6 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

seemed instantly to acquit his visitor of either knowledge of or participation in the base act, and suffered him to depart unmolested. Masupha apparently knew better than the Cape ministry what was due to a gentleman and a brave, upright, and distinguished man. Gordon departed for the nearest station from which he could telegraph his resignation to the undercolonial-secretary at Cape Town. This was on the 26th of September, 1882, and his resignation being accepted he left South Africa only a little more than five months after he had been induced to take office there by the persuasion that he could place at the disposal of the colonial government qualifications which all the world, except that government, had been able to appreciate.

It may, of course, be contended that by his experiences and the positions which he had held Gordon had learned to take an attitude which in an officer holding any other than the highest position in a regular government would appear to be somewhat masterful, and his own character and disposition were not favourable to habits of submission or circumlocution. That he was accustomed to advance his own views with much plainness when he thought that occasion called for a personal expression of them is well known, but after allowing for all this the conduct of the Cape government cannot be defended. Had he not been allowed to remain under a misconception of the position he was to occupy he would probably have resigned as promptly as he did when he discovered that he had himself made a mistake in accepting the post of private secretary to Lord Ripon, and his explanation would then have involved nobody but himself, as when people complained on that occasion that he had suppressed his motives for resigning, he said at once that, in such a position with a turbulent spirit like his, he would be likely to do more harm than good, and would only too probably hamper the viceroy, and involve him in difficulties.

It must have been with a sense of relief, not unmingled with a certain feeling of disdain, that Gordon left the Cape. His experiences there had apparently tended to increase his reserve, but had not embittered his temper. He had learned not to fear and not