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, claiming to have eradicated slavery in his province, laying charges against his predecessor, Sir Samuel Baker, suggesting that he acted in collusion with Abou Saoud, taking 2/5 of "what he collected" (ivory or sale proceeds), 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

Soon Gordon was to become as disenchanted with Saoud as Baker had become with him: 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. Gordon dismissed him and sent him back to Egypt.