returned with his men
to Shaka.

They rose again; and Gordon's Italian aide, Gessi, after a year's
marching and fighting, succeeded in capturing Suleiman, and some of
the chief slave-dealers with him. They were tried as rebels and
shot. The suppression of the slave trade had thus been practically
accomplished when on July 1st news arrived of the deposition of
Ismail and the succession of Tewfik, which determined Gordon to
resign his appointment. On arriving at Cairo, the khedive induced
him first to undertake a mission to Abyssinia to prevent, if
possible, an impending war with that country. Gordon went, saw King
John, at Debra Tabor, but could arrive at no satisfactory
understanding with him, and was abruptly dismissed. On his way to
Kassala he was made prisoner to King John's men and carried to
Garramudhiri, where he was left to find his way with his little
party over the snowy mountains to the Red Sea. He reached Massowah
on December 8, 1879, and on his return to Cairo, the khedive
accepted his resignation. He arrived in England early in January,
1880. During his service under the khedive, Gordon received both the
second-and first-class of the order of the Medjidieh.

His constitution was so much impaired by his sojournings in so
deadly a climate that his medical advisers sent him to Switzerland
to recruit. He returned to England, in April, 1880, and in the
following month accompanied the Marquis of Ripon, the new Viceroy of
India, to that country as his private secretary. He resigned almost
immediately, and was invited to China to advise the Chinese
Government in connection with their then strained relations with
Russia. Gordon accepted at once, and although difficulties were
raised by the home authorities, he reached Hongkong on July 2d, and
went on by Shanghai and Chefoo to Tientsin to meet his old friend,
Li Hung Chang, who, with Prince Kung, headed the peace party. From
Tientsin, Gordon went to Pekin, and his wise and disinterested
counsels in favor of peace at length carried the day.

In 1881 he went to Mauritius as commanding royal engineer, and while
there was promoted major-general. In 1882, he was at the Cape
Colony, endeavoring to arrange a peace with the natives of
Basutoland; but he failed, largely through the treachery of the Cape
officials.

[Illustration: Gordon attacked by El Mahdi's Arabs.]

The success of the Mahdi in the Soudan and the catastrophe to Hicks
Pasha, in November, 1883, had in