— 86 — going on these terms, so I returned to Cairo, (i) When Gordon had departed for the Sudan, in 1 884, in order to effect its evacuation, he asked the Government to send me to his assistance, and to take it over after his departure, but I was told that the Anti-Slavery Society in London objected.

It was also thought that I might join my forces to those of the Mahdi but, as for the Mahdi, I do not think that he was the appointed agent of God for, though God does indubitably speak throughithe inspiration of His prophets, those days are long since passed away, whereas men who profess to have inherited the divine spirit come and go like geese in the time of the heat, while God alone remains unaltering and unaltered. Nor do I, for that matter, believe in dreams or the portents of the sky, which I leave to those who pretend to have cognisance of them.

For what God willeth comes to pass, and there is no strength nor power save in Him. Still, perhaps, on general grounds it were wiser to believe in the Mahdi than to disbelieve, for no one can know the intentions of God, and, if the promised Christ were to come and one rejected Him, then would hell fire be one's portion.

In the year 1885 certain talebearers in Cairo slandered me, saying that there were secret communications passing between me and the Mahdi. The police surrounded my house one night and searched (l) It is worth while recalling the fact that in 1874 Gordon tried to employ Abu Saud, a notorious slave dealer, with most unsatisfactory results.