oyment and his immediate
departure from the Mauritius. The increasing urgency of the Basuto
question induced the Cape Government to send a message by telegraph to
Aden, and thence by steamer direct to Gordon. In this message they
stated that "the services of some one of proved ability, firmness, and
energy," were required; that they did not expect Gordon to be bound by
the salary named in his own telegram, and that they begged him to
visit the Colony "at once"--repeating the phrase twice. All these
messages reached Gordon's hands on 2nd April. Two days later he
started in the sailing vessel _Scotia_, no other ship being
obtainable.

The Cape authorities had therefore no ground to complain of the
dilatoriness of the man to whom they appealed in their difficulty,
although their telegram was despatched 3rd of March, and Gordon did
not reach Cape Town before the 3rd of May. It will be quite understood
that Gordon had offered in the first place, and been specially invited
in the second place, to proceed to the Cape, for the purpose of
dealing with the difficulty in Basutoland. He was to find that, just
as his mission to China had been complicated by extraneous
circumstances, so was his visit to the Cape to be rendered more
difficult by Party rivalries, and by work being thrust upon him which
he had several times refused to accept, and for the efficient
discharge of which, in his own way, he knew he would never obtain the
requisite authority.

Before entering upon this matter a few words may be given to the
financial agreement between himself and the Cape Government. The first
office in 1880 had carried with it a salary of L1500; in 1881 Gordon
had offered to go for L700; in 1882 the salary was to be a matter of
arrangement, and on arrival at Cape Town he was offered L1200 a year.
He refused to accept more than L800 a year; but as he required and
insisted on having a secretary, the other L400 was assigned for that
purpose. In naming such a small and inadequate salary Gordon was under
the mistaken belief that his imperial pay of L500 a year would
continue, but, unfortunately for him, a new regulation, 25th June
1881, had come into force while he was buried away in the Mauritius,
and he was disqualified from the receipt of the income he had earned.
Gordon was very indignant, more especially because it was clear that
he was doing public service at the Cape, while, as he said with some
bitterness, if he had started an hotel or