eks he passed at
Cairo was the dispute as to how he should travel to the scene of his
government. He wished to go by ordinary steamer, with one servant. The
Minister insisted that he should travel by a special steamer, and
accompanied by a retinue. Gordon's plan would have saved the Khedive's
Government L400, but he had to give way to the proprieties. The affair
had an amusing issue. His special train to Suez met with an accident,
and he and the Egyptian officials sent to see him off were compelled,
after two hours' delay, to change into another train, and continue
their journey in an ordinary passenger carriage, much to the amusement
of Gordon, who wrote: "We began in glory and ended in shame!" On
arrival at Souakim, Gordon was put into quarantine for a night, in
order, as he said, that the Governor might have time to put on his
official clothes.

Soon his attention was drawn from such frivolities as these to more
serious matters. He left Cairo on 21st February, reached Souakim on
26th, left Souakim on 1st March, Berber on 9th March, and entered
Khartoum 13th March. He brought with him 200 fresh troops, and was
welcomed with considerable display and many hollow protestations of
friendship by the Governor-General, Ismail Yakoob.

A few weeks before his arrival at Khartoum an important event had
taken place, which greatly simplified his ulterior operations. The
"sudd," an accumulation of mould and aquatic plants which had formed
into a solid mass and obstructed all navigation, had suddenly given
way, and restored communication with Gondokoro and the lakes. The
importance of this event may be measured by the fact that whereas the
journey to Gondokoro, with the "sudd" in existence, took twenty months
and even two years to perform, it was reduced by its dispersal to
twenty-one days. General Gordon wrote the following very pretty
description of this grassy barrier and its origin:

"A curious little cabbage-like aquatic plant comes floating down,
having a little root ready to attach itself to anything; he meets
a friend, and they go together, and soon join roots and so on.
When they get to a lake, the current is too strong, and so, no
longer constrained to move on, they go off to the sides; others
do the same--idle and loitering, like everything up here. After a
time winds drive a whole fleet of them against the narrow outlet
of the lake and stop it up. Then no more passenger plants