fourteen days. In 1862 Major Gordon left for Shanghai under the
orders of Sir Charles Staveley who had been appointed to the command of
the English forces in China. At the very time that England and France
were at war with China, a terrible and far reaching rebellion was laying
waste whole provinces. An article in our London _Daily News_ about this
date said, "But for Gordon the whole Continent of China might have been a
scene of utter and hopeless ruin and devastation." At the date he took
charge of the "ever victorious army," China was in a state of widespread
anarchy and confusion.

This rebellion which Gordon was here authorized to suppress was called
"The Tai-ping rebellion." Its rise was brought about by a strange
mixture of incredulity and fanaticism, caused by some European Christian
giving away his literature. A village demagogue named Hung-tsne-Shuen
caught the idea, after reading the papers referred to, that he was
inspired; that he was God, King, Emperor, and that he ought to rule; so,
puffed up with pride and insatiable ambition, he began raising an army;
and aimed at nothing less than the usurpation of the "Dragon Throne."
Some thought him mad; but he gathered about him some 20,000 men whom he
had influenced to believe in him as the "Second Celestial Brother," and
gave out he was a seer of visions, a prophet of vengeance and freedom; a
champion of the poor and oppressed; and many were mad enough to believe
him, and thus he raised an army which grew in strength until it reached
some hundreds of thousands strong; he then proclaimed himself the
Heavenly King, The Emperor of the great place; and then with five wangs
or warrior kings, chosen from amongst his kinsmen, he marched through
China, devastating the country, and increasing his army in his progress.

The most populous, and until now wealthy provinces were soon in his
hands. The silk factories were silent; the Cities were falling into
utter and hopeless desolation: rebellion, war and famine, raged and
reigned supreme. Gordon made them pause! His marvellous power of
organizing and leading men, a power derived from an inflexible,
determined, fearless, and deeply religious temperament, influenced the
Chinese character quickly and powerfully. His very name soon became a
terror to the banded brigands and to all evil doers. An Englishman in
China at the time wrote home and said "The destiny of China is in the
hands of Major Gordon, and if he remain