LAST WORDS WITH GORDON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 31

LAST WORDS WITH GORDON.

In the new number of the Fortnightly Renew General Graham gives some interesting recollections of Gordon. General Graham accompanied him on the first stage of the fatal expedition, bidding him goodbjc on the fringe of the great Nubian desert. The following are a few extracts taken ab random from General Graham's paper :— "00BD0N WAS NO GLOOMY ASCETIC." " Gordon arrived at Cairo on the 24th of January, 1884. He had been my schoolfellow at Woolwich, my comrade in the Crimea and China, and for many years we had been more or less regular correspondents," he wys. They met at Cairo, when Gordon asked him to accompany him as far as Korosko. « Pictures," says General Graham, ; have been drawn of Gordon as a gloomy ; ascetic, wrapped up in mystic thoughts, re- ! »nng from all communion with the world, I ana inspiring fear rather than affection. I I cau only describe him as he appeared to me. I *ar from being a gloomy ascetic, he always seemed to me to retain a boyish frankness, !&a to long to share Iris ideas with others, vur intimacy began when we were thrown together in mining the docks at Sebastopol ™g the winter of 1855-56, a period Wttdoa always delighted in referring to Wienever we met, by calling up old scenes, ancl even old jokes of that time. Like all 5J e P of action, but more especially soldiers, «ordon disliked argument with subordinates once he had resolved on his course of action; otherwise he 4nvited discussion, and | always found him most tolerant in listening "arguments against his own views, even on J^iects in which he, of course, possessed a Knowledge far exceeding any I could pretend * burning to my diary, I find that soon «tcrwe had got off in the train from Cairo cnt i - Dight of the 26fch of January, we Cv ntosome sucll dis cussion. Gordon ■wsis on there being no alternative between *»nmplion of government by England and in roan's) abandonment." I said, " Put capable Englishmen as governors under

Egyptian Government." He said, ".Youcouldn't get them," that- Baker, had' refused,. &c. I asked him to read his own" opinion as to abandonment in the Pall-Mall Gazette, but he said he wouldn't ; so we said, " Goodnight." - ,i GOBDON AND ZEBEHR., The vexed question of Zebehr; r of course, came frequently under discussion. I had seen and spoken with Zebehr at Cairo before I had any idea of Gordon's coming, and had conceived a horror of that marj of. .smooth words but cruel deeds, with' his hidetfus face suggestive to me of a death's head^nanted by a demon. I was therefore: prejudiced, and, knowing that he hated Qprdqn with a murderous hate, was strongly against' Zebehr being allowed to accompany h'itru Stewart at this time shared these fee]ingß,"apd begged me to use any influence I mighjTpossesa with Gordon to dissuade him from asking, for Zebehr. Yet later events slip wed 'we, judged with a very limited knowledge" of ~ ? the circumstances. ' ' '• A GREAT SCHEME FOE GOVERNMENT OF THE CONGO. Here is an extract from a letter written by General Graham concerning the gigantic scheme which Gordon was hatching in his brain: — .<'•■' " This single-minded Nappjepri. developed to me his Congo scheme, which' is nothing less than founding a great state in the centre of Africa under the auspicesof the King of the Belgians, who is ready to give £100,000 a year towards it. He now proposes Jo take the Bahr, Gazelle, and Equatorial provinces, and incorporate them with his Conga. State, by which means he hopes to suppress, a good deal of the slave trade. He finished by saying, ' A capital plan 1 I will write to the Kiug of the Belgians to-morrow.' (It was then 11 p.m.) Gordon, is a prompt, rapid worker, and the next morning oij. entering the saloon he handed me a long letter to the King of the Belgians, finished off with a neat sketch, setting forth all his views, and touching delicately on the necessity for obtaining a recognition of his flag. . I believe that one element in his scheme particularly pleasing to Gordon is that by his proposed arrangement he need hot return to, Cairo, but may go straight from the Soudan, to the Congo. It was also in Gordon's 'niind at this time to get the assent of our Government and of the King of the Belgians to the incorporation of the whole of the Eastern Soudan into the Congo State, his Majesty's £100,000 to be administered by Gordon as ruler of the Soudan and Congo under the King of the Belgians." " GOOD-BYE." General Graham thus describes his farewell :— "We reached Korosko on the evening of the Ist of February, and the next morning was that for saying good-bye, ai here Gordon entered the great Nubian desert. That morning we had a long talk together on deck after breakfast, when he told me what he meant to do, and how he felt ior the misery of the natives. About 8 o'clock he mounted his camel and said ' Good-bye,' but I walked beside him, and he shortly afterwards got down and walked with me. At last I left him, saying • Good-bye' again, and 'God bless you.' Then he mounted again. . . . Gordon carried no arms, but Stewart had a revolver. Before Gordon left he gave me a long, heavy, silver-momr 1 ed kourbash, or Soudan riding- whip, of rhinoceros hide, and told me to say 4 that was a token that the reign of the kourbash in the Soudan was over.' In return he took my white umbrella, having lost his own." GENERAL GRAHAM'S ESTIMATE OF GORDON'S CHARACTER. When on board again I wrote the following note on Gordon's character, which I give here meretyas showing tho impression 'my latest intercourse with him had on me : — " It may seem a paradox to say so, but it seems to me that although Gordon never regulates his conduct by the opinion of others, he yet has an intense longing for human sympathy. His impatience is only a symptom of the intensity of this longing. But what he demands he : gives freely, and this explains his great power over-natives. It is the same with children. Gordon is a man all children would instinctively worship, for he loves them so. He told me that he has cried over the misery of the,natives, sometimes before, and with them,' and ' to their simple minds a man with so- much power and so much feeling for them must be indeed a new revelation. You can see his kindness shining in his face when the natives crowd round him, kissing his hand."