an English
officer to take command. Major Gordon had been ordered to Shanghai from
Pekin at the beginning of May 1862, and consequently had come under the
command of General Staveley, with whom, it will be remembered, he was
acquainted in the Crimea. General Staveley's duty was to clear the
country for thirty miles round Shanghai of the rebels, and in the
performance of this task Major Gordon had been employed. The opinion
that General Staveley had formed of Gordon's courage and ability in the
Crimea was confirmed in the operations around Shanghai, and the
following account is given by that General of Gordon's plucky
conduct:--

"Captain Gordon was of the greatest use to me when the task of
clearing the rebels from out of the country within a radius of
thirty miles from Shanghai had to be undertaken. He reconnoitred
the enemy's defences, and arranged for the ladder-parties to cross
the moats, and for the escalading of the works; for we had to
attack and carry by storm several towns fortified with high walls
and deep wet ditches. He was, however, at the same time a source of
much anxiety to me from the daring manner in which he approached
the enemy's works to acquire information. Previous to our attack
upon Singpo, and when with me in a boat reconnoitring the place, he
begged to be allowed to land, in order better to see the nature of
the defences. Presently, to my dismay, I saw him gradually going
nearer and nearer, by rushes from cover to cover, until he got
behind a small outlying pagoda within a hundred yards of the wall,
and here he was quietly making a sketch and taking notes. I, in the
meantime, was shouting myself hoarse in trying to get him back; for
not only were the rebels firing at him from the walls, but I saw a
party stealing round to cut him off."

There is not much more of interest to record of Gordon's doings at this
period. The rebels having been cleared out of the thirty-miles radius,
Gordon was deputed to commence a complete survey of the whole district,
and in December we find him so engaged. This occupation gave him a
thorough insight into the ways of the people and the nature of the
country. In this month he writes as follows:--

"The people on the confines are suffering greatly and dying of
starvation. This state of affairs is most sad, and the rebellion
ought to be put down. Words cannot express the horrors the