hty
rank and power. At Communion this morning I asked Christ to let me
rest, and then He should take the post of COMMANDANT-GENERAL, and
that I should be passive in the matter. Good-bye, my dear Augusta,
_fifteen years more_."

He arrived at the Cape on May 3rd, 1882, and at once made the
acquaintance of the Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, and the Premier,
Mr. Merriman. He found things in a very unsatisfactory condition, and
nearly decided to have nothing to do with them. The Cape Government
were in an awkward position, the affairs of the Basuto war being in the
hands of Mr. Orpen, in whom the Government had no confidence, but whom,
for party reasons, they did not like to remove. Consequently they could
not entrust matters entirely to General Gordon. He good-naturedly
yielded to pressure, accepted the post of Commandant-General, on L1200
per annum, and undertook to report to the Cape Government his
suggestions for the improvement of the army generally, as well as the
best means for bringing the Basuto trouble to a speedy termination. The
arrangement was a very unsatisfactory one, but, with that public
spiritedness which so characterised him, Gordon threw himself
thoroughly into the business, and, before the end of the month, he drew
up a most able, statesman-like paper on the whole subject. With most it
would have been a piece of presumption for a man during a single month,
much of which was spent in travelling, to attempt such a task, more
especially as some of the questions were extremely difficult. But such
was Gordon's capacity for work, and for grasping complex questions,
that not only was the paper he drew up most exhaustive, but, read in
the light of subsequent events, it shows how well-informed he was, and
what an impartial mind he brought to bear on the subjects before him.
He read very quickly, he could at a glance grasp the salient points of
any question, and, having a wonderfully retentive memory, no important
detail was lost sight of. He wrote both quickly and clearly, and had
the faculty of presenting his points in a lucid manner. Like many
military men, who are, when young, taken from their studies, he did not
always write in the best of English, but he made up for this in the
remarkable manner in which he could marshal facts and arguments, and
the ease with which he carried his reader along. In his letters and
journals he does not do himself justice as a writer, but in his
official desp