THE FALL OF KHARTOUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7405, 13 August 1885, Page 6

THE FALL OF KHARTOUM.

The Daily News publishes an account of the capture of Khartoum and the death of General Gordon, which a correspondent at Dongola has received from a Greek refugee who was in the beleaguered city at the time. The narrator appears to be one of eight survivors of 42 Greeks who lived in Khartoum during the siege. In the course cf his narrative the Greek said :—"Do you know that Gordon used to send off hundreds of letters, but these were always taken to the Mahdi ? People used to come to him volunteering to take letters, and Gordon, believing in them, would give them good backsheesh. Stewart used generally to be at a battery he erected cios* v the kiosk where the band piayod. The rebels, knowing Gordon lived ixi the palace, used to fire at it all day long, and Stewart would reply to them. Gordon had sandbags piled up on the roof, and from this he was watching day and night for the arrival of the English. I think he never slept. By night he used to send up rockets. Yo'' ask me about the shops and magazines on the promenade over the Blue Nile, Gordon had these all cleared out for the English, whe never arrived. We were starving. Gordor had some biscuit and flour, I believe, in tho palace. Some Europeans ate g-ass, and cut down palms to extract the pith from them. The Egyptians and blacks ate anything they could get hold of—camels, donkeys (I have known a donkey's tail sell for eight dollars), dogs, cats, rats. We were entirely surrounded for three months." The English, bo said, could have reached Ivhartouui with great ease ; if one Englishman had appeared, the whole population would hare been cheered out of its despondency. " The steamers arrived at Halfiah. I saw them about one mile and a-half from Khartoum. They turned back directly ; but I say this— if they had come on then every man would have been destroyed. The soldiers pointed them out to me jeeringly. •There are your English!' they cried. When the steamers approached a great cry arose through the town : ' The English are coming ! the English are coming !' The rebels took their rifles and commenced to fire at them. 'Ha ! ' said a man to me, ' look at them ; they cannot save you.' It may have been arranged to deliver up the city just before the English came. I don't know ; but this 1 know, if you had come three days or two days sooner you would have taken Khartoum easily. Farig moved away the troops guarding the gate that was entered the night before, and took them to the other side of the town on some pretence or other. Gordon did not know of this—nor did anyone, I think, except the troops themselves. We, Europeans, knew there were traitors, but we did not think they could do anything, or we should have formed ourselves into a baud." Telling of the massacre, the man said : — "I was with some Greeks—eight in all—near the Mosque, when we heard a hideous uproar as of men shouting and yelling, and of women wailing around about on all sides. Nearer and nearer did this long-continued roar approach, swelling as it were and now bursting close on our ears. Men with frightful gashes on their faces and limbs came flying by, and towards us women with torn garments and dishevelled hair, shrieking, screaming 'Jesu Christo !' We ran up to the top of the Mosque, and saw that the town was given up to massacre and bloodtilled. We ran to a house, barricaded the door* and windows, went upstairs, shut ourselves into a room, and determined never to surrender, but die like Greeks. How we escaped I will tell you. You ask me where Gordon Pasha was slain. You pay everybody has said he was either killed on the courtyard steps of the palace or outside, going to the Austrian Consul's house. They all lie ! True, I did not see Gordon -ilaiu, but everybody in Khartoum knows where the event happened. An Arab rushed upstairs and shot him with a gun as he was reading the Bible. Another Arab cut off his head and put it on a spear, and so went forth into the city carrying it and brandishing it on high. The Copts in the palace in the rooms i>elow were slaughtered at tho same time. The Arabs came pouring in ; they slew every man they could find ; no mercy was shown to anyone. There was no resistance. I don't think 100 shots were fired by Egyptians or blacks. Men ran in and shut themselves up in houses ; but doors were burst open, and spearing, cutting, and slashing went on bravely in the streets, in the market square, in the bazaars. It was a horrible scene this bazaar afterwards. One corner was so full of corpses and dying that we could not get by. 1 had my hands tied, and I fell several times in the road slippery with blood. The havoc went on until eight o'clock. ' Then Mahommed Achmet sent over word from Omdurman that Allah had revealed to him that the slaughter must cease. We were told this. It was shouted about the streets ; and those that were still hidden were bidden come forth. Of 42 Greeks only eight escaped. There were 10 Jews ; these wee killed, I think. Gordon's head I saw on a spear. It was taken over to Omdurman, and shown to Mahommed Achmet. It was laid before him. A grim savage smile passed over his face. He gazed long at the countenance of his late enemy. ' God be praised !' he cried, ' Can this be his V He did not express auger at Gordon's dnath, as you say has been reported—he made merry at his death when it was told him. The head was then borne away, and men plucked the hairs out of his head and bearil, and spat in his face. His body was cut up into little pieces. This was his end. 1 omitted to say that Gordon wrote to the Mahdi saying ho might be Viceroy of Kordofan. The Mahdi replied : ' 1 am sent by Hod to be king of all,' and invited him to surrender. Gordon replied in insulting terms, saying he was a false Mahdi, and that he (Gordon) would never surrender to him."