Colin Campbell than we are looking for
Gordon." Gordon, ever mindful of the importance of time, and fully
impressed with the sense of how much had been lost by delay, did not
let the grass grow under his feet, and after his two days' delay at
Cairo sent a message that he hoped to reach Khartoum in eighteen days.
Mr Power's comment on that message is as follows: "Twenty-four days
is the shortest time from Cairo to Khartoum on record; Gordon says he
will be here in eighteen days; but he travels like a whirlwind." As a
matter of fact, Gordon took twenty days' travelling, besides the two
days he passed at Berber. He thus reached Khartoum on 18th February,
and four days later Colonel de Coetlogon started for Cairo.

The entry of Gordon into Khartoum was marked by a scene of
indescribable enthusiasm and public confidence. The whole population,
men, women, and children, turned out to welcome him as a conqueror and
a deliverer, although he really came in his own person merely to cope
with a desperate situation. The women threw themselves on the ground
and struggled to kiss his feet; in the confusion Gordon was several
times pushed down; and this remarkable demonstration of popular
confidence and affection was continued the whole way from the
landing-place to the _Hukumdaria_ or Palace. This greeting was the
more remarkable because it was clear that Gordon had brought no
troops--only one white officer--and it soon became known that he had
brought no money. Even the Mahdi himself made his contribution to the
general tribute, by sending General Gordon on his arrival a formal
_salaam_ or message of respect. Thus hailed on all hands as the one
pre-eminently good man who had been associated with the Soudan, Gordon
addressed himself to the hard task he had undertaken, which had been
rendered almost hopeless of achievement by the lapse of time, past
errors, and the blindness of those who should have supported him.

Difficult as it had been all along, it was rendered still more
difficult by the decisive defeat of Baker Pasha and an Egyptian force
of 4000 men at Tokar, near Souakim. This victory was won by Osman
Digma, who had been sent by the Mahdi to rouse up the Eastern Soudan
at the time of the threatened Hicks expedition. The result showed that
the Mahdi had discovered a new lieutenant of great military capacity
and energy, and that the Eastern Soudan was for the time as hopelessly
lost to Egypt as Kordofan and Darfour.

The firs