General C.G. Gordon | Autograph letter signed, to Col. Nugent, with a sketch map, 1879

General C.G. Gordon

Autograph letter signed, to Colonel Charles Nugent. R.E.

on his successful ongoing military campaign against the leading slave trader Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur Pasha ("Zebehr") and his son Suleiman ("...on 16 March, [Romolo] Gessi captured the wells near Zebehr's son's position, and Zebehr's son fled with 800 men. Gessi has not yet written of his capture or death but sent back 700 men I had sent him as he said he had enough troops (7000). I expect hourly to hear of the finale which will end the slave trade...."), also the ambitions of Yohannes IV of Abyssinia ("John") to expand his territory to the Red Sea coast, with a sketch map showing the coast and Abyssinia's borders ("...If John wants a port, no one would take objection, if he took Eidd..."), 4 pages, 4to, Shaka, Darfur, 23 April [1879], minor spotting and creasing

Gordon appointed Governor General of the Sudan by the khedive of Egypt in 1877 and remained in post for two years. Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur (1830-1913) was Gordon's greatest enemy during this period. Rahma - "the Black Pasha" - had built up enormous wealth and formidable strength through trade in slaves and ivory, and had even been acknowledged as semi-independent Governor of Bahr el Ghazal by the Egyptian government. By the time this letter was written, Rahma himself had been imprisoned and his son Suleiman was fighting with much diminished forces. Despite this long history of animosity, in March 1884 Gordon somewhat astonishingly recommended Rahma as his successor as Governor of Sudan.

PROVENANCE

Sotheby's, London, 18 December 1986, lot 283