footprints_, cause such irritation to the
skin. It must be for some good object eventually to be made known
to us."

Most of Gordon's efforts were directed to the abolition of slavery, and
the amelioration of the sufferings of the people he governed, but as an
explorer and a surveyor he also did good work, and he might, had he
cared for such distinctions, have received honours from the Royal
Geographical Society. Though suffering a good deal from sickness and
from mental worries, he endeavoured to explore the seventy miles of
country between Foweira and the Albert Nyanza. In one of his letters he
says:--

"It was contended that the Nile did not flow out of Lake Victoria
and thence into Lake Albert and so northward, but that one river
flowed out of Lake Victoria and another out of Lake Albert; and
that these two rivers united and formed the Nile. This statement
could not be positively denied, inasmuch as no one had actually
gone along the river from Foweira to Hagungo. So I went along it
with much suffering, and settled the question."

As he did not personally come into contact with M'tesa, the King of
Uganda, it is not necessary to do more than mention the fact that this
strange monarch wrote a letter to him, and even asked him to plant a
stockade for his troops within Uganda territory. Gordon, however, did
not trust M'tesa, and at one time, on account of some misbehaviour on
the part of that monarch, even contemplated attacking him. But Mr.
Stanley, the great explorer, sent a vigorous protest against any
aggression on the part of a Christian representative, even of a Moslem
Government, towards a newly Christianised state, if one may apply that
term to Uganda. Gordon evidently recognised the wisdom of Stanley's
contention, for the attack was never made, and Stanley received from
Gordon a letter giving him much information.

Gordon reached Lake Albert at the end of July 1876, and from then till
he left to return home he was busily engaged in surveying the country,
wading through rivers, cutting his way through dense jungles,
encountering natives armed with assegais, and in other ways risking his
valuable life, all for the sake of his fellow-creatures, and in the
hope of ultimately opening up the country. Was there ever a man more
strongly actuated by the spirit of altruism?

His three years were drawing to a close, and not having received the
support he thought he deserved, he d