Gordon commenced the task of sending the women, children, the sick and wounded to Egypt. About 2,500 people had been removed before the Mahdi's forces closed in on Khartoum. Gordon hoped to have the influential local leader Sebehr Rahma appointed to take control of Sudan, but the British government refused to support a former slaver. During this time in Khartoum, Gordon befriended the Irish journalist Frank Powers, who was "The Times" (London) correspondent in the Sudan. Powers was delighted that the charismatic Gordon had no anti-Catholic prejudices and treated him as an equal. The hero-worshiping Powers wrote about Gordon: "He is indeed I believe the greatest man of this century". Gordon granted Powers privileged access and in return Powers started to write a series of popular articles for "The Times" depicting Gordon as the solitary hero taking on a vast horde of fanatical Muslims.