SOME ANECDOTES OF GORDON

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 9092, 1 May 1890, Page 6

SOME ANECDOTES OF GORDON

An interesting account of tha way in which. Emin Pasha became GovernorGeneral of the Equatorial Province is given by the Cairo correspondent of the Times. The story was told by Emin Pasha to Mr Stanley, and by the latter to the Times correspondent;—Emin was a doctor in the Egyptian army at £25 per month, when in 1877, Mason Bey told him that he was to goto Gordon at Khartoum, and that he would probably be appointed Governor of Massowa. The French Consul there bad asked that a Governor might be appointed who spoke French; and the qualification was rare among Egyptian officials in the Soudan, He went to Khartoum; Gordon received him most kindly, and at once employed him in writing bis correspondence. One day Gordon told Emin that he liked him, and asked whether he would be his secretary. Emin asked for a day to consider. The next day Emin returned as usual, and wrote letters at Gordon’s dictation. Suddenly Gordon said: Emin, what is your answer ?” Emin: “ I beg, Pasha, that you will not be offended; I am willing to do any work you give me, but I will not be your secretary,” Gordon; “ You will not be my secretary! Why, it is the best place in the Soudan next to the Governor-General. You shall live in the palace with me. Why do you refuse ?” Emin: “ My reasons are private ones; I cannot tell them.” Gordon: “You must tell them to me.” Emin; “ I would rather not do so; but I will if you order me to do so.” Gordon: “ Then I order you to do so.” Emin: “ Because, Pasha, though I should like to serve you, and though I respect you, I cannot be seen with your associates. I should have to associate with people I cannot respect—with your Arab interpreter, who is infamous; with your Greek doctor, who is notoriously guilty of malpractices; with ——” Gordon (angrily) ; “ You daro to say this to me ?” Emin : “ Did you not ask me F As your Secretary I should be continually approached by people who would offer me bribes to secure my influence with you. Some day you would be told that I had taken them; you would be the first to condemn me unheard—without asking me a word. I cannot be put in that position. Let me work somewhere else.” Gordon: “If you were offered a bribe could you not tell me at once?” Emin: “Would that be honest in a country where it is a universal custom ? I cannot turn informer against these people. Let me go somewhere else.” Gordon: “Well, go.” Emin left him, but continued, as usual, to dine at his table. Gordon utterly ignored him, spoke no word, and would leave the table without speaking when the meal was finished. This, says Emin, became unbearable, and ho at last demanded an explanation. He said—“ You are angry because I exercise my perfect right to refuse what you offer me, and because at your express command I tell you the truth. Either give me work or let me go to my own country.” Gordon said, “Well, you shall have work,” and some time later asked him whether he would go to TJnyoro. Emin expressed his willingness. Gordon asked him whether he knew the country, that it was in Kabba Kega’s territory, and reminded him that it was a dangerous mission. Emin replied that he remembered Baker’s experiences, but that he would go. Gordon told him that ho should have .£4O for his outfit, and might apply to the stations for necessaries. Emin asked for a letter to the stations. Gordon refused, saying, “ No, I will not give you letters, for then if something happens to you your people will blame me.” Emin: “ But still you are sending me, Pasha.” Gordon; “No, I will not send you officially.” Emin went; his pay was £iO a month. On his return he was some time at Uganda, and then, as Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces, got £SO a month. When he arrived in his new province he found it fertile and badly cultivated, so he seat to Gordon, and asked him to procure him some seeds for sowing. Gordon replied, “ I sent you to be a Governor, not a gardener.” Later he asked for a photographic apparatus, which he knew was lying idle at Khartoum. Gordon replied again, “ I sent you to be a Governor, not a photographer;” and he returned the apparatus to Cairo. One day he was walking with Gordon from Kooli to Magumbo. They were chatting pleasantly, when suddenly Gordon ceased and said, “ Stop talking.” Emin thought that there must be some danger; but, seeing none, attempted after a little while to resume conversation. The same command was given more gruffly, and a third time still more so. The next day Gordon asked, “Were you surprised at my stopping your talk yesterday!” “I was a little,” replied Emin. “ I was praying,” said Gordon, “ and your conversation disturbed me. Why did you not ask the reason ?” Many (says the correspondent) are the stories which Emin tells of Gordon’s eccentricities. “ Full of a hundred contradictions ; but a just man and most pious” is his verdict. FURTHER ANECDOTES. Mr W.H. Spence (writingin the February number of the Contemporary Review ) relates several anecdotes which will bo new to most readers. They relate chiefly to the early part of 1882, when Colonel Gordon was ordered from Mauritius to Cape Colony. He could not, or would not, wait for a passanger steamer, but took a berth in a tight little trading schooner of 300 tons. THE SOLDIER AS A SAILOR. When a little more than a week’s sail from Mauritius the wind rose suddenly, and as suddenly a dark cloud passed over the General’s buoyancy, for he had a wholesome dread, of a sea.Tite r higlxe^

the waves reared themselves the lower sank his vitality, and the old enemy, sea sickness, again attacked him without mercy. Ha recovered, however, in a few days, and was soon able to move about. “The General is better,” says the diary, " but as he is very positive, and would sit on deck during the rain, it is to be feared that he will bo ill to-morrow." The prophecy, alas ! proved to be only too true, and daily Gordon’s health went from bad to worse, as this entry will show“ Our guest has been very sick. He is still suffering, and all the while we have had comparatively fine weather. It is hard to say what will become of him when it is rough. He is not improving in health, far leas in spirits. He desires to be landed at the first port we reach! It is surprising that he has lost heart so soon. How many kinds of courage there must be! This great soldier must have undergone many hardships and. seen much sickness during his travels in Africa. Besides, his life in China was not all ease and sweetness." Despite careful nursing bis case grew worse, and his suffering and misery were described by himself as "far more severe than he had ever during his lifetime experienced, either at home or abroad." Very often ho repeated his determination to go on shore at the very first port the Scotia reached, and one morning, after a sleepless night of sickness, he called the captain to his bedside, and offered him j£so if he would make for land with all possible speed. He recovered his healthand spirits and saved his £so —which was fortunate for him, as it tamed out to be at the time the whole of his worldly wealth! Seasick travellers may take comfort from the remembrance that Gordon, like Nelson, was a bad sailor. « , WHY HE LEFT LORD EIPON IN INDIA. This is one of the problems about himself which Gordon never cared to solve. Here is the explanation which we choose to give :—" Not long before the time of which we write, the General, it will be remembered, had accepted the post of private Secretary to Lord Ripon, the then newly - appointed Governor - General of India. The private Secretary, however, suddenly and without warning, flung np the appointment, to the surprise of everybody, and returned home. One evening, in course of conversation, the topic of fashionable society was touched npon, and Gordon made reference to the reason that induced him to give up office on the occasion mentioned. The true and only reason he had, he said, for leaving India was that he could not put up with the ways and customs of the high social circle in which he was expected to move. ' Dress for dinner, dress for evening parties, dress for balls, dress and decoration, decoration and dress, day after day! I could not/ said Gordon, * stand the worry of it, and rather than do so I gave up the appointment/” THE TEBE OB’ FORBIDDEN FRUIT. It is known that Gordon nursed a pet theory on this subject; he believed that the Coco-de-Mer, which grows in the Seychelles Islands, was the mysterious tree, and he left some papers setting out the reasons for his theory. Here is a curious instance of his practical belief in it;— “One morning,” said the master of the Scotia, " I was working upon deck, when, in his usual polite manner, the General came and asked me to give him a hand in moving the large trunk marked 'Stationery,” which had, up till this time, occupied a place in his room. I went. He merely wished its position reversed— that is, its address side turned toward the wall, so that he would not, as he said, see that imposing word 'Stationery’ meeting his eye every time he ascended to the deck, or descended from the deck to the cabin. He did not tell me what the mysterious bor contained, but some days later he informed me that he wished to put its contents into less space, and respectfully asked me to help him. The case was, after soma difficulty, opened, and judge of my surprise when, instead of books and papers, as I expected, there met my eyes a great number of equally cut pieces of wood, arranged with the greatest possible care and almost filling the large box. The General, perceiving my surprise, speedily explained to me that this was a treasure he prized more highly than all his personal belongings, ‘ for,’ said he, suddenly becoming serious, * this is the wood of the Coco-de-Mer, the " Forbidden Tree.” I heard/ he continued,' that there was at one time seen in Mauritius a chest of drawers made of this wood, and though its discovery cost me protracted search, I at last came across it in a second-hand upholsterer’s shop. I paid a good price for tfie odd and rickety piece of furniture, and, depend upon it, I would not have lost the rare opportunity of possessing a quantity of this most valuable of woods—nob for any sum/”