CRUCIFIED IN BURMAH.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRUCIFIED IN BURMAH.

♦ The body of a man who had been crucified, and who had survived the ordeal and lived for years afterwards, was recently buried in the town of Tacoma, in America. The man was Dr. William Bredemeyer, who years ago was crucified by an uncivilised tribe in Burmah, India. Bredeineyere was a quiet, uncommunicative Prussian. Members of his family and his close friends knew of his crucifixion, but Tacoma people were in absolute ignorance of the facts until Bredemeyer's record of his own life was found among his papers after his death. He was a graduate of the University of Bonn, and had previously qualified as a member of the Prussian Pioneer Engineer Corps. That was in 1862. The next year he entered the Dutch-India service as a mining engineer and expert, and advanced step by step in his chosen profession until in 1868, when the King of Upper Burmah made him chief engineer of the famous ruby mines in the northern part of that country. Bredemeyer had headquarters at Medea, in tho ruby mine district, where big sapphires are also found. The mines are jealously guarded, and all the precious stones belong to the king. From the ruby and the sapphire harvest the King realises from £10,000 to £15,000 a year. North of Medea in the lofty mountains there were some ruby mines which the King had not had prospected by such an eminent expert as Bredemeyer. In fact, no white man bad ever ventured into the mountains of the north, where dwelt the half-civilised Singphos, who, while recognising the authority of the King, were unruly and barbaric. Bredemeyer's advent was the signal for great excitement among the Singphos. They had never seen a white man, and notwithstanding Bredemeyer announced his mission under authority of the King the Singphos were not satisfied. Their cupidity got the better of their loyalty ; they thought more of their rubies and sapphires than they. did of the King's mandates. They decided to crucify the white man if he did not flee from the country. A handful of soldiers were with Bredemeyer. In all the country, which then had 3,500,000 inhabitants, the King had but 19,000 soldiers. The Singphos were not afraid of them. Bredemeyer refused to leave the country until he had carried out the orders of the King. The Singphos declared war. The soldiers went into ambush, only to treacherously surrender the mining expert when the natives swooped down upon them. While the soldiers were scurrying about for reinforcements, the natives nailed Bredemeyer to a cross made of two pieces of the native oil-wood. Crude pieces of iron with sharp edges and slightly sharp at the end were brought, and, using stones for sledges, the natives drove the irons through Bredemeyer's i hands and feet. The barbarians | were beside themselves with fiendish fury. In their hasto they horribly mutilated the engineer's toes and fingers. Before the brutal work of nailing Bredemeyer to the cross was finished he became partially uncon- | scious. The shock was almost fatal. The last thing he remembered was the swarming Singphos, with their ! flat faces, broad skulls, straight I black hair, and deep brown skins, j grinning like demons, uttering wild | snouts and dancing and gesticulating at the foot of the cross. Some of them were entirely naked, having stripped off their apparel in the hysterical excitement of the capture and crucifixion of the hated victim. |As a rule, the natives wear linen I wrapped about their hips. These | cloths are called ingies, and as Brede- ■ meyer lapsed into unconsciousness he i remembered that the ingies of the masters of the barbaric ceremony were besmeared with his own blood. When Bredemeyer had been nailed to the cross, the natives prepared to raise it and fasten it into the ground. At that instant the soldiers happily returned with reinforcements, and routed the natives. Bredemeyer was carried back to Medea. The crucifixion occurred on July 16, th 1869, !at noon. At noon the next day his wounds were dressed. The rainy season had set in and it was very warm, and, under these unfavourable conditions, it was feared gangrene would set in. The sufferer was cared for tenderly, under directions from the King, and, being accustomed to undergo great hardships, he speedily recovered, but never again ventured into the land of the Singphos.