Lot 3201: GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE. 1833-1885.

Autograph Letter Signed ("C.G. Gordon"), 2 1/4 pp, recto and verso, 8vo (conjoining leaves), "Near Aden," May 22, 1880, to Watson, with an autograph double-page manuscript map of Egypt in pen and pencil, fine. Wonderful letter from "Chinese Gordon" with an accompanying manuscript map. Gordon makes a request of Watson (Major Watson, later of Cairo?) to organize the publication of a map of Egypt, north of Lake Victoria. Gordon sketches the area that he thinks necessary to include and pens the names of over 50 towns. In part: " Passing thro Egypt, I saw J. Scott of Ranil’s Alexandria. He wants to get a map of the Egyptian Dominions … Now it is no use to my mind taking in more than the north end of Lake Victoria or to put in many towns, I send you what I think, would be sufficient … I am to pay for the maps / they are for Scott’s book ." Gordon was already become world-famous for his successes in China and for his quashing of the slave trade and insurrections in Darfur and Khartoum. In 1880, he mystified public opinion by accepting a post as private secretary to the Marquess of Ripon, Governor General of India. He was en route to India when he penned this letter and his speedy resignation from the India post is already foreshadowed: " We get on all right, but you may be sure I will not stay in India, one day longer than is necessary. I am not much for this sort of work. " See illustration .