86 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

to close upon Omdurman, or could discover our intention and swarm to Metammeh to frustrate it. On the 4th of November Gordon wrote, " I looked upon the descent of the Abbas as a certainty. I looked upon the relief of Khartum as most uncertain; hence I sent down the cipher books of the foreign office." The loss of the steamer and those on board was a great sorrow to him; but as he said, with his views (about life and death) he could not say that the death of Stewart and Power was an evil. He had sent down with them not only Stewart's journal and the cipher, but every paper and document in his possession except a firman from the khedive, received in January, 1884, respecting the withdrawal of the people and the troops and the virtual abandonment of the Soudan, giving back independence to the ancient families of the kings of the Soudan regions. This firman Gordon did not promulgate, but issued instead a notice that he would hold Khartum, and that aid was coming by which the siege might be raised. Gordon had all alongdeclared that nothing should induce him to desert the people at Khartum who had trusted him, and in effect he says in his journal on the 9th of November, 1884: "If the expeditionary force has come for me alone I will not return with it; it may go back, while I will remain here as grovernor-sfeneral and make the best use I can of the war material which belongs to me while I hold that position. If I am removed from that position by a firman from the khedive, I Avill still remain here in a private capacity and devote my life and energy to those people who have devoted their lives to me." The firman virtually proclaiming the abandonment of the Soudan he retained, as, if the Mahdi had got hold of it he would have crowed over it, while if he took Khartijm and found it with Gordon, he might say, " Why, you had the order from Tewfik to give up the country and you did not;" but before he could say so, or obtain the documents, he must take the town, and before the town would be taken Gordon would be killed.

December the 13th and no signs of the expedition. " To-day is the 276th day of our anxiety," writes Gordon. "We are going to send down the Bordccn the day after to-morrow, and with her