18 GORDON AND THE MAHDI.
the decorations of the Yellow Jacket and the Peacock's Feather. The British Government made him a C.B. Yet he left China as poor as he had entered it. His pay he had spent inpromotingthe efficiency of the force under him, the money gift offered by the Chinese Governmenthe refused, and the only thinghe accepted
from them, a gold medal, wassubsequently contributed by him to the Lancashire Cotton Famine Belief Fund.
One memento of his command in China clung to him, and this was the sobriquet of "Chinese Gordon," by
whichhe was everafterwards known.
major, wasappointed to the vacant command inMarch, 1863. The theatre of war was the low-lying and well- watered district of Kiangnan, betweenthe lower Yantsze and the bay of Hangchow. Gordon's first feat was the capture of Fushan and the relief of Chanzu. His next
was the storming of Taitsan. He then assailed Quin- san, a strongly fortified town of great strategic import- ance, containing a garrison far outnumberinghis com- mand. The capture of the city wasvirtually effected by alittleriver steamboat, the Hyson, mounting two guns. In her he steamed up a canal, seized on a causeway7 leadingintoQuinsanand createdsucha panic that theIm-
perialisttroops wereable to marchin withoutopposition.
A dangerous mutiny, one of many, of the Ever- Victorious Army, had next to be quelled. Kahpoo, Wo- kong,and Patachow were then taken as a preliminary*to
assailing Soochow, the City of Pagodas, one of the most important of the Taepingstrongholds. The thoroughin- vestment occupied considerable time, and anight attack on November 27th, which Gordon headed, was beaten back with some loss. Two days later,after some des- perate fighting, he effected a lodgment that rendered
Soochow untenable. The city surrendered and, to Gordon'shorror and rage,the TaepingWangs, for whose safety he had expressly* stipulated,were slaughtered by the Imperialist commander Li. Enraged beyond all bounds, for the first time in the war he took weapon in hand. Armedwitha revolver,he sought out Li and,had he found him, wouldhave assuredlyslain him. Failing
in this,he ledhis forces back to Quinsan,andtillthe end of February,1864, remained inactive,refusing inhis in- dignationto accept either the decorationor themonetary gift offeredby theImperialGovernment.
During Gordon's inaction, the rebellion again made head, and he at length consented to take the fieldagain. He captured Yising and Liyang, advancing through a
districtin which the roads were strewnwith the corpses of people who had died of starvation,and the fewyet alive watchedtheir comrades dying in order to feed on their yet warmbodies. He next assailed Kintang. Up to this he hadheadedassault after assault exposedto the hottest fire, andnevercarrying any weaponsave a little cane with which he used to direct his soldiers and which they had dubbedhismagic wandof victory. HisChinese soldiers, seeing him always in front,concluded that he
bore a charmedlife, and that this wandaffordedhimpro- tection, but now the spell was to be broken. Two successive assaults were repulsed, and Gordon was shot throughthe leg, but stood giving orders tillhe all but fainted fromloss of blood. Finally he had to draw off his forces. Meanwhile the Taepings had seized Fushan and threatened Wuzieh. Prostrate on the deck of his
From 1865 to1871, Gordonlivedat Gravesend superin- tending the constructingof the new defencesin course of erection on the Thames, and doing much good work in ragged schools, workhouses, andinfirmaries. His house, — school, hospital, and almshouse in turn— rather re-
calledthe abodeof amissionary than that of anengineer officer, whilst his charity was unbounded. In1871 he
was appointed British representative on the Danubian Commission, and spent two y*ears at Galatz. We have already explainedhow Colonel Gordon came to succeed Sir Samuel Baker in the Soudan. Offered £10,000 a year, Gordon would only accept £2,000. Landing at Suakimhe crossedthedesert to Berber,paid his firstvisit to Khartoum, andpushedup theNile to Gondokoro, tho nominalcapitalofhisprovince. He beganby conciliating
the nativesandby breaking up the slave stations. His European staff succumbed under the effects of the
dreadfulclimate, althoughonhimit madeno impression.
Gordoncontinued "Governor-Generalof the Equator" for a period of eighteen months, during which time he accomplished miracles. When he arrived, there was a fort at Gondokoro, and one at Fatiko, 200 miles to the south, miserably garrisoned by7 soldiers who dared not venture out half a mile for fear of beingslaughtered by theexasperatednatives. When heleft he hadestablished a chain of stations from the Soudan up to the Albeit Nyanza, and renderedthe communication between them perfectly safe. He had,moreover, succeeded inrestoring confidence andpeace to the tribes of theNileValley, who now freely brought their produce to these stations for sale. He hadeffectually checked the slave trade on the White Nile, and secured a revenue to the Khedive's exchequer, without having recourse to oppression. He had been the means of establishing satisfactory relations
with King M'tesa, the powerful ruler of Ugunda, had mappedout the White Nile from Khartoum almost up
to theVictoriaNyanza,andhad opened w7ater communica- tion betweenGondokoro andthe lakes,while continually
exposed to the attacks of hostile natives, who had a
wholesome dread of the doubtful benefits of civilization. Gordon thought the blacks of the Soudan immeasurably superiorto their rulers. "All the misery in these parts is due," said he, " to the Arab and Circassian pashas and authorities;" and he tells us how the Moogietribes, hundreds ofmiles south ofGondokoro,pitifully exclaimed inreply to his well-meant advances,"We do not want your beads and your cloth; w*e do not want to see the pasha;we want ourown lands andyouto go away." On one occasiona magicianstood and cursed the expedition, anda disaster soonafterbefalling it,Gordon wasinclined to believe that the wrathfuldenunciation of the invader hadnot beenutteredinvain.
steamer, he yet could plan and fight, and with a few hundred men plunged on into a region occupied by
unknown thousands of enemies and struck at Waisso.
Again his planmiscarried, and he was driven back with farheavierlossthanhe hadyetsustainedin anyencounter. He however effected a junction with the Imperialists,
clearedWaisso, and aftermore than onerepulsejoinedLi instormingChancufu onMay 11.
This wasthe last service of theEver VictoriousArmy; the rebellion was all but crushed, andthe army wasno longer needed. During sixteen months' campaigning under Gordon's guidance,ithad taken four cities and a dozenminor strongholds, fought numerous combats, and put fifteen times its own number of the enemy hors de combat. The Emperor of China bestowed on Gordon, nowaLieutenant-Colonel in theBritish army,thehighest military title of Ti Tu, or Commander in Chief, with
In October, 1876, Gordon, judgingthat he had done enough for the EquatorialProvinces, started northward, halted at Cairo to request Cherif Pasha to inform the Khedive that he intended quitting his service, and on Christmas Eve he reachedLondon. Egypt,however, had notyet done with theintrepidEnglishman.