Having freed Harrar of this tyrant, he went to Massowah, and thence on
May 22nd to Khartoum. Back once more at his capital, he devoted himself
first to a thorough reform of the prisons and the administration of the
law. "The prisons," he wrote, "were dens of injustice, and I am glad to
have had time to go into the question of each individual prisoner."

* * *

Although he used to tell amusing stories against himself and his own
personal expenditure of money, yet Gordon had great aptitude for
finance, and could make money go farther than most men. Had his views
been adopted for Egypt, it is more than likely that we should have been
saved the Egyptian war, to say nothing of the loss of the Soudan, and
all that was associated with it. In the Soudan province there was an
annual deficit amounting to something like L259,000. By dint of cutting
down expenditure and increasing the receipts, Gordon reduced this
during the second year to L50,600! Had he continued Governor-General
for many years, there can be no question that he would have not only
made the two ends meet, but would have obtained sufficient to carry out
his schemes of opening up the country by railways and steamers, thus at
the same time developing trade and reducing slavery. He calculated that
with great economy, and utilising the machinery and the rails that were
already lying idle in the country, a highway from Cairo to Khartoum
might have been opened up for L70,000, a sum of money which over and
over again has been frittered away in building great useless palaces
for the Khedive or some other Egyptian official, which bring in no
income, and are a great expense to keep up. The traffic, especially the
conveyance of ivory and other merchandise, would soon have recouped the
Government for their original outlay. The way in which Colonel Gordon
was thwarted in every possible manner at this time troubled him a good
deal. "As for myself," he writes, "I am exceedingly weary, and wish,
with a degree of bitterness, that it was all over. I am cooped up here
now, but am much occupied with finances, which are in a very low state.
My life is burthensome and weary, but I feel that it is better to be
employed here than to be idle elsewhere."

Writing on November 20, 1878, he says:--

"I will give you an instance of the miserable way the Cairo
Government treats the Soudan. I asked H.H.[8] a long time ago to
send up a man A.