GORDON, Charles George.

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Autograph letter signed, to Alfred Behrens, warning of the dangers facing the African explorer Louis A. Lucas. A substantial and unusually frank letter in which Gordon warns Alfred Behrens of the dangers facing Louis Arthur Lucas (1851-1876), a wealthy but inexperienced traveller attempting to explore the Congo Basin. Written during Gordon's governorship of Equatoria, it includes a detailed manuscript map of the stations between lakes Victoria and Albert, and is accompanied by two revealing letters from Lucas.Lucas had travelled in Switzerland, the United States, and Egypt before organizing an African expedition with Arthur Freeman, formerly a gardener at Kew. Arriving at Lado in 1876, already short of funds, the pair hoped to proceed inland. Gordon initially considered employing Lucas locally but soon came to regard him as "blindly obstinate and 'un vrai Anglais'". His letter explains the dangers of disease, food shortages, local resistance, unreliable servants, and prohibitive expense. He advises Lucas to abandon his proposed route and reorganize from Zanzibar, having £3,000 deposited there for the expedition. Gordon also discusses the use of porters from Zanzibar, exposing the uneasy dependence of European exploration on the slave-trading networks he was attempting to suppress.The accompanying letters illuminate the dispute. On 24 June Lucas writes from Dufile apologizing for abandoning two sick Egyptian servants and requesting a loan of £350. On 28 July he informs Behrens

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