Gordon was at that time taking a quiet rest near Jaffa, in the Holy Land, and making investigations into places specially spoken of in the Scriptures. He thought he could locate the place where Samuel took Agag and hewed him to pieces. Also the well, called “Jacob’s Well,” and other places of interest. It is said at this juncture, things in the Soudan had become hopeless. A gentleman sent to one of the papers at Cairo the following message: “Would to God that an angel would stand at the elbow of Lord Granville in London, and say, And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Gordon, and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.” Strange to say, about this time, Gordon was sent for to London, where he had interviews with Lord Hartington, Secretary of State for War, Lord Granville, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lord Northbrook, First Lord of
the Admiralty, and Sir Charles Dilke, President of the Local Government Board, at the War Office, and in a very short space of time, the question, which was destined to have far reaching results, was settled, and Gordon declared his willingness to go to Khartoum at the earliest possible date. Indeed he said, “At once,” and to go alone.
Something like the following conversation is said to have taken place between Gordon and one of his very intimate friends: “Well, General, have you got your kit ready?” His reply was, “I have got what I always have: this hat is good enough, so are these clothes, my boots I think are strong enough.” “And how are you off for cash?” “Ah! I was nearly forgetting that. I had to borrow £25 from the King of the Belgians to bring me home from Palestine; this I must repay, and I shall of course need a little more for common daily use.” “How much do you think, two or three thousand pounds?” “Oh dear no! One hundred pounds apiece for myself and Stewart, will be enough; what on earth should we want so much money for.” And so the gallant general, with his faithful
companion—the late lamented Colonel Stewart, started.
We are told they were accompanied to Charing Cross railway station by H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge, who took their tickets for them; also by Lord Wolseley (who would insist on carrying Gordon’s portmanteau), Colonel Brackenbury, and Lord Hartington’s private secretary, who bade them good-bye, and God speed on their mission, from which they were never to return. We think history will never record a more heroic example of patriotism, than that of this God-fearing officer, riding forth upon his swift footed camel, with only one English friend and companion, the Colonel Stewart, and a few Arab attendants, to confront and settle the wild and barbarous hordes of the Madhi.
One of our papers published the following appropriate lines:—
“Not with an army at command,
Not fenced about with guns and swords,
But trusting to their single hands,
Amid a host of savage hordes,
The hero Gordon wends in haste,
Across the desert’s arid waste,
Beset with perils lies his way,
Yet fear he knows not: Nelson like,
His life would be an easy prey,
If but the Arab dare to strike.
But over him there hangs a spell,
The Soudan people know full well:
Oft he had taught the Eastern mind
The grace of noble-hearted deeds;
Oft cast abuses to the wind,
And succoured men in direst needs;
Nor shall the charm that all allow
Is grandly his, forsake him now:
Oh! should the power of his name
Bend the false prophet to its thrall
And make him deem the hero came,
To pay him just a friendly call,
The ruthless carnage soon might cease,
And Egypt be again at peace.”
The subject of Gordon’s mission came up several times in the British House of Commons as might be expected. Sir Stafford Northcote on one occasion said—“There is one point upon which all our minds are fixed—I mean the mission of General Gordon. On that point I was anxious to say little or nothing. General Gordon is now engaged in an attempt of the most gallant and dangerous kind. No one can speak with too much admiration of his courage and self-devotion: no one can fail, in
this country to sympathise with him, and earnestly desire his safety and success.”
Reaching Cairo, Gordon received his plans and instructions from the Khedive, and here we think arose some of the complications and misunderstandings as to his actual position. Was he in the employ of the Khedive, or was he still responsible to the Home Government? The Khedive expressed himself to Gordon in a letter dated Jan. 26, 1884.