also he was
far-seeing enough to realise that he would be less the mere creature
of the Egyptian ruler with the smaller than with the larger salary,
while he could gratify his own inner pride that no one should say that
any sordid motive had a part in his working for semi-civilized
potentates, whether Chinese or Mussulmen.

I am able to describe Gordon's exact feelings on this point in his own
words. "My object is to show the Khedive and his people that gold and
silver idols are not worshipped by all the world. They are very
powerful gods, but not so powerful as _our_ God. From whom does all
this money come? from poor miserable creatures who are ground down to
produce it. Of course these ideas are outrageous. Pillage the
Egyptians is still the cry."

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST NILE MISSION.

A brief description of the conquest by Mehemet Ali and his successors
of the Soudan--a name signifying nothing more than "the land of the
blacks"--and of the events which immediately preceded the appointment
of Gordon, is necessary to show the extent of the work intrusted to
him, and the special difficulties with which he had to contend.

It was in 1819 that the great Pasha or Viceroy Mehemet Ali, still in
name the lieutenant of the Sultan, ordered his sons Ismail and the
more famous Ibrahim to extend his authority up the Nile, and conquer
the Soudan. They do not seem to have experienced any difficulty in
carrying out their instructions. Nobody was interested in defending
the arid wastes of that region. The Egyptian yoke promised to be as
light as any other, and a few whiffs of grape-shot dispersed the only
adversaries who showed themselves. Ibrahim, who soon took the lead,
selected Khartoum as the capital of the new province, in preference to
Shendy, which had formerly been regarded as the principal place in the
country. In this he showed excellent judgment, for Khartoum occupies
an admirable position in the fork of the two branches of the Nile; and
whatever fate may yet befall the region in which the Mahdi and his
successor the Khalifa have set up their ephemeral authority, it is
destined by Nature to be the central point and capital of the vast
region between the Delta and the Equatorial Lakes.

Khartoum lies on the left bank of the Blue Nile--Bahr-el-Azrak--rather
more than three miles south of its confluence with the White
Nile--Bahr-el-Abiad--at the northern point of the Isle of Tuti. The
channel south of that isl