GORDONS DEATH. Major Kitchener's Official Report.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 130, 28 November 1885, Page 3

GORDONS DEATH. Major Kitchener's Official Report.

• Majou Kitchener, m a report published this afternoon, "says that tihp last, acciirato information from Khartoum was dated December 14, 1884, when General Gorder ' said "the town may fall in ten days.' ; Omdurman had been cut off from Khartoum oa November 3, when it was provisioned for one month and a half. Ammunition was short even then. Even on reduced rations the supply of food in Khartoum was almost exhausted on January 1. The Mahdi knew this. On January 6 General Gordon offered the Kharteumers who pre- ' ferred it the free permission to leave the •town' and go to the Mahdi. Only 14,000 of 34,000 remained in the town. Omdurman fell on or about. January 13. The garrison was not injured, and the commandant well treated, so as to encorrage the other in Khartoum to desert. • The Arabs were able then, by the construe • tion of batteries along the river bauk, to entirely close the White Nile to Gordon's 'steamers.

A Sortie.— Desperate Fighting. About the 18th January the rebel works having approached the south front, a sortie was made by the troops, which led to desperate fighting About 200 of the garrison were killed, and although large numbers of the rebels were said to have been ; slain, ' it does not appear that any great or permanent advantage wae obtained by the besieged garrison. On the return of the troops to Khatloutn after this sortie, General Gordon personally addressed tl.em, praising them for the splendid resistance they had made up to thai, time, arid urging them still to do their utmost to hold out, as relief was near ; indeed, that the English might arrive any dey, and all would then be well.

Gordon "Never Slept." ' The state of tbe girrison was then desperate from want of food, all the donkeys, dogs, cats, rats *c, had been eaten ; a small ration of gum was issued dai y to the troops, and a sort of bread was made from pounded palm tree fibres. Gordon held several councils of the leading inhabitant?, . and on one occasion had the town most rigorously searched for provisions ; the result, however, was very poor, only yielding four a«*debs of grain through the whole town ; this was issued to the , troops. Gordon continually visited the posts, and personal y encouraged the soldior3 to stand tirm ; it was said during Inis period that - he never slept. On the fOth of January the news of the .. defeat at Abu Klea created consternation, and on the 22nd the news of the arrival of the English at Metammeh led the Mahdi to decide to make afc once a desperate attack upon Khartoum, before reinforcements could enter the town. It is probable that next day the Mahdi sent letters to Farag Pasha, commanding the black troops, who had been previously in communication with him, offering terms for the surrender of the town, and stating that the English had been defeated on the Nile.

Farag Pasha Proposes to Surrender. On the 23rd General Gordon had a stormy interview with Farag Pasha. An eye-wit-ness state 3 that it was owing to Gordon having passed a fort on the White Nile, which was under Farag Pasha's charge, and found to be inadequately protected. Gordon is said to have struck Farag Pasha on. this occasion. It seems probable to me that at this interview Farag Pasha proposed to Gordon to surrender the town, and stated 'the" terms tHe Mahdi had offered, declaring in' his opinion that they should be accepted. Farag Pasha left the palace in a great rage, refusing the repealed attempts of other officers to effect a recon1 ciliation between him and Gordon. - On the following day General Gordon held a council of the notables at the palace. The question of the surrender of the town was then discussed, and General Gordon declared whatever the council decided he would never surrender the town.

The Eve of the Catastrophe. On the 25th Gordon was slightly ill, and as it was Sunday he did not appear in public. He had, however, several interviews with leading men of the town, and evidently knew that the end was near. It has been said that Gordon went out in the evening, and crossed the river to Tuti Island on board the Ismailia, to settle some dispute among the garrison there. This statement has not been verified by other witnesses, but if he crossed the river to Tuti there is no doubt he returned later to his palace in Khartoum. On the night of the 25th many of the famifhed troops left their posts on the fortifications in search of food in the town. Some of the troops were also to 6 weak, from want of nourishment, to go to their posts. This state of things was known in the town, and caused come alarm ; many of the" principal inhabitants armed themselves and their slaves, and went to the fortifications in place of che soldiers. This was not an unusual occurrence, only on this night more of the inhabitants went as volunteers, than they had done on previous occasions.

How Khartoum Fell. At about 3 30 am. on the morning of Monday, the 26th, a determined attack was made by the rebels on the south front. The principal points of attack were the Boori Gate, at the extreme east end of the line of defence on the Blue Nile ; and the Mesalatnieh Gate, on the west side, near the White Nile The defence of the former post held out against the attack, but at the Mesalamieh Gate, the rebels having filled the ditch with buudles of straw, brushwood, beds, &c, brought up in their arms, penetrated the fortifications, led by their Emir Wad en-Nejumi. The defenders of the Boori Gate, seeing the rebel? inside the fortifications in their rear, retired, and the town was then at the mercy of the rebels. General Gordon was left entirely unwarned ot the attack and entry of the rebels Doubtless Farag Pasha was responsible, to some extent, for this.

Farag Pasha Not a Traitor. Fafasj Paaha has been very generally accused of having either opened the gates of Khartoum himself or connived at the entrance of the rebels ; but this has been distinctly denied by Abdullah Bey Ismail, who commanded a battalion of irregular troops at the fall of the town, as well as by about thirty refugee soldiers, who lately escaped, and came in during the last days of fhe English occupation of Dongola. The accusations of treachery have all been vague, an 3 are, to my mind, the outcome of mere supposition.

The Massacre.— Death of Gordon, ' Hassan Bey Balmasawy, who commanded ftt-the Mesalamieh Gate, certainly did not make a proper defence, and failed to warn General Gordon of the danger the town was in. He afterwards appears to have taken a commission under the Mahdi, and to have gone to Kordofan with the Emir Abu- Anga. In my opinion Khartoum fell from sudden assault, "when the garrison were too exhausted by privations .to make . proper resistance. Having entered the' town, the ■rebels rushed through the streete, shouting and' murdering every one they met, thus increasing the panic and destroying any

opposition. It is diff&ult, from the confused aecriurifcs, to maktftfult'iftaotly hbw general Goraori was killed, ,. AN the evid<ffic|j tends to prove it happened at or near the palace where his body was subsequently seen by several witnesses. It appears that there was one companyof blaok troops inthe palace besides General Gordon's cavasses; some resistance was made- when the rebels appeared, but I think this was after General ■Gordon had left the palace. The only account, by a person claiming to be an eyewitness, of the 'scene of Gordon's death, relates: "On hearing the noiee, I got my 'master's donkey and went with him to the palace"; we met Gordon Pasha at the outer door of the palace. Muhammed Bey Mustaphdj with my master, Ibrahim Bey Rushdie and about twenty cavasses, then went with Gordon towards the house of the Austrian Consul Hansel, near the church, when we met some rebels in an open place near the outer gate of the palace. Gordon Pasha was walking in front, leading the party. The rebels fired a volley, and Gordon was killed at once; nine of the cavasses, Ibrahim Bey Rushdi, and Muhammed Bey Mustapha were killed : the rest ran away." One apparently reliable witness states that he saw the rebels cutoff Gordon's head at the palace gate. The massacre lasted six hour?, and about 4,000 persons at least were killed. The black ti;oops were spared, except those Who resisted at' the Boori Gate. Large numbers of townspeople and slaves were killed and wounded. The Banhi-Bazouks and white regulars, numbering $ 3^7, and the Shaggairegulars, numbering 2 230, were mostly all killed in cold blood after they had surrendered and been disarmed Consul Hansel was.killed in his own house ; Consul Nicola, a doctor, and Gordon's secretary were taken prisoners. At about 10 a.m. the Mahdi sent orders to stop the massacre, which then ceased The rebels fell to looting the town, and ordered all tho inhabitants out of it. They were searched at the gate as they parsed, and were taken ovor to Orwdurman, where the women were distributed as slaves among the rebel chief?. The men, after being kept as prisoners, under a guard for three days, were stripped and allowed to get their living as best they could.

[The Mahdi and Gordon Major Kitchener doubts whether the Mahdi was really angry when he heard of General Gordon's death. He may have pretended to be- so. But there is very little doubt, had he expressed the wish, Gordon would not have been killed. The presence of Gordon as a prisoner would have been a great danger to him, as the black troop? from Kordofan and Khartoum all loved and venerated Gordon, and many other influential men ' knew him to be a wonderfully good man. Moreover, if Gordon was dead, he calculated the English wpuld retire and leave him in paace.'

The Death of Parag Pasha. The Mahdi had piomised his followers as much gold and silver as they could carry when Khartoum fell, and immense disappointment was expressed at the failure to find the Government Treasury.' Three days after the fall of the town Farag Pasha was brought up to show where the Go vernment money was hid. As he was naturally unable to do this, owing to there not being any, he was killed in the marketplace at Omdurman. Many others were put to lorlure to disclose where their wealth was hid, with varying results.

The White Prisoners On the third day after the fall of Khartoum many of the prisoners saw Sir Charles Wilson's steamers off Tuti Island, with the English on beard. The number of white prisoners in the Madhi's camp ia variously estimated. When the place fell there were said to,.be 42 Greeks, 5 Greek women, 1 Jewess, 6 European nuns, and 2 priests. Thirty-four Greeks were murdered. The survivors are all at liberty, but in extreme poverty. A letter from the Madhi was received relative to the white prisoners, who he declared preferred to remain with him. The document bore ninety fix signatures of Europeans ; but some of them are undoubtedly spurious, as that of Father Luigi Bonomi, who has since escaped from El Obeid, never having been at Khartoum, A large number of the Bagara Arabs left the Mahdi shortly after the fall of Khartoum, much disgusted at their failure to obtain a large amount of loot. On the Mahdi attempting to bring them back by force, they joined the party in Kordofan, who are now fighting against the Mahdi's cause. The memorable siege of Khartoum lasted 317 days, and it is not too much to say that such a noble resistance was due to the indomitable resolution and resource of one Englishman. Never was a garrison so nearly rescued, never was a commander so sincerely lamented.—" Pall Mall t-azette."