d and must be put down. Perhaps he guessed that Europe
was hardly likely to be convinced by this sudden change, so, instead of
appointing an Egyptian governor of the equatorial provinces, he
conferred the post first on Sir Samuel Baker, and, later, on Gordon.

* * * * *

It did not take Gordon long to find out that the khedive's newly
discovered zeal in putting down the slave-trade was 'a sham to catch the
attention of the English people,' but the weapon had been thrust into
his hands, and he meant to use it for the help of the oppressed tribes.
Difficulties he knew there would be, and he was ready to fight them, but
one difficulty he hardly made allowance for, which was that among the
Mahometan races throughout the world it was as much a matter of course
to have slaves as it is to us to have houses.

With great care he selected the staff that was to accompany him, and a
body of two hundred troops to inspect Khartoum. He chose five
Englishmen, an American, an old Crimean Italian interpreter called
Romulus Gessi, and a slave-trader named Abou Saoud, whom Gordon had
found a prisoner in Cairo. In vain the khedive warned the new
governor-general of the danger of taking such a villain into his
service, and of the strange look his appointment would have in the eyes
of Europe. To Gordon the only thing that mattered was that the man knew
the country through which they were to travel, and as to the rest, his
own neck must take its chance.

* * * * *

It was on March 12, 1874, that Gordon came in sight of Khartoum, where
eleven years later he was to find his grave. He was received on the
banks by the Egyptian governor-general, who ordered salutes to be fired
and the brass band to play. If Gordon did not appreciate the honours
paid to him, he was delighted at the news that a growth of grass and
stones that had hitherto rendered the White Nile impassable had been at
last cut away by the soldiers. Now the river was free, and instead of
the journey to Gondokoro--his own capital, eleven hundred miles south of
Khartoum--taking fourteen months, as in the days of Sir Samuel Baker, he
would be able to perform it in four weeks.

Every moment of the ten days that Gordon stayed at Khartoum was busily
employed in discovering all he could as to the condition of the people
and the state of the government. It did not take him more than a few
hours to learn that the Egyptian gove