be Governor of the tribes on the Upper Nile.

Gordon accepted the post, but would not take more than L2000 a year.
He wished, he said, "to show the Khedive and his people that gold and
silver idols are not worshipped by all the world." He knew that the
money was wrung from the poor people of Egypt and that some of it was
the price of slaves, and he could not bear to enrich himself with money
so gained.

The Soudan, or Country of the Blacks, which was now to be the scene of
Gordon's work, is one of the dreariest parts of Africa.

In years not so long ago, the Egyptians had nothing to do with it. For
between Egypt and the Black People's country lay hundreds of miles of
sandy desert--desolate, lonely, without water. Behind its rocks the
wild desert tribes could hide, to surprise and murder peaceful traders
who tried to bring their camel caravans across the waste of sand. And
when the desert was crossed and the Soudan reached, the country was not
one to love or to long for.

A wretched, dry land is the Soudan, a land across which hot winds
sweep, like blasts from a furnace, driving the sand before them. The
Nile wanders through it, but in the Soudan there is none of the green
and pleasant river country that we know, who know the Thames and the
Tweed, the Hudson or St. Lawrence.

There is never a fresh leaf, never a blade of grass. The hills are
bare slopes, the valleys strewn with sand and stones. Tufts of rough
yellow grass and stunted grey bushes, a mass of thorns, grow here and
there on the yellow sand. The mimosa trees, sapless and dry, are thick
with thorns. The palms, called dom-palms, grow fruit like wood. The
Sodom apples, that look like real fruit, are poisonous and horrible to
the taste.

Tarantulas, scorpions, serpents, white ants, mosquitoes, and every kind
of loathsome creature that flies and crawls is to be found there.

When men are toiling through that land, dust in their throats, sand in
their eyes, and longing with all their hearts for the sight of
something green, and the touch and taste of fresh, cool, sparkling
water, sometimes they see a great wonder.

In front of them suddenly appears a lake or river, sparkling and
shimmering. There is green grass at the water-side. White-winged
birds float on it, and trees dip their leafy branches into its
coolness. Sometimes great palaces and towers overlook it. Sometimes
it seems a lonely spot, quiet and peaceful, and delicious for the weary