C.G. Gordon | Autograph letter signed (''C. G. Gordon'') to Sir Samuel Baker, 4 January 1884

Charles G. Gordon

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Samuel White Baker

DISCUSSING HIS PLANS FOR INTERVENTION IN SUDAN, encouraging Baker and his brother Valentine to raise "an Ever Victorious army" comprising former slaves and the "riff-raff of Europe" against the Mahdi ("...You and your brother could work wonders for you are well known to all, as just. The Mahdi has no back bone & if not molested in a rash way, will fall to pieces … "), envisioning sweeping reforms of the region's government, describing his plans to issue a proclamation to the people of Sudan and his own ambitions of conquest in East Africa, to be supported by the Khedive of Egypt ("... I shall return & go to Congo on 5 Feby & will take DV in 1886 the Equator & Behr Gazelle Provinces. The King will pay my loss on leaving HMG as I get nothing from them...") and even providing the wording for a telegram for Baker to send the Khedive, 10 pages, 8vo, Bellevue Hotel, Brussels, 4 January 1884

"... If you can afford it, telegraph this to Tewfik [Pasha, Khedive of Egypt]: 'Regretting the state of Soudan. Feeling for your Highness' position. I am coming to Egypt … I will restore the province … I feel convinced that the revolt if unchecked must endanger Lower Egypt, all therefore I ask is funds & freedom to promise Soudan fair reforms in the future. Gordon asks me to ask you this, in the interests of the Soudan people....."

AN EXTRAORDINARY LETTER REVEALING GORDON'S HUBRIS AND AMBITION AS HE PLANNED HIS EXPEDITION TO KHARTOUM. His correspondent, the explorer Sir Samuel White Baker (1821-93), was the brother of Valentine Baker - Baker Pasha - who commanded a force of Egyptian gendarmerie which was defeated by the Mahdi at al-Teb a month after this letter was written. 

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 29 June 1982, lot 137; Spiro family collection; their sale, part 2, Christie's, New York, 26 February 2004, lot 38