A BASE DEED. 35 Little as he cared about personal consequences, he would perhaps scarcely have said this unless he had felt that it would either produce a crisis or preface his resignation. In August, however, the secretary for native affairs, Mr. Sauer, went up to Williamstown and asked Gordon to go with him into Basutoland, where he was to meet Mr. Orpen the ministerial representative. Gordon contended that as he was opposd to Mr. Orpen's policy, and as the government had taken no notice of the convention which he had suggested, he could be of no possible use there. Still Sauer persisted, and Gordon reluctantly consented to accompany him. They reached Basutoland in September, and had an interview with Letsea the chief, who assumed to be an ally of the government and hostile to Masupha. Gordon was more than ever convinced that the policy of encouraging hostility between the tribes was utterly mistaken, and he handed to Mr. Sauer a memorandum to that effect. Mr. Sauer, after having considered the memorandum, asked Gordon if he would go as a private individual to Masupha and see what he could do. It must be remembered that Mr.

Sauer was an important official, that he knew what were Gordon's views, and that the government, also knowing them, wished him to accompany the secretary. Gordon was not a man to shrink from such an attempt as Sauer now persuaded him to undertake, even though he had no credentials nor instructions, and his mission was non-official and merely tentative. He went, as usual, unarmed, and as usual impressed the savage chief with his honesty of purpose and the truth of his representations. Had this not been the case Gordon might never have returned alive, for while he was negotiating with Masupha, the emissaries of those who had the management of the policy that was being pursued, had incited Letsea to send his son Lethrodi with a number of men to attack the old chief. It is not desirable to speculate on the possible motives of the immediate instigators of such an act. That Gordon had gone to see Basuto on a mission of peace was known, but that was the moment chosen treacherously to renew hostilities. Doubtless Gordon's expressions of indignation and astonishment w equal to those of the old chief himself, who with a fine instinct