Indian Attack Recounted By U.S. Passenger On Obregon’s Train.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18016, 29 November 1926, Page 4

Indian Attack Recounted By U.S. Passenger On Obregon’s Train.

BULLETS RAIN ON CARRIAGES DURING MIDNIGHT ATTACK BY YELLING YAQUIS IN DESERT.

(Special to the “Star.”) , SAN FRANCISCO. October 5. i How thirty American men, women and children were fired upon and held prisoners for four days by the Yaqui Indians of Mexico when they seized General Obregon's train at the inception of the present uprising, and details of the bloody battle between the savages and Federal troops, was told yesterday by A. 11. Lustig. of the Pacific Orient Company of this city, in the first authentic account of the affair to come out of Mexico. Lustig, who was travelling with General Obregon at the time, made his way back aboard a troop ship through Obregon’s aid. and is the first person to reach the United States with the hitherto unpublished story. Obregon Detained for Tribute Funds. He tells of the holding up of the train by the savage hordes, of the detention of Obregon and all aboard the train until envoys should arrive from the State capitol with the tribute money the Government pays, the Yaquis. A vivid description of the rain-storm that saved the train from attack for a time is also given in the account, together with details of the fight while women and children lay huddled on Pullman car floors with bullets flying over their heads. The story, as vividly told by Lustig, is as follows:-*- “ As a representative of my firm and other San Francisco interests, I was travelling with General Obregon on a train of the Southern Pacific of Mexico from Nogales southward. Train Delayed due to Rail Wash-outs. “By reason of the terrible floods Mexico is now experiencing, we were six hours late in reaching Hermosillo. The line was washed out in several places. “ When we arrived at Guaymas. General Obregon was warned by friends that there was a prospect of trouble ahead for him if he continued on by train. , The Yaquis were in an uply mood, he was told, and an uprising among them was imminent. “They wanted him to go on down the coast by ship, but he refused. Obregon is not the man to run. away from danger. When Government officials found him insistent upon continuing by train, they coupled on three or four additional cars and manned them with about 200 troops. “It was Sunday afternoon. September 12, that we arrived at Vicam,. the Yaqui Indian village. From my Pullman window I could see the Indian hovels, built of mud and reeds. The Yaquis, decked out in shirts, and scarves of brilliant hues, with bright calico trousers and skirts, were moving about in restless fashion near the huts. All of the men had revolvers and knives tucked into the waist-bands of their trousers. They are of less than average height, these • semi-savages, dark .and sinewy, living on almost nothing save beans and meat, “ I wondered why our train, carrying thirty Americans in two Pullman coaches .and about 270 Mexicans of various classes in addition to troops, was making so long a' stop, and learned from Obregon, who was riding in the American section, that a delegation of Y r aquis had called upon him asking him to come and confer with their chieftain, Matus. * “It seemed that about fifty leaders of the tribe had gone to Hermosillo, the capital of the State of Sonora, to receive an instalment of 60,000 pesos for the tribe as part of the money paid annually to the Yaquis by the Government, presumably to keep them and that the fifty were expected to return on our train. I do not know why they did not. Possibly it was because the train was late in arriving at Hermosillo or because the delegation wanted to go on a spree with their share of the funds.

assuring and reassuring passengers in his quiet, friendly way that everything would be all right and that, be would see to it personally that no harm cam* to them. ». Much Like Roosevelt. “He reminded me of no one so much as Roosevelt—firm, quiet, strong, a man of few words, but quick, direct action. Everyone was inspired with utmost confidence in him. “Meantime word was received that the Governor had despatched a special train of 650 troops with machine guns from Hermosillo and that another special train was to follow with the missing delegates, when they coulrl be rounded up. That was before the Yaquis took the engine off our train and took over the station telegraph. Train in Darkness. “Night had come on and Obrego* very discreetly had ordered that them i.should be no light aboard the train. Otherwise we should merely have been puppets in a shooting gallery. The general next sent out men-to set torpedoes on the tracks jn the direction of Hermosillo, so that the troop-train would hot run into ua in the darlmes^. “The Yaquis were massing, apparently for an attack on the train. Then something happened to temporarily save OR. A violent thunderstorm came up. The wind was blowing a gale, rain fen in torrents and by flashes of lightning we could see the savages slinking through th© brush like snakes of brilliant hues, taking cover from the storm in their huts. Obregon Wide Awake. “Passengers were too frightened to think of sleep. They lay in clusters on the floor like sheep in a snow flurry. Obregon did not sleep all night. He kept constantly moving about, speaking to each of the passengers in his deep, kindly voice, and smiling his inimitable smile, a smile that would rally a routed army. “Near midnight I and four other Americans had th© porter turn down up* per berths for us, and we went to sleep. We had decided that we were as safe there as anywhere. The storm had abated. “I was awakened about 3.30 o’clock in the morning. The troop train was approaching on a parallel track. 7*ll from Yaquis. “There was a succession of sharp reports as it struck the torpedoes, then ? savage, blood-curdling yell from the ndian village. The Yaquis believed they had been fired upon. “Our Federal guards now Jumped to their places at the open Pullman windows as the savages attacked. Volleys of shot rattled against the steel coaches like hailstones. One penetrated the roof above my berth, imbedding itself in the upholstery. Obregon moved about upright in the darkened cars, his strong voice ringing with words of encouragement as children whimpered and women suppressed cries. - “Bullets entered the open windows, entering the opposite woodwork. The Federal guards were answering fire. Three minutes and the attack was over. It had failed. The troop train then arrived. “The 600-odd reserves were running up, firing as they came. I peeped out a window for a moment and watched the final skirmish. A Federal dropped here. A Yaqui there. The savages were firing from the hip with modern rifles with telling effect, even though they were retreating. A Yaqui never raises or aims a weapon, yet nearly all of them are dead shots. “The firing became fainter and final* Iy ceased. No On* Hit. “No one aboard the train had been hit, but guards lying beneath the car 3 had been literally cut to pieces with the fire. “With dawn we could see dead Yaquis strewn # about. The Federal troops had dug themselves in at a little distance after the fashion of warfare in France with three lines of trenches. “We attempted to proceed with the train only to find that a small bridge ahead was burning. A Federal corporal and five men engaged six Yaquis, who had fired the bridge, and slew two of them before they took to the brush. “A larger bridge a little farther on had been burned away completely. There we were in the Yaqui country with the savages rallying, as we supposed, greater and greater forces, preparing for a massacre. It was Wednesday before emergency rails could be laid and we got out. “Obregon had made good his promise. Not a soul aboard had been harmed.”

“ At any rate, Obregon was informed that our train might proceed when th: Yaqui delegation arrived . home safely with the money. •’ —* Wanted the Cash. * “In response to a telegram, Obregon was informed by the Governor at Hermosillo that the money had been paid. The Governor’s wire had no effect upon the Yaqui chieftains. They wanted to see their envoys and the cash before they would be convinced that there was not trickery somewhere. “Obregon sensed trouble. ' Me stationed a Federal trooper at each window of each car of the train and i ordered porters to make down bedding j on the floors for the women and chil- • dfen. There they lay all afternoon i and all night, in the aisles and between I th 6 seats. “General Obregon moved constantly I from one end of the train to th£ other, makariri River Trust, was a passenger for Wellington by the ferry steamer on Saturday night. Mr G. A. Hart, Wellington City Engineer, and Mrs Hart, arrived from Auckland on Saturday, and were met by the Mayor and chief officers of the Wellington City Corporation. Mr Thomas J. Confov, governing director of the Southern Cross Assurance Company, accompanied by Mr A. Aubrey, the general manager of the company, is at present in Christchurch. Mr W. A. Erasmuson has resigned his position as manager of the seed department of the New Zealand Farmers Co-operative Association to enter into business on his own account. Messrs J. S. Barker, R. P. Harper, C. W. Lynn, H. S. Thomson and A Marshall have been appointed to the board which is to control the Hae Hae te Moana scenic reserves in the Four Peaks district. Mr R. F. Fortune, M.A., formerly of Victoria University College, who was awarded a travelling scholarship by the New Zealand University, has been granted a bursary by Cambridge University to aid in his research studies, and is now in residence in Emmanuel College, Cambridge.