A NILE TRAGEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6514, 17 June 1899, Page 2

A NILE TRAGEDY.

MURDER OF GORDON'S MESSENGERS. (Daily Telegraph.) Ariiong the captives of the Mahdi, merci- . fully freed and restored to his friends by the victory of Omdurman, is an Egyptian cfficeali named Hassan Hassanen. Hassan is the only one of the illl-fated party whom Gordon sent from Khartoum in Septeinj ber, 1884, in the steam launch Abbas,' to, cariy the last news and his plans' to 'the' Wolseley Expeditionary Force, then in Dongola. Only the barest outline of the tragedy that hefell Colonel H. D. Stewart and his companions has hitherto been known. Indeed, the story has come to be accepted that the wreck of the Abbas was the result of an ''abcidfent, vfhilst the subsequent murder of alii who were on board, was the unpremeditated brutal savagery- of a gang of Monassir ' Hfibesmeh'-. Ifc now appears that the party _ were ruthlessly trapped, and- butchered by" the express command of the dervish, leaders. had the opportunity of meeting Hassan in Cairo, and of reading his official report,., handed to. CJulonel SirJßeginaid Wingate. From Iris _6wn lips .T'MVe* 'gleaned' fuller details of the hapless voyage which ended in the slaughter of Colonel Stewart, the French Consul, M.. Harbin, and -'Ma* Frank Power, consul and correspondent. Hassan states: — "I was in Khartoum in the Arabic year 1301 (1884). The city was then in deadly peril, for wo had been long besieged, provisions were scarce, and tho dcrrahes wero pressing on night and day. Gordon wanted to open up communications with the British troops, reported, as coming to our assistance. At the samo time he wished ta send away as many women and children as possible, that they should escape hardship and the risk of falling into the ■ enemy's hands. I was ordered by Gordon Pasha to proceed upon the Abbas, with Colonel Stewart, taking charge of the mail, my orders being to hand it to anyone in authority in Dongola. j, was besides TO HELP .AS. AN .INTERPRETER. There went with us on- the -launch from Khartoum Consul Herbin, Mr . Power, ' several • Greeksj and . others whose names I -forget. -The. -rest of the party— mostly Greeks and Berbereen merchants — together with the women and children, followed in two native sailing craft, called nuggars. Gordon gave us for pilots two experienced Dongola reises or captains ; for armament a small cannon, with a number of Remingtons, and a plentiful supply of ammunition. Two of the 'Pasha's' armed steamers were told off to escort us past Berber, so as to afford us protection. Gordon gave special instructions to the steamboat captains that as soon as the Abbas and nuggars passed south of Berber, the latter town was to be hotly bombarded for three days. This was doiic to enable us to escape over the C-*~vActs i» pafotv • *•«» (rive us, in fJ-— "* ... good start, so that we should escape pursuit. All went well enough until we got to Berber. There the dervish garrison opened fire upon the flotilla, firing five rounds at us. It was high Nile, the river being full, so we managed to pass without being hit. " Below Berber we cast off the sailing - boats we had in tow, intending that they should sail down, while we in the Abbas steamed ahead. Now it turned out that the captains of the armed steamers which had accompanied us declined to remain behind or to execute Gordon's orders to bombard Berber. Fear or traitorous conduct alone explains their strange and sudden behaviour. • Without engaging the enemy, they steamed hurriedly past, returning towards. Khartoum. Meantime the saiiingboats with the refugee Greeks, and women and children, had to drift down as best they could in face of the strong wind. A little steam launch called the Tewfikieh, which the dervishes had lying concealed at Berber, started in pursuit of our sailingboats the instant our gunboats turned | •back. She had no difficulty in overhauling and capturing them, with all on Board The Tewfikieh failed to overtake the Abbas, so we struggled along past Abu Hamed, into the great gorge of. the cataracts lying between that place and Merawi. " Our reises heard and saw a good deal of the dervishes. I suspected their good faith, but Colonel Stewart insisted in re- ■ posing perfect confidence in tlie twain. On the second day beyond Berber they began disputing with each other. Early on the third day, when opposite Salamanieh .village, in the Monassier country, our pilots contended whether the Abbas should be taken down the left or right channel of the island. They took the east side watercourse. Very soon after we bumped twice very heavily upon sunken rocks, knocking a great hole into the vessel, through which the water came pouring in. Colonel Stewart had the launch run hard ashore upon a little islet to prevent her sinking. The gun and ammunition he had thrown into the Nile, which was about 50ft deep at that point. We managed to save most of the baggage and the punt. Without asking leave, OUR REISES DECAMPED, swimming off to the mainland. In an hour or two they came back, saying they had been to the village, and brougLc us the precious word 'Amanu,' i.e., peace and fellowship. The natives were not dervishes, but friendly to the Government and to Mustapha Yower, of Dongola, and would provide us with camels. Stewart Pasha told, me, the French cavass, and an Arabic clerk to take the punt and row ashore, and learn if the news was true. I begged him not to send us, as, being Egyptians, the natives wonld possibly kill us. The best thing, I said, was to send the punt with a few men down to Dongola, and see if the English had arrived. He declined to allow it, and declared we must go ashore at once, or he would kill us, and we had to. "On reaching the village we met three men in native, not dervish, dress. One of them was blind; his name was Wad Gamr Atman. He was the brother of the Sheikh of the place. Atman asked us what was the matter, and, having- exchanged '-Amanu,' we told him that it was God's will that our steamer should be wrecked there. Then they brought .us the Koran, and swore on the book that they would not injure usj but supply us all with camels and guides, and send us down* to Dongola, where the English were. We returned with the news, two of the natives accompanying us back to the Pasha on the islet. Then the two Monassir again swore upon the Koran not to act treacherously. Next day the two natives returned to us, saying Sheikh Suleiman had arrived, and they had already secured several camels for us, whilst the remainder would soon be ready. The road to Dongola ran direct through their village, so we should ; start from there. Stewart and the consuls : ordered us to transport all the baggage at j once to the mainland near to the villas^, j By 1 p.m. we were all ashore, seated upon our bundles, waiting for the camells. A ■ man came with a message from the Sheikh, inviting the Pasha, Herbin, and Power to dinner, Stewart and the others, dressed in their best clothes, taking me with them to speak Arabic. We reached the Sheikh's house in the village, and we four were shown into a small, rather darkroom. The [ plaoe was . . . j . ■ .'■ CRAMMED IXTLC OP MEN j — about fifty — most of them seated on the floor or standing. Suleiman and Atman were there, and we exchanged greetings. All wore ordinary native clothes. They gave us two angreebs to sit upon. Stewart and Power sat together, and Herbin and I side by side upon another. They said the camels would soon be ready. Some dates and coffee were brought in. In about ten minutes all the men. went out" to fetch the camels, they said, and hasten our departure. Five minutes later they al came crowding back, armed with axes, swords, knives and spears. As they entered they shouted; * Kaffr ' (infidels) . One of them struck Herbin with an axe, cleaving his head in two, as he sat beside me. I, sprang up, screaming I was a brother, a Mohammedan, not to kill j me, as they did the other. A man nearly severed my right arm. with his knifer-there is the woundVwhilst I clung for help. Another drove a huge lance through my leg. But I struggled, and begged for life,, as they, cut and struck at me, before I swooned to the ground covered witfi blood. Herbin

was stretclied , '.dead . Ron ■ the. angrjieb,- ()^edstea'd).. Tfie mu^er#re7also7nish^^ art and Power. There were so .many they got in each other's way. Power hit out like boxing with his fists, dealing one roan such a blow on the jaw that it broke the bone, and the fellow died afterwards from tho effects. But fighting, and swearing was no use, for he was, stabbed through and through, and killed in the room. The Pasha sprang to his feet, dashed amongst them, striking right and left. He got outside the doorway through tlie mob, but was hacked and cut down from behind with an axe or sword. None of us .were armed,, for Stewart insisted on leaving all arms behind with the baggage party. Power fell dead beside me. When... they found I was alive, they wanted to kill me, but a brother, of the Sheikh let me live. The whole of the baggage party and soldiers — ahout forty in all — wero Yushed and killedj They did riot fire a- shot in £elf-deferice." '.'. '■'■"'