irst to induce them to
cultivate the ground, providing them with seed and dhoora (_sorghum_),
and then to accustom them to the use of money. He bought their ivory
and paid for it in coin, so that in a little time he found that the
inhabitants, who had held aloof from all previous Egyptian officials,
freely brought him their ivory and produce for sale. At the same time,
he made it a point to pay scrupulously for any service the natives
rendered, and he even endeavoured, as far as he could, to put
employment in their way. The practice of the Egyptian officials had
been to lay hands on any natives that came across their path, and
compel them by force to perform any work they might deem necessary,
and then to dismiss them without reward or thanks. The result was a
deep-rooted execration of the whole Egyptian system, which found voice
in the most popular war-cry of the region: "We want no Turks here! Let
us drive them away!" But Gordon's mode was widely different. It was
based on justice and reason, and in the long-run constituted sound
policy. He paid for what he took, and when he used the natives to drag
his boats, or to clear tracks through the grassy zone fringing the
Nile, he always carefully handed over to them cows, dhoora, or money,
as an equivalent for their work. On the other hand, he was not less
prompt to punish hostile tribes by imposing taxes on them, and, when
unavoidable, inflicting punishment as well. But the system averted, as
far as possible, the necessity of extreme measures, and in this the
first period of his rule in the Soudan he had few hostile collisions
with the natives of the country. Indeed, with the exception of the
Bari tribe, who entrapped Linant, Gordon's best lieutenant after
Gessi, and slew him with a small detachment, Gordon's enemies in the
field proved few and insignificant. Even the Baris would not have
ventured to attack him but for the acquaintance with, and contempt of,
firearms they had obtained during an earlier success over an Egyptian
corps.

There is no doubt that this absence of any organised opposition was
fortunate, for the so-called troops at the disposal of the Governor of
the Equator were as miserably inefficient and contemptible, from a
fighting point of view, as any General Gordon ever commanded; and at a
later stage of his career he plaintively remarked that it had fallen
to his lot to lead a greater number of cowardly and unwarlike races
than anyone else. But it was no