One of the most important questions which Gordon had to take up on his
appointment was the state of the political relations between Egypt and
Abyssinia, which had been in an unsatisfactory condition for some years.
The dispute centred round the district of Bogos, lying not far inland
from Massawa, which both the khedive and King John of Abyssinia claimed
as belonging to their respective dominions. War broke out in 1875, when
an Egyptian expedition was despatched to Abyssinia, and was completely
defeated by King John near Gundet. A second and larger expedition, under
Prince Hassan, the son of the khedive, was sent the following year from
Massawa. The force was routed by the Abyssinians at Gura, but Prince
Hassan and his staff got back to Massawa. Matters then remained quiet
until March 1877, when Gordon proceeded to Massawa to endeavour to make
peace with King John. He went up to Bogos, and had an interview with
Walad Michael, an Abyssinian chief and the hereditary ruler of Bogos,
who had joined the Egyptians with a view to raiding on his own account.
Gordon, with his usual powers of diplomacy, persuaded Michael to remain
quiet, and wrote to the king proposing terms of peace. But he received
no reply at that time, as John, feeling pretty secure on the Egyptian
frontier after his two successful actions against the khedive's troops,
had gone southwards to fight with Menelek, king of Shoa. Gordon, seeing
that the Abyssinian difficulty could wait for a few months, proceeded to
Khartum. Here he took up the slavery question, and proposed to issue
regulations making the registration of slaves compulsory, but his
proposals were not approved by the Cairo government. In the meantime an
insurrection had broken out in Darfur, and Gordon proceeded to that
province to relieve the Egyptian garrisons, which were considerably
stronger than the force he had available, the insurgents also being far
more numerous than his little army. On coming up with the main body of
rebels he saw that diplomacy gave a better chance of success than
fighting, and, accompanied only by an interpreter, rode into the enemy's
camp to discuss the situation. This bold move, which probably no one but
Gordon would have attempted, proved quite successful, as part of the
insurgents joined him, and the remainder retreated to the south. The
relief of the Egyptian garrisons was successfully accomplished, and
Gordon visited the provinces of Berber and Dongola, whence he had again
to return to the Abyssinian frontier to treat with King John. But no
satisfactory settlement was arrived at, and Gordon came back to Khartum
in January 1878. There he had scarcely a week's rest when the khedive
summoned him to Cairo to assist in settling the financial affairs of
Egypt. He reached Cairo in March, and was at once appointed by Ismail as
president of a commission of inquiry into the finances, on the
understanding that the European commissioners of the debt, who were the
representatives of the bondholders, and whom Ismail regarded as
interested parties, should not be members of the commission. Gordon
accepted the post on these terms, but the consuls-general of the
different powers refused to agree to the constitution of the commission,
and it fell to the ground, as the khedive was not strong enough to carry
his point. The attempt of the latter to utilize Gordon as a counterpoise
to the European financiers having failed, Ismail fell into the hands of
his creditors, and was deposed by the sultan in the following year in
favour of his son Tewfik. After the conclusion of the financial episode,
Gordon proceeded to the province of Harrar, south of Abyssinia, and,
finding the administration in a bad condition, dismissed Raouf Pasha,
the governor. He then returned to Khartum, and in 1879 went again into
Darfur to pursue the slave traders, while his subordinate, Gessi Pasha,
fought them with great success in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district and killed
Suleiman, their leader and a son of Zobeir. This put an end to the
revolt, and Gordon went back to Khartum. Shortly afterwards he went down
to Cairo, and when there was requested by the new khedive to pay a visit
to King John and make a definite treaty of peace with Abyssinia. Gordon
had an interesting interview with the king, but was not able to do much,
as the king wanted great concessions from Egypt, and the khedive's
instructions were that nothing material was to be conceded. The matter
ended by Gordon being made a prisoner and sent back to Massawa. Thence
he returned to Cairo and resigned his Sudan appointment. He was
considerably exhausted by the three years' incessant work, during which
he had ridden no fewer than 8500 m. on camels and mules, and was
constantly engaged in the task of trying to reform a vicious system of
administration.
1880-1884.
In March 1880 Gordon visited the king of the Belgians at Brussels, and
King Leopold suggested that he should at some future date take charge of
the Congo Free State. In April the government of the Cape Colony
telegraphed to him offering the position of commandant of the Cape local
forces, but he declined the appointment. In May the marquess of Ripon,
who had been given the post of governor-general of India, asked Gordon
to go with him as private secretary. This he agreed to do, but a few
days later, feeling that he was not suitable for the position, asked
Lord Ripon to release him. The latter refused to do so, and Gordon
accompanied him to India, but definitely resigned his post on Lord
Ripon's staff shortly afterwards. Hardly had he resigned when he
received a telegram from Sir Robert Hart, inspector-general of customs
in China, inviting him to go to Peking. He started at once and arrived
at Tientsin in July, where he met Li Hung Chang, and learnt that affairs
were in a critical condition, and that there was risk of war with
Russia. Gordon proceeded to Peking and used all his influence in favour
of peace. His arguments, which were given with much plainness of speech,
appear to have convinced the Chinese government, and war was avoided.
Gordon returned to England, and in April 1881 exchanged with a brother
officer, who had been ordered to Mauritius as Commanding Royal Engineer,
but who for family reasons was unable to accept the appointment. He
remained in Mauritius until the March following, when, on promotion to
the rank of major-general, he had to vacate the position of Commanding
Royal Engineer. Just at the same time the Cape ministry telegraphed to
him to ask if he would go to the Cape to consult with the government as
regards settling affairs in Basutoland. The telegram stated that the
position of matters was grave, and that it was of the utmost importance
that the colony should secure the services of someone of proved ability,
firmness and energy. Gordon sailed at once for the Cape, and saw the
governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, Mr Thos. Scanlen, the premier, and Mr.
J. X. Merriman, a member of the ministry, who, for political reasons,
asked him not to go to Basutoland, but to take the appointment of
commandant of the colonial forces at King William's Town. After a few
months, which were spent in reorganizing the colonial forces, Gordon was
requested to go up to Basutoland to try to arrange a settlement with the
chief Masupha, one of the most powerful of the Basuto leaders. Greatly
to his surprise, at the very time he was with Masupha, Mr. J. W. Sauer,
a member of the Cape government, was taking steps to induce Lerethodi,
another chief, to advance against Masupha. This not only placed Gordon
in a position of danger, but was regarded by him as an act of treachery.
He advised Masupha not to deal with the Cape government until the
hostile force was withdrawn, and resigned his appointment. He considered
that the Basuto difficulty was due to the bad system of administration
by the Cape government. That Gordon's views were correct is proved by
the fact that a few years later Basutoland was separated from Cape
Colony and placed directly under the imperial government. After his
return to England from the Cape, being unemployed, Gordon decided to go
to Palestine, a country he had long desired to visit. Here he remained
for a year, and devoted his time to the study of Biblical history and of
the antiquities of Jerusalem. The king of the Belgians then asked him to
take charge of the Congo Free State, and he accepted the mission and
returned to London to make the necessary preparations. But a few days
after his arrival he was requested by the British government to proceed
immediately to the Sudan. To understand the reasons for this, it is
necessary briefly to recapitulate the course of events in that country
since Gordon had left it in 1879.
After his resignation of the post of governor-general, Raouf Pasha, an
official of the ordinary type, who, as already mentioned, had been
dismissed by Gordon for misgovernment in 1878, was appointed to succeed
him. As Raouf was instructed to increase the receipts and diminish the
expenditure, the system of government naturally reverted to the old
methods, which Gordon had endeavoured to improve. The fact that justice
and firmness were succeeded by injustice and weakness tended naturally
to the outbreak of revolt, and unfortunately there was a leader ready to
head a rebellion--one Mahommed Ahmed, already known for some years as a
holy man, who was insulted by an Egyptian official, and retiring with
some followers to the island of Abba on the White Nile, proclaimed
himself as the mahdi, a successor of the prophet. Raouf endeavoured to
take him prisoner but without success, and the revolt spread rapidly.
Raouf was recalled, and succeeded by Abdel Kader Pasha, a much stronger
governor, who had some success, but whose forces were quite insufficient
to cope with the rebels. The Egyptian government was too busily engaged
in suppressing Arabi's revolt to be able to send any help to Abdel
Kader, and in September 1882, when the British troops entered Cairo, the
position in the Sudan was very perilous. Had the British government
listened to the representations then made to them, that, having
conquered Egypt, it was imperative at once to suppress the revolt in the
Sudan, the rebellion could have been crushed, but unfortunately Great
Britain would do nothing herself, while the steps she allowed Egypt to
take ended in the disaster to Hicks Pasha's expedition. Then, in
December 1883, the British government saw that something must be done,
and ordered Egypt to abandon the Sudan. But abandonment was a policy
most difficult to carry out, as it involved the withdrawal of thousands
of Egyptian soldiers, civilian employes and their families. Abdel Kader
Pasha was asked to undertake the work, and he agreed on the
understanding that he would be supported, and that the policy of
abandonment was not to be announced. But the latter condition was
refused, and he declined the task. The British government then asked
General Gordon to proceed to Khartum to report on the best method of
carrying out the evacuation. The mission was highly popular in England.
Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) was, however, at first opposed to
Gordon's appointment. His objections were overcome, and Gordon received
his instructions in London on the 18th of January 1884, and started at
once for Cairo, accompanied by Lieut.-Colonel J. D. H. Stewart.
At Khartum.
Death.
At Cairo he received further instructions from Sir Evelyn Baring, and
was appointed by the khedive as governor-general, with executive powers.
Travelling by Korosko and Berber, he arrived at Khartum on the 18th of
February, and was well received by the inhabitants, who believed that he
had come to save the country from the rebels. Gordon at once commenced
the task of sending the women and children and the sick and wounded to
Egypt, and about two thousand five hundred had been removed before the
mahdi's forces closed upon Khartum. At the same time he was impressed
with the necessity of making some arrangement for the future government
of the country, and asked for the help of Zobeir (q.v.), who had great
influence in the Sudan, and had been detained in Cairo for some years.
This request was made on the very day Gordon reached Khartum, and was in
accordance with a similar proposal he had made when at Cairo. But, after
delays which involved the loss of much precious time, the British
government refused (13th of March) to sanction the appointment, because
Zobeir had been a notorious slave-hunter. With this refusal vanished all
hope of a peaceful retreat of the Egyptian garrisons. Wavering tribes
went over to the mahdi. The advance of the rebels against Khartum was
combined with a revolt in the eastern Sudan, and the Egyptian troops in
the vicinity of Suakin met with constant defeat. At length a British
force was sent to Suakin under the command of General Sir Gerald Graham,
and routed the rebels in several hard-fought actions. Gordon telegraphed
to Sir Evelyn Baring urging that the road from Suakin to Berber should
be opened by a small force. But this request, though strongly supported
by Baring and the British military authorities in Cairo, was refused by
the government in London. In April General Graham and his forces were
withdrawn from Suakin, and Gordon and the Sudan were seemingly abandoned
to their fate. The garrison of Berber, seeing that there was no chance
of relief, surrendered a month later and Khartum was completely
isolated. Had it not been for the presence of Gordon the city would also
soon have fallen, but with an energy and skill that were almost
miraculous, he so organized the defence that Khartum held out until
January 1885. When it is remembered that Gordon was of a different
nationality and religion to the garrison and population, that he had
only one British officer to assist him, and that the town was badly
fortified and insufficiently provided with food, it is just to say that
the defence of Khartum is one of the most remarkable episodes in
military history. The siege commenced on the 18th of March, but it was
not until August that the British government under the pressure of
public opinion decided to take steps to relieve Gordon. General
Stephenson, who was in command of the British troops in Egypt, wished to
send a brigade at once to Dongola, but he was overruled, and it was not
until the beginning of November that the British relief force was ready
to start from Wadi Haifa under the command of Lord Wolseley. The force
reached Korti towards the end of December, and from that place a column
was despatched across the Bayuda desert to Metemma on the Nile. After
some severe fighting in which the leader of the column, Sir Herbert
Stewart, was mortally wounded, the force reached the river on the 20th
of January, and the following day four steamers, which had been sent
down by Gordon to meet the British advance, and which had been waiting
for them for four months, reported to Sir Charles Wilson, who had taken
command after Sir Herbert Stewart was wounded. On the 24th Wilson
started with two of the steamers for Khartum, but on arriving there on
the 28th he found that the place had been captured by the rebels and
Gordon killed two days before. A belief has been entertained that Wilson
might have started earlier and saved the town, but this is quite
groundless. In the first place, Wilson could not have started sooner
than he did; and in the second, even if he had been able to do so, it
would have made no difference, as the rebels could have taken Khartum
any time they pleased after the 5th of January, when the provisions were
exhausted. Another popular notion, that the capture of the place was due
to treachery on the part of the garrison, is equally without foundation.
The attack was made at a point in the fortifications where the rampart
and ditch had been destroyed by the rising of the Nile, and when the
mahdi's troops entered the soldiers were too weak to make any effectual
resistance. Gordon himself expected the town to fall before the end of
December, and it is really difficult to understand how he succeeded in
holding out until the 26th of January. Writing on the 14th of December
he said, "Now, mark this, if the expeditionary force--and I ask for no
more than two hundred men--does not come in ten days, the town may fall,
and I have done my best for the honour of my country." He had indeed
done his best, and far more than could have been regarded as possible.
To understand what he went through during the latter months of the
siege, it is only necessary to read his own journal, a portion of which,
dating from 10th September to 14th December 1884, was fortunately
preserved and published.
Gordon was not an author, but he wrote many short memoranda on subjects
that interested him, and a considerable number of these have been
utilized, especially in the work by his brother, Sir Henry Gordon,
entitled _Events in the Life of Charles George Gordon, from its
Beginning to its End_. He was a voluminous letter-writer, and much of
his correspondence has been published. His character was remarkable, and
the influence he had over those with whom he came in contact was very
striking. His power to command men of non-European races was probably
unique. He had no fear of death, and cared but little for the opinion of
others, adhering tenaciously to the course he believed to be right in
the face of all opposition. Though not holding to outward forms of
religion, he was a truly religious man in the highest sense of the word,
and was a constant student of the Bible. To serve God and to do his duty
were the great objects of his life, and he died as he had lived,
carrying out the work that lay before him to the best of his ability.
The last words of his last letter to his sister, written when he knew
that death was very near, sum up his character: "I am quite happy, thank
God, and, like Lawrence, I have _tried_ to do my duty."[1]
AUTHORITIES.--_The Journals of Major-General Gordon at Khartoum_
(1885); Lord Cromer, _Modern Egypt_ (2 vols., 1908); F. R. Wingate,
_Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan_ (1891); the _British Parliamentary
Paper on Egypt_ (1884-1885); C. G. Gordon, _Reflections in Palestine_
(1884); edited by D. C. Boulger, _General Gordon's Letters from the
Crimea, the Danube, and Armenia_ (1884); edited by G. B. Hill,
_Colonel Gordon in Central Africa_ (1881); _Letters of General C. G.
Gordon to his Sister_ (1888); H. W. Gordon, _Events in the Life of C.
G. Gordon_ (1886); Commander L. Brine, _The Taeping Rebellion in
China_ (1862); A. Wilson, _Gordon's Campaigns and the Taeping
Rebellion_ (1868); D. C. Boulger, _Life of Gordon_ (1896); A. Egmont
Hake, _The Story of Chinese Gordon_ (1st vol. 1884, 2nd vol. 1885);
Colonel Sir W. F. Butler, _Charles George Gordon_ (1889); Archibald
Forbes, _Chinese Gordon_ (1884); edited by A. Egmont Hake, _Events in
the Taeping Rebellion_ (1891); S. Mossman, _General Gordon's Diary in
China_ (1885); Lieutenant T. Lister, R.E., _With Gordon in the Crimea_
(1891); Lieutenant-General Sir G. Graham, _Last Words with Gordon_
(1887); "War Correspondent," _Why Gordon Perished_ (1896).
(C. M. W.)