ESCAPE ACROSS SIBERIA FROM THE BOXERS

New Zealand Mail, 29 November 1900, Page 17

ESCAPE ACROSS SIBERIA FROM THE BOXERS

A TERRIBLE. DESERT MARCH

Reuter’s representative has had interviews with a party of American missionaries who, escaping from the Boxers near the Great Wall in June last, have reached England, via Siberia, after a long and painful flight through the Gobi dcsext, The Rev. Mark Williams gave the following account of the experiences of the party:—On June 5 Rev. J. IJ. Roberts and I proceeded to Pekin, and on our arrival in the capital ruincmrs were current of a massacre at Pao-ting-fu. The following day, accompanied by Miss Murdoch, M.D., .we got out to return to our station at Kalgan, ,on the Great Wall, 140 hides distant. On June 10, on’nearing our residence, we were astonished to see hundreds of people collected round our buildings. Though sli, outing loudly and hissing vigorously they allowed us to pass into our compound. Later in the evening the mob cleared, but we no w saw that it- would be useless'to remain, and we decided to put ourselves in the hands of the-magistrate of the city. He advised us to- go to an inn, but we knew that this would not be safe, so, after allowing us to draw prar riches from the native bank, lie sent 50 soldicis to escort us out of the great gate into Mongolia. We had no ideal of the terrible journey that awaited us-; we had no notion of having to escape across Siberia! After travelling hard that night and the following day we reached Tautai, where an old friendly Mongol chief lived. He, however, implored us to. go, as he feared an attack by Boxers, who, we believed, were on our heels. The next night was one of great mental anxiety, as, although we were not attacked, we continually heard of Boxer bands in our. vicinity, and knew only too well what

would happen if we met them. Two days later we reached Harausa, a Mongol encampment near the Gobi desert, where we -thought we should be out of harm s way, and could remain until we were able to return to our work. Here again the official was unfriendly, and ordered us to leave at onoe, a Boxer army being only 10 miles distant. ' We now saw that a, flight across the great desert was inevitable, and we refused to move until we could get a caravan together. Fortunately there was in readiness a caravan, ordered for Mr Campbell, the British Vice-consul at Shanghai, and we availed ourselves of it, and prepared l°v the desert waste ahead of us. On June 23 we started. In addition to our. own party, we were joined by three; Swedish missionary families, who had barely escaped .with their lives, and a fexv days later we were joined by four other Swedes, who had had terrible ex--periences. A lady member of the party had been hcirribly treated, • and she had been almost clubbed to death. One of men missionaries, too, presented a frightful spectacle, and was covered with blood and dust. Our caravan now included 20 camels, 19 horses, and six camel carts fox - the ladies and children. Our fears on entering, the desert were not allayed by the threats that we should not be allowed to geo water from the wells, and' at some cf the places we touched soldiers were sent ta draw the .water so that we should not poison the wells. For eight days there was nothing to be seen but sand. We were surrounded by it. The heat was intense, and the air was like that ol an oven. We all suffered greatly, and our animals had no grass or water. Day marching was impossible, so we ineffectually tried to snatch some sleep in the daytime, first of all drawing up our caravan m horse-shoe formation, and keeping the necessary look-out. Wo were completely isolated, and the telegraph wire which crosses the desert had been cut behind us by Russian merchants, who, like ourselves, were fugitives,; with a view to prevent orders being sent for our pursuit by Boxers. After 38 days of terrible anxiety we arrived at the Mongol city cf Urga on the other side of the desert. We all presented a sorry spectacle ; the want of sleep and the mental strain having told heavily da all of us. Shortly before our arrival on July 30 we had sent messages to the Russian Consul-general at Urga demanding protection. He was most kind and friendly, and set aside for our use 1-1 rooms of the consulate. Just before wc- got into Urga we encountered a terrific hailstorm with vivid lightning, and every one of us was drc-uched to the skin. Me badly needed the rest which we thought, we should get at Urga, but to our dismay the Consul-general told us that we must leave at once, as there were 2000 Mongol soldiers in the neighbourhood who might be hostile. Ho added that he was himself expecting a reinforcement of 350 Cossacks from Kiakhta. He warned .us that tens pi: thousands of Mongols were gathering for u religious festival, and that if we valued our safety we had better clear without delay. So after three days we again resumed our weary progress, now aware of the fact that- wo should not be safe until we reached the Russian frontier town of Kiakhta. The second day out of Urga we passed the force of Cossacks flie Consul-General had spolken of, and cheered them heartily. We were now crossing a forest and mountainous country, and every day we were becoming more weary and ill-fitted to travel. In about a fortnight—on August 13—we reached Kiatkhta. There we remained until August 27, awaiting advices from home. Meanwhile, the American Minister at St, Petersburg was arranging with the authorities for us to travel without hindrance on the Siberian railway. Haring sold our caravan, we proceeded by.tarantass, ciur object being to reach Lake Baikal, and strike the railway at its terminus at Irkutsk. We travelled all day over a. beautiful country, sometimes at an altitude of 8000 feet, and stopped at the Government post-houses at night. On September 2 we reached Irkutsk, where we joined the train, ana reached St. Petersburg id days later.