ve, and Gordon and his staff were pestered by crowds
of gnats. It was still worse in September when the rain poured down and
large tracts were converted into swamp, from which dangerous miasma was
exhaled. In a month seven of Gordon's eight officers had died of fever,
but he himself continued his work undismayed, and wrote in his diary:
"God willing, I shall do much in this country."

He soon perceived that the best districts of his province lay around the
large lakes in the south. But the Equatorial Province was too far away
from Egypt. It hung as it were on a long string, the Nile, and from the
largest lake, the Victoria Nyanza, the distance to Cairo in a straight
line was nearly 2200 miles. Much shorter was the route to Mombasa on the
east coast, so Gordon advised the Khedive to occupy Mombasa and open a
road to the Victoria Nyanza. Then it would be easier to contend against
the slave-trade. He described the condition of the Sudan in forcible
letters, and into the Khedive's ears were dinned truths such as he
never heard from his servile pashas. He would first establish steam
communication with the lakes, and a number of boats which could be taken
to pieces were on the way to his province.

The boats came up at the time when the Nile began to rise after rain,
and then his plan was to advance farther southwards. The natives were
opposed to this progress and feared the supremacy of Egypt, and
therefore they tried to prevent the advance of the "White Pasha," who
was loath to employ arms against them. All they wanted was to be left in
peace in their grasslands and forests; and when now an intruder, whose
aims they did not understand, penetrated into their country, they
endeavoured whenever they could to bar his way, so that he was obliged,
much against his will, to resort to force.

After all kinds of troubles and difficulties he reached at last the
northernmost of the Nile lakes, the Albert Nyanza, and it was a great
feat to have brought a steamer even thus far. He did not succeed in
reaching the Victoria Nyanza, for the ruler of the country between the
lakes had resolved to oppose with all his power any intruder, were he
white man or Arab.

For three years Gordon was at work on the Upper Nile in the
neighbourhood of the equator. During the next three years we find him in
the deserts of the Sudan farther north. He was Governor-General of the
whole of the Egyptian Sudan, and Khartum was his capital. His province
was 1