But though Gordon could not do all he desired, he was enabled to do more perhaps than any other man could have accomplished in the circumstances, and by the end of June 1879, Suleiman, the son of the great Zebehr, had been hunted down by Gessi, who discovered papers clearly proving the guilt of both father and son. The latter was tried by court-martial and shot, and Gordon sent the evidence against the father to the Khedive. No notice was taken of it, and Gordon bitterly complains that, instead of being punished, Zebehr was _pensioned_! "What pensions," he asks, "have the widows and orphans whom Zebehr has made by the thousand? What allowance have the poor worn-out bodies of men, strong enough till he dragged them from their homes, who are now draining the last bitter dregs of life in cruel slavery? What recompense has been made to those whose bleached bones mark the track of his trade over many and many a league of ground?" Space does not permit a detailed account of the interesting and exciting campaign in which Gessi delivered this crushing blow against the great slave-dealer. No man had imbibed more of Gordon's detestation to the slave trade than Gessi, and with quite a small force he captured the redoubtable Suleiman, who had a large force at his disposal. Gordon made him a Pasha and gave him a reward of L2000, which he richly deserved. CHAPTER XII ABYSSINIA, INDIA, AND CHINA Colonel Gordon's work of putting a stop to slave-hunting and other evils in the Soudan was about to terminate. At Fogia on the 1st July 1879 he received a telegram announcing that Ismail had abdicated, and that his son Tewfik reigned at Cairo in his place. Gordon at once decided to go to Cairo. He writes:-- "I am a wreck, like the portion of the _Victory_ towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar; but God has enabled me, or rather has used me, to do what I wished to do--that is, break down the slave-trade.... To-day I had a telegram from Darfour, saying, 'Haroun [another great slave-dealer, second only in importance to Zebehr] had been killed and his forces dispersed.' God has truly been good to me. 'Those that honour Me I will honour.' May I be ground to dust, if He will glorify Himself in me; but give me a _humble heart_, for then He dwells there in comfort." "The new Khedive is most civil," he writes from Cairo, "but I no longer distress myself with such things. God is the sole ruler, and I try to walk sincerely before Him." In spite of his treatment by the deposed Khedive, he always had a real affection for him, and he says: "It pains me what sufferings my poor Khedive Ismail has had to go through;" but later on he writes: "Do not fret about Ismail Pasha; he is a philosopher, and has plenty of money. He played high stakes and lost. He is the cleverest man in Europe. I am one of those he fooled, but I bear him no grudge. It is a blessing for Egypt that he has gone."