can
pass through the outlet, while plenty come in at the upper end of
the lake; these eventually fill up all the passages which may
have been made."

Gordon had the control of seven steamers, and in one of these he left
Khartoum on 22nd March for the Upper Nile. He had already issued his
first decree as Governor of the Equator, in which he declared the sale
of ivory to be a Government monopoly, and forbade the importation of
firearms and ammunition. It was while he was on this journey that he
heard some birds--a kind of stork--laughing on the banks of the river.
In his letters to his sister, which were to stand in the place of a
diary, he facetiously remarks that he supposes they were amused at the
idea of anyone being so foolish as to go up the Nile in "the hope of
doing anything." But Gordon was not to be discouraged. Already he
liked his work, amid the heat and mosquitoes day and night all the
year round, and already he was convinced that he could do a good deal
to ameliorate the lot of the unfortunate people. He reached Gondokoro
on 16th April, where not only was he not expected, but he found them
ignorant even of his appointment. He remained there only a few days,
as he perceived he could do nothing without his stores, still _en
route_ from Cairo, and returned to Khartoum, which he reached in
eleven days.

This brief trip satisfied him of several simple facts bearing on the
situation in the Equatorial Province which the Khedive had sent him
with such a flourish of trumpets to govern. He found very easily that
the Egyptian Government possessed no practical authority in that
region. Beyond the two forts at Gondokoro--garrison 300 men--and
Fatiko--garrison 200 men--the Khedive had no possessions, and there
was not even safety for his representatives half a mile from
their guns. As Gordon said: "The Khedive gave me a Firman as
Governor-General of the Equator, and left me to work out the rest." He
began the practical part of his task on the occasion of this return to
Khartoum by insisting that the accounts of the Equatorial Province
should be kept distinct from those of the Soudan, and also that Ragouf
Pasha, sent nominally to assist but really to hinder him, should be
withdrawn.

Having asserted his individuality after several rows with Ismail
Yakoob, he became impatient at the delayed arrival of his stores and
staff, and hastened off to Berber to hurry their progress. As he was
fond of saying, "Sel