to fix their whereabouts, 
though sometimes they got over eight or ten miles a 
day. The tribes, besides being exceedingly timid, 
knew nothing of distance, and could not count. When 
asked how far off was this place or that, they invariably 
pointed to some point in the sky, to show that when 
the sun was there the traveller would arrive. Some- 
times they v^ere inclined to show fight ; but the burn- 
ing of a single hut or the discharge of a rifle brought 
them to their senses. It was, however, impossible to 
get any sort of help from them, either by persuasion or 
by force. And one day, in the middle of August, the 
need of help was desperate. One of the nuggars broke 
loose, and floated down into the middle of the rapids. 
Another boat had to be sent in pursuit, and, in Gordon's 
absence, it got entaugled in the rocks. This delayed the 
party a whole day. They got off at last, however, and 
arrived without further accident at Lahore. Here they 
waited for ropes for their further journey, and for the 
arrival of 260 soldiers from Lardo, together with some 



s66 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

natives frcm Makade. The tribes were wroth to see 
them encamped, but Gordon pat things right by shoot- 
ing a hippopotamus and giving them the carcase. They 
came abont him in a most friendly spirit, whereupon 
he showed one of them how to fire his rifle ; I need 
scarcely say that he held it while his pupil drew the 
trigger. But though the tribes fraternized with him, 
they soon attacked another station a mile from his own. 
Feeling that with so many women and children about 
it would not do to be thus molested, he kept a sharp 
look-out, and did not allow the negroes within a thou- 
sand yards of his hut. At night, to guard against an 
assault, he put up posts with telegraph-wires between 
them, at a good height, so as to stop a rush. Mean- 
while, the wizards were seen cursing their enemy and 
waving him oflf the face of the earth. Gordon now 
and then threw a bullet into them, and spied the 
movements of their spies, who slunk about the camp, 
suddenly disappearing m the long grass or maize. 
Very soon Linant, a brother of the Linant who died 
at Gondokoro, came in with a party from Makade. 
Gordon's opinion of his Arab soldiers was now to be 
confirmed under extremely painful and trying circum- 
stances. He had passed thirty men over the river to 
the east bank, as he believed they would find his 
steamer in the east channel. The moment they landed 
the natives came down on them, as they lay in the 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 267 

grass before the station. Gordon at once crossed 
over. The moment they saw him coming they made a 
msh at his men, bat were repnlsed. He then attempted 
a parley, but they would none of it. They knew him for 
the chief, and they made an attempt to surround him. 
He let them come quite near, and then drove them back 
with bullets. In the attack, they showed great courage, 
crawling, in the teeth of a heavy fire, close up to him 
on their bellies — an attitude which made it most diffi- 
cult to hit them. At this pass Linant proposed to cross 
to the east bank, and bum their houses ; and Gordon, 
fearing that unless he took reprisals they would attack 
the steamer, agreed. At eight o'clock, on the 25th 
August, he sent off thirty-six soldiers, two officers, and 
three irregulars. About midday he heard firing, and 
then saw Linant, in a red shirt he had given him, 
on a hill. The party remained in view for about two 
hours, when they disappeared. Later in the after- 
noon Gordon saw some thirty or forty blacks running 
down to the river. He concluded that they had 
gone to see the steamer ; and as they ran, he dropped 
a few bullets among them. Ten minutes later he 
saw one of his own detachment on the opposite bank 
without his musket, and he at once sent a boat to 
bring him across. The fellow declared that the 
natives had disarmed him, and had killed the whole 
party besides. Gordon had only thirty men at his 



268 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

station^ and it was not possible to communicate with 
the steamer where there were ninety more. Bat he 
was determined to act, though his thirty men showed 
signs of panic. As the station was not fortified, he 
thought it best to move down to the other ; but this was 
not easy to do. The wives and children of the soldiers 
had first to be disposed of ; then there were many mis- 
haps with the boats, one of which, filling with water, 
stopped the passage of the others, and delayed the party 
till dawn. Happily they were not molested by the 
tribesmen ; these, with one exception, held resolutely 
aloof from the proceedings. The exception was a 
wizard. With singular indiscretion, this sage elected 
to survey the retreat from the top of a rock. Here 
he grinned and jeered and vaticinated while Gordon 
was giving his orders. The Governor took up his 
rifle. ' I don't think that's a healthy spot from which 
to deliver an address,' he said; and the wizard pro- 
phesied no more. 

At last the other station was reached. Only one 
soldier was found on the field : and a boat was sent 
to bring him into safety. It turned out eventually 
that four of Linant's men had escaped, but that Linant 
himself had been the victim of Gordon's red shirt. It 
had maddened the natives, who had come at him with 
a rush, and speared him where he stood. The whole 
affair, as far as can be gathered, seems to have been 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 369 

the result of a want, not of ammunition (every man 
had thirty rounds in his pouch, and there were two 
boxes of cartridges besides), but of discipline among 
Gordon's wretched soldiers. The party got scattered, 
and the natives came suddenly upon Linant. The 
trumpeter was one of the first to fall, and it was 
impossible to call the men together again. Gordon's 
grief at the loss of his friend was very great, the 
more so as he had lent him the fatal shirt. When 
Linant proposed the attack, he assured his chief that 
he was used to the work, and that he had defeated 
thousands of the tribesmen on his way back from 
King Mtesa's territory. 

At the end of August the Governor of Fatiko arrived 
with more soldiers, and Gordon now had nearly 600 
men. He therefore at once set to work to punish the 
natives by means of razzias. His first essay resulted 
in the capture of 200 cows and 1,600 sheep^ The 
chiefs daughter, too, was seized; and Gordon sent 
her father a message that if he would submit hs could 
have her again. The excitement caused by these raids 
was terrific. The tribes gathered on the hills and in- 
dulged in the wildest war-dances, while, night and day, the 
magicians were hard at work imploring curses and pro- 
ducing incantations. Poles were set up with the heads 
of Linont's party at top. The bodies had been buried 
for fear of ghosts, but the heads were kept as trophies. 



270 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

By the middle of September these many difficulties 
were lightened by the arrival from Fatiko of Nuehr 
Agha, a capital officer. At last the steamer was got 
off, and the expedition set out for Lahore. There were 
many halts, however, occasioned by the Arabs' incapacity 
to carry oat orders, or indeed to do in any way as they 
were told. They arrived on the 24th, established their 
station on a hill, and found the natives friendly. Gordon 
spent much of his time in exploring the country, about 
which he could gain not the slightest information 
from any of his followers. One raid — only one — ^he 
had to make on a troublesome tribe between Moogie 
and Lahore. He was in even better health than usual, 
owing to the helpful presence of Nuehr Agha, and he 
was able, without breaking down, to walk twenty miles 
in the burning sun. 

At last they came to Duffli. They camped between 
two high ranges of mountains, but only to find that the 
idea of taking up the steamer or the nuggars was hope- 
less. The Fola Falls were impassable for two miles. 

It was a great disappointment; but Gordon consoled 
himself by reflecting that up to this point the river had 

been proved navigable at certain seasons for steamers, 

and all the year round for small boats, and that much 

good would come of the line of posts which connected 

this southern portion of the province with the north, 

since it would now be difficult for the tribes to continue 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE ayi 

tiieir hostilities. Besides this, it was easy to find the 
way and to know of everybody's whereabouts : to say 
nothing of the comfort of a plentiful supply of wood 
and of water along the line. 

The halt at Duffli lasted a little ovei* a fortnight. 
The tribes were a quiet race, living in kraals and out of 
sight, so that it was an event to see a human being. 
The silence and monotony of the place affected Gordon's 
spirits. Nor were they improved by news from certain 
of his stations. From Lahore he heard that his inter- 
preter, without whose aid he had managed all this 
time, was dead ; that one of his commanders had 
allowed a man to go alone between two posts, and 
that the man had been murdered on the way ; that at 
one place the sentries slept all nighty and that an attack 
by the tribes was meditated on another. . In the midst 
of this, he was seized with ague, and had to shift 
his quarters. He crossed the river and settled at 
Fashelie, a place nine miles from Duffli, on higher 
ground, and surrounded for hundreds of miles by yellow 
grass which stood six feet high. Hither, with the aid 
of fifty camels, it was his intention to move all his 
belongings along the Asua Biver, which at Duffli 
joins the Nile. Ere he did so, however, he had to 
rout out and send to Khartoum a gang of Dongola slave- 
dealers, who had settled at Fashelie and were making 
raids on the tribes. 



272 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

It 'was all-important, before proceeding further sonfh^ 
to thoroughly subdue the tribes round Moogie, since if 
the country was left in its then disturbed state, the 
communication between the posts from north to south 
would be constantly subject to interruption. At this 
place Gordon found an irritating letter, full of com- 
plaints from the Khedive. He at once wrote three 
telegrams, telling the Ehedive that he should be at 
Cairo in April, and that his successor had better be 
sent up without delay. Before these telegrams were 
despatched, however, he received from the Ehedive a 
letter in a very different strain. It stated that His 
Highness had placed Admiral McKillop under his com- 
mand, and had sent him with three men-of-war and 
600 men to Juba, on which place he proposed that he 
should march. Gordon, feeling that it would be unfair 
to the Ehedive to resign at such a pass, unpacked his 
baggage and determined to continue his work, much to 
the astonishment of his followers, who did not know 
what this packing and unpacking might mean. All 
the same, he resolved not to fall in with the Ehedive's 
plans, and made up his mind not to march on Juba 
with the wretched troops at his command. 

Scarce two months back he had lost his interpreter ; 
now there befell a new calamity. His servant fell sick 
of fever and died in a few hours. Gordon sorrowed 
much, though he had but little time for sorrow. His 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 273 

hands were full ; he was at the heart of his work ; and 
in a raid on some offending tribes he drove off over 
1,600 head of cattle. This achievement, and a visit to 
Lahore, for the parts of the steamer, hronght the busy 
year to a close. Successful so far, he was resolved on 
one thing more, and that was not to explore the Albert 
Nyanza. He had told the Khedive in 1874 that he 
would not do it; and though the feat was generally 
expected of him by the Geographical Society and the 
world at large, he was contented to have prepared the 
way for another. What he wanted to do was to push 
on to Lake Victoria Nyanza, and fulfil his promise to 
the Khedive of hoisting the Egyptian flag upon its 
waters. The steamer which was to enable him to 
do this was to follow him on his journey south, Gessi 
having been left at Duffli to put it together and launch 
it, with the life-boat. 

The year (1876) opened with a disappointment. On 
his way from Fashelie to Fatiko, a distance of nearly 
fifty miles southwards, Gordon was overtaken by a 
courier who came to inform him that an influential 
chief under arrest had been allowed to escape by the 
guard. The circumstance was the more annoying, as 
the prisoner might have been of great service in bring- 
ing about an understanding with his tribe. At Fatiko 
Gordon stayed but a week. He then pushed on to 
Foweira, a hundred miles nearer Lake Victoria Nyanza; 

18 



874 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The dreary drag through jungle grass and thorns tore 
his clothes to tatters. His object was to swoop down 
upon Eaba Eega, at Mrooli, put Bionga in his place, 
and establish a post. Eionga, a fine-looking fellow 
with prominent eyes, arrived at Foweira three days 
after him, and they left together. The journey to 
Mrooli was no better than the one just completed. 
Kaba Bega had taken to his heels, and transferred 
himself, magic stool and all, to Masindi, and Bionga 
was made king in his stead. Bionga, however, was in 
mortal dread of Eaba Bega, who was only a few miles 
off ; and Gordon saw that it would be necessary to set 
up Anfina, another Unyoro magnate, at Masindi ; since 
if Eaba Bega were unmolested, he would have to 
station 150 men at Mrooli to keep him in check, 
while, with garrisons at Masindi and Mrooli, there 
was nothing to be feared. ' I do so cordially dislike 
these wretched troops,' he writes. 

' They started off this morning to capture some cattle 
and will soon be back, and there will be fine accounts 
of their bravery. Whoever has Masindi and Mrooli, to 
him or them the natives turn, so that, Eaba Bega 
being a refugee, the capture of Masindi renders him 
harmless; I have to go to all these places myself, for 
these slaves would never go. With troops one is not 
sure of, and in whom you have no confidence, I can 
imagine no position more trying. In all cases com- 
manders have some reliable men. There is a moral 
ccnviction which it is necessary for soldiers to have^ 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 275 

namely, that they will conqaer ; let this be wanting, 
and they are worthless. The Khedive has taken not 
the least notice of my complaints of them, bat urges 
me on still further. What is it to him what tenfold 
additional trouble I have to take in consequence Y 

Anfina was set up at Masindi accordingly. This 
made him Bionga's superior, and Rionga was farious. 
Gordon, when these matters were settled, went back to 
Fatiko, and joined Gessi at Duffli in February. A 
month later, after much trouble, his preparations were 
complete, and Gessi started with the two boats for 
Magungo and the Lakes. While his faithful lieutenant 
was hoisting the Egyptian flag, and being driven by a 
storm into the thick of Eaba Bega's troops, Gordon 
proceeded with his survey and with the administration 
of the various stations, going as far south again as 
Lardo, and back once more to Eerri. On his arrival 
here on April the 1 2th, he wrote home : 

^ I have definitely, I hope, settled the stations along 
the line from Duffli to Lardo. Lardo and Duffli are 
termini; Bageef, Bedden, Moogie, and Jyoo (a new 
station he had just made), are postal stations; and 
Lahore and Eerri are main stations, and possess pas- 
sages across the river, and enable raids to be made on 
the east bank, where a vast extent of country exists. 
Through this country used to pass the old land road 
south.' 

Of course, these journeys were not without adventures, 

18—2 



876 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

and of one of these I give an 4tcconnt in Gordon's own 
words : 

■ 

' Yon may remember that last year I had here a great 
deal of trouble to pass a rope across the river. I got 
one over — or rather the boatmen did — easily this time. 
However, on the other side the rope canght on a 
rowlock of the boat, and the current bore down with 
snch force that it was difficult to release it. One 
of the men was hammering the rowlock while I lifted 
on the rope ; the rowlock slewed, and off went the 
rope. Before I could let go, it dragged me into the 
river ; but I soon rose and caught the rudder, and was 
all right. A Beis (captain) jumped in after me, and 
his chemise got swept over his head, so when he bobbed 
up near me, he was like the veiled prophet of Ehorassan. 
I caught him by his veil, and we got out all safely* 
Yesterday as we were hauling at the rope (I being 
seated under or near a tree to which we had it attached), 
a whip-snake was shaken down, and tried to obtain 
cover between me and the ground. However, I got 
clear of it.' 

At this time he was much alone, and his letters are 
long and interesting. He began to get anxious about 
Gessi ; but that valiant Italian returned towards the 
end of April, after sailing round the Victoria Nyanza 
in nine days. He found it 140 miles long and 50 wide. 
The natives were hostile, and refused to parley till 
Gessi went away, for they took him by his colour 
for a fiend. But at XJnyoro, Kaba Eega's chiefs 
had sent in their submission, and all was quiet. 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 277 

There was little to do at this time, as they were still 
waitmg the completion of the steamer; and with 
nothing else to think of, it amused them not a little 
when the wizard of the tribe near Eerri announced 
that he should not allow them a single drop of rain, 
unless the Government gave him cows : — * Which it 
has not done/ says Gordon ; * and it is very odd that 
all around we have had rain, except near the station/ 

Gessi, during this period of inaction, made himself 
ill by smoking and lounging all day long. But Gordon 
made up his mind to give the three weeks he would 
have to wait for the steamer to exploring an ' unknown 
branch * of the Nile. Away he went to Lardo. Here, 
during a storm, he was roused in the night by loud 
cries and shots close to the house. * I guessed what it 
was/ he says, ^ and rushed out. Three elephants had 
chosen to try to land at the place cut in the bank to 
enable the servants to get water from the river. The 
sentry, however, saw them, fired at them, and made 
them give up their intention. You see, if they landed 
and got frightened, they would break down my house 
in a moment, and do a deal of damage. This is a 
favourite landing-place for them.* 

A fortnight later, homeward-bound for Eerri, he 
writes: 

* During a heavy thunderstorm to-day, while putting 
the side of my tent straight, I received, at the moment 



273 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

of a flash of lightning, a couple of severe shocks sknilar 
to what a strong electric machine would give. What 
an escape ! The verdict on people killed by lightning 
was in olden times '' killed by the visitation of Gk>d/' 
The heathens considered death by lightning was a 
special mark of distinction/ 

On his return he learned at Lahore that Q-essi's 
presence was necessary at Khartoum ; and not long 
after he was able to say of him, ' Gessi is now a great 
man at Khartoum ; he is my Yakeel-in-Chief, and has 
a lot of work.' On the other hand, we learn from 
him that ' Kaba Bega is now nearly deserted ^ by all 
his adherents, and I hope soon to hear that this young 
man, repenting the evil of his ways, has made his sub- 
mission/ Gordon expected to be able to concentrate in 
all 260 troops at Unyoro, which, in those parts, would 
make him a mighty power. 

At this time he was in very much better health, and 
the worries of office do not seem to have troubled him 
as they had. His letters abound in speculations on the 
subject of the Lakes ; and, despite his resolve not to 
explore, the exploring spirit was strong in him. He 
had been reading what Dr. Schweinfurth says of Lake 
Albert : * that it may belong to the Nile basin, though 
this is not certain, inasmuch as with . seventy miles 
between Lake Albert and Foweira, it would be pre- 
sumptuous, without the ocular proof, tp derive the river 
from the lake/ So on the 20th of July, he left Duffli 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 279 

for Magnngo, with the steamer and two life-boats. The 
steamer was not more than fifty feet long, and had but a 
conple of screws. The only way to the cabins was 
through the engine-room^ down a breakneck ladder; 
but Gordon built a house on deck, and used the cabin 
as a storeroom. He took beads with him for the native 
chiefs. Writing from a place about half-way between 
Duffli and Magungo, he describes the river as varying 
in width from two to five miles, with no visible current, 
with a fringe of papyrus ten or twelve yards deep, an^ 
innumerable eyots of papyrus besides. He thought 
the rainy season was over, but in the night there 
was a tremendous shower ; and as he had neglected to 
trench his tent, which he nearly always made it a rule 
to do, he was flooded out. He found Baker's maps 
wonderfully correct ; and from these he had hoped to 
find a spot which would command a general view of the 
lake. But though he tried he failed. Of the tribes he 
remarked : * It is odd that the totally naked tribes seem 
to be in one circular place, between Duffli and Fashoda^ 
and that then you have a ring of partially naked, and 
then the clothed tribes. Adam knew he was naked, 
but these naked tribes have no notion of it whatever ; 
this is some great mystery. Up here they are all 
clothed.' 

He heard that Eaba Kega with six chiefs, but few 
soldiers, was about fifty-eight miles south of Masindi ; 



2So THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON, 

the ex-king had forty muskets with him, but no powder, 
and appeared to have territory on the other side of the 
Lake. A little later, about 300 of a tribe faithful to 
Eaba Eega, came down on a marauding expedition to 
Gordon's camp; but they were soon repelled* Early 
in August the party was three miles west of Murchison 
Falls, marching, some fifteen or twenty miles a day, 
now through pouring rain, then under a burning sun, 
through jungle and along ravines, and mapping the 
river as they went. They were often exposed to the 
attacks of the natives, who would suddenly appear 
and fling spears at them. ^ I do not carry arms, as I 
ought to do,' says Gordon, * for my whole attention is 
devoted to defending the nape of my neck from 
mosquitoes/ Having penetrated the country as far 
south as Nyamyango, he returned by river to Mrooli. 
It was a journey more dangerous even than the one 
by land; for in the many narrow channels through 
which they steered the natives stood in ambush among 
the papyri, and speared the boats as they pleased* 

On the way from Mrooli to Masindi, Gordon dis- 
covered that the troops he had left in charge at the 
latter place were at Eeroto, a day's journey on the 
other side of it. The consequence was that the 
tribes came down on him, and he was in no slight 
peril of defeat. His troops made no attempt to meet 
him. Between September 26, when he arrived, and 



THE LITTLE KHEDIVE. 281 

October 6, when he departed, he visited in torn 
Magongo, Mnrchison Falls, and Chibero, with a view 
to forming a line of posts from the Victoria Nile, or 
Somerset Biver, to the Lake. Then, having arranged 
with his force for an assault on Eaba Bega — who was 
severely handled, but who eventually went back to his 
own country — he returned to Eiartoum, and thence by 
Esneh to Alexandria, his health and spirits as good 
as ever. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

*CHILDE BOLAND/ 

No sooner was Gordon in London, and it was known 
that he had not decided to resume his campaign in 
Upper Egypt, than people began to proclaim his fitness 
for the Governorship of Bulgaria. The TimeSj appre- 
ciative and admiring as always, published a vigorous 
account of the work he had been doing for the E^edive. 
* Surely,' urged the writer * his genius for government 
and command might be profitably utiUzed nearer home. 
If the jealousies of the Powers would permit him to be 
made Governor of Bulgaria, he would soon make that 
province as peaceful as an EngUsh county/ This led 
to the publication of a number of letters. All were in 
favour of the idea ; some brought forward again some 
one or other of the young captain's many achievements 
to prove how apt for such a post he was. Gordon felt, 
however, that he could do nothing without first consult- 
ing with the Khedive. At the same time he was resolved 
not to go to Central Africa unless he went with greater 



* CHILDE ROLAND: 183 

DOwers. His relations with the Governor-General of the 
Soudan, Ismail Pasha Yaconb, had made it impossible 
for him to deal snccessfnlly with the slave question out- 
side his own province ; and he had made up his mind 
that unless the Khedive threw in the Soudan, he would 
not return to his work. In this determination he left for 
Cairo early in the February of 1877. His visit was a 
complete and splendid triumph. Ismail Yacoub was 
removed, and Gordon was appointed Governor-General 
of the Soudan, with Darfour and the provinces of the 
Equator — a district 1,640 miles long and close on 700 
wide. He was to have three deputies, one for the 
Soudan, one for Darfour, and one for the Bed Sea littoral 
and Eastern Soudan ; and it was formally declared that 
the objects of his governance were the improvement of 
the means of communication, and the absolute sup- 
pression of slavery. He was furthermore deputed to 
look into the Abyssinian affairs, and empowered to 
enter into negotiations with King John with a view to 
the settlement of matters in dispute between Abyssinia 
and Egypt. 

The new enterprise was infinitely greater and more 
difiScult than the old. Gordon was keenly alive to the 
tremendous responsibilities he had assumed. With all 
his strength of will, with all his trust in the guardian* 
sliip of an unseen Power, we must not marvel if, 
alone in the great desert, with the results of ages of 



284 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

evil and wrongs the mystic and the man of action 
sometimes give way in him, and he utter a cry of 
despair. We must not forget to look back at what he 
had abready suffered and done, and to remember how he 
longed for quiet. We must bear it in mind that he is 
doing heroic work for the hero's true wages— the love 
of Christ and the good of his fellow-men. We must 
consider him as one who labours not for himself, 
but as the hand of the providence of God, and in the 
fjEuth that his mission is of God's own setting. For all 
that, it is small wonder that out of the darkness which 
encompassed him on every side he sometimes cried 
out for rest — even the rest of death. The wonder is 
that in the teeth of perils so dire, and work so hard, 
and sufferings so manifold, he was allowed to pursue 
his mighty purpose, and be with us still« 

He left Cairo for the eastern borders of his Govern- 
ment in the middle of February. He intended first to 
deal with Abyssinia. His last words on writing from 
the capital were these : ^ I am so glad to get 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^ indeed, to feel 
sure of success.' 

Fully to understand the purpose of the mission 
to Abyssinia, it will be necessary to look at what had 
been going on there since King Theodore's death, in 



' CHILDE ROLAND: 285 

1868, at the hands of Napier and the British. When 
Theodore was retreating to Magdala, a chieftain named 
Kasa offered Napier his services. They were accepted ; 
and when our army evacuated the country he was re- 
warded by a gift of arms and ammunition. Thus 
famished, Easa at once swooped down on certain pro- 
vinces, annexed them to his own dominion, and set up 
as a potentate under the style and title of Johannis, 
King of Abyssinia. At first his conquest made him 
nothing but enemies. Before long Theodore's heir took 
arms against him ; but Johannis routed him, made him 
prisoner, and put him to the torture. This exploit 
strengthened his position, and in no great while he had 
succeeded in laying hands on the whole country, with 
the exception of Shoa and Bogos, and in achieving such 
an anarchy as made commerce impossible. Meanwhile 
Egypt had turned her attention to these parts^ and in 
1874 she annexed Bogos. This move, with her neigh- 
bourhood on the coast, to the west and to the south, 
caused her to be regarded with suspicion and alarm. 
The ill-feeling grew; and Walad el Michael, the 
hereditary Prince of Bogos, who had been imprisoned 
by Johannis, was released on the understanding that 
he should join in a crusade against her. In the war 
that ensued the Egyptians began by holding the 
Abyssinian forces too cheap, and were severely beaten. 
Later on, the Abyssinians carried the war into the 



286 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

enemy's conntry, and were beaten in their torn. Mean- 
while, Walad el Michael had quarrelled with Johannis 
{who after his first victory had robbed him of his spoils), 
and deserted to the enemy. After repulsing the Abys- 
sinians Egypt asked a truce ; and while this was in 
operation, Walad returned to Bogos with 7,000 men. 
There he set to work to make new mischief between the 
two countries. Johannis, finding that no decision as to 
terms of peace could be come to, and fearing the in- 
creased power of his enemy, the kinglet of Bogos, sent 
an envoy to Cairo offering to give up Hamacem. But 
the envoy was first of all detained, and afterwards, 
when he was released, was mobbed and pelted in the 
streets. Finally, he was packed off to Abyssinia, with- 
out a word of any kind. It was in the face of this 
insult — which was bitterly resented by Johannis — that 
Gordon went to Magdala as the Khedive's ambassador. 
His instructions were of the vaguest; his powers of 
the most imperfect. To orders in Arabic, which were 
practically useless, Mr. Vivian, the English, Consul- 
General, had induced the Khedive to add the rider : 
^ n y a sur la frontiere d'Abyssinie des disputes ; je 
vous charge de les arranger.' 

Before the middle of March Gordon reached Massawa, * 
and pushed across the desert to Keren, the capital of 

* The vessel which took Gordon to Massawa was the steamship 
lM\f^ which on her return voyage was burnt at se% about sixty 
miles from Suez. 



'CHILDE ROLAJSID: 287 

Bogos, over which there had heen so much fighting and 
bad blood. He journeyed on the back of that ' cnshion- 
footed camel' which was destined to bear him over 
such vast tracts of country, and through scenes the 
most romantic. Once afoot and on the march, his 
great weariness fell from him, and the cheerful humour, 
the valiant simplicity, the frank and happy faith of old 
times, came back to cheer his way, and aid him in his 
noble enterprize. 

Some miles from Keren he was met by 200 cavalry 
and infantry; and henceforth, whether marching or 
halting, he was carefully guarded by six or eight sen- 
tries, while eight or ten cavaliers stood at his stirrup 
and helped him off his camel. ' I can say truly,' he 
remarks, ^ no man has ever been so forced into a high 
position as I have. How many I know to whom the 
incense would be the breath of their nostrils ! To me 
it is irksome beyond measure. Eight or ten men to 
help me off my camel ! as if I were an invalid. If I 
walk, everyone gets off and walks ; so, furious, I get 
on again/ 

Outside the capital on the 20th of March, the Bogos 
army was paraded to receive him ; a band of musicians 
danced and played before and about him ; while three 
mounted kettle-drummers rode on in front. He had not 
been three days at Keren before Walad el Michael came 
in with 200 infantry and 60 horsemen. Gordon 



288 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

pitched tents for them, and took Walad into his own 
house. He ordered the missionaries to translate him a 
paper he had written, which explained that Egypt, 
deferring to the wishes of Europe, had determined not 
to carry on the war, and that he, her representative, 
proposed to ask a government of Johannis for Walad, 
or else to give him a government in his own territory. 
Walad went away, saying that he would think it over. 
Next morning the French priests came in with the 
news that he wanted a great deal more; whereupon 
Gordon sent for him, and told him plainly that he 
could only give him the government of two or three 
semi-hostile tribes. Then the chief gave in, and 
accepted the offer. He was urged by the priests to 
ask for more guns ; but that request was peremptorily 
refused. The fact is, the situation was critical. 
Gordon, who had no force at his back, feared a coup 
de main on Walad's part. 

* There were two courses open to me with respect to 
this Abyssinian question,' he wrote ; * the one, to stay 
at Massawa, and negotiate peace with Johannis and to 
ignore Walad el Michael, and if afterwards Walad el 
Michael turned rusty, to arrange with Johannis to 
come in and catch him. This certainly would have 
been easiest for me. Johannis would have been de- 
lighted, and we would be rid of Walad ; but it would 
first of all be very poor encouragement to any future 
secessions^ and would debase Egyptian repute. The 



« CHILDE ROLAND: 289 

process of tnrnmg in the polecat (Johannis) to work 
ont the weasel (Walad el Michael), would play havoc 
with the farmyard (the country) in which the operation 
was carried on, and it might be that the Polecat Johannis 
having canght the Weasel Walad, might choose to torn 
on the hens (which we are), and killing ns, stay in the 
farmyard. For, to tell the tmth, we, the hens, in 
the days of our prosperity, stole the farmyard, this 
country, from the polecats, when they were fighting 
among themselves, and before they knew we were hens. 
The other course open to me was to give Walad el 
Michael 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 nut- 
crackers, it will, I hope, turn out well.' 

Meantime Menelek, King of Shoa, Johannis's enemy 
in the south, had descended on Gondar and taken it. 
Johannis had gone with Aloula, a good general, to meet 
him ; and it was probable that Bas Bario, the King's 
uncle, who had his forces near Massawa, might rebel in 
his nephew's absence. Gordon cordially wished that 
something could be done with Walad el Michael, for he 
threatened to march on Hamacem, and complicate 
matters between the peacemaker and the King. 
Had he chosen to arm the people in Bogos, they 
would soon have disposed of Walad and his hordes ; 
but they would have disposed of Gordon and his 
followers also. Through all these complications, how- 
ever, there shone this gleam of hope for him : that 

19 



290 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Johannisy being sore beset, would get frightened, and 
sign the treaties he had brought in his pocket. It 
was a relief to him when Aloula sent a messenger 
to say that, if the Khedive approved, he wonld attack 
Walad, and refrain from ravaging the country. In 
this way he threatened one ruffian with another, and 
so was able to keep them on their best behaviour. 

But he was unable to await the development of 
events in these regions. He was wanted at Khartoum, 
for the slavers were out, and were giving a great 
deal of trouble. He started at once, and taking the 
several stations on his way, he did at each his utmost 
to relieve the people's wants, and give justice as he 
went. The fact that he listened to everybody was 
noised abroad. It spread like wildfire, and there was 
such a rush of petitioners that he had to institute a 
box — a kind of post-office — for the memorials hurled in 
upon him. Nor did the toils of his march * begin and 
end with these achievements in charity. There was 
the daily ride of thirty and forty miles ; there were the 
chiefs, the pashas, the priests to receive ; there were 
endless letters to write and innumerable details of 
practical kingship to attend to — all without help of any 
sort. Kow and then he complained of fatigue; now 
and then he regretted his destiny. ^ Sometimes I wish 
I had never gone into this sort of Bedouin life,' he says, 
' either in China or here. Is it my fault or my fSailing 



* CHILDE ROLAND: 291 

that I never have a respectable assistant with me to 
bear part of my labours ? The men who would suit 
me are all more or less burdened with their families, 
etc. ; those who are not so loaded are for money or for 
great acts which do not accord with my views/ 

At a station on the route to Easala, a number of his 
, camel-drivers were set upon and killed by the Barias, a 
wild tribe from the region between Khartoum and the 
marches of Abyssinia. Of course he himself escaped ; 
but such was the uncertainty of life in these parts that 
in a letter home he wrote as follows : 

^ I have written to say that if anything happens to 
me the Ebedive is to be defended from all blame, and 
the accident is not to be put down to the suppression of 
slavery. I have to contend with many vested interests, 
with fanaticism, with the abolition of hundreds of 
Amauts, Turks, etc., now acting as Bashi-Bazouks, 
with inefficient governors « with wild independent tribes 
of Bedouins, and with a large semi-independent pro- 
vince lately under Sebehr, the Black Pasha, at Bahr 
Gazelle/ 

At last he arrived at Khartoum, and the ceremony of 
installation took place on the 6th of May. The jBrman 
and an address were read by the Cadi, and a royal salute 
was fired. Gordon was expected to make a speech, 
but all he said was. With the help of God I will hold 
the balance level.' This delighted the people more 
than if he had talked for an hour. In an account of 

19—2 



292 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

his installation by an eye-witness, it is stated that ' the 
Pasha afterwards directed gratuities to be distributed 
among the deserving poor ;' and that in three days, he 
gave away upwards of a thousand pounds of his own 
money. 

To his disgust he had to live in a palace as large as 
Marlborough House. Some two hundred servants and 
orderlies were in attendance; they added to his dis- 
comfort by obliging him to live according to the 
niceties of an inflexible code of etiquette* He was 
sternly forbidden to rise to receive a guest, or to offer 
a chair ; if he rose, everyone else did the same ; he 
^was guarded like an ingot of gold/ This formality 
was detestable to him ; but he made a good deal of fun 
of it, and more than once, while certain solemnities 
were proceeding, he would delight the great chiefs, 
his visitors, by remarking in English (of which they 
knew nothing), *Now, old bird, it is time for you 
to go/ 

His elevation had awakened a great deal of ill-feeling 
among the officials, and especially among the relations 
of Ismail Tacoub. Indeed, it is told of the ex-Govemor's 
sister that on hearing of Gordon's appointment she ex- 
pressed her opinion of the transaction by breaking 
some hundred and thirty of the palace windows, and by 
cutting all the divans to pieces. The second in com- 
mand, too, Halid Pasha, was hostile from the first, and 



' CHILDE ROLAND: 293 

even tried to get the upper hand. Need it be said that 
he faUed miserably ? He began with impudence and 
swagger, but he soon submitted and promised amend- 
ment. Ten days after he broke out again. His insub- 
ordination was telegraphed to Cairo, and he was instantly 
cashiered and sent about his business. 

On his ride from Massawa to Khartoum the * Little 
Ehedive/ had relieved the wants of so many of his 
people, and had effected so much good, notwith- 
standing his abolition of the whip (a mighty influence 
under his predecessor), that, as soon as he arrived in 
his capital, great crowds of petitioners besieged him 
in his palace in the hope of getting a hearing. It was 
impossible to see them all ; so, as on the march, a box 
was instituted, and every case was carefully noted and 
considered. Before, it had been impossible to approach 
the Governor-General except by bribing his underlings. 
As much as J£600 was commonly paid down for ap- 
pointments not worth more than Jg200 a year. Gordon 
soon knew all this, and a great deal besides ; but he 
felt the uselessness of attempting the reform of a 
system which had grown into a usage. He therefore 
punished no one for these rascalities; he took the 
money, and put it in the Khedive's treasury. 

A very serious problem had presented itself at 
Khartoum. During his long rides from place to place, 
between Keren and the seat of government, he had 



f94 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

pondered deeply on the sappression of slavery in the 
vast regions he rnled. He had looked back on the con- 
sequences of the abolition of colonial slavery in years 
gone by, and in his rapid way had touched the heart 
of the matter at once. In the one case it was a 
matter affecting the Colonies only; in the other, it 
was a question of home interests affecting all sorts 
and conditions of men. Still, he took a cheerful view 
of the difficulties of his task. He went so far, indeed, 
as to hope that he had solved the problem, and laid 
the details of his scheme before her Majesty's Consul- 
General, Mr. Vivian. 

The work he had begun and was bent on finishing 
was fraught with peculiar perils. It demanded a tact, 
an energy, and a force of will almost superhuman. 
He had to deal not only with worthless and often 
mutinous governors of provinces, but with wild and 
desperate tribesmen as well ; he had to disband 6,000 
Bashi-Bazouks, who were used as frontier guards, but 
who winked at slave-hunting and robbed the tribes on 
their own account ; he had to subdue and bring to 
order and rule the vast province of the Bahr Gazelle, 
but now beneath the sway of the great slaver Sebehr. 
It was a stupendous task : 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 honour 
and fortune ; to make an army out of perhaps the worst 



• CHILDE ROLAND: 295 

material ever seen; to grow a flonrishing trade and 
a fair revenue in the wildest anarchy in the world. 
The immensity of the undertaking; the infinity of 
details involved in a single step towards the end ; the 
countless odds to be faced; the many pests — the 
deadly climate^ the horrible vermin, the ghastly itch, 
the nightly and daily alternation of overpowering heat 
and bitter cold — ^to be endured and overcome; the 
environment of bestial savagery and ruthless fanaticism 
— all these combine to make the achievement unique in 
human history. As it seems to me, the two words 
placed at the head of this chapter so far symbolize 
the whole position. Like the adventurer in Browning's 
magnificent allegory, my hero was face to face with a 
vast and mighty wrong ; he had everything against him, 
and he was utterly alone ; but he stood for God and 
the right, and he would not blench. There stood the 
Tower of Evil — the grim ruined land, the awful pre- 
sences, the hopeless task, the anarchy of wickedness 
and despair and wrath. He knew, he felt, he recognised 
it all J and yet — 

* And yet 
Dauntless the stag-horn to my lips I set 
And blew : Chiide Roland, to the Dark Tower Came/ 

He had got through a great mass of work at 
Khartoum, as we have seen. One of his reforms was 
a public boon. Many of the houses lay far inland, 



296 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

and the labour of snpplying them with water from 
the river was immense. Gordon came; and thence- 
forth the river-water conld bie pumped np into the 
town, and this at bnt a moderate cost. In the course 
of this reform he had some trouble with the Catholic 
missionaries; they persisted in giving asylum to run- 
away slaves, and when he remonstrated with them 
they behaved with surpassing arrogance. Finding 
that they would not listen to him and reason, he at 
once wrote off to the Pope, requesting him to restrain 
his servants from interfering in the Khedive's adminis- 
tration. Then he told the missionaries what he had 
done, and though they were wroth in the extreme, 
they offended no more. 

His presence was all-important at Khartoum ; 
but at Darfour it was more important still. The 
country was in revolt, and the Khedive's garrisons 
at Fascher, Darg,, and Kolkol, were besieged by the 
rebels in their several barracks. A rescue had been 
sent to Fascher in March; but no news of it had 
yet arrived. Gordon therefore determined to march at 
once to its relief. About the middle of May he set off 
on camel -back for what turned out to be a five months' 
ride. On the road to Obeid^ the capital of Kordofan, 
in company with the Governor-General's ordinary 
retinue, of 200 cavaliers, he wrote home thus: 'I 
am quite comfortable on the camel, and am happier 



• CHILDE ROLAND: 297 

when on the march than in towns with all the 
ceremonies. The route here is over a plain and bushes 
quite uninteresting/ His camel was an exceedingly 
fine one, and astonished the escort by the pace at 
which it carried him along. Gordon knew that it does 
not do to curb your camel, so he let it go as it 
would. Not far from Obeid this system almost proved 
fatal to an urchin who got in his way. *I nearly 
acted as Juggernaut to a little black naked boy to-day/ 
he says ; ^ my camel had shaken the nose-ring out of its 
nose, and ran off with me. I could not stop it, and of 
course the little black ran right under the camel, who, 
however, did not tread on him, though it was a miracle 
he escaped being killed. Nothiug is so perverse as a 
camel ; when it runs away it will go anywhere.' 

On the frontier of Darfour he hoped to make friends 
of the rebel tribes between Fogia and Fascher, and to 
march on the latter city with a body-guard of sub- 
dued and converted enemies. Such superb self-con- 
fidence is habitual to him. It is an outcome of that 
profound rehgiousness which is an integral part of his 
character and his life. The Cross's true soldier, a 
mystic and a leader of men, he fights and conquers 
much as Columbus voyaged and as Cromwell ruled. 
* Praying for the people ahead of me whom I am 
about to visit,' he says, * gives me much strength; 
and it is wonderful }iow something seems already to have 



298 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDOK 

passed between us when I meet a chief (for whom I have 
prayed) for the first time. On this I base my hopes of 
a triumphant march to Fascher. I have really no 
troops with me, bnt I have the Shekinah, and I do 
like trusting to Him and not to men. Bemember, 
unless He gave me the confidence and encouraged me 
to trust Him, I could not have it ; and so I consider 
that I have the earnest of success in this confidence/ 

And so, in an aureole of faith, he pushed across the 
desert. One day his camel bore him far in advance of 
his train. He had put on his marshal's uniform, and, 
leaving his men miles behind, he rode into the station 
of Fogia, an Arab chief his only following: th& 
Governor was dumbfoundered by his approach. Hardly 
. had he arrived ere there came in a telegram from 
Cairo asking him for J£32,000 I It is not surprising 
that he should have written home in such terms as 
these : * I have certainly got into a slough with the 
Soudan, but looking at my Banker, my Commandant- 
in-Chief and my Administrator, it will be wonderful if 
I do not get out of it. If I had not got this Almighty 
Power to back me in His infinite wisdom, I do not 
know how I could even think of what is to be done ' 

He could not march at once upon Fascher ; he could 
get no farther than Oomchanga, five or six days off. 
Here he had to await the arrival of the two or three 
hundred ragamuffins he called his army; here he 



'CHILDE ROLAND: 299 

halted for a whole fortnight. With his ever-active 
mind, and the consciousness of the worlds of work 
awaiting him elsewhere, this forced inaction proved 
almost insupportable. He had suffered too keenly 
in the past to derive any comfort from retrospec- 
tion; but he could always — and he always did — find 
the consolation his soul so much desired. 'It is 
lamentable work/ he writes, 'and over and over 
again, in the fearful heat, I wish I was in the other 
world. When I look back on the hours and hours of 
waiting for this and that, during China and later 
campaigns, and here, I really think few men have had 
such worries in this way. But I am wrong in it ; the 
lot is cast evenly to us all. We ^x^ servants ; some- 
times our Master gives us work, and at others He does 
not, and our feelings in both circumstances should 
be the same. All I can say is, that this inaction, with 
so much to do elsewhere, is veiy trying indeed to my 
body. It is such a country, so worthless, and I see 
nothing to be gained by its occupation.' 

His feelings took a more cheerful turn as soon as 
the Darfourians, who had been horribly maltreated by 
the Bashi-Bazouks, came flocking in to lay their troubles 
before him, and to ask his pardon. Great must have 
been their wonder when the Governor-General told them 
that it was rather for him to ask pardon of them. 
Again, it was a joy to him to find that his trust in a 



300 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

bloodless victory had not been vain. He made peace 
with all the tribesmen round him, and as far as half- 
way to Fascher. At last, however, his ^ nondescripts/ 
as he called the Egyptian military, came in ; and on 
Jane 30th, with 600 men, he left Oomchanga for 
Toashia. There he meant to pick np another 350, 
and, vacating that station, to move on to Dara, in- 
crease his force by the 1,200 there in garrison, and 
march on to Fascher with an army 2,000 strong. By 
the way he proposed to still farther relieve and help 
his new sabjects by breaking ap the robbers' dens that 
honeycombed the country, and making examples of the 
gentry who harboured in them. At Shaka — ' the Cave 
of AduUam, all robbers and murderers' — ^was housed 
the horde of Sebehr Pasha, the great slave-dealer, under 
the command of his son Suleiman. He could put 
11,000 men into the field — 'a huge army for these 
parts ;' and Gordon, conscious of the incapacity of his 
^nondescripts,' had been planning his subjugation 
without the firing of a shot. ^I feel no excitement 
about my operations,' he says ; * I hope they will go 
well, and that there will be no fighting.' Fighting 
there was, this hope notwithstanding; but his armed 
victories were as nothing to the victories of his genius 
and his soul. 

When Gordon reached Toashia, he found his 350 in 
a state of semi-starvation. He was told that they had 



« CHiLDE Roland: 301 

received no pay for three years ; and his thoughts must 
have travelled back to China, and the legion of rowdies 
and the empty chest with which he had broken the 
empire of the Heavenly King. As we follow his Qp-reer, 
it seems as though it were his destiny to do great deeds 
with nothing ; the cane with which he won his early 
victories has been from first to last a symbol of his 
means. Such a miserable set were this garrison of 
Toashia that he determined not to take them with him, 
but to send them to Eordofan to be disbanded. This 
he did in the hope of making friends with a certain 
chief (whose brother he had released), and of getting 
men from him. It had been arranged that the potentate 
in question should join him at Toashia, and go on with 
him to Dara. But Toashia was admirably unhealthy, 
and he had no choice but to begin his march at once, 
and trust to picking up his ally on the route. He had 
with him no more than 500 men (850 of them in little 
better case than the scarecrows he was disbanding), all 
armed with flint-locks or worse, and with but a single 
field-piece amoug them. At the rendezvous no chief 
was visible, and the wretched army was threatened by 
thousands of ' determined blacks,' who knew that the 
Governor-General was with it. * I prayed heartily for 
an issue,' he says, * hut it gave me a pain in the heart like 
that I had when surrounded at Masindi. I do not fear 
death, but I fear, from want of faith, the result of my 



302 THE STORY O^ CHINESE GORDON. 

death, for the whole conntry would have risen. It is, 
indeed, most painful to be in such a position ; it takes 
a year's work out of me/ And again, in another strain, 
he says, ^You do not know how unpalatable these 
positions are to my pride. If I had my way, I would 
have ridden through with 100 horsemen and not feared ; 
it is the grander state, one has to go on. With thM 
gun which nothing would induce my black secretary 
to abandon, I made him give up 200 rounds.' 

Matters were made worse by the fact that the con- 
tingent from Dara marched by a different route, 
and so missed the main body. Fortunately no attack 
was made, for had the tribesmen chosen to fall upon 
Gordon and his miserable following there can be no 
doubt that they would have been slaughtered to a 
man. Gordon himself was completely at their mercy. 
* When I had got through my dangers,' he says, * I 
saw some deer, and took my rifle. Of course, he ' 
(the bearer) ' had thrown it down and broken the stock. 
Thus, had I been attacked, I should have been defence- 
less.' 



CHAPTER XIIL 



THE bobbers' den. 



When the Governor-General, on the 12th of Joly, 
rode into Dara, the people were astonished to see him. 
^ They had been six months without news from without/ 
he says ; * it was like the reUef of Lucknow.' Haroon, 
the pretender to the throne of Darfoor, had been 
stirring np revolt and threatening the garrison ; many 
of the tribes were hostile ; and Soleiman, the son of 
Sebehr, with 6,000 armed slaves at his back, finding 
that Gordon would not side with him, was, plotting his 
murder. Many were the suggestions as to the course 
he should pursue. One, which emanated from his black 
secretary, showed how Suleiman should be lured to 
Dara, taken prisoner, and stabbed or shot to death if 
he resisted. Gordon felt this inspiration to be a trifle 
too Asiatic. Of the others he took no heed. What 
he did was to despatch an expedition, numbering 8,000 
natives and 1,500 troops, under his Ueutenant, Hassan, 
against the self-crowned Sultan, and to set a price 
upon his head. 



304 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The position was exceedingly delicate ; the more so 
as there were other matters of as pressing import as this 
of Haroun, which demanded all his energy and skill. 

He was ringed ahont with perils. On the one hand 
was Haronn; on the other were the hostile tribes, 
who had taken the field against his men ; in front of 
him was Snleiman, the most desperate foeman of all. 
His proposed solution of the problem is almost 
startling: he wonld strike first at Snleiman, and 
quell him, not with arms, bnt with friendship and 
trust. * The happy thought struck me/ he says, * of 
making Sebehr's son Oovemor of Dara, thus cutting 
him off from intrigue with Shaka. I separate him 
from the Cave of AduUam and prevent his making any 
more slave-raids. He will find occupation for his 
armed slaves in keeping the tribes in order around 
him.' The plan was so beset with difficulties as to be 
impracticable ; and another soon took its place. This, 
however, was in the same direction : Suleiman was to 
be subdued, not by the sword, but by the spirit. 
Before Gordon could set about its execution, however, 
he had to confer with one of Sebehr's chiefs, a man 
named El Nour, whom he knew to be faithful to the 
Government, and who could bring him tidings of what 
was going on in the robbers' dens. Then, to move 
to the relief of Fascher, with Dara undefended, and 
Haroun at large, was out of the question ; for that 



THE ROBBERS DENi 305 

rebel might at any moment swoop down on Dara. 
Gordon's new plan, therefore, was to appoint El Nonr 
his Governor. From this eminence the Arab might 
corrupt the ruffians in Shaka, weaken the famous 
slaver's position, and defend his charge from Haroun's 
attacks, while his new commander marched to the 
relief of Fascher. 

Unfortunately £1 Nour was out raiding, in company 
with two other chiefs, Awad and Edrees, both faithful 
to the Government, but all three suspected and watched 
by Suleiman, so that they could only write to Gordon 
by stealth, and lie m wait for an opportunity to visit 
him in person. Their loyalty was Gordon's own 
work. When at Massawa, he speculated on the 
chance that they might be on bad terms with Sebehr, 
and got them promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonels. 
' Sebehr's son,' he says, ' accuses them of being in 
correspondence with me ; at any rate, the yeast has 
worked among them.' The slave-dealer was right to 
be suspicious; for Gordon knew a good deal of what 
was going on. He knew, for instance, that Suleiman 
was constantly in receipt of letters from Sebehr, all 
containing the mysterious sentence, ^ Take care of 
Abdoul Bazoul.' He knew that Suleiman had a great 
quantity of ivory, which, being Government monopoly, 
he was determined to have. He knew, too, that the 
slavers used to say that ' he wanted to get the 

20 



3o6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

hippopotamus with its skin ;' but what this meant he 
had not thought it worth while to discover. 

Presently he learned from El Nour and Edrees, both 
of whom had ransomed themselves from Shaka for 
JS600 apiece, that it was impossible for Suleiman to 
leave his den till the rains were over — that is, for three 
months. Meantime, the chief of the Bazagats, a 
powerful tribe, pillaged and maltreated by the slavers, 
had fled, with 600 riders, to Dara, and was ready 
to side with Gi)rdon in a raid upon Shaka. This was 
a gain in one sense, but a loss in another, for so naked 
and ruinous was the country-side that Gordon had 
barely food enough for his own men. And worse 
was behind. Not only did the whole tribe threaten to 
take shelter in the fort ; many others, hearing of their 
resolves, began to move towards Dara with the same 
intent. The Eazagats alone were able to put over 
7,000 horsemen in the field; — they move with extra- 
ordinary swiftness, for they carry no baggage and ride 
without stirrups — and it was a matter of surprise to 
Gordon that, with such an army, they did not 
oppress their oppressors. 

Another event, which made Gordon feel the utter 
helplessness of his position, happened about this time. 
An expedition for the re-capture of slaves brought in 
some 210 of them. They were starving, and whoa 
they looked up at him their faces were wistful for 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 307 

food. He had little to give them> though. They had 
been thirty-six hours unfed, and the sight of their 
misery brought tears to his eyes. He sent them some 
com. ^ What could I do T he says, ' I could only 
address the Arabs with me, and tell them that if they 
took Mussulmans as slaves they did it against the 
command of the Koran ; and I took sand and washed 
my hands, in order that they might see I put on 
them the responsibility of the decision.' He was fast 
finding his suspicions confirmed, and that difficult as 
it was to crush the slavers, to deal with the slaves 
was more difficult still. 

At last the troops returned whom he had sent out 
against the tribes, and with their return came the 
means of action. He had projected an attack on 
Suleiman's advanced guard (400 in number), with 
the intention of cutting it off from Shaka. But he 
found to his disgust that in the expedition his soldiers 
had done nothing themselves, but had allowed their 
allies, the friendly tribe, to do all the fighting for 
them; the fact being, as he learned later on, that 
their commander had taken a heavy bribe from the 
opposing chief. There had been great delay; no 
ground had been won; and the Leopard tribes were 
out, and were threatening Toashia. He therefore 
abaLdoned the attack on Suleiman for the relief of his 
o^vn stronghold. With his ^ nondescripts ^ and a con- 

20—2 



3o8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

tingent of Masharins, a friendly tribe, he marched 
straight for* the camp of the Leopards. They were 
canght in a terrific storm, and had to come to halt for 
the night in a waving delnge of rain, which, says 
Gordon, took some 50 per cent, of strength out of them. 
' I put on my coat,' he writes, ' put up my umbrella, 
and wished for dawn. It was not pleasant, but I had 
my blanket, and rolled myself up in it, and slept well.^ 
The next day they marched to the field of battle. The 
Masharins were so eager for the £ray that, without wait- 
ing for the *' nondescripts," they fell upon the Leopards 
and routed them with great slaughter. Of course the 
' nondescripts' had lagged on the march. When they 
caine up, the whole army encamped at the Leopards* 
headquarters (where they had, as prisoner, the chiefs 
brother) and a council of war v/as held ; in the middle 
of it the Leopards, in two divisions, each 850 
strong, came boldly up and prepared to fall on. The 
Masharins went out to meet them ; but in their teeth, 
and under a steady fire of musketry, they moved 
up valiantly to Gordon's very camp. Here, how- 
ever, after a severe struggle, they were beaten back 
with loss, not of course by the Government troops, 
who took shelter behind the stockades, but by the 
bold Masharins, whose chief, Ahmed Neurva, was 
mortally wounded. Gordon's disgust at the conduct 
of his troops on this occasion knew no bounds. * No 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 309 

one can conceive what my officers and troops are !' he 
says. ^ I will say no more than that for my own 
personal safety I must get 200 men as a body-guard. 
I do not think one of the enemy was killed at the 
assault of the station. Not one ought to have escaped. 
I was sickened to see twenty brave men in alliance with 
me ride out to meet the Leopard tribe unsupported by 
my men, who crowded into the stockade ! It was 
terribly painful. The only thing which restrained me 
from riding out to the attack was the sheep-like state 
in which my people would have been had I been killed. 
What also would have become of the province ?' 

After a two days' campaign the Leopards were cut 
off from three of their watering-places. Only one 
being left them, and that in constant danger, they 
began crowding in with their submission ; for without 
the means of satisfying their thirst, they had nothing 
to look forward to but death from drouth or in battle 
with the tribes into whose territory they might venture 
in search of water. The heat was terrific ; the plight 
of the penitent Leopards, ' with throats unslaked, with 
black lips baked,' was piteous in the extreme. Gordon 
took pity on their misery, received their homage, 
(sworn on the Koran) and let them go down and drink. 
Then, the tribesmen having begun to take the law 
into their own hands, the Governor-General had to 
give way to the justiciar. One man had speared one 



3IO THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

of another tribe through the arm ; another had shot his 
comrade dead. Gordon settled the first difficulty by 
giving the wounded man «£6 ; the second, by sentencing 
the assassin to be shot. 

' My soul revolts at these horrors, of which I used 
to think nothing/ says Gordon. ' All these troubles 
come in quarrels for plunder— some miserable grain or 
an earthenware pot. ... I have just disposed of the 
man who shot the other, who I am sorry to say died. 
I called the chiefs of the tribe to whom the dead man 
belonged, and the prisoner; and I asked the chiefs 
whether they would prefer me to shoot the murderer, 
or to give him to them to serve as an assistant to the 
family of the dead man. The latter course they 
acceded to, I am glad to say. The murderer was the 
slave (I have let out the word) of one of the soldiers 
before ; so I have only changed his master. You 
should have seen the fright of everyone around me — 
even the chiefs of the tribe of the murdered man — as I 
took the rifle and cocked it, with the pretence of shoot- 
ing the poor black, ivory-teethed murderer. I need 
not say I felt quite sure that the tribe would not wish 
it. In all natures, however savage, there is good ; but 
nevertheless, everyone around me thought I would 
shoot him if they did not intercede. I said, ^' Shall I 
shoot him now, and leave him a stinking carcase ? or 
will you take him, and make him work for the family 
he has bereaved ?" 

* It is a question of cows, nothing else, with my 
allies ; and one of the greatest trouble is the division of 
spoil. Like David at Ziklag with his men, and 
Mahomet with his men at Mecca, and us with our men 
in India. Every general wishes there was no plunder ; 



THE ROBBERS' DEN. 311 

it is a source of weakness: If my expedition is 
successful, we shall be bothered with thousands of cows 
and sheep, and thus open to attack. In China, I never 
could move for days after a victory. I have received 
a very strong letter from the E^hedive, pressing me to 
put an immediate stop to the slave-raids ; and also one 
from Cherif Pasha, both very kind, but strong in 
words — that I am not to hesitate at any act that I 
think fit to put a stop to it. I have asked the Elhedive 
to publish them. This determines me more and more 
to destroy the nest at Shaka. I hear some of Sebehr's 
people are coming up to join me ; if so, I shall try and 
disarm them. What a complex question this is ! I 
wish it was unravelled ; for the tension on me now for 
six months has been great, and I have not finished 
the half of my troubles. There are besides this and 
Shaka, Galabat, Abyssinia, and Aboubekker, Pasha of 
Zeila, who is semi-independent. You will easily see 
that to attempt a wholesale clearance of all these 
obstacles by orders, without means of carrying them 
out, would be foolish. The retail clearance is the only 
one possible to succeed, and the retail business requires 
me to see to it ; for, owing to the Government being 
an absolute one, it is difficult to find people to carry 
out an obnoxious order, for the fear that the Govern- 
ment may not support them.' 

« 

The Leopards were soon in trouble again. They 
stole a number of slaves from Gordon's allies; and, 
on the 12th August, an expeditionary force was sent 
out against them. A thousand cows were lifted, and a 
large number of the enemy were disarmed. But the in- 
jured parties demanded the stolen slaves from Gordon's 



312 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

people, and some carious scenes were the result 
of affairs. Gordon, finding it necessary to follow np 
the force, started next day for Duggam. Owing to 
the badness of the water, he was obliged to move on to 
Eario. Here he learned that Haronn was backing the 
rebels, had sent forty horsemen to reinforce them at 
Gebel Heres, and, on his own account, was ravaging 
the country to the north. Joining the force, he found 
the usual amount of work awaiting him. His sub- 
ordinates, indeed, were perfectly incompetent. Thus 
he had ordered the Major Commanding to look after 
the sick ; but he had himself, on the way to Fascher, 
to find transport for such as could not follow on foot. 
' This sort of thing,' he says, * wears me ; for it is 
really not my duty to see to such details. In fact, I 
may say it is not my duty to be commanding an ex- 
pedition like this ; but there is no help for it.' Again, 
on the 1 6th August, he writes : * All the mommg I 
had nothing but slave-questions to settle ; some of the 
most troublesome kind. I wish that the Anti-Slavery 
Society were here, so that I could put it on them to 
decide. I had nearly a row to-day about it with the 
soldiers, and only hope things will go no worse.' 

And, while he was bewailing his army, the army, on 
their part, were plotting for his life. After a thirty 
miles' ride through bog and sand, he entered Fascher, 
with 150 men, to the extreme surprise of its 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 313 

beleaguered inhabitants. Near the place where his 
camp was pitched, a muezzin was in the habit of 
calling to prayers. The Arab Lientenant-Colonel, and 
some of the men, in the hope of ronsing the people, 
ordered him to desist from his task, inasmuch as he 
disturbed the Governor - General. By a fortunate 
chance, Gordon's secretary missed the sound ; and, 
making inquiries, discovered the culprit. ' I gave the 
crier JB2/ says Gordon ; * and I bundled oflF my friend 
the Lieutenant-Colonel into banishment at Eatarif, 
where he will have time to meditate. I never hesitate 
a moment in coming down on such fellows. The man 
now cries with double energy, even as I write this.' 

We are now approaching a crisis in aflfairs which 
Gordon (who seems to have read his ^ Midshipman 
Easy ') has called ^ a triangular duel,' though he might 
with better reason have called it a quadrilateral. It 
needed all his energy and all his indomitable will to 
keep him master of the situation. On the one hand, 
as I have said, his presence in the field against Haroun 
was urgent; on the other, many of the tribes were 
hostile and threatening ; while, worse than all, Suleiman 
with his 6,000 robbers had sat down before Dara, and 
was ravaging the country round, and even menacing the 
city itself. This was the position. Let us see how 
Gordon dealt with it, and faced the tremendous odds in 
his disfavour* 



314 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Of these three enemies the least important was pro- 
bably the would-be Sultan. Oould Gordon have met, 
as he longed to do^ the pretender in the field, the result, 
as he felt, was not doubtful, notwithstanding the ntter 
want of discipline among the ' nondescripts/ But this 
in the then state of affairs was impossible. To make 
matters worse for him, his Lieutenant, Hassan, with 
6,000 muskets, still lingered on the road, afraid to 
march to the attack without his chief. 

Then for the tribes. Many were hostile, and those 
in other districts were doing their best to confederate 
with and to come to the aid of those he had recently 
subdued. His energy therefore was constantly being 
frittered away on expeditions against the new enemy, 
the capture of prisoners, and the lifting of cows. The 
amount of work this petty warfare involved was enough 
to prevent him from entertaining the idea of assaults on 
either Haroun or Suleiman. To add to the confusion, 
his secretary fell ill, and all the tiresome details of 
business had, of necessity, to pass through his own 
hands ; while interviews were asked of him — and ob- 
tained — on pretexts the most trivial, and for interests 
the most wretched and sporadic imaginable. ^ For the 
very smallest thing men come direct to me,' he writes, 
* and force their way in, let me be as engaged as 
possible. There is no chain of responsibility, everyone 
thinks he has a perfect right to come to me, and also 



2HE ROBBERS DEN. 315 

thinks himself aggrieved if I do not give him an imme- 
diate hearing. Besides this, in giving or taking a 
paper to you they take two or three minutes. You 
never saw such a dilatory set ! The consequence is 
that papers are snatched out of their hands, and also 
thrown at them. All very undignified ; but I cannot 
help it. If you send for a man he takes a nice funeral 
pace to come to you. You see him afar oflf long before 
he arrives, and sometimes I am so undignified as to 
rush to meet him. All this is not good, for my post 
is a very high one ; but I cannot help it, and I do not 
care. I have the power if I have not the glory, and, 
at any rate, I get through a miut of work.' 

The third enemy — the strongest and most desperate 
of all — ^was Suleiman. This daring scoundrel was 
harrying and pillaging the tribes all round, while they, 
on their part, were crying out for help. Suleiman all 
the time was tendering his services to Gordon against 
Haroun, but the offer was rightly interpreted into a 
pretext for opportunities of professional work. What 
was really going on in the robbers' den Gordon in no 
way suspected. Two years later it turned out that 
Suleiman's desperadoes were plotting to catch and kill 
him. It would have been an easy matter enough, as 
he had no sentries. 

"When Sebehr was in the fulness of his power, he 
gathered his chiefs together under a tree on the road be- 



31 6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

tween Obeid and Shaka. Here he made them swear to 
obey him. Later on, when he went to Cairo to spend 
£100,000 in bribing the Khedive's ministers, and was 
held a prisoner, he met Gordon, and solicited his aid. Of 
course the request was refased. He sent at once this 
message to Darfoor : ^ Obey the orders given under the 
tree ;' which was another way of saying, ' To arms, and 
to the road !' On Gordon's arrival at Khartoum, as 
we have seen, these orders were obeyed, and whole 
provinces became one anarchy. Nor was this all. 
When Gordon lay at Fascher, Sebehr's lieutenants met 
and swore upon the Koran to attack the Government, 
while El Nour, the slaver, with whom he had dealt 
in secret, had fallen away from his allegiance, and was 
numbered with the enemy : it was ' Childe Roland to 
the Dark Tower came,' and with a vengeance. 

And there were matters which, if of less import, 
were none the less wearing and trying. They taxed 
his patience to the utmost, and his temper too ; and 
we find him now in the highest spirits, now longing 
with all his heart for the blessing of death. He began 
to fear, for instance, that the delays of Hassan and his 
5,000 in the campaign against Haroun were of a piece 
with that other abortive affair against the tribes ; and 
having these suspicions, he felt it to be his first duty to 
deal with Haroun. Hardly, however, was he ready to 
take the field, ere it turned out that Haroun had retired. 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 317 

So much energy had been wasted ; so much energy was 
gone. He had to face m another direction, and begin 
his work of preparation and enterprise and combination 
all anew. 

His movements at this juncture were so rapid and so 
many, that it is impossible to give more than a mere 
sketch of them. They were confined for the most part 
to the immediate neighbourhood of Eario and Fufar ; 
to clearing the road at one point ; to despatching expedi* 
tions against hostile tribes at another ; to searching for 
grain, of which there was a great scarcity ; to capturing 
spies ; and to vamly essaymg to control the Bashi- 
Bazouks, whom he had learned to hate as cordially as 
he loved the oppressed blacks, for whom he would have 
given his life. In the midst of these vain efforts and 
vexations of spirit he is tormented by scorpions ; or he 
is beset by storms so furious, that his tent is torn down 
in the dead of night, and he is left shelterless and 
drenched to the skin. ^I do not suppose you could 
find a more useless set of servants than I have,' he 
says ; ' the Maltese, on occasions like this, is completely 
paralyzed, and sits down, leaving everything to its fate 
— a regular tumble-down sort of fellow. I have been in 
a towering rage with him. They were cowering under 
their blown-down tent, not making an effort to put 
things straight. It is one comfort to be utterly uncom- 
fortable, for it cannot be worse, and may be better.' 



3i8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

At this point the measnre of his troubles seems 
fall. But this was by no means the case. News came 
in which made all other troubles trivial. It roused his 
spirit to its highest, and led to such a victory as could 
never have been won by arms alone. Suleiman, with 
his frightful six thousand, was on the eve of attacking 
the Government at Dara. Gordon lost not a moment. 
Ignoring alike his ^nondescripts' and his allies, he 
mounted his camel, and rode to Dara unarmed and 
virtually alone. Of this tremendous ride, one of the 
most striking achievements in his career, I cannot do 
better than let him tell the story himself. This he did 
in a letter (dated September 2nd) to his sister : like all 
he wrote, it is the more remarkable in that it was never 
intended for publication : 

* I got to Dara about 4 p.m., long before my escort, 
having ridden eighty-five miles in a day and a half. 
About seven miles from Dara I got into a swarm 
of flies, and they annoyed me and my camel so much, 
that we jolted along as fast as we could. Upwards of 
300 were on the camel's head, and I was covered with 
them. I suppose that the queen fly was among them. 
If I had no escort of men, I had a large escort of these 
flies. I came on my people like a thunderbolt. As 
soon as they had recovered, the salute was fired. My 
poor escort ! 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. The people were 
paralyzed, and could not believe their eyes. No dinner 
after my long ride, but a quiet night, forgetting my 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 319 

miseries. At dawn I got up, and putting on the golden 
armour the Ehedive gave me, went out to. see my troops, 
and then mounted my horse, and with an escort of my 
robbers of Bashi-Bazouks, rode out to the camp of the 
other robbers three miles o£f. I was met by the son of 
Sebehr — a nice-looking lad of twenty-two years — and 
rode through the robber-bands. There were about 
3,000 of them — men and boys. I rode to the tent in 
the camp; the whole body of chiefs were dumb- 
foundered at my coming among them. After a glass 
of water, I went back, telling the son of Sebehr 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 they should now 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 in a letter 
stating their submission, and I thank God for it. They 
have pillaged the country all round, and I cannot help 
it. I feel very sorry for the poor people, for they were 
my allies at Wadar, and through their absence with me, 
their possessions were exposed to the attacks of these 
scoundrels. "What misery ! But the Higher than the 
Highest regardeth it, and can help them. I cannot. 
The sort of stupefied way in which they heard me go 
to the point about their doings, the pantomime of signs, 
the bad Arabic, etc., was quite absurd. Fancy, the son 
of Sebehr only three days ago took his pistol and fired 
three shots close to my cavass, because the poor fellow, 
who was ill, did not get up when he came to him. • . • 
You should have seen his face, when I told him all this, 
when he protested his fidelity. However, I said it was 
all forgiven. Maduppa Bey has come here, and says, 
when the son of Sebehr got home, he laid down and 



320 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

said not a word, and that the Arabs say I have poisoned 
him ! with coflfee.' 

After delivering himself of his feelings to Suleiman 
and his horde^ Gordon resolved to make a clean sweep 
of the den at Shaka. With this view he sent a body 
of men to take possession. Meantime, there was 
division in the slavers' camp, one party being still in 
favour of war, the other in favour of peace. Suleiman, 
the * Cub/ as Gordon called him, was in a towering 
passion at his own surrender. He was unable to hide 
his feelings from the Governor-General; and it was 
evident that had it been in his power to persuade the 
chiefs to revolt against the Government, he would have 
gladly done so. They, however, kept sending in their 
submissions with great punctuality, thus rendering re- 
sistance less and less possible, till at last he himself was 
obliged to obey Gordon's order to proceed to Shaka. 
Before his departure he requested the Governor-General 
to give him robes in accordance with custom, and as a 
sign that the Governor-General was satisfied. To this 
Gordon replied : * I have no robes ; you have not filled 
me with over-much confidence in your fidelity, and you 
have been very rude to me, while I have shown you 
every attention, and have gone out of my way to be 
civil to you — a mere boy — have done my best for you, 
and tried to protect you.' At this the young slaver 
was fui'ious ; and Gordon and his * garrison of sheep 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 321 

soldiers ' were for a time in the greatest peril, for had 
the slavers, who were hrave men, all trained to war, 
unanimously agreed on an attack, they conld at any 
moment have put the Governor-General and his 
handful to the sword. The crisis, however, like so 
many others in Gordon's career, was to end in victory. 
Suleiman left quietly for Shaka. From that place 
he despatched a letter in which he declared himself 
Gordon's son, and asked for a government. In reply, 
he was informed that until he either went to Cairo to 
salute the Khedive, or gave some other proof of fidelity, 
the Governor-General would never give him a place, 
even if the refusal cost him his life. After imparting 
this message to the chiefs who brought the letter, 
Gordon turned to one of them and asked him if he was 
a father. The man said * Yes.' Whereupon Gordon 
said, ^ Then do you not think a good flogging would do 
the " Cub " good Y And the chief agreed that it 
would. 

This manner of dealing with the slavers was certainly 
most efficacious. It is, however, abundantly apparent 
from Gordon's letters that he felt deeply for Suleiman. 
More than once he expresses a great pity for him, 
and a hope that the rebel will forgive him his hard 
treatment. That harshness was necessary (Bonaparte 
would have decimated the horde, and plumed himself 
upon his leniency) there cannot be a doubt. Only a 

21 



323 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

few days later Gordon writes : ^ Suleiman no longer 
hopes to conquer, but wants to get away from my 
proximity. He may try to go up to the other stations 
inland, but I do not expect it will last long : a retreat- 
ing commander is rarely in a good temper, and he will 
soon disgust his people/ While all this worry was 
going on, it came to Gordon's knowledge that his 
secretary, in whom he had placed the greatest confi- 
dence, had taken Jg3,000 backsheesh. He was at once 
sent to Khartoum, there to be tried ; though Gordon 
was afraid he would be very severely punished. He 
was succeeded by Berzati Bey, a young Mussulman ci* 
high attainments, of whom Gordon afterwards said: 
^ He had the invaluable quality of telling me when he 
disagreed with me.' 

Early in September the Governor-General was 
making his way, over a bad road and through a dense 
and thorny forest, to Shaka. He had not proceeded £ajr 
when he received a letter from Suleiman inviting him 
to take up his abode in his house. Gordon accepted 
the invitation at once. As he neared the robbers' 
den Suleiman and his chiefs came out to meet him, 
and gave him a cordial welcome. The slaver was on 
his best behaviour. He treated Gordon with the 
greatest reverence ; but he renewed his request for a 
government, and fawned at his sovereign's feet on 
every opportunity. The Governor-General, however. 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 32J 

was not to be thus cajoled. He reminded Suleiman 
that he had not yet earned his promotion ; but he gave 
him his own gmi, and taught him its use. 

He only stayed two days in the robbers' den. 
Perhaps this was as well, for he was without sentries, 
and it turned out later that the slave-dealers had been 
plotting to make him prisoner. Why they did not must 
remain a wonder. The only explanation is that, as at 
Dara, he amazed and awed them by his utter indifference 
to danger. He left in the middle of September for 
Obeid, lest the humidity of Shaka should affect his 
servant's health; and he had a strong suspicion 
that a caravan of slaves were accompanying him — a 
suspicion soon verified by his discovery of some 
eighty men, women, and children in chains. He 
remonstrated with the slave-merchant; he was told 
that they were wives and offspring. They were too 
far from their homes to send back, and had Gordon 
released them they would have starved to death ; so, at 
the risk of a probable scandal through the missionaries, 
he let the caravan alone, insisting only that the 
chains should be removed. Between Obeid and Shaka 
the camel-rides seem to have been specially fatiguing, 
but the journey was not without its diversions. 

* To-day,' he writes, * I had meant to leave my 
caravan and ride past to Obeid ; but, as I went along, 
I heard reports of there being a lot of brigands on the 

21—2 



324 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

road, who were robbing everyone who passed. We 
came on a flock of cows belongmg to these brigands, 
and I halted. The caravan came np to me, and I 
seized twenty-fonr of the Arabs who owned the cows, 
and who were said to be the robbers. I then deter- 
mined not to hnrry on : so I went quietly with six men 
to a watering-place near, while the caravan went by 
another road to the same watering-place. On my road 
we met two fugitives, who stated that their caravan, 
coming from Obeid to Shaka, had that moment been 
attacked near us. We pushed on, and the plunderers 
bolted; but we rescued five charged donkeys and 
captured the chief of the robbers with some twenty 
others. I judged the question of the chief, and have 
had him hanged (at least ordered it, having tossed up), 
and then of course when the man was begged off, I let 
him off. I declare it is necessary to make an example, 
but my heart shrinks from the killing of these poor 
brutes, who may have heard Sebehr's son was at war 
with me, and who thought they were doing me a 
service and themselves also in plundering those going 
and coming from the son of Sebehr. Of all painful 
decisions these are the worst, and I do not know where 
to turn in them. If there were courts of justice it 
would not be so bad ; but there is none to speak of, and 
all would take a bias from my point of view. It was 
one of the slave-dealers' people who begged this man 
off ! I like these slave-dealers ; they are a brave lot, 
and putting aside their propensity to take slaves, are 
much finer people than those of Lower Egypt. They 
are far more enterprising.' 

In the same letter he goes on to talk of an albino 
negress whom he had found at Shaka, and whom he 



THE ROBBERS DEN. 325 

had intended to send to the Ehedive. For some 
reason nnexplamed he seems, however, to have altered 
his mind ; for he says, ' I shall give her to the convent 
at Obeid. I know of a male albino negro in Darfoor ; 
I shall try and marry the two. I shall make the 
convent people report on the result — ^whether it is 
white or black. She is not lovely, and looks very 
sickly, but is not so/ 

Here is another specimen of his less serious ex- 
periences. 'Yesterday,' he writes, 'a black soldier 
came to me with a black girl he said belonged to him ; 
but an Arab said he had bought her for £4. I dis- 
posed of the Arab owner by giving him £4, and said 
to the girl : " You belong to me — will you stay with 
me, or go with the black soldier ?" " No," said she ; 
** I will go with the black soldier." So oflF she went. 
This is all the marriage which takes place. I did not 
want the girl, as you may imagine.' 

All the rest of the journey, he picked up slaves 
along the route. Many lay dying in the sun ; some he 
bought, the others he sent down to a watering-place. 
The sight of their misery made him wretched. His 
letters teem with descriptions of their sufferings, and 
with proofs of his passionate desire to crush out the 
horrible traffic of which they were the staple. He 
knew that, except at the frontier, it was useless to 
attempt the work. Slavery was the custom of the 



Sa6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

country, and there was no one to enforce his decrees 
against it. The min of Shaka, however, was a great 
stride towards the end desired ; and, on his arrival at 
Obeid on October 8rd, and at Khartoum in the middle 
of the month, the effects of his dapng and splendid 
achievement were perceptible among the people in more 
ways than one. 

Indeed, his action with Suleiman and the robber 
den, with the extraordinary speed of his movements, 
had made him famous through all the length and 
breadth of the land. The people were amazed by his 
daring, his firmness, his irresistible energy. To tell a 
lazy functionary that if he did not get on with his 
work the Governor-General would be after him, was 
better than the whip itself. Everywhere the cry, * The 
Fasha is coming,' became a signal for action. At such 
a pace did he traverse the continent he ruled, that his 
camels, which, under another rider, could have gone 
for ten days, gave in at the sixth. More than once, 
when the sun was at its fiercest, they dropped dead 
beneath him. When this happened, he took a new 
mount and rode on 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BEVOLT OF THE SLAVE -DE ALEBS. 

The mass of work awaiting him at Ehartomn, he got 
through in a week. Mnch of the time was taken np 
by petitions and petitioners ; some by the trial and 
sentence of a murderer. ' I cannot go out/ he says, 
^ without having people howling after me with petitions 
that I will let their sons ont of prison, or such like 
things ; and they follow me wherever I go, yelling all 
the time. I will not let them be beaten away, as is 
usually the case ; but I take no notice, for how can I 
release every prisoner ?' * Were it not,' he continues, 
^ for the very great comfort I have in communion, and 

• 

the knowledge that He is Governor-General, I could 
not get on at all/ 

His work despatched, he left Khartoum for Hellal, 
on a visit to Walad el Michael. The sail to Berber 
was the first real rest he had had since his first appear- 
ance in these lands, early in 1874. Thus he writes of 



328 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

the voyage — with the only touch I have noted in 

of anything that could possibly be mistaken for vanity : 

* The quiet of to-day on board the steamer going 
down the Nile is quite delightful ; a month later last 
year, I was coming down to you from the Lakes. 
What a deal has happened since then — with you, and 
me, and in Europe ! I feel a great contentment. A 
star, when it makes its highest point, is said to have 
culminated ; and I feel I have culminated — t.^., I wish 
for a higher or other post than the one I have ; and I 
know I cannot be removed unless it is God's will, so I 
rest on a rock, and can be content. Many would wish 
a culminating point with less wear and tear. But that 
very wear and tear makes me cling more to the place ; 
and I thank God. He has made me succeed, not in 
any very glorious way, but in a substantial and lasting 
manner. I entirely take that prophecy of Isaiah as my 
own, and work to it as far as I can.'* 

At Berber (October 24th), his first act was to make 
his clerk clear the ante-chamber of the eight or ten 
guards who, under the pretence of doing him honour, 
were keepmg him under strict surveillance. Here 
he had again to endure three nights of illuminations 
and ceremonies. Of course he came in, too, for the 
usual accumulation of letters and telegrams from the 
various stations. It was everybody's theory of subject- 

* ' And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness unto the Lord of 
hosts in the land of Egypt, for they shall cry unto the Lord because 
of the oppressors, and He shall send them a saviour, and a great one, 
and he shall deliver them.' 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 329 

ship that, though there were governors on the spot, no 
one could attend to him but the Governor-General 
in person. In this way was he rewarded for the 
taking of Shaka. 

On his way — as far as the river — ^to Dongola, his 
next resting-place, he was unlucky in his camels. They 
had been ill-fed, and they were weak and easily worn 
out ; but the quiet, and the dry, dewless nights of the 
desert, after the storm and stress and the damp airs of 
Darfour, were soothing to his spirit, though he suffered 
tortures in the body from the * courash ' — a horrible 
eczema, . which he describes as like the biting of a 
thousand mosquitoes. At Merowe, which is said to be 
the southernmost point reached by ancient Egyptian 
civilization, he was met by a shower of complaints, 
such a monster as a governor not having been seen in 
the neighbourhood for years. He stayed but three 
hours ; but the people followed him out, and yelled 
their griefs at him for miles. Dongola was only twelve 
miles off ; but a heavy gale obliged him to lay-to all 
day. The telegrams he received meanwhile were in- 
finitely discomforting. On the one hand, Walad el 
Michael was threatening the fort at Senheit, and he 
had no troops; and, on the other, the Khedive was 
urging him to return to Cairo. 

At Dongola, where he stayed till November 9th, he 
went into the question of the cost of a railway contract. 



330 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

Then^ as he was pushing on to Cairo, telegrams over-* 
took him bringing the news of an Abyssinian invasion, 
and that * Sennaar and Fazolie were threatened by Bas 
Arya (one of Johannis's generals)/ He conid hardly 
believe it possible. If it were true, there were few 
troops to resist the attack ; and with not a soul at 
Khartoum on whom to depend, the risk of going on to 
Cairo was too great to be faced. He rode back to 
Dongola, and went on thence to Khartoum over the 
Bahouda desert, a five and a half days' ride. The 
way was long, cold, and tiring ; and he reached Khar- 
toum to find that the invasion was no invasion at all. 
It turned out later to be merely a food-raid of the Abys- 
sinian marchmen, which had been heavily repulsed. 

He remained at headquarters for three days. Then, 
having got through certain business, he mounted his 
camel and started once more on a visit to Walad el 
Michael, who was threatening to be troublesome. In 
Gordon's opinion the best thing to be done at this time 
would have been for King Johannis to pardon Walad, 
and translate him and his gang to the province of 
Hama^em, which was his by inheritance ; but to this it 
was more than doubtful that Johannis would agree. 
Walad was a standing danger to the Khedive's Govern- 
ment : he might attack it any day, or, by his raids on 
Abyssinian territory, he might set up a complication 
with Johannis. He was also a great expense; and this^ 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 331 

in the bad state of the financeSi was a consideration 
of some importance. It wonld have been easy to dis- 
pose of him by giving him up to Johannis ; but this 
would have dishonoured the Government, and so was 
out of the question. 

On the way to Senheit, where Walad was quartered, 
Gordon met with no particular adventures. He had 
the usual trouble with his suite, but to this he was 
inured. His Arabs resented the swiftness of his march, 
and did everything in their power to hinder and delay. 
This, though, was of little avail, for he knew the 
country, and went on at his own speed, whether they 
would or no. Weaiy with his long journey, and 
wishing himself rather dead than alive, he would seek 
rest and shelter, not in the towns, but in the villages 
hard by ; but the despicable scoundrels almost invariably 
went on to the towns themselves, and camped outside 
the gates, for the express purpose of proclaiming their 
master's approach, and of bringing down upon him the 
avalanch of petitions and complaints with which they 
knew he would be greeted. To baffle these tricks 
he used to rise at dawn, well knowing that the 
sentries, being Arabs, would be fast asleep, ride alone 
to a station two or three hours off, and there seek the 
rest of which he stood in sucli sore need. He had 
passed through Abou Haraz, Eatarif, and Kasala, 
when, near the last of these places, he received a visit 



332 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

from the Holy Man, Shereef Seid Hacim, whom once 
before he had met on his way to Khartomn, and who, 
as a descendant of Mahomet, had been greatly scan* 
dalized by his sitting in European fashion on his 
sacred divan. This time Seid nnbent a little from 
his holiness, accepted JS20, and begged of Gordon to 
take the turban and become a Mussulman. Many 
others had made the same request. 

On his arrival at Walad's camp — to reach it, by-the- 
bye, he had to scale two mountains — ^he found the 
people a little odd in their manner. There were 7,000 
of them, he tells us, all armed with muskets. They 
were drawn up to receive him ; and, as on his previous 
visit, he was met by Walad's son and a number of 
priests. He at once demanded an interview with 
Walad, but the son replied that his father was ill. 
This the people of Senheit declared a lie. Gordon and 
his party were then lodged in some wretched huts, 
within a narrow pass outside the town, shut in by a 
fence ten feet high. At this the faces of his servants 
and his ten soldiers fell miserably; and he himself 
could not suppress a suspicion that he was 'in the 
Uon's den/ * I spoke to the interpreter,' he writes, 
' and told him that if Michael wanted to make me 
prisoner he could do so; but that he would suffer 
in the end. It was a want of faith on my part to 
say this. However, he and Michaers son were so 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 333 

profuse in their apologies that I feel sure that, as yet, 
I am not a prisoner. I excused myself to them for 
my remark by saying that if the news arrived at 
Senheit that I was boxed up, it would be taken for 
granted that I was a prisoner, and it would be tele- 
graphed to his Highness at Cairo/ 

Next day he had an interview with Walad. He 
advised the invalid to ask Johannis's pardon. The 
invalid replied that this was impossible, and took the 
opportunity to beg more territory, suggesting that if 
Gordon would only wink and look away, he would go 
up and take the Abyssinian town, Adowa. This, of 
course, was not to be thought of; and Gordon, dis- 
gusted with him and the Abyssinians generally, went 
on to Massawa. There he awaited the reply to a 
letter he had written to Bas Bariou, the Frontier- 
General. In this he had warned Johannis that he 
would be responsible for Walad no longer, and sug- 
gested that the brigand should be seized and sent to 
Cairo ; while his troops should be given a free pardon, 
and the chance of getting clear away, inasmuch as if 
they were attacked, with Abyssinia shut to them, they 
would fight desperately. 

No answer came. Johannis was campaigning 
against Menelek, King of Shoa; but, small as the 
country is, nobody knew where. Gordon waited on 
for some little time. Then, hearing nothing, he started 



334 THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDON. 

for Ehartonm, by Suakim and Berber. He was, Iiow« 
ever, stopped on the road by a second telegram firom 
the Ehedive, biddmg him to Cairo, to take part in 
the financial inquiry then being organized. The idea 
was distastfal in the extreme. He fancied that his 
rough, nomadic life as Governor-General of the Sondan 
had unfitted him for the dinner-parties and enter- 
tainments of civilization. Daring his year of office he 
had ridden over nearly 4,000 miles of desert, without 
a bandage across the chest and round the waist. The 
consequence of this omission he sets forth in one of 
his letters. ' I have shaken/ he says, 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 I say sincerely that, 

though I prefer to be here sooner than anywhere, I 
would sooner be dead than live this life.' 

But there was no help for it. The Khedive had 
spoken, and to hear was to obey. Steaming and sailing 
down stream, he reached Cairo in the first week in 
March. The Ehedive had telegraphed him an invita- 
tion to dinner at eight o'clock ; but the train was late, 
and on reaching the palace Gordon found that his host 
had waited an hour and a half for him, and that he 
insisted on his joining the party, begrimed with travel 
as he was. He was received with every mark of 
distinction. After the first greeting the Khedive asked 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLA VE-DEALERS 335 

\\\m to act as President of the Finance Inquiry; he 
was placed at His Highness's right hand ; after dinner 
he was lodged in the Kasrel Eousa, a palace of the 
Viceroy, which was set apart for royal visitors to Egypt. 
The splendoar of the place and the attentions of 
courtiers and servants appear to have bored him terribly. 
' My people are all dazed/ he says, ^ and so am I, and 
wish for my camel.' To an English friend who called 
on him, he said : 'I feel like a fly in this big place.' 
Great things were expected of him ; but the Khedive, 
in inviting him to become President of the Finance 
Inquiry, does not seem to have taken into account the 
fact that he was the last man to mould his views to 
those of other men. As on his previous sojourn at 
Cairo, he felt that he was being ' used ;' and this« with 
his outspokenness, led to a rupture. He was confident, 
had the Khedive backed him more vigorously, of being 
able to settle the whole question out of hand. 

His failure as a financial adviser, the loss of time his 
visit had entailed, the anarchy he ruled, the dismal and 
dreadful look-out ahead of him, had all tended to 
depress him deeply ; and as he left the capital to return 
to the duties he had quitted so unwillingly, he could 
not suppress the desire within him that his final rest 
were near. He had chosen a new route, for his 
goal was Harrar, where he intended to turn out Baouf 
Pasha, who had been guilty of cruelty to the people. 



336 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

In the letters he wrote on his way through Suez, Aden, 
Berberahy and Zeila^ if he refers at all to the Cairo 
episode it is with visible reluctance; and the only 
memories which are touched with pleasure are those of 
a few of the many people he had met : M. de Lesseps, 
for instance, of whom he speaks with great kindness, 
and the Khedive's sons, whose manners impressed him 
very favourably indeed. 

His short sojourn at Suez^ Aden, and Berberah is 
marked by no incident of note. The air was full of the 
rumours of war, and he thought it by no means unlikely 
that he would be obliged to join his regiment : ' The 
pith is out of me for the moment,' he says ; ' I go with 
only a half heart, for I would wish to be at Gallipoli. 
I know it was wrong in one way, but I cannot help 
it. It would be a great trouble for the Khedive, 
I know; but if God took me away He would not 
have any trouble in finding another worm to fill the 
place. You may imagine my feelings in going down to 
Aden to-morrow just at the crisis ; it is truly dechirant.' 
At Aden Mr. Julian Baker (nephew of Sir Samuel 
Baker), who was on board the Admiral's flag-ship, the 
Undauntedf called on him, and they made the voyage 
together to Zeila. Before going on to Massawa, 
Gordon quitted Zeila for Harrar, where Baouf Pasha, 
was behaving like a * regular tyrant.* Gordon, it will 
be remembered, had deposed this fellow, and sent him 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLA VE-DEALERS. 337 

down to Cairo from Gondokoro in 1874. The eight 
days' joTDney inland to Harrar he made on horseback. 
On his way he met £2fi00 worth of coffee, which 
Baonf was packing off on his private acconnt to 
Aden, intending to buy merchandise with the proceeds, 
and sell it at exorbitant prices to the soldiers at 
Harrar. Gordon confiscated the coffee off-hand; and 
before he reached Harrar he received a letter from 
Baonf, acknowledging his order of dismissal. He rode 
into Harrar on April 28th, and was met by the sight of 
several dying cows, which had been slaughtered in his 
honour; the scene made him miserable, inured as he 
was to the spectacle of suffering by his apprenticeship 
in China and the Soudan. Baouf, who looked down- 
cast and penitent enough, left the place next day. ' I 
cannot help feeling sorry for him,' says Gordon. * God 
grant I have not been unjust, but seeing the people, as 
they were, so fearfully cowed by him, made me feel 
that the sorrow of one man ought not to be weighed 
against the sorrows of many men.' Of Harrar, and his 
doings therein, he himself shall tell the story : 

' Harrar dates from the seventh century. It appears 
that the Ameer Ahmed died very soon after the departure 
of Burton ; that the citizens of Harrar made Ehalifa 
Atra Ameer, but he was deposed after three days' reign 
by Mahomet, a native of the Ala tribe. He was the 
Ameer strangled (by Baouf). Khalifa Atra is still alive, 
and I hope to see him to-morrow. The Queen-dowager, 

22 



338 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

mother of Ameer Ahmed, paid me a visit this evening. 
Burton mentions her as Gershi Fatima. She is the 
grandmother of Tnsenf Ahmed, whom I have made 
Governor. She is a plucky old lady. I gave her Jgl6 
backsheesh. There are many here who remember 
Burton's visit. ... I am living in the palace that 
Burton was received in ; the Ameers lived in a small 
tower, not twenty feet square, of two stages, and 
surrounded by their harem. ... I have just seen 
Khalifa Atra, who reigned for a few hours, and I told 
him it was better to be humble, and not high, than to 
be proud and elevated, for a fall has always to be feared ; 
if one is near the ground one cannot fall very far.' 

Gordon did not stay long at Harrar; he returned 
to Zeila, and reached that place at dawn on the 
9th of May, ' after a terrible march of eight days/ 
Fagged as he was, he pushed on straight for Mas- 
sawa. There, on the 1 2th of May, he met with an 
enthusiastic reception. But he was anxious to get 
back to E^hartoum and his arrears of work ; and 
on the 8rd of June we find him near Berber, 
having done the distance between Suakim and that 
place in nine days. At Atbara Biver the steamer 
met him for Khartoum. The heat was greater than 
even he had ever experienced ; and he was in no 
humour for trifling with his subordinates. His first 
trouble at headquarters was the refusal of Osman 
Pasha, his second in command in the Soudan, to go to 
Darfour. He pleaded illness, but Gordon knew this 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVEDEALERS. 339 

to be false. The truth was, that Osman, in the 
second-class of the Medjidie, which the Governor- 
General had asked for him at Cairo, had achieved his 
ideal, and wanted no more. Finding him in this lofty 
humour, and suspecting him of a tendency to treason, 
Gordon packed him off to the capital there and then, to 
be dealt with by the authorities. This, however, was 
a trifle in comparison with the rest. Everything was 
in arrears; there were mountains of papers to go 
through, crowds of people to see, swamps of pecula- 
tion and wrong to be traversed ; and all the while the 
Governor-General saw no chance of making ends meet, 
and entertained no hope of permanent good. The 
people were delighted to have him again among them, 
for they knew there would be no delays. But the 
state and ceremony by which he was surrounded was 
sore upon him, perhaps as sore as the thought of his 
unrequited labour. 

His news from Abyssinia was that Walad had 
evacuated Egyptian territory, and had gone towards 
Adowa with an eye to business. Gordon's letters to 
King Johannis and Bas Bariou, discrediting his deeds, 
but stipulating that his life should be spared, had 
fallen, as he had foreseen they would, into the rebel's 
hands ; and he was rather pleased than otherwise that 
Walad knew the Governor-General to entertain no per- 
sonal wish to do him harm* 

22—2 



340 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Soon, however — ^in July, 1878 — the news came in 
that Suleiman had revolted, and had laid hands on the 
Bahr Gazelle. It was a critical time ; for while the 
Governor-General had been keeping the slavers in 
check, breaking their communications with the northern 
provinces and blockading them in the south, they had 
gathered head under Suleiman and overrun the Gazelle. 
Gordon acted with his wonted swiftness and assurance. 
He despatched Bomulus Gessi with an expeditionary 
force to the south, and seizing the persons of such of 
Suleiman's family as were within his reach, imprisoned 
them and confiscated their goods. 

After a march for reinforcements into the Equatorial 
Province, Gessi returned down the river and landed his 
troops at Eabatchamb^. It was not until August 26thy 
however, that he pushed on through a flooded country 
to Kumbek, a station on the Bahr-el-Kohl. Beyond 
him, to westward, the waters of all the tributaries of 
the Bahr Gazelle were out, and incessant rains delayed 
his advance until far on into November. In this 
inaction Gessi learned that Suleiman had proclaimed 
himself Lord of the Province, and had surprised the 
Khedive's garrison at Dem Idris, seized the stores, 
and massacred the troops. This success decided the 
neutral Arab tribes, and Suleiman was strongly 
reinforced from them. It was even rumoured that 
with 6,000 men he contemplated an attack on 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 341 

Bnmbek. Gessi had but 300 regnlar troops, two 
guns, and 700 ill-equipped and ill-drilled irregulars. 
He entrenched himself, and sent to Gordon for aid; 
but owing to the blockade of the river by the * Sudd ' 
his letters took five months to reach Khartoum. In 
the meanwhile he got no help from the officials, 
whether civil or military, and his soldiers began to 
desert. Desertion he checked by a right use of the 
lash and a certain number of executions, and on 
November 17th he left his camp and started on his 
famous march. Pressing on through a land of streams, 
crossing three rivers on rafts, he reached the Dyoor, on 
whose farther bank he first sighted the enemy. The 
current was too strong and the water too deep for 
rafts ; but in the boats of a friendly chief he got bis 
men across. Thence he marched to the village of 
Wau, on the river of that name, and interned his 
numerous camp-following of women and children in 
a stockade. On the 11th a friendly Arab reinforced 
him with 700 armed men, and he pushed on to Dem 
Idris, which he occupied and strengthened with stock- 
ades against the coming of Suleiman. 

His advance was not so tardy and chequered that it 
found Suleiman ready. It was not till the 27th that 
the son of Sebehr set out ; but on the following mom- 

ft 

ing he fell in force upon Gessi's entrenchments. Four 
times did he assault; and four times was he driven 



34a THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

back with desperate slaughter. Broken, but not beaten, 
he retired to some neighbonring heights, a thousand 
dead and five standards the poorer for his advance* 
Gessi, however, was too weak to attempt the offen- 
sive. He wanted ammunition, too, and he wrote to 
Gordon for a further supply. Strongly reinforced 
and encouraged by the enemy's silence, Suleiman, 
on January 12th, 1879, led up his men to a fresh and 
even fiercer assault, and was twice hurled back as 
before. Gessi was now so pressed for want of ammuni- 
tion that he had to gather and recast the bullets Sulei- 
man had fired into his camp. Next morning the fight 
was won. Suleiman had prepared for one supreme 
effort, and for seven hours the event was of doubtful 
issue. At last, however, the slavers were completely, 
routed. Suleiman was dragged off the field by his 
own men ; while Gessi, leaving his entrenchments, 
hunted his broken host into the surrounding forests. 
For a fortnight Gessi lay in peace ; but on the night of 
the 28th the enemy once more came up. One of 
Suleiman's shells set fire to a hut, and a high wind 
fanning the flames, Gessi was driven out into the open. 
Here, after a three hours' fight, he flung off his enemy, 
and then retired behind his lines to wait for ammuni- 
tion. 

While Gessi was thus keeping Suleiman at bay, 
Gordon was at work in ILhartoum. He was greatly 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 343 

annoyed by the cold support he received from Cairo, 
and greatly concerned for Gessi. The finances of the 
Soudan were a source of continual trouble, and he was 
even threatened with the unwelcome presence of Sebehr, 
who had promised Nubar a revenue of £26,000. 
Gordon knew well that this could only be effected by 
shipping slaves down the river; and that if Sebehr 
were once permitted to return to his country there was 
an end both to Gessi's expedition and his own royal 
programme. Slavery would again become the chief 
traffic, and the old anarchy would prevail once more. 
He met Nubar's suggestion with a positive and stem 
refusal, for he was determined to crush Suleiman as 
speedily as possible. He received no less than three 
orders to return to Cairo ; but he answered decisively 
that the condition of affairs was critical, and that if 
he returned he would resign. Soon came the good 
news of Nubar's dismissal, of the disappearance of one 
of his most active enemies. Presently his anxiety 
about Gessi became so great, that he telegraphed 
repeatedly to the Khedive for permission to visit Eor- 
dofan and Darfour; and in the middle of March he 
was able to leave Khartoum for Shaka. His object 
was to dislodge the slavers from their hold, and to 
break it up and leave it in ruins. He had no fear for 
his communications with Gessi; for every mile he 
made would bring them nearer together. Meanwhile, 



344 ^-SE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Gessi had resumed his operations. He had 
fresh mnnitions on the 11th of March, and he de- 
termined at once to attack the enemy behind his 
barricades. During the engagement, a Congreve rocket 
set fire to the slavers' camp. The flames spread to the 
stockades, and the rebels were forced into a sortie. 
They were driven back on their defences, and they fled 
in disorder, leaving their fortified camp a fire-stricken 
ruin. The want of ammunition again kept Gessi from 
following up his victory. His requests for help to 
the Governor of Shaka and other officials were wholly 
disregarded; and fever breaking out in J)em Idris, 
his situation grew desperate. 

Gordon all this while was pressing on to Shaka. 
The climate was bitter and changeful. Over vast 
tracts of sand the grasses and scrubby vegetation were 
withered. The heat was intense by day, and the cold 
intense by night. But he did good work on the road : 
arresting caravans of slave-dealers, releasing the slaves, 
and punishing the ruffians who held them. A message 
from Gessi, crying out for powder and shot, reached 
him near Edowa ; and he pushed on at top speed 
towards Shaka, from whence he intended to forward 
help to Gessi, not feeling justified in risking his com- 
munications by proceeding beyond that point. On the 
27th of March he crossed the frontier of Kordofan, and 
entered Darfour. The weather was most trying. < I 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLA VEDEALERS. 345 

have never/ he writes, * m China or elsewhere, felt 
such heat/ During his long night-rides, he was 
actively engaged in solving the difficult question of 
the slave-trade. In the course of his calculations, a 
novel idea occurred to him. Seeing that all slaves 
must pass through Darfour from the south-west on the 
road to Soudan and Nubia, he determined .to frame a 
decree that should strike the traffic at its heart. It 
was to consist of two regulations only : * (1) All 
persons residing in Darfour must have a 'pervm de 
sejour ; (2) All persons travelling to and from Darfour 
must have passports for themselves and suite.' ^ Thus,' 
he adds, * no person can reside in Darfour without an 
ostensible mode of livelihood ; and no one can go to or 
from Darfour without Government permission for him- 
self and his followers.' Imprisonment and confisca- 
tion of property were the penalties for infringing these 
regulations. But the shifting, conflicting, dubious 
policy of the Government on the question of legality 
of slavery hampered him sorely. Against the Khedive's 
personal orders to punish slave-dealing with death, he 
had to weigh the Khedive's firman declaring slave- 
dealing only punishable with imprisonment of from five 
months' to five years' duration, and Nubar's positive 
decision (recently telegraphed to him) that ' the purchase 
and sale of slaves in Egypt is legal.' Thus he was 
often prevented from summarily shooting the slavers 



346 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

whom he captured, and was forced to be content with 
sending them to prison, chained with fetters off iheir 
own slaves. On this march to Shaka, he released 
many hundreds of slaves^ all in the most wretched 
plight, and all of the most abject condition. He says, 
'We must have caught 2,000 in less than nine 
months ; and I expect we did not catch one-fifth of 
the caravans," though of these, between June, 1878, 
to this date (March, 1879), he had captured no less 
than sixty-three. * At Edowa,' he writes, * a party of 
seven slave-dealers, with twenty-three slaves, were 
captured and brought to me, together with two camels. 
Nothing could exceed the misery of these poor 
wretches. Some were children of not more than three 
years old ; they had come across that torrid zone from 
Shaka, a journey from which I on my camel shrink.' 
And again of a subsequent capture : ' 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 these caravans came from 
Shaka, where I mean to make a clean sweep of the 
slave-dealers.' Just before arriving at Shaka, a post 
from Gessi reached him with intelligence of his 
successes; and a few days later, on April the 10th, 
came a further message from him to the effect that he 
was reinforced, and needed no more troops. 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEALERS. 347 

This news enabled Gordon, on his arrival at Shaka, 
to lay by his anxieties, and proceed with his work. 
In the meanwhile, Gessi, having received supplies from 
the Bahr Gazelle, had again resolved on the offensive. 
All April through, he had been unremittingly active 
in chasing, and breaking, and punishing mnumerable 
gangs of robbers; and in the beginning of May he 
set out from Dem Idris, and marched against Sulei- 
man, who had taken refuge in Dem Suleiman, a 
town named in his own honour. His assault was 
so brilliantly planned, and so splendidly done, that 
Suleiman himself nearly fell into his hands. Taking 
possession of his capture, he learned that Suleiman 
had merely moved farther west, and was in the company 
of Eabi, one of the most formidable of the rebel slavers. 
He instantly started in pursuit. Through a ruined 
country, hideous at every mile with traces of the enemy, 
he pressed on. He had 600 men with him, and he 
was victorious; and he went on Gordon's work, at 
Gordon's own pace. 

On the 10th of May he fell upon the village where 
Suleiman, it was said, lay hiding ; but one sick woman 
was its only occupant. Fast ruin after ruin, in tropical 
rain, and through a country harried to the very quick, 
he led his hungry men. In a village but newly for- 
saken they found some food. Beyond was a dense 
forest. Gessi sent out scouts, and got intelligence of a 



348 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

great clump of camp-fires. Thinking that here was a 
slave-caravany with the rebels themselves in force in 
advance of it, he divided his troopSi and made a 
detoor so as to avoid the main body, and strike the 
advance-guard. Missing their way a column of his 
army came into sudden conflict with some of the 
slavers under a notorious chief, Abu Shnep, and put 
them to rout. Meanwhile the firing had alarmed the 
rebel vanguard, and they set fire to the village and 
abandoned their position. Once again Gessi was 
foiled ; for he found the place deserted by all save a 
little child, who told him that Suleiman had passed the 
night in that very place. Avoiding the highway, he 
pushed forward at top speed ; and next night his camp 
was visited by seven men, who mistook his fires for 
Rabi's. Completmg their blunder, they informed him, 
through a messenger, that they had come on from the 
army of Sultan Idris, who was coming up behind as 
fast as he might ; and they begged him to delay his 
advance that the two forces might effect a junction. 
Gessi (as Babi) made answer that he would wait for 
Idris on the road. But while one of the seven was 
taking this reply to his fellows, the six were pressed 
to spend the night in the camp, where they were 
seized and made prisoners. 

This singular occurrence was both momentous and 
fortunate. Gessi at once resolved to attack and finish 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLA VE-DEALERS. 349 

Babi before his ally conld come np. He set off at 
extreme speed. At daybreak he fell upon Babi in his 
camp, and ntterly defeated him, secnring his flag and 
all his stores, and only missing the chief himself 
through the swiftness of his horse. While the engage- 
ment was in progress, Idris and his men were on the 
march. The situation demanded strategy ; and Gessi 
supplied the demand out of hand. He encamped away 
from the scene of Babi's disaster, cleared the field of 
battle of all tell-tale signs, and ran up Babi's standard 
beside his empty tent. He then despatched half-a- 
dozen of his men to meet Idris. These men, falling in 
with the Sultan as by accident, reported themselves as 
of Babi's army, and out hunting. Idris bade them 
return and announce his approach. Gessi immediately 
drew his men out round a glade in the forest, and 
awaited the issue in ambush in the long grass. A 
sudden storm came on at the moment of the enemy's 
arrival, and he hurried in disorder to the shelter of 
the camp. A deadly fire was poured on him by 
Gessi's men, and the fury of the wind and the rain 
completed his demoralization. Idris himself and a 
few attendants alone escaped. His wealth fell into the 
hands of Gessi's followers. This brilliant victory broke 
up the league of slavers for a while ; and Gessi, after 
an absence of nine days^ marched back to Dem 
Suleiman with his spoils. Here he rested for some 



3SO THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

weeks, contenting himself with exploring the sur- 
rounding country, and keeping in check the many 
marauding bands by which the province was harassed. 
While Gessi was engaging Suleiman and breaking 
the power of the slavers, Gordon was active m Shaka. 
The slavery question was ever before him. He had to 
consider not merely how best to stop the traffic, bnt 
how to revive the exhausted revenue, which would 
suffer still further from its abolition ; and, also, how 
to obtain recruits for an army consisting of 25,000 
bought or captured slaves. Beside the consideration 
of these intricate questions, he was indefatigable in 
hurrying his officials, particularly in respect of the 
execution of sentences on the slave-dealers. This work 
of supervision obliged him to make frequent and sudden 
movements ; and his rapid rides occasioned delinquents 
much dismay. It was just previous to starting to 
Ealaka on one of these expeditions, that he heard from 
Gessi of his advance on Suleiman. His own position in 
Shaka was anything but secure. This he felt, for he 
writes : * I hope soon to leave for Dara, for I am not 
exactly safe here. If Sebehr's son knew how few men 
I have, and could break away from Gessi, he might 
pay me a visit.' But he found that he had allies on the 
road, though they could not be always relied on. The 
various tribes of Arabs, who were scouring the country 
in bands, were beginning to foresee the issue of events. 



THE REVOLT OF THE SLAVE-DEADERS. 35 » 

The news of Gessi's exploits and Gordon's frightening 
activity and rapidity of movement forced them into 
action, and on every hand they fell on the scattered 
parties of slavers. Many captures were made hy these 
dabions friends, who brought them in to Gordon en 
r(mte to Ealaka, where they had caught and imprisoned 
a number of dealers. Their slaves were wandering 
about the country in thousands, and were being ^ snapped 
up,' as Gordon says, * by the native Arabs in all direc- 
tions, as if they were sheep.' He reckoned there 
must have been a thousand in Ealaka alone. Yet 
it was impossible to send them back to their own 
countries, owing to the lack of food and water 
and the means of transport. From Ealaka he jour- 
neyed to Dara, leaving 100 soldiers behind him. 
Through a monotonous sandy plain, with a scanty 
vegetation of scrub, he passed from Dara to Fascher 
and Eobeyt in the extreme north of Darfour. At 
Eobeyt he learned that the route to Ealabieh and 
Eolkol in the west was beset by brigands, and this in 
spite of the garrison at the latter place. This made 
him push on to Eolkol ; and on the 25 th of May he 
was attacked by about 150 men, and, as he puts 
it, ' had a bad time ' with them for four or five hours. 
Towards evening they were driven off, and Gordon's 
party encamped nine miles from Eolkol, thoroughly 
exhausted. He found Eolkol, the ultimate post of tho 



352 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON^ 

Egyptian Government, in a miserable state. * Nothing/ 
he says, * could describe the misery of these utterly 
useless lands, they have been made perfect deserts by 
the Government/ 

From this desolate spot he despatched to Ehartonm, 
by way of Dara, a forlorn band of Arabs — soldiers, 
oflScers, women and children — all utterly broken and 
useless. His chief concern now was for Gessi. He 
had received, on his return from Eolkol to Fascher, a 
despatch from the Italian on the 6th of June informing 
him of the capture of Dem Suleiman ; and he believed 
that Suleiman was completely crushed. He started for 
Khartoum by way of Oomchanga and Toashia. On 
the road he learned that the robber chiefs had broken 
out of Shaka, and he feared a renewal of troubles. 
Haroun was still afield with 300 men, and he wished 
to prevent a junction of the forces; so rapidly and 
unexpectedly did he advance on Toashia, that he 
surpiised a troop of 100 slavers and despoiled them 
of 300 slaves. His plan was to watch the wells, until 
the caravans, unable to hold out, were fain to surrender 
at discretion. The number of skulls along the road 
was terrible. He had great piles of them put up as 
monuments of the horrible cruelty of the slavers. 
He calculated the loss of life in Darfour durin^j 
1875-79, at 16,000 Egyptians and 50,000 natives, 
exclusive of the loss among the slaves, which he put 



THE RE VOLT OF THE SLA VE-DEALERS. 353 

down at from 80,000 to 100,000. He remarks at 
this time^ ^ I feel revived when I make these captures. 
From Oomchanga to Toashia, daring say a week, we 
must have caught from 500 to 600. I suppose we 
may consider that nearly that number must have been 
passing every week for the last year and a half or two 
years along this road/ 

On the 25th of June Gessi arrived, Gordon found 
him looking much older. Before leaving for Khartoum 
he made arrangements with his lieutenant for the 
future government of the Bahr Gazelle, presented him 
with j£2,000, and created him a Pasha, with the second- 
class of the Osmanlie. Leaving his chief to make his 
way to E^artoum, the new Pasha returned to his old 
quarters. Although the rebellion was not crushed even 
yet, Suleiman being still at liberty, the end was not 
long in coming. Early in July Gessi learned of a 
deserter that the son of Sebehr was not far off, and 
was attempting a coalition with Haroun. Suleiman, 
the terrible Pasha at his heels, fled, with nearly 900 
men towards the Gebel Marah, a difficult and little- 
known country; Babi, with 700 men, retreating in 
another direction. Gessi had but 290 soldiers with him, 
but they were well armed, and flushed with victories. 
By an admirable forced march he overtook the enemy in 
the village of Gara. Surprising them in- their sleep, and 
concealing his numbers, he persuaded them to capitu- 

23 



354 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

late. They laid down their arms in ignorance of his 
real strength, and great was Suleiman's mortification 
on learning to what a little force he had snccnmbed. 
By Gordon's orders the chiefs (including Suleiman and 
Abdulgassin) were afterwards shot. Babi alone seems 
to have escaped. Gordon had made a hero of Gessi, 
and here was his reward. 

Thus fell the power of Sebehr in the person of his 
son Suleiman, and with it the whole fabric of his 
ambition. Gordon's prophecy was realized to the fall. 
Sebehr himself was tried in Cairo for rebellion against 
the Viceroy, found guilty, and condenmed to death. 
But, as the Governor-General had anticipated^ ^ nothing 
was done to him.' He was suffered to Uve in Cairo, 
with a pension of £100 a month from the Ehedive. 
The impolitic leniency did much to weaken the moral 
force of these splendid and ruinous attacks on the 
slave-trade in the Soudan. 



CHAPTER XV. 



AN ENVOY EXTRA0BDINAB7. 



The news of Gessi's final snccess reached Gordon at 
Toashia. Satisfied that the stem lessons he had him- 
self been teaching the slave-traders were so mnch 
inspiration for the oppressed tribes, he set off, on the 
29th June, 1879, for Fogia. Gessi he knew could 
do more than hold his own in the south ; and he felt 
that the slave-trade had at length been dealt a 
powerful blow. If ineradicable, as he himself believed, 
it was so from causes existent at headquarters — causes 
over which he eould exercise no control. At Fogia, 
he heard of Ismail's deposition, and received orders to 
proclaim Tev^fik Khedive throughout the Soudan. 
Beyond acknowledging the official intelligence to Gherif 
Pasha, the new Khedive's minister, he did no more than 
telegraph the order to the several governments. He 
then went on to Khartoum. About this time he received 
from his old colleague, Li-Hung-Chang, an interesting 
letter, dated Tientsin, March 22nd9 1879, in reply to 

23—2 



356 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

his communication to the Chinese generalissimo of the 
27th October, 1878. At the end of July he left 
Khartoum, and reached Cairo on August 23rd ; and, one 
week later, he lefib that city for Massawa, on a mission 
to the King of Abyssinia. 

He had not heard of Ismail's abdication with eqna- 
nimity. He respected the late Khedive's character and 
abilities, however much he reprehended the morality of 
his statecraft. With characteristic generosity he writes : 
' It grieves me what sufferings my poor Khedive Ismail 
has had to go through.' His instructions for the conduct 
of his mission to King Johannis, written in French, 
were couched in terms the most guarded ; they were, at 
the same time, extremely polite to himself personally. 
At Cairo he had shown his annoyance at the new turn 
in a£fairs by refusing a special train, and declaring he 
would go to the hotel in preference to the palace pre- 
pared for him. He did not carry out the latter re- 
solve, feeling he ^ should not be justified in such a 
snub." He was admitted to more than one audience 
of Tewfik, who expressed his entire confidence in him« 
In these conversations it was at first evident that 
the new Khedive was somewhat nervous as to whether 
the Governor-General was not too intimate with King 
Johannis. ^ In fact,' says Gordon, ^ the general report 
in Cairo was that I was going in for being Sultan ! 
But it would not suit our family.' The Khedive, I 



AN ENVO Y EXTRA ORDINAR K 357 

should note, had to deal not merely with King 
Johannis, but with our old acquaintance, Walad-el- 
Michael, who was threatened with' attack by the 
Abyssinian, Aloula. This greatly complicated the 
situation, and it behoved the Khedive to act with great 
circumspection. Before leaving Cairo, Gordon paid ofiF 
some old scores, and did much work in the hearty and 
determined style we know. * I wrote,' he says * to 
the Consuls-General of France and England, and told 
them they had interfered to get sweet things, and now 
they must interfere to avoid bitter things. I attacked 
in an official letter the Italian Consul-General, for it is 
an Italian who has put Johannis up to this (t.e., to the 
claim, on Egyptian territory in Bogos, etc.), ' and I ex- 
pect I made him ashamed ;' and so forth. He took with 
him as secretary Berzati Bey, of whom he has recorded 
a high estimate. * He was my most intimate friend 
for three years; and though we often had tiffs, I 
always had a great respect for his opinion. He is 
about twenty-nine years of age, yet perfectly self* 
possessed and dignified ; and I can say that, in all our 
perils, I never saw him afraid. A few men like Berzati 
Bey would regenerate Egypt; but they are rare. 
Scoffers call him the ' black imp.' All this while the 
Abyssinians were actually in possession of the Bogos 
district. On September 11th Gordon started m grartde 
tenue for Gura, where Aloula was encamped. On the 



3S8 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

way he heard that Walad and his officers were 
prisoners there, by order of Johannis. He suffered 
mnch from prickly heat. The roads were terrible and 
the climate intolerable, yet he meditated his policy all 
the march throngh. ^ I determined/ he says, ' to get 
rid, either mi\ or without Johannis's help, of Walad- 
el-Michael and his men, and then to come to terms 
with Johannis. Now Johannis will not give n[ie his 
help for nothing, when we persist in keeping what we 
have stolen from him ' (i.e., Bogos, etc.) ; ^ I do not 
mean physical help, but moral help — i.e., that he 
should offer a pardon — that is, an asylum to which 
Walad-el-Michael's men can go when they leave 
Bogos. Otherwise they will fight with desperation 
against us/ He reached Gura on the 10th, at half- 
past three in the afternoon, overcome with fatigue. 
Aloula was encamped on the top of an almost in- 
accessible hill, and Gordon's mule was so broken down 
that he had to climb to the great man's tent. The 
audience was not satisfactory. In a long shed, made 
of branches, Aloula was seated on a couch, and swathed 
hke a mummy in white garments, even to his mouth. 
'Nearly everyone had his robe to his mouth, as if 
something poisonous had arrived. The figure at the 
end never moved, and I got quite distressed, for he 
was so muffled up that I felt inclined to feel his 
pulse. He must be ill, I thought.' The apparent 



AN ENVO Y EXTRA ORDINARY. 359 

invalid was in excellent health; and Gordon saw, 
when he showed his face, ^ a good-looking yonng man 
of about thirty or thirty-five.' After a little while * the 
poisonons effect had also gone off to some degree, for 
the others also removed their mnfiSers/ Aloula received 
the Khedive's ambassador with a good deal of the 
ludicrous self-importance and assumption of wisdom of 
Johannis himself. He put the Khedive's letter aside 
unread, and behaved quite slightmgly throughout the 
audience. He condescended to inform Gordon that he 
might smoke if he chose, in spite of the King's decree 
that smokers caught in the act should lose hand and 
foot. He proposed that the Envoy should camp at the 
bottom of the hill, and climb to the top whenever he 
wanted an interview. This Gordon positively declined 
to do; 80 a hut was found for him near the General's 
shed. The result of these interviews was that Gordon 
agreed to see Johannis himself, and Aloula undertook 
not to attack Egypt in his absence. 

On the 19th Gordon left Gura for Debra Tabor, 
near Gondar. He went by horrible roads, over the 
steepest mountains, through the country of Easselas^ 
but without a sight of the Happy Valley ; and so 
towards the Abyssinian capital — * crawling over the 
world's crust.' Near Adowa, on the 27th, he passed 
the Amba, the mountain prison where Walad-el-Michael 
was interned. Of this he says, ^ When you get close 



30o THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

to it yon have to be hauled up in a basket. There was 
a tent pitched on the top> in which — to-day being the 
first of the Abyssinian year, as the King's interpreter 
told me — there was feasting.' After a fatiguing march 
by execrable bridle-paths, the river Tacazzi was reached 
on October 12th« Here he heard from the officer of 
Aloula, who travelled with him, that a robber chief 
with 800 men was meditating attack, and was re- 
ported to have said, when he heard that Gordon's 
luggage and presents for the king were not with him, 
that he would 'Take the Pasha and the black imp, 
and get the boxes afterwards/ He also heard of 
another robber on the road between Galabat and Debta 
Tabor, with several guns ; as he himself had only six 
black soldiers this was not reassuring. On October 
27th, however, without further adventure he arrived 
at Debra Tabor, convinced that Aloula had sent him 
through a network of by-ways to impress him with 
the difficulties of the country in case the Khedive 
should declare war. 

He was received at the court of Johannis with a 
salute of guns. With the King at Debra Tabor were 
Bas Arya, his father; the Itage, or high-priest; the 
Greek Consul from Suez ; an Italian named Bianchi ; 
and two Italians named Neretti. The night of his 
arrival Gordon was visited by fifteen black soldiers, 
who had been captured at Gondet in November, 1875, 




AN ENVOY EXTRAORDINAR Y. 361 

and nine Arabs, whom Aloula had made prisoners at 
Ailat in Jannary, 1877 ; these men all begged him to 
intercede Avith Johannis for their release. Next day he 
had his andience. Johannis began with a tedious 
recital of his grievances against Egypt, and asked 
Gordon what was the natnre of his mission. He was 
referred to the Khedive's letter, which it appeared 
had not even been translated. He then put forward a 
number of outrageous claims : the * retrocession of 
Metenma, GhangallaSi and Bogos, cession of Zeila and 
Amphilla (ports), an Abouna, and a sum of money from 
one to two million pounds.' As alternatives, he sug- 
gested that he should take Bogos, Massawa, and the 
Abouna; adding: ^I could claim Dongola, Berber, 
Nubia, and Sennaar, but will not do so. Also, I want 
a certain territory near Harrar/ ^Here,' Gordon 
remarks, ^his Majesty seemed a little out in his 
geography, so he added that he would waive that 
claim for the moment.' These demands were thought 
too monstrous, even considered as a price for peace; 
and Gordon told His Majesty, in his private capacity, 
that he did not think the Ehedive would accept them^ 
and urged him to put into writing what he considered 
his just dues. Johannis shuffled, and suggested a 
new discussion at some neighbouring baths which he 
proposed to visit. Gordon acquiesced, and presented 
him through Berzati Bey with presents worth JE200. 




36a THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDON. 

Nothing OGcnrred till November 6tli. In the interim 
Gordon discovered that the King was backed in his 
obstinacy by the intrigues of the Greek Consul and 
others. On the 6th Johannis returned from the baths 
without the written claims. But to these Gordon deter- 
mined to fix him. He told His Majesty that he had 
positive orders not to cede Bogos, or any territory, 
but that he would use his private influence to obtain 
for him an Abouna, the free import of arms, and 
letters for himself at Massawa and Bogos. At length, 
on the 8th he was assured he should receive the written 
demands in the form of a letter to the Ehedive. 
He had an audience that day however, and found the 
Eing in a sulky and resentful humour. Johannis bade 
him go back, and added that he would forward a letter 
to the Khedive by an envoy of his own. Gordon 
then asked for the release of the Egyptian soldiers. 
This enraged the King, who told him to go. 

An hour after he went. Just as he was starting, the 
interpreter brought him the letter and $1,000. The 
money he returned, but at his first halt on the road 
he opened the letter, in his capacity as envoy, suspect- 
ing a trick, and found it only twelve lines long. He 
saw that, making allowance for the usual salutation and 
valediction, it could not possibly contain the specific 
statement required. Translated he found it ran in these 
insulting terms : ^ I have received the letters you sent 



AN ENVO Y EXTRA ORDINARY. 363 

me by that man. I will not make a secret peace with 
yon. If yon want peace, ask the Snltans of Enrope/ He 
wrote to the Greek Consnl, demanding an explanation, 
and was answered, * that the King said he had written 
as he saw fit, and, if he jndged right, wonld write other 
letters to the Ehedive/ Gordon calmly pnrsned his 
road to Galabat, intending to reach Ehartonm by way 
of Eatarif, instead of following the monntainons rente 
he had travelled from Massawa. Before him, a revolted 
chief named Gadassi occupied the country, and to him 
he applied for an escort of 200 men. Waiting a 
reply, he encamped at Char Amba, the Gate of 
Abyssinia, fronting a gorge in the mountains that com- 
manded a prospect of the Soudanese plains. At five 
in the afternoon he was suddenly arrested by 120 of 
Johannis's men under three of Eas Arya's officers, and 
the little party was marched back to the village of the 
King's uncle. Gordon, on the way, destroyed his journal^ 
that it might not fall into the hands of Johannis. 
Bas Arya was a cunning, self-seeking fellow, with an 
eye to bribes. He had once despatched a false 
embassy to Gordon at Katarif, and he now entertained 
him with hearty abuse of Johannis. He even sug- 
gested that the Khedive should take the country, as 
everyone was disgusted with the King. Gordon gave 
him £10 to ensure the safe passage of his telegrams 
to Galabat. On the 17th the party, still guarded, 



364 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

passed on io Gondar, and reached Bas-Garamndhiri. 
Here the escort left them, and for a while they were 
free. Over snowy monntams, and suffering consider- 
ably from the want of shelter (for he had no tents), 
Gordon pnshed forward to the frontier, not without an 
expenditure of £1,400 in gold for bribes in the shape 
of tolls and safe-conduct. At Eya-Ehor, a village on 
the frontier, he was again arrested, and subjected to 
a great deal of bullying and extortion. At last, on 
December 8th, he reached Massawa, and there he 
was lucky enough to find the Seagtdlf an English 
gunboat. 

Thus ended this fatiguing and fruitless mission. 
The Ehedive had shown himself indifferent to his 
envoy's safety and the honour of his own name. He 
had taken no notice of Gordon's application for troops 
and a steamer, which, on his arrest by Johannis, he 
had desired should be sent to Massawa. Considerable 
apprehension was felt as to his safety. Had it not 
been for the timely despatch of the SeaguU, affairs 
might have taken an awkward turn. 

There is nothing surprising in Johannis's wish to 
make Gordon a prisoner ; rather is it a wonder that 
it did not take effect in the court itself. The 
uncompromising candour with which the Envoy un- 
burdened his mind to this King of Kings would have 
cost most envoys their lives. Gordon had told him 



AN ENVOY EXTRA ORDINAR K 365 

that ' the King would be better if he would not try and 
be God;' and ^that six feet of earth would hold the 
one as it would the other/ Another and not smaller 
source of irritation was that the King's people — 
especially the beggars — crowded round Gordon's tent, 
deserting his Majesty ; and that the strange ambassador 
walked about, unguarded^ and on foott The following 
amusing account of an interview between this extra- 
ordinary pair was given not long after the Governor- 
General's return : 

* "When Gordon Pasha was lately taken prisoner by 
the Abyssinians he completely checkmated King John. 
The King received his prisoner sitting on his throne, 
or whatever piece of furniture did duty for that exalted 
seat, a chair being placed for the prisoner considerably 
lower than the seat on which the King sat. The first 
thing the Pasha did was to seize this chair, place it 
alongside that of his Majesty, and sit down on it; the 
next to inform him that he met him as an equal and 
would only treat him as such. This somewhat discon- 
certed his sable Majesty, but on recovering himself he 
said, '^ Do you know, Gordon Pasha, that I could kill you 
on the spot if I liked ?" " I am perfectly well aware of 
it, your Majesty,'' said the Pasha. '^ Do so at once if 
it is your royal pleasure. I am ready." This discon- 
certed the King still more, and he exclaimed, ^^ What ! 
ready to be killed !" " Certainly," replied the Pasha ; 
*a am always ready to die, and so far from fearing your 
puttmg me to death, you would confer a favour on me 
by so doing, for you would be doing for me that 'which 
I am precluded by my religious scruples from doing for 



366 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

myself — ^yon wonld relieve me from all the tronbles and 
misfortmies which the future may have in store for me/' 
This completely staggered King John, who gasped out 
in despair, " Then my power has no terrors for you ?" 
'^ None whatever/' was the Pasha's laconic reply. 
His Majesty, it is needless to add, instantly collapsed/ 

Gordon returned to Egypt at the end of the yesf. 
He had sent in his resignation to the Ehedive on his 
way ; and universal was the regret at his determination 
to quit the country in which he had wrought so much 
good. Much as the ex-Ehedive had been blamed for 
his misrule, it was unanimously acknowledged that 
he had done an act of eminent wisdom in appointing 
Gordon to the Governor-Generalship of the Soudan ; 
and few could resist the temptation of comparing his 
appreciation of the great Proconsul with Tewfik's. 
Against the latter there was a general feeling of resent- 
ment, even of indignation ; this notwithstanding the 
tenour of the Viceroy's letter to his Governor-General 
on his arrival at Alexandria : * I am glad to see yon 
again among us, and have pleasure in once more 
acknowledging the loyalty with which you have 
always served the Government,' writes the Khedive. 
' I Bhonld 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 ex- 
press my sincere thanks to you, assuring you that my 



AN ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY. 367 

remembrance of yon and your services to the comitry 
will outlive your retirement/ 

The £ftct is that what took the world by surprise at 
the time had been decided on months before. Gordoui 
before going to Abyssinia^ had been urged by certain 
ministers, notably Biaz, Gherif, and Nubar, to make 
certain reforms in his Government, of which he did 
not approve; and he thereupon announced his inten- 
tion to quit the Soudan. It was only as a personal 
favour to the Ehedive that he carried letters to King 
Johannis at all. This he had done at the peril of his 
life. On his return to Egypt the interfering ministers 
began their interfering once more. There were stormy 
interviews between Gordon and Nubar and Biaz. 
They grumbled angrily at his proposed cession of 
Zeila to the Abyssinians, and they resented the fact 
that the proposal had reached the papers. That it had 
done so was entirely their own fault ; for the suggestion 
had been telegraphed to them in cipher. These un- 
pleasant conferences, with what had gone before, led 
to his final resignation. 'I am neither a Napoleon 
nor a Colbert,' was his reply to some one who spoke to 
him in praise of his beneficence in the Soudan ; ^ I 
do not profess either to have been a great ruler or a 
great financier; but I can say this — ^I have cut off 
the slave-dealers in their strongholds, and I made the 
people love me.' What Gordon had done was to 



368 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

justify Ismail's description of him eight months before. 
' They say I do not trust Englishmen,' said the old 
Ehedive. ^Do I mistrust Gordon Pasha? That is 
an honest man ; an administrator, not a diplomatist.' 

Apart from the difficulties of serving the new 
Ehedive, Gordon longed for rest* The first year of his 
rule as Governor of the tribes — during which he had 
done his own work and other men's — ^the long marches, 
the terrible climate, the perpetual anxieties — all had 
told upon him. Since then he had had three years of 
desperate labour, and ridden some 8,600 miles. Who 
can wonder that he resented the impertinences of the 
Pashas, whose interference was not for the good of 
his government or his people, but solely for their 
own. 

But it was not for him to stay on and complain. 
To one of the worst of these Pashas he sent a telegram, 
which ran : ' Mene Mene Tekel Upharsm.' Then he 
sailed for England, bearing with him the memory of 
the enthusiastic crowd of friends who bade him farewell 
at Cairo. I am told that his name sends a thrill of 
love and admiration through the Soudan even yet. A 
hand so strong and so beneficent had never before been 
laid on the people of that unhappy land. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

'THE UNCROWNED KING/ 

Only a few weeks' rest fell to him on his retnm. 
These were spent for the most part in London and at 
Southampton. His treatment at the hands of Egypt, 
and his subsequent resignation, made a great stir. 
The general feeling was one of regret rather than 
surprise. Everybody knew of his magnificent cam- 
paign against the slave-trade, unaided and alone ; and 
that, unless support were given him, he must sooner 
or later abandon the task. The manner in which his 
services had been contemned by the government 
which had been so eager to secure them, was looked 
on as a disgrace ; and it was felt as a certainty that 
the traffic he had broken and ruined would be revived 
ere long. 

The English Press could not say enough in his 
praise ; and, with reference to the vast province over 
which he had ruled, it was for a time the fashion to 
call him * The Uncrowned King/ The same attempt 

24 



370 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

as before, bat if anything a more strenuous one, was 
made by the fashionable world to lionize him. And 
many amusing stories might be told of the way in 
which he avoided those who sought him out ; as well 
as of the strategy he employed to elude the many 
invitations sent in. 

Early in May, when the London world was dis- 
cussing the resignation of one Viceroy of India, and 
the accession of another, people were amazed at the 
announcement that Lord Bipon had asked Gordon to 
be his private secretary, and that Gordon had said 
^yes/ Many at first refused to believe; and when 
it was telegraphed to Lidia, it created a sensa- 
tion not unmixed with alarm. One correspondent 
wrote that, ' with the arrival of Colonel Gordon, we 
shall have an end of favouritism, and all cliqueism 
will disappear from the face of ofl&cial society/ The 
journals themselves were not so sanguine. * Official 
society without cliques and favouritism is to ns 
unimaginable,' says one. 'If Colonel Gordon were 
Viceroy, he could not entirely eradicate these deep- 
seated diseases. But if our correspondent means 
— as we suppose he does — that no cliqueism, nor 
favouritism, nor any meanness, nor charlatanism will 
receive any toleration from Colonel Gordon, but will 
meet with stem suppression, so far as he may have 
power to deal with it, then we agree with him. There 



'THE UNCROWNED KING: 371 

is not in the world a man of gentler, kindlier nature 
than Colonel Gordon ; we know of no man more 
terrible to shams and charlatans. His mere presence 
in Indian society will be a kind of shock which will 
send a shiver through 9II its vanities, and may indeed 
in time create a sort of revolution/ 

There is little doubt that many thought the appoint- 
ment an absurdity. The expression of such an 
opinion was checked by a belief in the existence of 
occult reasons for inducing so illustrious a soldier to 
fill so unimportant a post. The Central Asian 
Question had been recently revived ; the effects of 
the Afghan War were . being hotly discussed ; and 
th6 Government was credited with an ulterior aim — 
that of entrusting to one man the solution of a 
problem which had already baffled hundreds, and will 
baffle hundreds more.* 

* Mr. Charles Marvin, in his 'Merv, the Queen of the World,' 
speaking of the importance of establishing a barrier between Sussia 
and India, showed his appreciation of such a choice in the following 
terms: 

* To select the border-line between the English and Russian empires 
in Asia, there should be no appointment of committees or commis- 
sions ; the task should be given to a single man. In the multitude 
of counsel there may be wisdom, but rarely, if ever, decision. It is 
with public affairs as with private : one man will always carry out a 
scheme more quickly, more cheaply, and more satisfactorily than a 
committee of a dozen. You have the advantage of aggregate wisdom 
in confiding a task to a committee ; you have the drawback of their 
aggregate foolishness. Even if you are lucky in securing a choice 
selection of sages, experience warns you beforehand that the more their 

24—2 



372 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

So it came to pass that he who had been a Sultan 
suddenly became a seeretary, thoagh it was said at the 
time that there was not a post from Constantinople 
eastward which would have been too much for him. As 
for Gordon himself, he accepted the appointment in the 
spirit in which he would accept any station in life, 
high or humble, provided that out of it good might 
come. And the world took it for granted that he went 
as something more than as a mere secretary. 

Towards the end of May, the Viceroy left London 

originality the greater will be the conflict of opinion, which can 
only end in a compromise — a term signifying feebleness of decision. 

' No ; we should choose a good man for the solution of the Anglo- 
Russian Frontier Question ; we should allow him to choose his own 
advisers ; we should give him abimdance of time to form his own 
opinions on the subject. He should have unlimited funds to conduct 
explorations and to appoint assistant explorers. He should visit in 
succession Eussia and Persia, to realize correctly the genius of those 
countries. He should have absolute freedom in the preparation of 
his plan, and the plan when complete should be made the basis of a 
definite and final settlement of the Central Asian Question. 

' I may be asked to point out the Atlas who can bear this enormous 
responsibility upon his shoulders. We have not to go far to seek 
him. His name is well knowa He is not the offspring of a clique ; 
he is not the creature of a faction. He has fought well, he has ruled 
well. His Christian piety is a proverb among those who know him; 
his scorn of pelf and preferment is so remarkable that he almost 
stands alone — he hardly belongs to a place-hunting, money-grubbing 
generation. He possesses the entire confidence of all parties; he 
enjoys the admiration and love of the nation. Bussia knows nothing 
to his detriment, and he has recently earned her respect by his dis- 
interested exertions on her behalf in the distant East I have no 
need to utter his name. It springs spontaneously to the reader's 
lips — Chinese Gordoa' 



'THE UNCROWNED KING: 373 

for his seat of Government, and loud were the cheers 
for him and his secretary as the train moved out 
of the station at Charing Cross. The journey was 
watched with eager interest by the public, and the 
correspondents kept them well informed by telegram 
of what happened at the several stages. The 
surprise at the appointment was great, but a greater 
was in store. Hardly had we heard of the Viceroy's 
arrival in Bombay, when we heard of Gordon's resig- 
nation The Anglo-Indian journalists were right who 
said there was something whimsical in turning Gordon 
Fasha into a small official ; the anomaly had proved 
impossible. With perfect frankness and simplicity, and 
in a spirit of self-accusation which everybody could 
but applaud, Gordon gave his reasons for the un- 
expected step he had taken. He wrote : ' Men, 
at times, owing to the mysteries of Providence, 
form judgments which they afterwards repent of. 
This is my case in accepting the appointment Lord 
Bipon 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 
Bipon has treated me. I have never met anyone with 
whom I could have felt greater sympathy in the 
arduous task he has undertakeue' 



374 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

The words were a pnzzle to many; not a few 
believed the announcement to be a hoax. The way 
in which it was received by the press is somewhat 
amusing. To a large number it proved at once that 
Gordon could never have fulfilled his duties: *He 
would be more at home in the Soudan where he 
was a king, or in China where he was a general, than 
in the private secretary's room in Government House.' 
To some he was mad, or at best a ' little eccentric ;* 
others were aggrieved at his suppression of his motives. 
When this last complaint reached his ears, he said at 
once that, in such a position, with a turbulent spirit like 
his, he would be likely to do more harm than good, 
and would only too probably hamper the Viceroy, and 
involve him in difficulties. 

He had resigned on June 3rd. He was planning a 
journey to Zanzibar to help the Sultan, Syed Burghash, 
in a campaign against the slave-dealers, when he was 
suddenly summoned to Pekin. His old colleague, 
Li-Hung-Chang, had sent him a message through Mr. 
Hart, Chinese Commissioner of Customs. The des- 
patch had been sent to Mr. Campbell, Mr. Hart's 
agent in London, who seeing the news of the resigna- 
tion, at once forwarded it to India. Thus ran the 
telegram : ' I am directed to invite you to China. 
Please come and see for yourself. This opportunity 
for doing really useful work on a large scale ought 



« THE UNCROWNED KING: 375 

not to be lost. Work, position, conditions con all be 
arranged with yonrself here to yonr satisfaction. Do take 
six months' leave and come/ ' The Uncrowned King/ 
replied : ^ Inform Hart, Gordon will leave for Shanghai 
first opportunity. As for conditions, Gordon indif* 
ferent/ Government was at once applied to for the 
requisite leave ; bnt as his purpose in going and the 
position he was to hold on his arrival could not be 
explained, permission was withheld. Upon this he 
referred the Government to Mr. Campbell, sent in 
his papers to the War Office, and sailed on the 
12th June for Hong Kong. As everyone knows, 
war was immment between Bussia and China, and 
great excitement prevailed at St. Petersburg when his 
departure got wind. A report was current that he 
had gone to China to organise another Ever- Victorious 
Army. ^It is all the work of Lord Beaconsfield,' 
said the excited Golos; and it hoped that Mr. Glad- 
stone and Lord Granville would blast the adventure with 
public displeasure. Gordon, with his wonted foresight, 
had anticipated the misconstruction to which his visit 
was open, and had told his purpose before leaving 
Lidia. * My fixed desire,' he said, ' is to persuade the 
Chinese not to go to war with Bussia, both in their own 
interests and those of the world, and especially those 
of England. To me it appears that the question in 
dispute cannot be of such vital importance that an 



376 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

arrangement could not be come to by concessions on 
both sides. Whether I succeed in being heard or not, 
is not in my hands. I protest, however, against being 
regarded as one who wishes for war in any conntry, 
still less in OhinjEt. In the event of war breaking ont, 
I conld not answer how I should act for the present ; bat 
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 ho^onr to promote 
peace than to gain any paltry honours in a wretched 
war.' 

He arrived at Hong Eong on the 2nd July, and at 
once received an invitation to stay at Government 
House from Sir John and Lady Hennesey. At Canton 
he paid a visit to the Viceroy, and saw many of his 
old friends in the City of Bams. When they asked him 
of his personal attitude towards China, he said that 
if his opinion were sought at Fekin, he should give 
the ' quinine and mixture,' but not ask them to take 
it. He wished his visit to be clearly understood as 
unofficial, as indeed it was : he was taking a holiday, 
and had come to see his old friend Li. When 
the interviewers inquired his views as to the forma- 
tion of an Anglo-Chinese force in case of war, he 
said : * I should strongly advise the Chinese to use 
their own forces; they do not want to teach the 
men to right-wheel and left-dress, and to show up a 



• THE UNCROWNED KING: 377 

good line as soldiers aore expected to do, because fight- 
ing is done more now by skirmishing/ He earnestly 
recommended the Chinese, tpo, not to go to work with 
^ cut flowers :' meaning that it was useless to take a lot 
of tramed men, pat them in the field, and as soon as 
the season is over let them all disperse again. It was 
the same at Tientsin and Fekin — ^to all he spoke with 
equal frankness. 

Since the days when they two had fought together 
against the Tai-pings, Li had proved himself a great 
soldier and administrator — had, in fact, justified Gordon's 
opinion that he was the ablest man in China. He had 
filled the highest positions in the councils of the 
empire : he had been Junior Guardian of the Heir- 
Apparent, and Governor-General of Nankin; he had 
received the hereditary title of the Third Degree, the 
Double-Eyed Peacock's Feather, and the Yellow Jacket ; 
now he was Senior Guardian to the Heir-Apparent, 
and Senior Grand Secretary and Viceroy of Chihli. 
The growth of his power had been so rapid that more 
than once he had been suspected of designs upon the 
Dragon Throne, and more than once he had been 
severely rebuked from the Throne itself. These sus- 
picions were due to his belief in the Barbarian and his 
methods : to an unfaltering faith in the value of foreign 
principles and progress, of foreign policy, and of foreign 
arms. It was natural that so powerful a satrap should 



378 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

have a rival. Li had his in the person of TsOs a 
soldier-statesman like himself, who had seen service 
against the Tai-pings — ^he, indeed, who led the Franco- 
Chinese in 1864, while Gordon was winning his 
supreme victories. These two great intelligences figured 
as the heads of two powerful parties ; Tso was in favour 
of war, Li was in favour of peace. Never perhaps were 
the positions of the two more clearly defined than virhen 
Gordon, on his old colleague's invitation, appeared upon 
the scene. It was thought that the tussle between the 
war party, led by Prince Chun and Tso, and the peace 
party, led by Prince Eung and Li, was not unlikely to 
have a tragic end. For a time it seemed as though the 
war party would get the upper hand; its adherents 
even began to speculate as to what would be the fate of 
Li and the Prince. Li was sending urgent messages 
to the Taotais, bearing the significant ' fire-mark,' with 
a view to ascertaining what support, in the event of 
civil war, he might command, when the Captain of the 
Ever- Victorious Army came to Pekin. When Li-Hung- 
Chang saw his old friend he fell on his neck and kissed 
him. Seventeen years before he had brought peace to 
China ; he brought it once more. He conferred with 
Li — with all the great satraps of the empire ; and he 
turned the scale. 

When Li and the others asked his advice, he gave it in 
a memorandum, the wise and relentless outspokenness 



'THE UNCROWNED KING: 379 

of which had the effect of bringing about the peace he 
was so anxions to maintain. Here it is: a state 
paper of the highest importance, in any case; and 
perhaps, after the campaign of the Ever- Victorious 
Army, the true beginning of the regeneration of 
China : 

* China possesses a long-used military organization, 
a regular military discipline. Leave it intact. It is 
suited to her people. 

* China in her numbers has the advantage over 
other Powers. Her people are inured to hardships. 
Arm with breech-loaders, accustom to the use and care 
of breech-loaders, and no more is needed for her 
infantry. Breech-loaders ought to be bought on some 
system, and the same general system applicable to the 
whole nation. It is not advisable to manufacture 
them ; though means of repair should be established 
at certain centres. 

^ Breech-loading ammunition should be manufactured 
at different centres. Bi:eech-loaders of various patterns 
should not be bought, though no objection could be 
offered to a different breech-loader in, say, four provinces 
from that used in another group of four provinces. 
Any breech-loaders which will carry well up to 1,000 
yards would be su£Gicient. It is not advisable to 
spend money on the superior breech-loaders carrying 
farther. Ten breech-loaders, carrying up to 1,000 



38o THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDON. 

yards, could be bought for the same money as five 
breech-loaders of a superior class, carrying to 1,500 
yards. For the Chinese it would cost more time to 
teach the use of the longer-range rifle than it is worth ; 
and then probably, if called to use it, in confusion the 
scholar would forget his lesson. This is known to be 
the case; therefore buy ordinary breech-loading rifles 
of 1,000 yards range, of simple construction, of solid 
form. Do not go into purchasing a very light, 
delicately made rifle. A Chinese soldier does not mind 
one or two pounds more weight, for he carries no 
knapsack or kit. China's power is in her numbers, in 
the quick moving of her troops, in the little baggage 
they require, in their few wants. It is known that 
men armed with sword and spear can overcome the 
best regular troops; if armed with the best breech - 
loading rifles and well instructed in every way, if the . 
country is at all difficult, and if the men with the 
spears and swords outnumber their foe ten to one. If 
this is the case when men are armed with spears and 
swords, it will be much truer when the same are armed 
with ordinary breech-loaders. 

* China should never engage in pitched battles. Her 
strength is in quick movements, in cutting off the 
trains of baggage, and in night attacks not pushed 
home ; in a continuous worrying of her enemies. 
Bockets should be used instead of cannon. No artillery 



^THE UNCROWNED KING? 381 

Bhonld be moved with the troops. It delays and im- 
pedes them. Infantry fire is the most fatal fire ; gmis 
make a noise far ont of proportion to their valne in war. 
If guns are taken into the field, troops cannot march 
faster than those gnns. The degree of speed at which 
the gnns can be carried along dictates the speed at 
which the troops can march. Therefore very few 
gnns, if any, ought to be taken ; and those few should 
be smooth-bored, large-bore breech-loaders, consisting 
of four parts, to be screwed together when needed for 
use. Chinese accustomed to make forts of earth ought 
to continue this, and study the use of trenches for the 
attack of cities* China should never attack forts. She 
ought to wait and starve her foes out, and worry them 
night and day. China should have a few small-bored 
very long range wall-pieces, rifled and breach-loaders. 
They are light to carry, and if placed a long way oflf 
will be safe from attack. If the enemy comes out to 
take them, the Chinese can run away ; and if the enemy 
takes one or two, it is no loss. Firing them in the 
enemy's camp, a long way oflf, would prevent the 
enemy sleeping ; and if he does not sleep, then he gets 
ill and goes into hospital, and then needs other enemies 
to take care of him, and thus the enemies' numbers are 
reduced. When an enemy comes up and breaks the 
wall of the city, the Chinese soldiers ought not to stay 
and fight the enemy; but to go out and attack the 



38 J THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

trains of baggage in the rear, and worry him on the 
roads he came by. By keeping the Chinese troops 
lightly loaded with baggage, with no guns, they can 
move two to every one li the enemy marches. To-day 
the Chinese will be before him; to-morrow they will 
be behind him ; the next day they will be on his left 
hand ; and so on till the enemy gets tired and cross 
with sucli long walks, and his soldiers quarrel with 
their o£Gicers and get sick. 

* The Chinese should make telegraphs in the country, 
as a rale, to keep the country quiet and free from false 
rumours; but with the Chinese soldiers in the field, 
they should use sun-signals, by the means of the 
heliograph. These are very easy, and can do no harm. 
For this purpose a small school should be established 
in each centre. Chinese ought not to try torpedoes, 
which are very difficult to manage. The most simple 
torpedoes are the best and the cheapest, and their 
utility is in having many of them. China can risk 
sowing them thickly ; for if one of them does go astray 
and sink a Chinese junk, the people of the junk ought 
to be glad to die for their country. If torpedoes are 
only used at certain places, then the enemy knows 
that he has to look out when near these places ; but 
when every place may have torpedoes, he can never 
feel safe ; he is always anxious ; he cannot sleep ; he 
gets ill and dies. The fact of an enemy living in 



' THE UNCROWNED king: 383 

constant dread of being blown up is mnch more ad- 
vantageous to China than if she blew up one of her 
enemies, for anxiety makes people ill and cross. 
Therefore China ought to have cheap simple torpedoes, 
which cannot get out of order, which are fired by a 
fuze, not by electricity, and plenty of them. She 
ought not to buy expensive complicated torpedoes. 

' China should buy no more big guns to defend her 
sea-coast. They cost money. They are a great deal of 
trouble to keep in order, and the enemy's ships have 
too thick sides for any gun China can buy to penetrate 
them. China ought to defend her sea- coast by very 
heavy mortars. They cost very little ; they are easy 
to use ; they only want a thick parapet in front, and 
they are fired from a place the enemy cannot see ; 
whereas the enemy can see the holes from which guns 
are fired. The enemy cannot get safe from a mortar- 
shot ; it falls on the deck, and there it breaks every- 
thing. China can get 500 mortars for the same money 
she gets an 18-ton gun for. If China loses them, the 
loss is little. No enemy could get into a port which 
is defended by 15,000 large mortars and plenty of 
torpedoes, which must be very simple. Steam- 
launches, with torpedoes on a pole, furnish the best 
form of movable torpedo. For the Chinese fleet, 
small quick vessels, with very light draught of water, 
and not any great weight of armour, are best. If 



384 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

China bays big vessels they cost a great deal, and all 
her eggs are in one basket — namely, she loses all her 
money at once. For the money of one large vessel 
China would get twelve small vessels. China's strength 
is in the creeks, not in the open seas. 

' Nothing recommended in this paper needs any change 
in Chinese cnstoms. The army is the same, and China 
needs no Europeans or foreigners to help her to cany 
out this programme. If China cannot carry oat what 
is here reconmiended, then no one else can do so. 
Besides, the programme is a cheap one. 

' With respect to the fleet, it is impossible to consider 
that in the employment of foreigners China can ever be 
sure of them in case of war with the country they belong 
to; while, on the other hand, if China asks a foreign Power 
to lend her officers, then that foreign Power who lends 
them will interfere with her. The question is : (1) Is it 
better for China to get officers here and there, and run 
the risk of their officers not being trustworthy ? or (2), 
Is it better for China to think what nation there is 
who would be likely to be good friends with China in 
good weather and in bad weather ; and then for China 
to ask that nation to lend China the officers she wants 
for her fleet ? I think No. 2 is the best and safest for 

China. 

' Remember, with this programme China wants no big 
officer from foreign Powers ; I say big officer^ because I 



• THE UNCROWNED KING: '385 

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. Besides, I am not 

wanted. China can do what I recommend herself. If 

she cannot, I could do no good.' 

This manifesto excited a storm of comment both at 

home and abroad. The native journals, into which it 

was instantly translated, were almost unanimous in 

recommending their Government to lose no time in 

putting its precepts into practice, the more so as they 

emanated from the man who, in saving China in the 
field, had learned exactly how best she might save 

herself. Li needed no promptings ; he was too large- 
minded and vigorous a statesman to waste such precious 
counsels. They were followed to the letter. The armies 
of China are of Gordon's making ; and in wars yet to 
be the spirit of her Ever Victorious General will still 
be her guidance. 



25 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE FIRST FAILUBE. 



He returned to London in the winter of I88I9 to find 
himself the object of more attention than ever before. 
The papers gave him a hearty welcome, and many 
were the speculations as to what he would do next. 
His own wish was to leave for Syria, and there take 
the rest he so much needed ; but the plan, dear as it 
was to him, was soon abandoned. He visited Ireland, 
and gave his whole mind to her troubles. A friend to 
whom he addressed his views, published them. They 
were daring, they were new, they were thorough ; but 
they were not such views as the majority could approve, 
and they met with some adverse criticism and a little 
ridicule. Gordon cared as much for the one as the 
other. He took a deep interest in the question of 
the evacuation of Candahar, and his opinions, though 
all could not agree with them, had doubtless no 
little influence in deciciing the course that was 
pursued. 



THE FIRST FAILURE. 387 

The fact is, he may be said to have avoided the 
repose he talked abont so mnch ; for, besides taking an 
active interest in all the questions of the hour, he paid 
a visit to the King of the Belgians to discuss an Inter- 
national Expedition to the Congo, which His Majesty 
wished him to lead. In short, a brief stay on the 
Lake of Lausanne was the only holiday he gave him- 
self ; for, in May, he had abandoned all idea of going 
to Syria, and was making preparations for a journey to 
Mauritius, whither he had been ordered as Commanding 
Boyal Engineer. The announcement gave great satis- 
faction to many of his admirers; it was felt that, 
although the position was not a prominent one, it was, 
at any rate, one in which he would serve his own 
country, and be at the disposal of the authorities, 
should any necessity arise for calling upon him to 
undertake more important duties. 

At this time, the news of the death of his lieutenant, 
Bomulus Gessi, reached England. It was a blow to 
him for he knew that with the life of his fellow- worker 
ended all the good he had achieved in the Soudan, — 
good which, in his master's absence, Gessi had striven 
to perpetuate, and to the trials of which he had suc- 
cumbed. ' He died on the evening of the 30th April 
in the French hospital at Suez, after protracted suffer- 
ings caused by the terrible privations in the months 
of November and December last, when he was shut 

25—2 



388 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDOJSr. 

in by an impassable barrier of weed in the Balir Gazelle 
Eiver/ That was his epitaph in the press. Gordon, 
on his way to Mauritins, stopped at Suez, and visited 
the grave of his follower. The period of his sojourn 
in Mauritius — some ten months — ^was not eventful; 
it was, however, a happy and a peaceful time* He 
became deeply interested in the Seychelles ; he 
made some curious researches 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 he was made a 
Major-General, and, on April 4th, 1882, he left 
Mauritius for the Gape. The Government had asked 
his services, and he was free to give them. 

Subsequent events have made the precise wording 
of the telegrams which led to his departure impor- 
tant. The first, dated February 23rd, 1882, from 
Sir Hercules Bobinson to the Earl of Kimberley, 
runs as follows : 

^Ministers request me to inquire whether her 
Majesty's Government would permit them to obtain 
the services of Colonel Gordon, E.E., C.B. Ministers 
desire to invite Colonel Gordon to come to this country 
for the purpose of consultation as to the best measures 
to be adopted with reference to Basutoland in the event 
of Parliament sanctioning their proposals as to that 
territory, and to engage his services, should he be 
prepared to renew the oflfer made to their predecessors, 



THE FIRST FAILURE. 389 

in April, 1881, to assist in terminating the war and 
administering Basatoland.' 

The second, from the Premier, Gape, to Colonel 
Gordon, March 3rd, 1882, runs thus: 

^ Position of matters in Basutoland grave, and of 
utmost importance that Colony secure services of some 
one of proved ability, firmness and energy. Govern- 
ment therefore resolved asking whether you are disposed 
to renew offer which they learn you made, last April, 
to former Ministry. They do not expect you to be 
bound by salary then stated. Should you agree to 
place services at disposal 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 
at once you would confer signal favour upon Colony, 
leaving your future action unpledged. To prepare the 
way, application was made to Lord Eamberley, with 
view to ascertain if Government had objection to your 
entering this Government's service. From reply re- 
ceived, I learn that War Office gives consent. 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.' 

The offer to which these telegrams refer was made 
by Gordon to the Premier of the Cape Government, on 
April 7th, 1881, and it was this: 

* Chinese Gordon offers his services for two years at 
J£700 a year to assist in terminating war and adminis- 
tering Basutoland.' 



390 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

Thus it was evident that the object with which 
Gordon was invited to place his services at the disposal 
of the Cape Government was twofold: he was *to 
asmt in terminating the war and in administrating Basuto- 
land.' I am disposed to lay some stress on this because 
in the previous year the Depnty-Adjutant-General, B.E., 
War Office, London, had telegraphed to Gordon at 
Lansanne, that the Cape Government offered him the 
command of the Colonial forces^ with a proposed salary 
of £1,600 a year, which offer he had declined. 
Tet when he arrived at the Cape, after a miserable 
month's voyage in a sailing vessel, the only post 
offered him was that of Commandant-General of the 
Colonial Forces. Sir Hercules Eobinson, Merriman, 
and the Premier all said that they wanted him to take 
charge of the Basuto question, but that they did not 
like, to remove Orpen — in whom they had no con- 
fidence — as his removal would be unpopular. Thus, 
on May 18th, 1882, we find Gordon installed in the 
very appointment he had declined to accept two 
years before, and in no way officially concerned in 
the administration of Basutoland, which was probably 
his chief motive in accepting the invitation of the 
Colonial Government. It was altogther a bad begin- 
ning. Certainly it was strange behaviour on the part 
of the Government ; they had distinctly led Gordon to 
believe that they needed his services not as com- 



THE FIRST FAIL URE. 39 1 

mander of their forces, bnt solely as adviser and 
administrator. But as the post he took was stated 
to be merely temporary, he doubtless believed that the 
Government intended later on to employ him officially 
as at first proposed. On May 21st then, he addressed 
a memorandum to the Ministers and the Governor. It 
stated that in his opinion the primary mistake was 
that, in transferring Basutoland from the Imperial 
Government to that of the Cape, the Basutos them- 
selves had never been consulted ; and it suggested that 
to correct this mistake the Basutos should be called 
together and encouraged to discuss the terms of their 
agreement with the Colonial Governor. It stated, 
moreover, that he, the author, did not believe that 
there was any real antagonism between Letsea and 
Masupha : that Letsea only pretended to oppose 
Masupha and side with the Colony, and that all the 
while he was inspiriting his supposed enemy to so 
behave towards the Government as to keep them in 
perpetual hot water. No answer was returned to this 
memorandum. 

On the 29th of May Gordon proceeded to King 
William's Town and drew up the report on the 
Colonial forces, which the Premier had requested him 
to make. It was both able and exhaustive. Gordon 
suggested many changes, and showed that the Colony 
could save Jg 7,000 a year, and yet maintain an army 



392 THE STORy Or CHINESE GORDOIT. 

8,000 strong, instead of 1,600 as it then was. 
This, of course, meant economy in new directions; 
Gordon had begnn with himself, and had accepted only 
two-thirds of the salary offered him, saying that the 
Colony conld not afford to pay more. The report 
and his suggestions were laid before the Cape Parlia- 
ment ; but, like the memorandum which had preceded 
them, they were left xmnoticed. 

On the 4th of June, the Premier requested the General 
to go up country and report on the trekking of the 
Boers into native territory, and on the condition of 
the native holdings in the Transkei. This Gordon at 
once proceeded to do. He sent in a third memorandum, 
to the effect that the natives were goaded into rebellion 
by the badness and inefficiency of the magistracy. Here- 
upon the Government asked him to suggest remedies, and 
to embody his suggestions in a series of regulations. 
He did so; and, as twice before, no notice whatever 
was taken of his work. 

By this time, he had been in the Colony some ten 
weeks only. During this short period, however, he 
had made himself master, not only of the condition 
of the forces under his command, but also to a very 
great extent of the facts and circumstances which 
were the source of all the native troubles* As 
will be seen from what I have already stated (of 
the accuracy of which I have complete evidence) 



THE FIRST FAILURE. 393 

Gordon, during these ten weeks, was nsed by the 
Goyemment rather as an adviser than as a com- 
mander-in-chief-as an adviser who wotdd presently 
become an administrator as well, in the event of his 
'views being suited to those of the Ministers. Pre- 
sumably they were not. His advice was not regarded, 
his recommendations fell on idle or indifferent ears. 

This action on the part of the Government is note- 
worthy; it quite justified Gordon in the course he 
adopted a little later on, when the Ministry requested 
him to go to Basutoland. This was on the 18th of July; 
and he replied by a memorandum enclosing a copy of a 
proposed convention, by which the Basutos would have 
semi-independence under a Eesident, and stating that 
it was impossible for the Government to revert to 
the condition of things that existed before the war. 
Of course he waited vainly for an answer. This time, 
however, he sent a private note to the Premier, 
saying that it was quite useless for him to go up to 
Basutoland, unless the Government were prepared to 
acknowledge his presence and take account of his 
proposals. This, of course, was tantamount to saying, 
^ Tou invite me to your Colony as adviser and ad- 
ministrator ; when I come you give me a post I had 
already refused, employ me in an amateur way in the 
other two capacities, and take no notice of the results of 
my work. This being the case, please leave me to my 



394 T^^ STORY OF CHINESE GOEDONl 

official dnties as Commander-in-Chief, and send me on 
no more bootless errands/ The Premier seems to have 
nnderstoody as, for some time, Goi^don was left in 
peace. He heard nothing more from the Government 
abont the jonmey into Basntoland, thongh he offered 
to resign his office of Commandant-General, and to be 
Besident with Masapha for two years at no more than 
JE300 a year. He believed, he said, that in that 
time he could gain the old chiefs confidence, and 
restore order to the country. No doubt he was 
right ; but he was no longer his own master, and the 
heroic work of the Soudan was impossible in the 
superior civilization of the Cape. 

In August, however, the Secretary for Native 
Affairs came to King William's Town, and after 
talking things over with Gordon, requested him to 
accompany him into Basutoland, whither he was going 
to see Mr. Orpen, the Ministerial representative. 
Gordon explained that, as he was averse from Orpen's 
policy, and as the Government had taken no notice 
of the convention he had suggested, he could be of 
no possible use ; in other words, he told Mr. Saner, 
viva voccj what he had already told the Premier by 
letter. Saner, however, said that < he was free of all 
engagements,' and urged the General to come with 
him. Gordon reluctantly gave way. In September 
he reached Basutoland, and had a personal interview 



THE FIRST FAILURE. 395 

with Letsea — ^the chief, it will be remembered, who was 
feigning friendliness to the Government, and anta- 
gonism to the action taken by Masupha. After this 
interview Gordon was more than ever convinced that no 
moAm Vivendi could be arrived at except on such terms 
as those embodied in his proposed convention; and 
when he went to Leribe with Mr. Sauer, he presented 
that gentleman with a memorandum in which he laid 
down the utter futility of trying to settle matters by 
getting one set of Basutos to coerce another. This 
was Orpen's policy, and it had at least the tacit consent 
of the existing Government. Mr. Sauer, having con- 
sidered the memorandum, asked the writer if he would 
go, as a private individualy to Masupha, and see what he 
could do. He made this request, knowing the General's 
views, and knowing also that Gordon would lead no 
force against the Basuto chief unless an improvement 
were made in the magistracy — that is, unless bad 
magistrates were replaced by good ones, and bad 
legislation abolished altogether. In a word, he knew 
perfectly well that Gordon sympathized with Masupha, 
as one more sinned against than sinning. All the 
same he persuaded the General to undertake this 
adventure, but gave him neither instructions nor cre- 
dentials, and left him to act as he might think fit. 

Gordon went, and went unarmed. How he ever 
got back, has been matter of astonishment to not a 



396 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON: 

few; for while he was negotiating with Masupha as 
a messenger of peace, Sauer, probably at Orpen's per- 
snasion, got Letsea to send his son Lethrodi to attack 
Masupha. The Ministerial tactics consisted in allow- 
ing their representatives to settle the Basuto diflBculty 
^y ^ggiDg on the chiefis to eat each other up. Of this 
Masupha was well aware: he had in his camp an 
emissary of peace, assuming a certain influence with 
the Cape Government, or at all events sent by a Cape 
Minister; while outside his camp he had a warlike 
demonstration organized and set afoot by the same 
Government and the same Minister. Gordon's power 
of inspiring savages with confidence in his complete 
uprightness, was probably what saved his life at this 
desperate pass, as at so many others in so many lands. 
Masupha, seeing his guest to be no less mortified and 
astounded than himself, allowed him to depart as he 
had come. 

He departed next day, and his first act on reaching 
Aliwal North was to send this telegram (Sept. 26th, 
1882) to the Under-Colonial Secretary at Cape 
Town : ^ As I am in a false position up here, and am 
likely to do more harm than good, I propose leaving 
for the Colony, and when I have finished some Beports, 
I will come down to Cape Town, when I trust Gt)vem- 
ment will accept my resignation.' Four days after 
(September 30th) he received this reply : • The 



THE FIRST FAILURE. 397 

Honourable the Premier has no objection to your 
coming to Cape Town as proposed/ Next day he 
sent another telegram to the Under-Colonial Secre- 
tary: he remembered that at Fort Elizabeth he had 
agreed to serve the Government until Parliament met, 
and he felt bound to abide by his promise ; he there- 
fore telegraphed that, if it was desired, he would keep 
to his agreement. But the Premier relieved him of 
his promise in a telegram dated October 5th: 'The 
answer to your telegram, proposing to come to 
Cape Town, and expressing a wish that Government 
would accept your resignation, and to subsequent 
messages intimating that when you telegraphed it had 
escaped your memory that you had stated your willing- 
ness to remain till 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 intima- 
tion that you would not fight the Basutos, and consider- 
ing the tenour of your communication with Masupha, I 
regret to record my conviction that your continuance in 
the position you occupy would not be conducive to 
public interest/ 

Gordon replied that he was much obliged, and that 
it would be scarcely necessary for him to come to Cape 
Town. He added : ' Did I do so, it would be on the 
understanding that I was free. Government were not 



398 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

ignorant of my antagonism to Mr. Orpen's policy, yet 
they wished me to go np with Mr. Sauer; therefore 
the sequel was to be expected/ To this the Premier 
replied that it was not necessary for the General to 
retnm to Gape Town, and that he did not doubt that 
the General's proposals to Masupha were good, con- 
sidering the circumstances under which they were 
made, but that they were such as Government could 
not adopt, nor Parliament sanction. 

And thus it came to pass, that a little more than 
five months after his arrival in South Africa^ Gordon 
severed his connection with the only country which 
had proved unable to appreciate the value and use of 
the genius he placed at its disposal. 



CHAPTER XVni. 



THE HOLY LAND. 



At last Gordon could be at rest ; at last he could depart 
for Mount Oarmel and be alone. Those in authority at 
the Cape had done thus much for him, if no more. 

* My present idea/ he wrote, in the thick of his 
toils of 1876, * is to lie in bed till eleven every 
day ; in the afternoon to walk not farther than the 
docks ; and not to undertake those terrible railway- 
journeys, or to get exposed to the questionings of people 
and their inevitable dinners — ^in fact, to get into a 
dormant state, and stay there till I am obliged to work. 
I warU oysters for lunch.' This is a humorous para- 
phrase of an ideal, hopeless then and for long years 
after unattainable. No such time of rest had come for 
him till now. He had been to India on a bootless 
errand. He had gone to China — the ancient Empire 
to which he had brought new life and light — and saved 
her from war — perhaps defeat. He had served in 
Mauritius. He had laboured at the Cape, and perilled 



400 THE STOR Y OF CHINESE GORDOIT. 

his life for a crew of time-servers. Now^ at last, he 
was his own master. He returned to London, and set 
oat on a new pilgrimage to the East. He settled out- 
side Jemsalem. There he lives on bread and fruits 
(tobacco he reserves for great occasions : Soochow and 
Dara, for instance) and gives the bulk of his pay to 
those who hmiger and are in need. Bat after sach a 
life of action, rest is impossible. How coald it be other- 
wise for him who holds sach views of the life beyond as 
these ? ^ The fatare world mast be mach more amusing, 
more enticing, more to be desired than this world — 
putting aside its absence of sorrow and sin. The 
future world has been somehow painted to our mind as 
a place of continuous praise ; and, though we may not 
Bay it, yet one cannot help feeling that, if thus, it 
would prove monotonous. It cannot be thus. It 
must be a life of activity ; for happiness is dependent 
on activity. Death is cessation of movement ; life is 
all movement.' 

Still, there are no terrible railway-journeys; there 
are no questionings — save those of stray interviewers ; 
above all, there are no inevitable dinners ; and he is 
happy. With an interest as keen as ever, he watches 
the world's affairs. But most of his time 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 tbe walls of Jerusalem. Some of 



THE HOL Y LAND. 4ot 

his theories are cnrions and surprising; they pnzzle 
those who have made the exploration of Palestine their 
life-study; they perplex, they irritate, they confonnd, 
and they end by almost persuading. 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. 
Bat he is no mere iconoclast ; he works as one seeing 
sermons in stones and good in everything — ^with the faith 
of a Christian bat the eye and brain of an engineer. 
The Bible is his gaide ; and he ' does not care for sites 
if he has a map/ ' In reality/ he says, * no man, in 
writing on these sites, ought to draw on his imagination; 
he ought to keep to the simple facts, and not prophesy 
or fill up gaps/ For his own part, he does no more 
than aim at proving the correctness of his ideas 
by elaborate diagrams and figures. But these are not 
his sole occupations. * I have gone in for the stars in 
these splendid nights,' he says, ^ and know them pretty 
fairly/ And his greatest interest of all, and his latest, is 
the proposed Jordan Canal ; and the thoroughness with 
which he has gone into all the details of this enormous 
scheme is complete and unassailable. 

How long Gordon will be permitted to pursue his 
present life it would be difficult to say. The long- 
drawn negotiations between France and China have 
caused many to wonder if his work in the Middle 
Kingdom is finished after all. Meanwhile, his opinion 

26 



402 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

on the probable issue of war has been asked and given 
with his usual candour. And now that we ourselves 
are face to feice with new difficulties in Egypt and 
the Soudan, there are thousands who feel and say 
that, if we were wise, to him only should we look 
for deliverance. ' Where is Chinese Gordon ?' asked 
a writer but the other day. *At a moment like the 
present, when the Government need advice from all 
experts, General Gordon might give valuable aid in the 
counsels of the Cabinet. The British Government 
might do worse than give him carU blanche to act in the 
present crisis.' 

There are many who cannot understand how Gordon, 
despite the obstacles in his way, has consistently 
maintained his unlikeness to the majority of men. It 
is because his spirit has ever refused to mould itself to 
the world. His is the high humanity that says, * the 
procuring and boiling of potatoes is as much to a poor 
woman as the re-organizing of the army is to Cardwell ;' 
his is the hope that says, ^ ninety-nine men out of a 
hundred may be worthless, but we should go on and 
find the hundredth ;' his is the tolerance that says, ' The 
Mussulman worships God as well as I do, and is as 
acceptable, if sincere, as any Christian.' It is because 
his hope in all things and his faith in God have never 
faltered, that his strength has never failed. 

' No man ever had a harder task than I, unaided, have 



THE HOL Y LAND. 40s 

before me ; bnt it sits as a feather on me/ he said, in 
the midst of his great campaign in the Soudan. ' As 
Solomon asked, I ask wisdom to govern this great 
people ; and not only will He give me it, but all else 
besides. And why ? Because I value not the '^ all 
besides/' I am quite as averse to slavery, and even 
more so than most people. I show it by sacrificing 
myself in these lands, which are no Paradise. I have 
naught to gain in name or riches. I do not care what 
man may say. I do what I think is pleasing to my 
God; and, as far as man goes, I need nothing from 
anyone. The Ehedive never had directly gained any 
revenue from slaves. I now hold this place here ; and 
I, who am on the spot with unlimited power, am able 
to judge how impotent he, at Cairo, is to stop the slave- 
trade. I can do it with God's help, and I have the 
conviction He has destined me to do it; for it was 
much against my will I came here. What I have to 
do is so to settle matters that I do not cause a revolu- 
tion on my own death — ^not that I value life. I have 
done with its comforts in coming here. My work is 
great, but does not weigh me down. I go on as 
straight as I can. I feel my own weakness, and look 
to Him who is almighty ; and I leave the issue without 
inordinate care to Him. I expect 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, viz. : I / 



404 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

trast God will pnll me ihrongh every difficulty. The 
solitary grandeur of the desert makes one feel how vain 
is the effort of man. This carries me throngh my 
troubles, and enables me to look on death as a coming 
relief, when it is His will. ... It is only my firm 
conviction that I am only an instrument put in use 
for a time that enables me to bear up; and in my 
present state, during my long, hot, we'iry rides, I think 
my thoughts better and clearer than I should with a 
companion/ 

It will be seen that his fatalism is not a belief in 
unchangeable destiny, independent of a controlling 
Cause ; but a deep faith in a controlling Cause which 
guides the erring and props the weak. Here are 
some of the maxims which he has made himself, and 
by which his spiritual life is governed: 'It is a 
delightful thing to be a fatalist, not as that word is 
generally employed, but to accept that, when things 
happen and not before, God has for some wise reason 
so ordained them to happen — all things, not only the 
great things, but all the circumstances of life ; that is 
what is meant to me by the words " you are dead," in 
St. Paul to Colossians.' Again: *We have nothing 
further to do when the scroll of events is unrolled 
than to accept them as being for the best. Before it 
is unrolled it is another matter ; and you could not say 
I sat still and let things happen with this belief. All 



THE HOLY LAND. 405 

I can say is, that amidst troubles and worries no one 
can have peace till he thus stays upon his God ; it gives 
a man a superhuman strength/ And elsewhere : ^ If 
we could take all things as ordained and for the 
best, we should indeed be conquerors of the world. 
Nothing has ever happened to man so bad as he has 
anticipated it to be. If we would be quiet under our 
troubles they would not be so painful to bear. I 
. cannot separate the existence of a God from His pre- 
ordination and direction of all things good and evil; 
the latter He permits, but still controls.' And for a 
glimpse of his out-look on life as it is: ^ There 
would be no one so unwelcome to come and reside 
in the world as Christ while the world is in the 
state it now is. He would be dead against, say, 
nearly all of our pursuits, and be altogether (MrL 
I gave you Watson on Contentment; it is this true 
exposition of how happiness is to be obtained — i.e.^ 
submission to the will of God, whatever that will 
may be ; he who can say he realizes this, has overcome 
the world and its trials. Everything that happens 
to-day, good or evil, is settled and fixed, and it is no 
use fretting over it. The quiet peaceful life of our 
Lord was solely due to His submission to God's will^ 
There will be times when a strain will come on one ; 
and as the strain, so will your strength be.' What to 
a spirit thus tempered are the kingdoms of this world ? 



4o6 THE STORY OF CHINESE GORDON. 

As far as may be the story of Chinese Gordon is 
told. It has proved him a tme soldier, a tme states- 
man : a soldier whose aim in war is never the gains 
of victory, but the riches of peace, whose aim in peace 
is never loud-voiced glory, but silent self-denial ; a 
statesman without fear and without reproach, whose 
statesmanship is founded on fearless justice and truth ; 
in one word, a hero, who counts no conquest greater 
than the conquest of self. ^ Search myself as I will, 
I find that in all my career I can lay no claim to 
cleverness, discretion, or wisdom. My success has 
been due to a series of (called by the world) flukes. 
My sense of independence is gone. I own nothing, 
and am nothing. I am a pauper, and seem to have 
ceased to exist. A sack of rice jolting alpng on a 
camel would do as much as J thmk I do. But how 
different it is in appearance to the world 1' To this 
victorious humility the glories of battle, the triumphs 
of ambition, the great honours of life, are prizes not 
worth the winning. 

A story as of the Temptation in the Wilderness 
might be told of the moral campaign he has waged 
upon such of the world's worst citizens — rebels from 
the Throne, outcasts of the Word — as have sought to 
lure him from his chosen way. For never, perhaps, 
was one loathing corruption cast more among the 
corrupt ; never, perhaps, was one working for good