"I once travelled from Alexandria with an Italian bishop who was on his way from Khartoum to Rome. I talked to him about Gordon, supposing that there could be little in common between a man of Gordon's somewhat narrow evangelical views and a Roman Catholic prelate, but the bishop expressed the greatest admiration for him. I asked if he could account for the cause of Gordon's extraordinary influence over the natives of Africa. To my surprise he replied simply: "His chastity." The possession of this quality, which was absolutely incomprehensible to the Arab, seemed to raise him to the position of a mystical and almost divine character."