General Gordon | Page 6

to his companion "are
you ready to mount?" "Yes" he replied. So they mounted quietly, and
went on with the people. When they reached the Mandarin's, they
turned their horses and galloped off after their carts as fast as they
could, having paid what they believed a reasonable amount for
expenses. The people yelled and rushed after them, but it was too late.
Some distance from the place where they had spent the night they came
upon the pass over the mountains which led down into the country,
drained by the great Peiho river. "The descent" says Gordon, "was

terrible, and the cold so intense that raw eggs were frozen as hard as if
they had been boiled half an hour." To add to their troubles, the carts
they had sent on in front had been attacked by robbers. They, however,
with many difficulties managed to reach Tientsin in safety; their leave
of absence had been exceeded by about fourteen days. In 1862 Major
Gordon left for Shanghai under the orders of Sir Charles Staveley who
had been appointed to the command of the English forces in China. At
the very time that England and France were at war with China, a
terrible and far reaching rebellion was laying waste whole provinces.
An article in our London Daily News about this date said, "But for
Gordon the whole Continent of China might have been a scene of utter
and hopeless ruin and devastation." At the date he took charge of the
"ever victorious army," China was in a state of widespread anarchy and
confusion.
This rebellion which Gordon was here authorized to suppress was
called "The Tai-ping rebellion." Its rise was brought about by a strange
mixture of incredulity and fanaticism, caused by some European
Christian giving away his literature. A village demagogue named
Hung-tsne-Shuen caught the idea, after reading the papers referred to,
that he was inspired; that he was God, King, Emperor, and that he
ought to rule; so, puffed up with pride and insatiable ambition, he
began raising an army; and aimed at nothing less than the usurpation of
the "Dragon Throne." Some thought him mad; but he gathered about
him some 20,000 men whom he had influenced to believe in him as the
"Second Celestial Brother," and gave out he was a seer of visions, a
prophet of vengeance and freedom; a champion of the poor and
oppressed; and many were mad enough to believe him, and thus he
raised an army which grew in strength until it reached some hundreds
of thousands strong; he then proclaimed himself the Heavenly King,
The Emperor of the great place; and then with five wangs or warrior
kings, chosen from amongst his kinsmen, he marched through China,
devastating the country, and increasing his army in his progress.
The most populous, and until now wealthy provinces were soon in his
hands. The silk factories were silent; the Cities were falling into utter
and hopeless desolation: rebellion, war and famine, raged and reigned

supreme. Gordon made them pause! His marvellous power of
organizing and leading men, a power derived from an inflexible,
determined, fearless, and deeply religious temperament, influenced the
Chinese character quickly and powerfully. His very name soon became
a terror to the banded brigands and to all evil doers. An Englishman in
China at the time wrote home and said "The destiny of China is in the
hands of Major Gordon, and if he remains at his post the question will
soon be settled, and peace and quiet will be restored to this unfortunate,
but sorely tried country."
In all the strange and trying experiences of this Chinese Campaign
Gordon bore himself with a bravery and courage seldom equalled, we
think never surpassed.
Dr. Guthrie once said, "It is very remarkable, and highly creditable to
the loyalty and bravery of our British soldiers, that, notwithstanding all
the wars in which they have been engaged, no foreign nation to-day
flaunts a British flag as a trophy of its victory and of our defeat. Nor in
the proud pillar raised by the great Napoleon in commemoration of his
many victories--a pillar made of the cannons taken by him in battles, is
there an ounce of metal that belongs to a British gun." The
characteristics of the bravest of our British soldiers were pre-eminently
displayed in Gordon. For--
"He holds no party with unmanly fears, Where duty points he
confidently steers: Faces a thousand dangers at her call, And trusting in
his God surmounts them all."
His soldierly qualities were very often put to the test in this strange
land. Hung, the leader of this rebellion, had become so popular and
made such marvellous progress that when Gordon had organized his
ever victorious army, Hung had captured Nanking, one of the principal
cities, and