' Nothing was said of
reporting. A few days later, Gordon himself telegraphed to Lord
Granville suggesting that he should be made Governor-General of
the Sudan, in order to 'accomplish the evacuation', and to
'restore to the various Sultans of the Sudan their independence'.
Lord Granville at once authorised Sir Evelyn Baring to issue, if
he thought fit, a proclamation to this effect in the name of the
Khedive. Thus the mission 'to report' had already swollen into a
Governor-Generalship, with the object, not merely of effecting
the evacuation of the Sudan, but also of setting up 'various
Sultans' to take the place of the Egyptian Government.
In Cairo, in spite of the hostilities of the past, Gordon was
received with every politeness. He was at once proclaimed
Governor-General of the Sudan, with the widest powers. He was on
the point of starting off again on his journey southwards, when a
singular and important incident occurred. Zobeir, the rebel
chieftain of Darfur, against whose forces Gordon had struggled
for years, and whose son, Suleiman, had been captured and
executed by Gessi, Gordon's lieutenant, was still detained at
Cairo. It so fell out that he went to pay a visit to one of the
Ministers at the same time as the new Governor-General. The two
men met face to face, and, as he looked into the savage
countenance of his old enemy, an extraordinary shock of
inspiration ran through Gordon's brain.
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