After receiving these instructions, Gordon started at once for Egypt, accompanied by Colonel Stewart.  At Cairo he had an interview with Sir Evelyn Baring, and was appointed by the Khedive Governor-General of the Sudan.  The firman of Jan. 26 contained these words:  “We trust that you will carry out our good intentions for the establishment of justice and order, and that you will assure the peace and prosperity of the people of the Sudan by maintaining the security of the roads,” etc.  It contained not a word about the evacuation of the Sudan, nor did the Khedive’s proclamation of the same date to the Sudanese.  The only reference to evacuation was in his letter of the same date to Gordon, beginning thus:  “You are aware that the object of your arrival here and of your mission to the Sudan is to carry into execution the evacuation of those territories and to withdraw our troops, civil officials, and such of the inhabitants, together with their belongings, as may wish to leave for Egypt. . . .”  After completing this task he was to “take the necessary steps for establishing an organised Government in the different provinces of the Sudan for the maintenance of order and the cessation of all disasters and incitement to revolt[383].”  How Gordon, after sending away all the troops, was to pacify that enormous territory His Highness did not explain.

[Footnote 383:  Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 27, 28.]

There is almost as much ambiguity in the “further instructions” which Sir Evelyn Baring drew up on January 25 at Cairo.  After stating that the British and Egyptian Governments had agreed on the necessity of “evacuating” the Sudan, he noted the fact that Gordon approved of it and thought it should on no account be changed; the despatch proceeds:—­

You consider that it may take a few months to carry it out with safety.  You are further of opinion that “the restoration of the country should be made to the different petty Sultans who existed at the time of Mohammed Ali’s conquest, and whose families still exist”; and that an endeavour should be made to form a confederation of those Sultans.  In this view the Egyptian Government entirely concur.  It will of course be fully understood that the Egyptian troops are not to be kept in the Sudan merely with a view to consolidating the powers of the new rulers of the country.  But the Egyptian Government has the fullest confidence in your judgment, your knowledge of the country, and your comprehension of the general line of policy to be pursued.  You are therefore given full discretionary power to retain the troops for such reasonable period as you may think necessary, in order that the abandonment of the country may be accomplished with the least possible risk to life and property.  A credit of L100,000 has been opened for you at the Finance Department[384]. . . .

[Footnote 384:  Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 6 (1884), p. 3.]