THE LAST ATTACK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 45

THE LAST ATTACK.

The end was this. Khartoum stands in an angle of tho Nile, where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet, pointing northwards to Abu Klea. To the south a long rampart stretches from White Nile to Blue, and forms, roughly, the base of a triangle. The rampart is nearly semicircular, and about five miles long. On the Tuesday it had been held by all Gordon's remaining forces — about 9000 Egyptian and Soudanese soldiers. By Sunday morning famine had reduced these to nearly 5000. A thousand died a day. Even this poor faithful remnant was almost too weak to stand. The soldiers lay at their loop-holes weakened by sucking palm tree gum — their only sustenance. Their legs were swollen and their bodies puffed by this last substitute for food. They had abundant ammunition, but one cannot eat gunpowder or lead. The Mahdi knew of their desperate condition by his constant scouts and spies. On Sunday morning he had concentrated his remaining army of over 60,000 men on the plain to the south of this rampart. If his attack should fail his road to Kordof an lay clear. To his right, where the rampart joined the bank of the Blue Nile, lay the fort and gate of Buri. In front of him. was the central gate of the ranipart, Rab Metsalamieh. On his left, a thousand yards before the rampart should have met the White Nile bank, it terminated at Fort Kalakala, defended by parapet and ditch. The ditch stretched onwards to meet the White Nile bank. It was the one weak link in the chain. The Mahdi snapped it. The ditch had' been dug and afterwards deepened by De Coelogon. It had always ; been a source of anxiety to Gordon, for the White Nile was eating its own east bank away, and was advancing over this Sat slope, between the bank and the end of the rampart. The river perpetually washed the parapet away. At high Nile this did not matter, for the flood made its own barrier. But at the ebb the ditch was empty, silted mud and clay filled it up, and even though re-dug, it was a frail bar to the stealthy approach of a nocturnal foe. At sunset on Sunday the Mahdi crossed from the Nile from his fort at Omdurman, and addressed all his forces: — "They should make a bold attack, they should never fear, for all who fell would go at once to Paradise. It must be done in silence, and in the dark, half an hour after midnight. The foe nuist be slain with spear and naked steel, but — on j no account must they kill the Gordon Pasha." He divided his line into two parts. The advanced part was to attack on the left by that fatal ditch ; the other part was to attack, on the right, towards Buri. If the attack on the ditoh succeeded, the second portion of the forces, instead of attacking Buri, was to follow in the track of the first portion. And that was exactly what happened. A few riflemen skirmishers led the way, then came the great mass with sword and spear; behind them the rest of the riflemen, and the cavalry on the rear flanks, well behind. Not a shot was to be fired till the garrison was alarmed and opened fire. Silently they crept to that ditch, for the ground was soft, and their feet were bare. A body of Arabs in front of tho spearsmen carried couches and bundles of straw, to throw into the ditch if it should be too deep to cross. They reached it. They found it filled with hardened mud, and tho parapet broken down or washed away. Shouting their war cries, in they dashed, and up they went over the broken parapet. Many fell, many were trampled under foot, some shots were fired from the sentries and their lines, and in a few minutes all was over. Horoic constancy and devotion had spent its luSt great soul. Khartoum had fallen. The commandant, Farag Pasha, was no traitor," nor did he let the Mahdi in. It was

the Mahdi who forced the position. Farag was five miles away from the ditch at his post in Buri. Hearing the shots and the shemts he galloped along the lines in their direction. Midway to the ditch he met the conquering Arabs, who were rolling his feeble lines up like paper. Further resistance was hopeless. He saw that it was useless to fight — for by this time the Arabs were in thousands inside the lines, and were looting and pillaging everywhere. He could only hope to waste no more life. He opened the gate and surrendered. The tale of the breach is complete. Of treachery there was none. Only the cruel river filled the ditch with mud and ebbed away. Help was at hand, only one short hundred miles away — but hunger and despair decided the issue.