16 FEBRUARY 1985, Page 15

One hundred years ago

There is, we fear, little ground for hoping that General Gordon is alive. The news of his death is not official; it is conceivable, although improbable, that he is defending the Catholic Church, which he had fortified as a last refuge; and it is an unintelligible fact, recorded even by Lord Wolseley, that the Mudir of Dongola and all other natives in Korti disbelieve both in his death and in the fall of Khartoum; but the balance of evidence is on the other side. As to Khartoum, we have the conviction of Sir Charles Wilson, and some 200 other Europeans, that they saw the enemy in possession; and as to Gordon, all the native scouts repeat the same story.

Spectator, 14 February 1885