GENERAL GORDON S DECLARATIONS. I I

his extraordinary achievements in the Soudan, no less than his

courage, honesty, and singleness of purpose, seemed to them most eminently to qualify him for conducting such an enterprise

as that of bringing out the inhabitants of Khartum in safety, and

exercising some influence upon the natives of the adjacent provinces.

That the government had been looking ahead further than

their assailants had given them credit for, was afterwards shown

when it transpired that months before Colonel Coetlogon's message asking for aid had reached Cairo they had proposed to the Egyp-

tian government that General Gordon should be commissioned to go to the Western Soudan; but the suggestion was not received with favour either by them or by our own representative at Cairo. They thought that under the circumstances then existing it would not be desirable for General Gordon to go out, and it was to be

regretted, as events showed, that our government did not either abandon the proposal altogether or insist on its being accepted promptly. This, however, would have been undertaking the kind

of responsibility which they had all along denied and refused, and

as General Gordon himself was by no means anxious to go at that time the matter remained in abeyance.

At the end of 1SS3, and at the opening of 1SS4, however,

General Gordon's reluctance had considerably diminished, and at the same time his name was being publicly mentioned as that

of the man who could, if any man could, undertake the difficult

task of bringing the inhabitants of Khartum safely to Suakim

or to Cairo, and pacifying the surrounding population. The plan was being everywhere talked about, and it was strongly advocated by the press, for in the first days of January the representative of an influential evening newspaper published a statement by General Gordon himself which is of so much importance in

estimating the position of affairs, and also the attitude of Gordon

in relation to them, that the greater part of it may with advantage come into this narrative : —

"So you would abandon the Soudan? But the Eastern Soudan is indispensable to Egypt. It will cost you far more to

retain your hold upon Egypt proper, if you abandon your hold