arrange the exchange; and secondly that no
payment was to be made to him as was usual--in this case about
L800--on an exchange being effected. Sir Howard Elphinstone was thus
saved by Gordon's peculiarities a disagreeable experience and a
considerable sum of money. Some years after Gordon's death Sir Howard
met with a tragic fate, being washed overboard while taking a trip
during illness to Madeira.

Like everything else he undertook, Gordon determined to make his
Mauritius appointment a reality, and although he was only in the
island twelve months, and during that period took a trip to the
interesting group of the Seychelles, he managed to compress an immense
amount of work into that short space, and to leave on record some
valuable reports on matters of high importance. He found at Mauritius
the same dislike for posts that were outside the ken of headquarters,
and the same indifference to the dry details of professional work that
drove officers of high ability and attainments to think of resigning
the service sooner than fill them, and, when they did take them, to
pass their period of exile away from the charms of Pall Mall in a
state of inaction that verged on suspended animation. In a passage
already quoted, he refers to the deadly sleep of his military friends,
and then he goes on to say in a sentence, which cannot be too much
taken to heart by those who have to support this mighty empire, with
enemies on every hand--"We are in a perfect Fools' Paradise about our
power. We have plenty of power if we would pay attention to our work,
but the fault is, to my mind, the military power of the country is
eaten up by selfishness and idleness, and we are trading on the
reputation of our forefathers. When one sees by the newspapers the
Emperor of Germany sitting, old as he is, for two long hours
inspecting his troops, and officers here grudging two hours a week for
their duties, one has reason to fear the future."

During his stay at Mauritius he wrote three papers of first-rate
importance. One of them on Egyptian affairs after the deposition of
Ismail may be left for the next chapter, and the two others, one on
coaling stations in the Indian Ocean, and the second on the
comparative merits of the Cape and Mediterranean routes come within
the scope of this chapter, and are, moreover, deserving of special
consideration. With regard to the former of these two important
subjects, Gordon wrote as follows, but I cannot discover