General C.G. Gordon | Autograph letter signed, to Col. Browne, with a sketch map of the upper Nile, 1874

General C.G. Gordon

Autograph letter signed, as Governor of Equatoria, to Colonel Browne

illustrated with a map from Victoria to Gondoroko, outlining his progress in mapping Equatoria and eradicating slavery, his relationship with his employer the Khedive ("..he is in a difficult positiojn, & I feel for him. I endeavour to get on with his people as much as I can..."), and criticising his predecessor, Sir Samuel Baker, for making an arrangement with the slave trader Abou Saoud to allow him to collect ivory (with the use of slave labour) and for the two to split the proceeds ("...this contract was the seed of their rows & disputes for Baker afterwards awoke to the mode in which Abou collected ivory & could not on account of the contract stop him..."), thanking Browne for sending out "those clever young fellows" Watson and Chippendall RE., noting the terrible sickness among his companions where several have died and others invalided, four pages, 8vo, Gondoroko, 24 November 1874

"...As far as my province is concerned there is no slave trade at all now..."

A LETTER WRITTEN DURING GORDON'S GOVERNORSHIP OF EQUATORIA. Gordon's overriding aim was the abolition of the slave trade, but he found the traders deeply enmeshed in the ruling Egyptian bureaucracy. Gordon was himself to have serious difficulties with Abou Saoud: he found he was stealing and selling ivory in defiance of the government's decrees and that his claims to have influenced the submission of local chiefs had not been through persuasion but through brute force.