Magnificent ALS signed “C. G. Gordon,” ten pages, 4.5 x 7, January 12, 1882. Written from the island nation of Mauritius, a letter to Harry Parkes, in part: “Thanks for your kind note from Aden, 26 Dec. received yesterday, here. I am very glad to hear you have the Miss Parkes with you. The affairs of Egypt are owning to our own people having no policy. They, both conservative & liberal, live from hand to mouth. This is the result of our accomplished mission. We have enough and consequently occupy ourselves in trying to ward off the results which result from other nations working out their line of policy. I quite despair that we shall ever change, till some great disaster occurs, and when we may get rid of the official Red tapists we have.
I like this place fairly well, but am glad I shall not have many months more here. I hope to get away in April or March. I am glad I came for I have found out much, at least I think so, both about myself and about Eden, & the two trees of Life & knowledge. It is a long story, & was built up by degrees, but the substance is this. That, of the Four Rivers of Eden, they flowed into Eden not out of it, that the Euphrates is Euphrates, Haddekel is Tigris, [both] Persian Gulf. Gelem is Brook Gelem/Pesm is Neb (Bhu), [both] Red Sea. That the Four Rivers met near Torotra, & flowed down forming a lake, 100 Miles West of Seychelles. The soundings of Indian ocean show this, Persian or Bab el mundo, Gates of world. Aden i.e. Eden [Mussulim] tradition all point to the site of Eden being in these parts. The flood was caused by the change of axis, which melted the ice of the N. & S. Hemispheres & submerged the site of Eden. The tree of knowledge is the Coco de Mer, the tree of life is the Bread fruit. When they had fulfilled their purpose they were relegated back to their normal condition as trees. This is, in short, what I think.
The M. S. is not altogether finished, and will not be published, but a Scotch clergyman is going to pick out the plums. I shall go to Syria when I am relieved. I am sorry I cannot come & pay you a visit, but China would only awaken my old enemy, & as he is dormant now, I will not risk disturbing him. I am glad to hear about my godson. I would not think of the Army, it is in a very rotten state, from what I see & hear. We have some troops who were at Majuba, etc, etc, here. They do nothing at all in the soldiering line or in using their limbs, & yet they are supposed to meet the Brass & men who can walk, ride etc etc, for hours together. I shall be very glad to get free of the army, & much more so, than I was. I feel I never could serve again in any place whatever. It would altogether go against my grain, and one feels it is not worth it. I believe that for the little good one may have to do in this earth, one can do as much out of office as in office. I see no inducements to serve again. You know this, my dear Sir Harry, look at the F[oreign] O[ffice] and the C[olonial] O[ffice] with their stuck up prejudices, and attempts to whitewash every thing they do, an idle ignorant lot, too lazy to listen or think, all sham. Lord G’s dispatch, ‘the object of England is the welfare Egypt,’ as if the Egyptians would or could be so humbugged. I wonder whether Lord G laughs over it himself. I expect he does. Look at the way [Kells] have been given to those Egyptian Employee’s. At one turn they are Egyptian at another they are Europeans. I must however congratulate you on your G. C. M. S.
I will say no more about these things. I had sooner I would no longer criticize the world. For it must be that these things are mysteries, which we shall afterwards find, were quite right. I dare say you will laugh about Eden etc etc, but if you saw the whole reasoning, I do not think you would. Odd it is not, that every one who had my part in dethroning Ismail, has come to grief. Upsetting of Princes never thrive.” In fine condition.
In 1881, while stationed as a Royal Engineer in the British Indian Ocean colony of Mauritius, Gordon embarked on a voyage to the nearby Seychelles archipelago. A religious man and a Christian cosmologist, Gordon visited the small island of Praslin, and recognized this land from descriptions in the Book of Genesis. Entranced by the isle's unique flora and fauna, in particular, the Coco de Mer palm tree—which only grew on Praslin and one other island—Gordon soon identified the region as none other than the Garden of Eden. In a letter similar to the one offered here, Gordon explained to a Christian missionary: 'In Praslin, near Seychelles, and only there in the whole world, is a magnificent tree, curious beyond description, called the Prince of the Vegetable kingdom.' Although historians and archaeologists alike refuted Gordon's claims of a paradisiacal discovery, Gordon remained an adamant believer of his "tree of knowledge" for the remainder of his life.
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