people bless you
for the blessings of peace and prosperity which they now enjoy.

"Your achievements in Egypt are well known throughout the
civilized world. I see often in the papers of your noble works on
the Upper Nile. You are a man of ample resources, with which you
suit yourself to any kind of emergency. My hope is that you may
long be spared to improve the conditions of the people amongst
whom your lot is cast. I am striving hard to advance my people to
a higher state of development, and to unite both this and all
other nations within the 'Four Seas' under one common
brotherhood. To the several questions put in your note the
following are the answers:--Kwoh Sung-Ling has retired from
official life, and is now living at home. Yang Ta Jen died a
great many years ago. Na Wang's adopted son is doing well, and is
the colonel of a regiment, with 500 men under him. The Pa to'
Chiaow Bridge, which you destroyed, was rebuilt very soon after
you left China, and it is now in very good condition.

"Kwoh Ta jen, the Chinese Minister, wrote to me that he had the
pleasure of seeing you in London. I wished I had been there also
to see you; but the responsibilities of life are so distributed
to different individuals in different parts of the world, that it
is a wise economy of Providence that we are not all in the same
spot.

"I wish you all manner of happiness and prosperity. With my
highest regards,--I remain, yours very truly

"(For LI HUNG CHANG), TSENG LAISUN."

Under the belief that Hart's telegram emanated from Li Hung Chang, and
inspired by loyalty to a friend in a difficulty, as well as by
affection for the Chinese people, whom in his own words he "liked best
next after his own," Gordon replied to this telegram in the following
message: "Inform Hart Gordon will leave for Shanghai first
opportunity. As for conditions, Gordon indifferent."

At that moment China seemed on the verge of war with Russia, in
consequence of the disinclination of the latter power to restore the
province of Kuldja, which she had occupied at the time of the
Mahommedan uprising in Central Asia. The Chinese official, Chung How,
who had signed an unpopular treaty at Livadia, had been sentenced to
death--the treaty itself had been repudiated--and hostilities were
even said to have commenced. The announceme