CHAPTER XIII
MAURITIUS, CAPE, AND PALESTINE
Gordon left China immediately he had saved that country from war, arriving in England on October 21, 1880. From then till about the end of the following April he spent on leave. During this month the post of officer commanding Royal Engineers at the Mauritius fell vacant, and two officers to whom the command was offered retired rather than go to Mauritius. Sir Howard Elphinstone was then offered the command, and would also probably have retired, but Colonel Gordon offered to go for him, and refused any money on account of the exchange, though usually £700 or £800 was paid for an exchange of this kind. Yet Gordon was so poor that he had actually to borrow the money to pay for his passage when he went from India to China a few months before this! He left England for the Mauritius on the 2nd May, travelling via the Suez Canal and Aden.
The voyage opened up to his ever-active fertile brain the whole question of the advantage to England of the Suez Canal, and of our proper route to India. This, he maintained most strongly, should, in the event of war, be viâ the Cape, and not through the Canal, his opinion concurring with that of Lord Palmerston, Mr. W. E. Forster, and many men of ability. The Suez route may save a few days, but the risk is terrible. In some parts of the Canal only one ship can pass at a time, and a sunken barge, a little dynamite, or even a severe sandstorm may block the Canal for days. An enemy could easily bribe the owners of a few petty craft to sink their vessels, and thus completely to block up troopships in the Canal. Even without such designs our troopships are frequently delayed in passing through owing to accidents of all sorts.
The heads of many Englishmen have been completely turned by the opening of the Suez Canal, and Gordon was one of the few who stood out against the idea of considering it as the proper route to India. It has been said that our trade has increased very largely since the Canal was opened, and that is true; but then the period in question has been one of special activity, and probably our trade would have increased no less had the Canal never been constructed. Moreover, the trade of other countries has increased even more rapidly. Italy, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria have gained more in proportion than we have. In the olden days, when all the trade with the East came to Europe viâ the Cape, England was the great centre of the world. Everything was shipped to England, and then despatched to different parts of Europe. We were the great carriers of the ocean. But the Suez Canal has disturbed this arrangement, and the European nations can more easily obtain their supplies direct through the Canal, to the detriment of our labour market. Gordon recognised that it was too late for the mistake to be remedied, but he was most anxious that we should attach more importance to our hold on the Cape, as the natural route to India in the event of war, and not be deceived by the fictitious advantages of the Suez Canal, which only offers the saving of a few days at enormous risk.
He took the opportunity of stopping at Suez to pay a visit to the grave of his friend and lieutenant, Gessi, who had lost his life and died at Suez from the hardships through which he passed on the Nile, partly owing to the blocking of that river by the "sudd," which had re-formed after Gordon left the Soudan, all precautionary measures having been neglected, and partly owing to the cruel neglect of the authorities, who might have taken more prompt measures for his relief. As his master was to do a few years later, Gessi practically sacrificed his life in the crusade against slavery. He had been an interpreter in the Crimean war, and in the Soudan he exhibited such great military skill that he was given a high independent command, with the result that he was, it will be remembered, the means of capturing and breaking up Suleiman's band of slave-dealers.
Colonel Gordon arrived at the Mauritius at the end of May 1881, and he left in March 1882, so he was only for about ten months on the island. He went out to command the Royal Engineers, but as the officer commanding the island was promoted and sent home, he succeeded by seniority to the chief command. During this period there is not much to mention beyond the fact that here, as elsewhere, he used every opportunity to do acts of kindness to others. Two men of the Royal Artillery had, when the worse for liquor, gone out in a boat, without oars. For eight days they were drifting about in the currents that surround the Mauritius. At last they reached the Island of Bourbon, and in attempting to land, one of them got drowned. The other was sent back to his battery, and the owner of the lost boat at once demanded compensation. Thinking that the poor fellow had already suffered enough for his misdeeds, Colonel Gordon paid for the boat, and took the receipt to the man's commanding officer, stipulating that he should not tell the man who had got him out of trouble. He always took the greatest interest in the men, and also in the agent of the Army Scripture Readers' Society, who worked among them. He told the officer who collected funds for that Society to put him down for a subscription of Rs.40 per annum, and said that if more was wanted he would be delighted to give it.
In March 1882 he received a telegram from the Premier of the Cape Government, asking for his aid in bringing about a termination of the Basuto war. He had previously in April 1881 offered his services on £700 per annum for this purpose, but the Government then in office at the Cape had not even replied to his telegram, either by mail or by wire, and so Gordon had thought no more about the matter. Troubles had thickened, and a new Government had come into office. Hence the offer, accompanied by the statement that they did not expect him to be bound to the salary formerly proposed. Gordon at once accepted the offer, but he could not get a ship going to the Cape direct. Fortunately there was a small coasting vessel called the Scotia bound for the Cape, so Gordon at once took his passage, and stated that he would arrive on board at a certain hour. The hour came, but no passenger arrived. The afternoon wore away, evening came and passed, night arrived, and still the Colonel did not put in an appearance. At last, about midnight, a gentleman quietly came on deck, saying that he was Colonel Gordon, and hastened to explain his reasons for being so late. Some of the officers and people on the island, hearing that he was going to sail, had intended to give him an ovation. In order to escape this, he had walked twelve miles into the interior, returning after dark so that no one should know where he was. Next day, however, crowds came on board to wish him "good-bye," among them many children in whom he had as usual taken an interest. One of these, whom he introduced as his "pet lamb" to the wife of the captain of the ship, brought him a couple of bottles of sherry, and other friends gave him a case of champagne. As he was almost a total abstainer and frequently did not touch stimulants for days together, he had no use for the wine, but he accepted the gifts in order to please the givers.
He made himself perfectly at home on board the little ship, and soon became very friendly with the captain and his wife. He spoke a great deal about the Seychelles Islands, situated to the north-east of Madagascar, which he believed to be the site of the Garden of Eden, and he showed them wood from the coco-de-mer, or nut of the sea, which he believed to be the veritable tree that produced the forbidden fruit which our ancestors tasted. The voyage, though not more than three thousand miles in length, lasted a whole month, and there was some rough weather, which he felt terribly, for he was not a particularly good sailor, and the ship was very small. Writing to his sister he said:—