"That great man and gallant soldier and true Christian, Charles
Gordon."--THE PRINCE OF WALES.
Charles George Gordon was born at Woolwich on the 28th of January,
1833.
In early life he was delicate, and of all professions that of a
soldier seemed least suitable for him. At school he made no mark in
learning.
He was a fearless lad, with a strong will of his own. When he was only
nine years old, and was yet unable to swim, he would throw himself
into deep water, trusting to some older boy to get him out. He was
threatened on one occasion that he should not go on a pleasure
excursion because of some offence he had committed; and when
afterwards he was given permission he stubbornly refused the
treat--circus though it was, dear to the heart of a lad.
After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich he
obtained in 1852 a commission as a Second Lieutenant of Engineers, and
was sent out to the Crimea in December, 1854, with instructions to put
up wooden huts for our soldiers, who were dying from cold in that icy
land.
On his way he wrote from Marseilles to his mother; and, after telling
her of the sights and scenes he has witnessed, mentions that he will
leave Marseilles "D.V. on Monday for Constantinople".
Whilst in the Crimea he worked in the trenches twenty hours at a
stretch times without number.
Once when he was leading a party at night he was fired at by his own
sentries. On another occasion he was wounded in the forehead, and
continued his work without showing any concern. He found it dull when
no fighting was going on, but when there were bullets flying then it
was exciting enough.
He was mentioned in the official despatches, and received from the
French Government the Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Five years later Gordon was fighting with the English and French
armies in China. Shortly after he was made commander of a force that
was commissioned by the Emperor of China to put down a rebellion
of the Taipings, of so dangerous a character that it threatened to
overturn the monarchy.
Gordon had only about 3000 men, chiefly Chinese; and, notwithstanding
the fact that when he took over the force it had just been demoralised
by defeat, he soon proved himself more than a match for the rebel
hordes. From one victory to another he led his men on, and cities fell
in quick succession before him. His name ere long began to have the
weight of an army in the mind of the rebels. Major Gordon, in fact,
had made a great mark in the Chinese Empire.
On the 30th April Gordon was before the city of Taitsan, where three
months before the same army which was now under his command had been
defeated.
Three times his men rushed into the breach which the big guns had
made. Twice they were hurled back; but for a third time Gordon urged
them on, and their confidence in his leadership was such that they
went readily; and this time, after a swift, sharp conflict, the city
was won.
Europeans were fighting both with him and with the rebels. In the
breach at Taitsan he came across two of the men he formerly had under
his command. One was shot during the assault; the other cried out,
"Mr. Gordon! Mr. Gordon! you will not let me be killed". "Take
him down to the river and shoot him," said Gordon aloud. Aside he
whispered, "Put him in my boat, let the doctor attend him, and send
him down to Shanghai". He was stern and resolute enough where it was
necessary, but underneath all was a heart full of love and pity.
During this war the only weapon Gordon carried was a cane; and men
grew to regard this stick as a kind of magic wand, and Gordon as a man
whom nothing could harm.
On one occasion when he was wounded he refused to retire till he was
forcibly carried off the field by the doctor's orders.
After he had put an end to the rebellion the Emperor of China wanted
to give him a large sum of money; but Gordon, whose only object in
fighting was to benefit the people, refused it, and left China as poor
as he had entered it. He had various distinctions conferred upon him
by the emperor, and the English people gave him the title of "Chinese
Gordon".
A gold medal was presented to him by the emperor. Gordon, obliterating
the inscription, sent it anonymously to the Coventry relief fund. Of
this incident he wrote at a later period: "Never shall I forget what
I got when I scored out the inscription on the gold medal. How I have
been repaid a millionfold! There is now not one thing I value in
the world. Its honours, they are false; its knicknacks, they are
perishable and useless; whilst I live I value God's blessing--health;
and if you have that, as far as this world goes, you are rich."
He returned to England and settled down at Gravesend, living quite
simply, and working in his spare moments amongst the poor. To the boys
he was a hero indeed. That was but natural, seeing he not only taught
them to read and write, and tried to get them situations, but treated
them as his friends.
In his sitting-room was a map of the world, with pins stuck in it
marking the probable positions of the ships in which his "kings" (as
he called his boys) were to be found in various parts of the world.
Thus, as they moved from place to place, he followed them in his
thoughts, and was able to point out their whereabouts to inquiring
friends.
It is no wonder then that the urchins scrawled upon the walls of the
town, "C.G. is a jolly good feller". "God bless the Kernel."
He visited the hospitals and workhouses, and all the money he received
he expended on the poor; for he believed that having given his heart
to God he had no right to keep anything for himself. He comforted the
sick and dying, he taught in the Ragged and Sunday Schools. He lived
on the plainest food himself, thus "enduring hardness". He even gave
up his garden, turning it into a kind of allotment for the needy.
He had one object in life--to do good. His views were utterly
unworldly and opposed to those generally held, but they were in the
main right.
In 1874 Gordon went to Egypt, and at the request of the Khedive
undertook the position of Governor-General of the Soudan, in the hope
of being able to put down the slave trade.
He was beset with difficulties, and "worn to a shadow" by incessant
work and ceaseless anxiety; but he would not give up.
In all his trials he felt the presence of God. As he watched his men
hauling the boats up the rapids he "_prayed them up_ as he used to do
the troops when they wavered in the breaches in China".
Once his men failed in their attack on an offending tribe; and,
believing they had been misled by the Sheik, wanted to punish him;
but Gordon saw the other side of the man's character--"He was a brave
patriotic man," he said; "and I shall let him go".
Here was his hope. "With terrific exertion," he writes, "in two
or three years' time I may with God's administration make a good
province--with a good army and a fair revenue and peace, and an
increased trade,--also have suppressed slave raids." He felt it was a
weary work before him, for he adds: "Then I will come home and go to
bed, and never get up till noon every day, and never walk more than a
mile". No wonder he was worn and tired, for he moved about the Soudan
like a whirlwind. He travelled on camelback thousands of miles. In
four months' time he had put down a dangerous rebellion that would
have taken the Egyptians as many years--if, indeed, they could ever
have done it at all.
This is the kind of way in which he won his victories. On one occasion
with a few troops he arrived at a place called Dara. That great slave
trader Suleiman, who had given Sir Samuel Baker so much trouble, was
there at the head of 6000 men. Gordon rode into the place nearly
alone, and told the commander to come and talk with him. Utterly
taken aback the man did as he was requested, and afterwards promised
obedience.
It is true he did not keep his promise; but after fighting several
battles Suleiman was at length taken prisoner by Gordon's lieutenant;
and so many were the crimes and cruelties that he had committed that
he was condemned to death, and thus the slaves of Africa became rid of
one of their worst oppressors.
[ILLUSTRATION: GORDON STATUE IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.]
The work begun by Baker was continued with great success by Gordon. He
estimated that in nine months he liberated 2000 slaves. The suffering
these poor creatures had gone through was appalling. Some of them when
set free had been four or five days without water in the terrible heat
of that hot country. Every caravan route showed signs of the horrible
trade, by the bones of those who had fallen and died from exhaustion,
unable to keep their ranks in the gang.
So great was the effect which the thought and sight of these
sufferings produced on Gordon that he wrote in March, 1879: "I declare
if I could stop this traffic I would willingly be shot this night".
Later on he was to give his life for these people; but the hour was
not yet.
When Gordon was in Abyssinia King John took him prisoner. Brought
before his Majesty, Gordon fairly took away the breath of the monarch
by going up to him, placing his own chair beside the king's, and
telling him that he would only talk to him as an equal.
"Do you know, Gordon Pasha," said the king, "that I could kill you on
the spot if I liked?"
"I am perfectly aware of it," replied Gordon calmly; "so do it, if it
is your royal pleasure."
"What! ready to be killed?" asked the king incredulously.
"Certainly. I am always ready to die," answered the pasha; "and so far
from fearing your putting me to death you would confer a favour on me
by so doing."
Upon this his Majesty gave up the idea of frightening him.
At the end of 1879 Gordon was free from the Soudan for the second
time. In 1876 he had left it, as he thought, for good; but, as it
turned out, it was only for a few weeks' holiday in England, and then
back to quell the rebellion.
Even now it was destined that he should soon return once again and
finally. But during the breathing time that now came to him, so far
from leading an easy life or "never getting up till noon," he was in
all parts of the world, from China to the Cape, from Ireland to India,
still on the old mission of endeavouring to do a little good wherever
he was.
Leopold II., King of the Belgians, who had a profound regard for
Gordon, greatly desired that he should go out to the Congo; and in
January, 1884, he was just preparing to start in his Majesty's service
when on the 17th of that month a telegram from Lord Wolseley arrived,
asking him to return to England.
At six o'clock next morning he was in London; and the same day, having
received instructions from the Government, he was on his way for the
last time to Khartoum.
The Egyptian garrisons of the Soudan towns were sore beset by the
legions which were gathering beneath the banners of the Mahdi, who,
flushed with victory, was threatening an eruption into Lower Egypt
itself.
To extricate these garrisons without bloodshed if possible was
Gordon's object. It was a forlorn hope; still if any one man could
accomplish it Charles Gordon was that man.
But ere long it was found even beyond his powers; for after sending
off a portion of the Khartoum population in safety down the river, the
Mahdi's legions closed in upon him, and Khartoum was in a state of
siege.
For nearly a year he held the city against all the forces of the
enemy; and meantime Great Britain was stirred with a vehement desire
to save the life of this devoted man.
In the autumn of 1884 a force under the command of Lord Wolseley was
sent out to relieve Khartoum.
Whilst the British troops were slowly forcing their way up the river
and across the desert, Khartoum was enduring a death agony.
By January, 1885, the city had been reduced to starvation. Donkeys,
dogs, rats, everything indeed in the way of flesh, had been consumed;
even boot leather, the straps of native bedsteads, and mimosa gum did
not come amiss to the sorely-tried garrison.
Famine had produced lack of discipline on the part of some of the
troops; and Gordon foresaw well what the end must be, though without a
fear for himself.
You can read for yourself from the reproduction of the last page of
his diary, written on the 14th December, 1884, his own estimate of the
length of time he could hold out; and, though he managed to keep back
the enemy for another month, yet on the 26th January, 1885, whilst yet
Sir Charles Wilson and the British troops were fighting their way up
the river Nile to his relief, Khartoum fell.
In the early dawn of that day the Mahdi assaulted the town in
overwhelming force--whether helped by treachery is not exactly known;
and before his well-fed, well-trained hosts, the feeble worn-out
garrison gave way, the walls were scaled, the city taken, and the hero
who had won the affection of many nations fell amidst the people he
had come to save.
[ILLUSTRATION: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE LAST PAGE OF GORDON'S DIARY AT
KHARTOUM.]
It was on the whole a happy and fitting end. The mind cannot conceive
Gordon rusting out; and the man lived so much in the presence of God
that death was a welcome visitor.
"Like Lawrence," he wrote, "I have tried to do my duty"; and England
confessed that right nobly he had done it.
Let those who wish to testify their love and veneration for this great
man remember the Gordon Home for Boys at Chobham, which was founded to
perpetuate his name. It is situated in the midst of Surrey; and here
are to be found over two hundred boys rescued from the streets of our
great cities.
The bracing life they lead in their country home soon brings the
colour to their cheeks, and the training they receive fits them for
becoming useful citizens and valuable servants of the State. Most of
them join the army, and the Gordon boys are now to be found serving
the Queen in every land.
"VALIANT AND TRUE."