and he wrote a memorandum,
dated 16th September, which has not been published, showing the
hopelessness of getting one chief to coerce the others.
Notwithstanding the way he had been treated by the Cape Government,
which had ignored all his suggestions, Gordon, in his intense desire
to do good, and his excessive trust in the honour of other persons,
yielded to Mr Sauer's request to visit Masupha, and not only yielded
but went without any instructions or any prior agreement that his
views were to prevail. The consequence was that Mr Sauer deliberately
resolved to destroy Gordon's reputation as a statesman, and to ensure
the triumph of his own policy by an act of treachery that has never
been surpassed.

While Gordon went as a private visitor at the special invitation of
Masupha to that chief's territory, Mr Sauer, who was well acquainted
with Gordon's views, and also the direct author of Gordon's visit at
that particular moment, incited Letsea to induce Lerothodi to attack
Masupha. At the moment that the news of this act of treachery reached
Masupha's ears, Gordon was a guest in Masupha's camp, and the first
construction placed upon events by that chief was, that Gordon had
been sent up to hoodwink and keep him quiet, while a formidable
invasion was plotted of his territory. When Masupha reported this news
to Gordon, he asked what he advised him to do, and it has been
established that the object of the question was to ascertain how far
Gordon was privy to the plot. Gordon's candid reply--"Refuse to have
any dealings with the Government until the forces are withdrawn," and
his general demeanour, which showed unaffected indignation, convinced
Masupha of his good faith and innocence of all participation in the
plot.

A very competent witness, Mr Arthur Pattison (letter in _The Times_,
20th August 1885), bears this testimony: "Gordon divined his character
marvellously, and was the only man Masupha had the slightest regard
for. Masupha, if you treat him straightforwardly, is as nice a man as
possible, and even kind and thoughtful; but, if you treat him the
other way, he is a fiend incarnate."

Had Masupha not been thus convinced, Gordon's death was decided on,
and never in the whole course of his career, not even when among the
Taepings on the day of the Wangs' murder in Soochow, nor among
Suleiman's slave-hunters at Shaka, was he in greater peril than when
exposed by the treacherous proceedings of Sauer and Orpen to the