376 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

which he formed with respect to Zobehr. It would be an insult to Gordon's memory to suppose that his hatred of slavery and the slave trade was not sincere.

He had done everything in his power to exterminate the slave trade in the Soudan, and had waged a relentless war against the Arab slave-dealers, of whom Zobehr was the acknowledged chief. Yet this was the man of all others, whom Gordon requested the British Government to send to Khartoum as his coadjutor, and as his eventual successor in the Governorship of the Soudan. From all I can learn, I think there is a remote possibility that, if this request had been granted, the situation might have been saved. The idea of using Zobehr's great personal influence in the Soudan, especially in his own country lying between Berber and Khartoum, so as to counteract the growing authority of the Mahdi, was one of the occasional inspirations of genius which redeem the manifold failures of Gordon as an administrator.

There is, too, an element of heroism in the selfabnegation which induced Gordon to forego his cherished ambition of being known to history as the suppressor of the Soudan slave trade, in order to do the best for the people entrusted to his care.

Nobody knew better than he did, that if the Mahdi was allowed to consolidate his rule in the Soudan, the slave trade, with all its horrors and outrages, would revive at once. If, on the other hand, Zobehr could be substituted for the Mahdi, and appointed ruler of the Soudan, as a salaried Egyptian official, acting, in