ATTACKED BY BRIGANDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 9

ATTACKED BY BRIGANDS

MEXICAN OUTLAWS.

Fired at for an hour by Mexican sharpshooters, who wrecked the train in which they were travelling, and held to ransom at the point of the rifle while sixty of their fellow travellers were shot dead around them, are among the terrifying experiences of a Derbyshire family, who arrived in Liverpool from Mexico.

The family who, by the aid of diplomacy and bribes, escaped the bandits’ butchering, are Mr. T. H. Watson, iron and steel merchant, his wife and their daughter, whose home is at Great Longstone, Derbyshire, and their thrilling adventure occurred during a holiday tour in America. They appeared none the worse for their experience and chatted freely about it.

They were staying with a family named Dock at Guadalajara, which is about a hundred miles' from Mexico City. They left this town by the evening train and were seated comfortably enjoying their supper when the alarm was given. The engine of the train struck something and turned turtle. Rifle firing was at once started on the train from both sides, and the attack had begun in earnest. “We all realised we were in for it,’ said Mr. Watson, “although none of us dreamt that we were to be involved in such a ghastly drama.

“We had been warned when we started out on our journey to Mexico City that we might have adventures as bandits were about.

“My wife and daughter and I were in the drawing room of the Pullman car when we found the train crossing two bridges which were burning. We were assured that we had negotiated the danger point, and with the engine pulling at full speed we were hastening to a safer territory. “Then there came a terrible crash, and the train came to a sudden standstill. It appears that the engine had crashed into an obstruction and had become derailed, and, as we afterwards learned, had actually turned turtle. “None of the passengers were hurt in what we thought was an ordinary rail mishap, and we were just beginning to congratulate one another when shots were fired and we saw little pink flames which we knew were gunfire. “At the same time bullets began to splinter the train glass. Punctures appeared in the walls of the compartments and the alarm was given by the train attendants —‘Lie down for your safety.’ “The object of the firing, it appears, was to dispose of the military guard of 60 soldiers who were on the traip, and at the end of our terrible hour the hoarse voices of the bandits could be heard calling in the Mexican tongue to the soldiers to surrender. “These men showed no courage, and, at the first invitation, capitulated, and they met the fate of cowards. The bandits swarmed round the wrecked train and gleefully witnessed the summary execution of these wretched socalled soldiers.

“Qur moment of greatest horror in this terrible episode then came, especially for the ladies. Loud-voiced and rough-mannered, these nevertheless picturesque-looking rebels, with their sombreros, their red waistbands, and gaudy shirts loose at the neck, came streaming through our car. “Gun in hand, revolver at the belt, and all carrying the supplementary arm of an evil-looking dagger, some of them clenching the broad blade between their white teeth, these fearsome villains might have stepped out of a nightmare. “We were called to our feet and compelled to hold our hands up in complete subjection. Every gun was pointed at us while we were called upon to deliver our personal goods. Watches, money and jewellery were handed over or snatched. “We had to exercise the greatest tact and show the most abject submissiveness or we could never have lived to tell the tale. My wife was terribly distressed by the frightful experience, but my daughter was a brick. “She not only faced the villains with defiance, but when the muzzle of a gun came too close to her face, she brushed it aside with terrible recklessness and spoke sharply to the man behind the gun in a language, thank heaven, the brute did not understand, or she could never have been with us to-day. “By this time it was 10 o’clock at night, and without a thing excepting what we stood up in, we were driven like so many sheep out on to the prairie, miles from anywhere. Our forbidding-looking captors stood guard over us, and not understanding our language, there was no means by which we could get any indication as to our fate.

“There were dead and wounded around us, the grim figures a terrible warning to us to be on our best behaviour. We had noticed that a number of bandits had been withdrawn, and a sudden explosion and a burst of flame beneath the train told us what they had been doing. “They were destroying all trace of their butchery, burning our train and creating a funeral pyre for some of the victims of their ruthless slaughter. “It was shortly after this we heard a distant bugle call. We heard among our company the joyful words, 'a relief train.’ “So it proved. It was a train filled with soldiers who were a braver lot than those who had accompanied us. The bandits mounted their horses and dispersed helter skelter and were soon hidden to view by the prairie bushes. “The whole of our luggage and possessions were destroyed in that terrible conflagration. We had up to that stage travelled six thousand miles, and we had accumulated a large quantity of interesting souvenirs in that long journey.”