March 7th, and left again on the
30th; and during the whole of his stay he was wretched. At first the
Khedive paid great attention to him, receiving him with a splendour
which suggested the "Arabian Nights." He asked him to be the president
of a commission of inquiry into the finances of the country, with the
condition attached that he should use his influence to arrange with the
representatives of the different countries that the commissioners of
the debt or the representatives of the creditors who had lent money to
Egypt should not serve on that commission of inquiry. After a good deal
of discussion, it was finally ascertained that this condition would not
be consented to by the foreign Governments. This of course relieved
Colonel Gordon of any obligations in the matter, and he, seeing that he
could be of no further service, decided to return to his province.
Considering how much Gordon had done to try and accomplish the desires
of the Khedive, there can be little question that he was in this matter
treated very badly. "I left Cairo," said he, "with no honours, by the
ordinary train, paying my own passage. The sun which rose with such
splendour set in the deepest obscurity. I calculate my financial
episode cost me L800. His Highness was bored with me after my failure,
and could not bear the sight of me."

Fortunately for Gordon, he cared very little for official favour. "I
now only look," said he in a letter written a short time after this,
"to benefiting the people." It was in this spirit he visited Harrar, a
small province detached from the Soudan, and lying to the south of
Abyssinia, on the eastern coast of Africa, almost opposite to Aden.
This province had once belonged to Turkey, but had been transferred to
the Khedive in exchange for L15,000 per annum extra tribute. The
governor of the province was Raouf Pasha, whom Colonel Gordon, it will
be remembered, had refused to employ on account of his cruel treatment
of the natives in the Equatorial Province four years before. Again he
had been playing the tyrant, and Gordon felt it to be his duty to turn
him out. As this man afterwards succeeded Colonel Gordon as
Governor-General of the Soudan, it is to him more than any one that the
present Khedive is indebted for having lost the whole of the Soudan. By
his tyranny, following after Gordon's kindness, the province was
stirred into revolt, and the Mahdi enabled to usurp authority. We are,
however, anticipating events.