General C.G. Gordon | Autograph letter signed, to Sir Richard Burton, on European explorers in Africa, 1877

General C.G. Gordon

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Richard Burton ("...one of nature's nobility...")

writing in reply to Burton's letter declining the Governorship of Darfur, expounding at length on various aspects of British and European engagement in Africa, from the reasons behind the high mortality of white men in Africa ("...do not you, who are a Philosopher, think it is due to moral prostration...") to the effects of British policies ("...Setting aside the end to be gained, I think that slave convention is a very unjust one in many ways, towards the people, but we are not an overjust nation, towards the weak..."); outlining his own activities and successes in Sudan ("...Little by little we creep on to our goal—viz. the two lakes; and nothing can stop us, I think..."), and making critical comments on explorers including Livingstone and Samuel Baker; 6 pages, 8vo, "En route to Berber" [Sudan], 29 October 1877, hinged and sewn into a dark green wrap-around binding, lettered in gilt "Letter from General Gordon to Sir Richard Burton", creased 

"...I have no fear of dying in any climate. 'Men now seek honours, not honour.' You put that in one of your books. Do you remember it? How true it is! I have often pirated it, and not acknowledged the author, though I believe you stole it..." 

AN EXCEPTIONAL LETTER BETWEEN TWO GREAT EXPLORERS. Gordon and Burton had been engaged in a friendly correspondence since 1875, although the two had never met in person. At the time of writing this letter Gordon was Governor-General of the Upper Sudan, with orders from the Khedive to pacify the tribes and annex the million square mile area stretching up to the Great Lakes. In this capacity he had written to Burton in June 1877 offering him the Governor-Generalship of Darfur at £1,600 a year, but Burton had demurred, commenting that "You and I are too much alike. I could not serve under you nor you under me."

Burton shared Gordon's disdain for the niceties of British hierarchy and establishment, and in this letter Gordon provides striking criticism of several contemporaries: he would love to hear Burton "hold forth on the idol 'Livingstone'"; Sir Samuel Baker (Gordon's predecessor in Sudan) had unnecessarily antagonised the Ugandan ruler Kabalega; whilst James Grant is described as "old creature Grant who, for 17 or 18 years has traded on his wonderful walk". He also writes with some relish at H.M. Stanley caustic nature ("...they cannot bear him, and, in my belief, rather wished he had not come through safe, he will give them a dose for their hard speeches...")

PROVENANCE:

Roy Davids; his sale, Part 2, Bonhams, London, 29 March 2011, lot 382