rch against the chief
of Unyoro in the following order--one consisting of 150 black
soldiers, and 3000 of the Lango tribe, under Rionga, moving from
Mrooli to Kisoga; another of about the same strength from Keroto to
Masindi; and the third operating from the Albert Lake with the
steamer. The plan was a good one, but Kaba Rega, by having recourse to
his old Fabian tactics, again baffled it.

Although these events happened when Gordon had reached Cairo, it will
be appropriate to give here the result of this campaign. The Unyoro
chieftain retired before the Egyptians, who carried off much cattle,
and when they in turn retired, he advanced and reoccupied his country.
After a brief period the Egyptians definitely gave up their stations
at Mrooli, Foweira, and Masindi, on the left bank of the Victoria
Nile, and confined themselves to those on its right bank, and thus
finally were Mtesa and Kaba Rega left to enjoy their own rude ideas of
independence and regal power.

So far as General Gordon was concerned, the Uganda question was then,
both for this period and for his subsequent and more important
command, definitely closed. But one personal incident remains to be
chronicled. When Gordon received Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga,
and had actually planted a station on the Victoria Lake, he
telegraphed the facts to the Khedive, who promptly replied by
conferring on him the Medjidieh Order. At the moment that Gordon
received this intimation he had decided that it would not be politic
to comply with Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga, and he had only
just succeeded in rescuing an Egyptian force from a position of danger
in the manner described. He felt that he had obtained this decoration
"under false pretences," but the recollection of the hard and
honourable work he had performed must have soon salved his conscience.

At an early stage of his work Gordon felt disposed to throw it up, and
during the whole three years a constant struggle went on within
himself as to whether he should stay or return to England. Many causes
produced this feeling. There was, in the first place, disillusionment
on discovering that the whole thing, from the Egyptian Government
point of view, was a sham, and that his name was being made use of to
impose on Europe. But then he thought he saw an opportunity of doing
some useful and beneficial work, and, stifling his disappointment, he
went on. Arrived on the scene, he found himself thwarted by his