fered retired rather than go to
Mauritius. Sir Howard Elphinstone was then offered the command, and
would also probably have retired, but Colonel Gordon offered to go for
him, and refused any money on account of the exchange, though usually
L700 or L800 was paid for an exchange of this kind. Yet Gordon was so
poor that he had actually to borrow the money to pay for his passage
when he went from India to China a few months before this! He left
England for the Mauritius on the 2nd May, travelling _via_ the Suez
Canal and Aden.

The voyage opened up to his ever-active fertile brain the whole
question of the advantage to England of the Suez Canal, and of our
proper route to India. This, he maintained most strongly, should, in
the event of war, be _via_ the Cape, and not through the Canal, his
opinion concurring with that of Lord Palmerston, Mr. W. E. Forster, and
many men of ability. The Suez route may save a few days, but the risk
is terrible. In some parts of the Canal only one ship can pass at a
time, and a sunken barge, a little dynamite, or even a severe sandstorm
may block the Canal for days. An enemy could easily bribe the owners of
a few petty craft to sink their vessels, and thus completely to block
up troopships in the Canal. Even without such designs our troopships
are frequently delayed in passing through owing to accidents of all
sorts.

The heads of many Englishmen have been completely turned by the opening
of the Suez Canal, and Gordon was one of the few who stood out against
the idea of considering it as _the_ proper route to India. It has been
said that our trade has increased very largely since the Canal was
opened, and that is true; but then the period in question has been one
of special activity, and probably our trade would have increased no
less had the Canal never been constructed. Moreover, the trade of other
countries has increased even more rapidly. Italy, France, Russia,
Germany, and Austria have gained more in proportion than we have. In
the olden days, when all the trade with the East came to Europe _via_
the Cape, England was the great centre of the world. Everything was
shipped to England, and then despatched to different parts of Europe.
We were the great carriers of the ocean. But the Suez Canal has
disturbed this arrangement, and the European nations can more easily
obtain their supplies direct through the Canal, to the detriment of our
labour market. Gordon recognised that it was too lat