The Hawaiian gazette., 1884-08-20

IT IS strong assertion to make. but il
may be made without hesitation, that
rarely y If ever has paragraph appeared
IN the columns even of the Adrerfiser SO
grossl y untruthful, so wantonly malignant,
and dictated by so low-spirited malice as
that IN the daily issue of the sheet in uues-
ton, of the 14th instant, wherein Major
General Gordon of the Royal Engineers
IN the regular army of the Queen of Eng
land is spoken of as filibuster.
Not only in his native England, but
throughoS the vast English speaking
States of America, throughout the whole
continent of Europe throughout the En-
pres of India and of China, throughout
Northeastern and Southern Africa, on the
banks of the Danube, in the trenches of
Sebastopol, amongst the wild tribes of
Armenia and Kurdistan, in the far Maur1-
thus and on the banks of the Thames, where
he converted his official residence into a
refuge and a school for the wretched waits
and strays of the riverside, is his name
known and beloved, and his fame as a sol
der, an organizer, an administrator, and
as an honest single-minded God fearing
Christian man, is beyond the possibility
of question
General Gordon, from the day he put on
his cadets uniform at Woolwich to the
present day, if he be still living, has never
been engaged in any undertaking but with
the sanction of his own Government, of
his Commander in Chief, of his immediate
military superior, and when employed in
putting down the Tae pings in China, or
the slavedrivers of the Soudan, acted al
ways at the express and urgent request of
the respective Governments of those coun-
tries.
Never for day has Gordon fought for
his own hand, never has he touched even
legitimate prize money, never handled
the fraction of a farthing of loot He left
China with the appreciation of his own
Government, with the thanks of the Chi
nese, their offered presents he refused, an
address signed by near sixty of the leading
firms of Shanghai, and letter of involun-
tary admiration from a prominent Tae-
ping Chief; and he at once received the
appointment of Commanding Royal Engi-
neer at Gravesend, when his days were
occupied in planning and constructing the
river defences, and his evenings in teach
ing his ragged regiment of outcast boys.
In 1874 the Khedive of Egypt begged
him to take service as Governor of Upper
Egypt in succession to Sir Samuel Baker
With the permission of the British Gov
he accepted. The Khedive
offered him 100000 year, he refused to
take more than E2,000, as that was his sal
ary as British Commissioner of Galatz, and
1t did not agree with his sense of patriot
ism or of honor to accept more from a for
eign government than he had been receiv-
ing from his own
In 1882 he was sent to the Mauritius as
Commanding Royal Engineer. but was
there only ten months when he was pro-
NOTED to be Major General, and was called
to the Cape, the Governor of the COLONY
having telegraphed to England for per
mission to invite him 'to assist in termin-
ating the war, and administering Basuto
land" The Cape Government offered
Gordon Il 500 year, he answered he
would take only 600. But in the Cape
Colony he found himself in false posi- |
ton, thwarted and hindered; he immedi- |
ltely resigned
Being now for little while his own |
master he sailed off to fulfill a long cher |
shed ambition-a sojourn in the Holy |
Land. He settled himself outside Jerusa-
EN-, where he lived on bread and fruit and |
gave away the bulk of his funds to those
n hunger and need.
But he was not long left in peace The
King of the Belgians summoned him to
proceed to the Congo, there to aid the Inter
NATIONAL African Society in their attempts
o abolish the slave trade This was work
Ifter Gordon's own heart He at once
Quilted his retreat, and set out in boat
or Port Said, was driven hundred miles
,ut of his course and nearly wrecked, but
Providence, he held, had work for him to
10. He hurried home to seek permission
rom his own Government; this obtained,
le at once set out for Brussels, en- route for
he Congo, but at Southampton, he was
topped by an urgent request from the
Nhedive OF Egypt, addressed to the Brit
sh Government, begging that Gordon
llght be sent to the scene of his old labors
the Soudan to pacify the country and
the Egyptian garrisons. Numer
us tribes were already in revolt against
he atrocities of the Turko- Egyptian Gov
rnors. Had been native OF the Sou
an said Sir Samuel Baker, Il would
ave rebelied long ago and 50 roula Cor
on.
Gordon was at once commissioned by I
ne British and Egyptian Governments
nd hurried of with only one friend as
aft officer. Mr.. Gladstone, in the Com
ions, Lord Granville, in the Lords, ex-
lained to the country General Gordon's
lission. The former said: S'It is no ex-
ggeration, in speaking of General Cor
on. to say that he is hero; it is no exag
Grafton to say that he Is a Christian, and
lat IN his dealings with Oriental peoples s