GORDON IN THE MAURITIUS. *i China, they were compelled to send a message that his leave had been cancelled. He was on his way home when the intimation reached him at Shanghai, and the leave was then extended to o-Jve him time to get back to England by the end of February, 18S1.

For some time he had been cherishing: the intention of taking the longed-for holiday rest in Syria and Palestine, but he had no sooner reached home than he was caught by some of the moving questions of the hour — the condition of Ireland and the Irish, — the evacuation of Candahar. To Ireland he went on a visit, and came to his own conclusions on the subject of the troubles, but he had already been devoting his attention to a proposal on the part of the King of the Belgians to organize an international expedition to the Congo, of which his majesty desired that he should take the command. The scheme was not then matured, and Gordon, after a brief holiday at Lausanne, accepted an offer to proceed to Mauritius as commanding royal engineer. A good many of his friends were highly pleased that he had undertaken this post, because they regarded it as a method of reserving him, as it were, in case some important duty should demand a man of unusual qualifications, energy, and resource. Just before taking this appointment Gordon had received intelligence of the death of Gessi in the French hospital at Suez; and the news was a blow to him, for he knew that his work in the Soudan would now be undone. On his way out Gordon stayed at Suez to visit the grave of his brave lieutenant and faithful follower.

At Mauritius the work was somewhat irksome because of official routine, but the ten months passed there brought in reality something like the needed rest, and as much leisure as Gordon would have been likely to take. It was a quiet, peaceable, and by no means an unhappy time, during which he was greatly interested in those marvellous islands the Seychelles, made some curious speculative researches as to the geographical position of the Garden of Eden, and as a more professional occupation planned and put forward some very excellent schemes for the defence of the Indian Ocean. While thus occupied, in March, 1SS2, he was raised to the rank of major-general, and at about the same time, or