Last Words With Gordon.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 130, 26 February 1887, Page 8

Last Words With Gordon.

In the new number of the "Fortnightly Review " General Graham gives some interesting recollections of Gordon. General Graham accompanied him on tho first stage of the fatal expedition, bidding him goodbye on tho f ringo of tho great Nubian desert 41 Pictures," e:iys Genoral Gralurn, " have boon drawn of Gordon us a yloomy ascetic, wrapped up in mystic thoughts, retiring from all communion vith the world, and inspiring ioar rather thcin affection, lean only describe him m he appeared to mo. Far from being a gloomy ascetic, he always seemed to me to retain a boyish frankness, and to long to share his ideas with others. Our iutimacy began when we were thrown together in mining the docks at Sebastopol during the winter of 1555 56, a period Gordon always delighted in referring to whenever we met, by calling up old scene?, and ©yen old jokes of that time. Like all men of action, but more e?pecially soldiers, Gordon disliked argument with subordinates when once he had resolved on his course of action ; othorwiae he invited discussion, and I always found him most tolerant in listening to arguments against his own views, even on subjects in which he, of course, possessed a knowledge far exceeding any I could pretend to." " Tho vexed question of Zebehr, of course, came," cays General Graham, " frequently under discussion. I had seen and spokeu with Zebehr at Cairo before I had any idea of Grrdon's coming, and had conceived a horror of that man of smooth words but cruel deeds, with hia hideous face suggestive to me of a death's head teuanted by a demon. lam therefore pejudiced, and knowing that he hated Gordon with a murderous hate, was strongly against Zebehr being allowed to accompany him. Stewart at this time shared these feelings, and t»Bgged me to use any influence I might possess with Gordon to dissuade him from asking for Zebehr. Yet later events showed that we judge with a very limited knowledge of the circumstances." Here is an extract from a letter written by General Graham concerning the gigantic scheme which Gotdon was hatching in hia brain : ** This single-minded Napoleon developed to me hia Congo schemo, which is nothing less than founding a great state in the centre of Africa under the auspices of the Kin;? of the Belgians, Who is ready to pive XI OO, OOO a year to it. He now proposes to take the Bahr Ga/elle and Equatorial provinces and incorporate them with his Congo State, by which means he hopes to suppres? n. good deal of the alave trade. He finished by faying, " A capital plan ; I will write to the King of the Belgians tomoirovr' (it was then 11 p.m.). Gordon is a prompt, rapid worker, and the next morning on entering the saloon he handed me a long letter to the King of the Belgians, Guished ott v/ith a neat sketch, setting forth all bis viewp, and touching deli cately on the necessity for obtaining a recognition of hia iiisj. I believe that one element in hia scheme particularly pleasing to Gordon is that by his proposed anangement he need not return to Cairo, but may go straight from too Soudan to the Congo. It wa 5 also in Gordon's mind at this time to get the assent of our Government and of the King cc the Belgians to the incorporation of the whole of the Eastern Soudan into the Congo Scate, hi* Majesty's £100,000 co be administered by Gordon an ruler of the Soudan and Congo uauer the King of the Bdlgiars."' General Graham thus describes his farewell: "We inched Korosko on the evening of the Ist of February, and the next morning wae that for saying good byo s a^ here Gordon entered the great Nubian desert. That morning we had a long talk together on dccl*. Cifter breakfast, wbon he told me what he meant to do.J.ind how he felt for the miser) of tho natives. About 8 o'clock he mounted his camel and paid good-bye, but I v^lked beside him, and ho shortly afterward- £ot down and walked with me At ia't 1 left him Faying ' Good bye* again, ' Gee. bless you. 1 Then he mounted a^ain. . . . Gordon carried no arms, but Stsv uthad a revolver. j3g fore Gordon lev he me a Icti£ hejiv*y silver mounted Uoaroo«h, or&oucan ririinc whip, of rhinocei 35 hide, and told me to say, ' that was x token that the roi^n of the kourbosli I' 1 the Soudan was ovfar.' In return he took my white umbrella, having lo.i't his own." " When on board again," ea\ 1 General Graham, "I wrote the follovinsj note on Gordon's character, whic'j I here Lieroiy as showing the itnr-s^ion my latest intercourse with him had on me : "It mi>y seem a paradox, but it seems time that •although Gordon ne 1 . er regulate?* hid conduct by the opinions of otbers, ho yet ha? an intense longing; for human sympathy. His impatient e h only a symptom of the Intensity of thh lowering. But what ho demands he g>v c j freely, and thi explains his great power c^ar natives, 1* i& the Bame with child! 3^. Gordon is i man nil children would r^hietively woiphip, for he loves them bo He told me th-it he has cried over the m - s erv of the native?, foretimes before, and with thorn, an i to 1 hen simple minds r. miv "with *-o nau?h powor and so much taolin^ for them muat be indeed a new r«'ol.\tion. Ycu p,an f<eo bis kin"Jnefl3 flu d:i~ in hi- fi~e when tha natives crew. :ound him !:hr<in{.r hi-j hands "