"I am quite prepared not to go, and should not think it unkind of God if He prevents it, for He must know what is best. The twisting of men carries out some particular object of God, and we should cheerfully agree now to what we will agree hereafter when we know all things." His characteristic outspokenness--a style of thing to which Egyptian officials were not accustomed--somewhat alarmed a few of his friends, and on one occasion he was urged not to make an enemy of Nubar Pasha, who was a very powerful minister, and could, it was said, do him a great deal of harm. At this Gordon fired up, and before those present said that he would like to see the man who was capable of injuring him. Shakespeare has well said:-- "What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." Though Nubar showed his powers of appreciation in recognising merit in Colonel Gordon, when he met him at Galatz, there can be no question that he little understood the honest, straightforward character of the man with whom he had to deal. He must have often wished that he had never met Gordon, for, whilst the new governor was not a man to seek office for the sake of the "loaves and fishes," once in power he was not one of those pliant characters who will act as mere dummies in the hands of others. Men with great strength of character, good abilities, and honest intentions are invaluable, when their official superiors are capable of appreciating their merits; but when those under whom they serve have ulterior purposes to attain, weak, pliant natures make better servants for their purposes. In Colonel Gordon's own mind his mission at this time was to combat slavery, and in every possible way to ameliorate the sufferings of the unfortunate people over whom he was called to rule. Nubar Pasha held very different views from the newly-appointed governor on many points that were likely to arise in connection with these duties. The Soudan and the Equatorial Province were so frightfully mismanaged and cruelly governed that, Gordon says, "when Said Pasha, the Viceroy before Ismail, went up to the Soudan with Count F. Lesseps, he was so discouraged and horrified at the misery of the people that at Berber the Count saw him throw his guns into the river, declaring that he would be no party to such oppression. It was only after the urgent solicitations of European consuls and others that he reconsidered his decision."