At that time Gordon was charged by the King of the Belgians to proceed to the Congo River to put down the slave-trade.  Imagination will persist in wondering what might have been the result if he had carried out this much-needed duty.  Possibly he might have acquired such an influence as to direct the “Congo Free State” to courses far other than those to which it has come.  He himself discerned the greatness of the opportunity.  In his letter of January 6, 1884, to H.M.  Stanley, he stated that “no such efficacious means of cutting at root of slave-trade ever was presented as that which God has opened out to us through the kind disinterestedness of His Majesty.”

The die was now cast against the Congo and for the Nile.  Gordon had a brief interview with four members of the Cabinet—­Lords Granville, Hartington, Northbrooke, and Sir Charles Dilke,—­Mr. Gladstone was absent at Hawarden; and they forthwith decided that he should go to the Upper Nile.  What transpired in that most important meeting is known only from Gordon’s account of it in a private letter:—­

At noon he, Wolseley, came to me and took me to the Ministers.  He went in and talked to the Ministers, and came back and said, “Her Majesty’s Government want you to undertake this.  Government are determined to evacuate the Sudan, for they will not guarantee future government.  Will you go and do it?” I said, “Yes.”  He said, “Go in.”  I went in and saw them.  They said, “Did Wolseley tell you our orders?” I said, “Yes.”  I said, “You will not guarantee future government of the Sudan, and you wish me to go up to evacuate now?” They said, “Yes,” and it was over, and I left at 8 P.M. for Calais.

Before seeing the Ministers, Gordon had a long interview with Lord Wolseley, who in the previous autumn had been named Baron Wolseley of Cairo.  That conversation is also unknown to us, but obviously it must have influenced Gordon’s impressions as to the scope of the duties sketched for him by the Cabinet.  We turn, then, to the “Instructions to General Gordon,” drawn up by the Ministry on Jan. 18, 1884.  They directed him to “proceed at once to Egypt, to report to them on the military situation in the Sudan, and on the measures which it may be advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian garrisons still holding positions in that country and for the safety of the European population in Khartum.”  He was also to report on the best mode of effecting the evacuation of the interior of the Sudan and on measures that might be taken to counteract the consequent spread of the slave-trade.  He was to be under the instructions of H.M.’s Consul-General at Cairo (Sir Evelyn Baring).  There followed this sentence:  “You will consider yourself authorised and instructed to perform such other duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to entrust to you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir Evelyn Baring[382].”

[Footnote 382:  Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1884), p. 3.]