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"With kind regards to Mrs. Burton and you, and the hope you will send me the manuscript, "Believe me, "Yours sincerely, "C. G. GORDON." "P.S. Did you ever get the 1,000 pounds I offered you on part of ex-Khedive for the Mines of Midian?" Some six months after the date of this letter Gordon left England for the Soudan, and later went to Kartoum, with what result all the world knows.
He and Burton discussed affairs thoroughly especially Egyptian affairs and Gordon again expressed his regret that Burton did not see his way to joining him. When Burton was in London later in the year, he received the following letter from Gordon, in which he renewed his offer, increasing the the salary from 1,600 pounds to 5,000 pounds a year. "KARTOUM, August 8, 1878.
Burton again refused, giving the same reasons as before, and reiterating his opinion that the existing state of affairs in the Soudan could not last. Gordon, seeing his decision was not to be shaken, acquiesced, and did not ask him again. Moreover he was losing faith in the Soudan himself. A few months later we have him writing as follows: "KARTOUM, November 20, 1878.
Burton said, when the Government sent Gordon to Kartoum, they failed because they sent him alone. Had they sent him with five hundred soldiers there would have been no war. It was just possible at the time that Burton might have been sent instead of Gordon; and Isabel, dreading this wrote privately to the Foreign Office, unknown to her husband, to let them know how ill he then was.
When the morning dawned, they heard of the death of one of their greatest friends, General Gordon, which had taken place on January 26 at Kartoum; but the news had been kept from them. At this sad event Isabel writes, "We both collapsed together, were ill all day, and profoundly melancholy." Letter to Miss Bishop from Opcina, January 17, 1881. 2.
Kind regards to Mrs. Burton and yourself. "Believe me, "Yours sincerely, "C. G. GORDON." "P.S. Personally I am very weary and tired of the inaction at Kartoum, with its semi-state, a thing which bores me greatly." The following year Burton's prescience proved true. The Soudan was "not a lasting thing," so far as Gordon was concerned.
Shortly after this, in December, Gordon determined to resign his official position and return to England, as he had great difficulty in adjusting matters, so far as finances were concerned, with the Governor-General at Kartoum. Burton wrote to ask Gordon to come, on his journey back to England, round by way of Trieste, and talk over matters.
I could give, say, 5,000 pounds a year from London to your Government. Do do something to help me, and do it without further reference to me; you would lift a burthen off my shoulders. I have now to stay at Kartoum for the finances. I am in a deplorable state.
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