In Captivity with the Mahdi.

Evening Star, Issue 6725, 6 October 1885, Page 4

In Captivity with the Mahdi.

(Concluded.) " The grim and ghastly sights to be seen in that beleaguered city were enough to freeze the blood, and the narrative of those days is too horrible to be continued. But the stern old Turk commanding refused to surrender ; while the wretched soldiers were unable to hold their rifles, but prowled about like wolves to find something to eat, unable to make further defence. On January 18, 1883, the rebels walked over the trenches and entered the Mouderiah and other houses. When the dervishes entered the dewan of the Mouderiah, the large hall, they found the commandant Achmet Pacha Said sitting in a high carved-arm chair of stained wood, bolt upright, with his arms folded, gazing at them defiantly. They rushed at him and would have slain him; but others insisted that he should be brought before Mahomet Achmet. ' Back, dogs; toucli me not,' he cried. ' You defile me, base rebels. I will go myself before this arch rebel Mahomet Achmet. Lead on.' They instinctively drew back, startled at his terrible voice and fierce aspect. One is reminded of the old Roman whom the gaoler was afraid to kill. ' Hold his hands and search him,' ordered Mahomet Achmet the moment lie saw him ; and he was just in time with this precaution. The old man was drawing forth from his breast a revolver, and undoubtedly meant to deal death to his enemy. ' Take the cursed dog of a Turk away,' cried Mahomet Achmet, 'and sell him for a slave by auction in the bazaar. Away with him.' Then was the commandant led forth and exposed for sale, but no man durst buy him at first; but it happened that an Emir passed by that way, and, out of derision, cried out 'O, auctioneer, I will surely give 6SO piastres for this man.' So he was knocked down to the Emir. Now when this came to the ears of Mahomet Achmet he sent forth an order that the commandant should be slain with all speed—so some dervishes went from the Mahdi's presence then and there and sought out the commandant. They heard he was in the house of the Emir; they went there and ordered that Achmet. Pacha should be brought forth. He presented himself to them with unquailing look and bold bearing as the dervishes drew their swords. ' You have come to murder me, have you ? Cursed, cowardly dogs, I fear you not. May your fathers' graves be defded. I curse them, you, and the foul harlots that bore you. I curse your fathers and mothers back to three generations. All your female relations are abandoned women, and may the graves of all your forefathers be defiled. I curse you all, and your vile false prophet Mahomet Achmet.'" They fell upon him pouring forth these maledictions, and he died like a brave man, with the utmost fortitude. I forgot to mention that on the entering of the town by the dervishes this gallant soldier tried to blow up the magazine and destroy himself and army with the rebels, but the officers prevented him. The dervishes now in their rage—for they were cut to the heart by the words of the commandant—sought out Ali Bey Sheriff; him they also slew, with other officers. Now the dervishes returned to Mahomet Achmet, and told all these things to him. He burst into a flood of tears, threw dust on hie head, and upbraided them for thus spilling blood: ' Ye be sanguinary men, 0 ye dervishes. These deeds do not find favor in my sight.' '' During the siege a priest named Giovanni Losi died in Obeid, but two others were captured, and compelled to embrace Islamism, and there were five sisters taken at the same time; these were now sent as companions to us, in the hopes that they would follow the example of the men. The sisters refused in the most determined manner to leave their religion. In what a fearful condition these poor women were—bags of bones. They never left the house. This was tho state of things to the 28th March, 1883. " One day a letter was slipped into my hand ; it was from Hicks Pasha, then at Khartoum, and was dated 21st of April. Me stated in it that he was on the point of marching against Obeid with a large army, and told me to be of good cheer/for he would surely deliver us. While I was at Obeid I saw throe men being hunted out of the town, but there seemed to be something unreal in. this chase. I have since heard that they were the three sham guides of Hicks. This was done for effect; they were ordered to mislead him. Khalifa Abdalla El Taishi now arrived at Obeid. The first thing he did was to have us brought up before him. He then enjoined us to embrace Islamism. We replied to him as we had to Mahomet Achmet when the same demand was made. We were sent back to our house, but he. sent us an order to deliver up to him the sisters. We replied: 'By your own Moslem law, women are forbidden to visit the houses of strangers.' However, on the Ist April, he sent and took the nuns by force, and a terrible life, if possible, was now to be their lot. They were distributed

as slaves among the Emirs ! I and my two companions, men, were treated in the same way. I was sent to the Bert El Wal, Guiseppe Arvalder to the house of the Emir Abdalla, Wad en Noor, and Guiseppe Regnolo to the house of Sherrif Mahmoud. From that day I never saw the sisters; but I know that the treatment they received was horrible—most horrible. They were alllicted and tormented in order that they might be induced to embrace Islamism, but they were steadfast in the faith, neither would they deny their Saviour. Some time after this these wretched women were made to go along on foot almost nude to Rabat. The Mahdi was there, and they were brought before him, Alas, their frail nature could hold out no longer. Their strength of mind as Avell as body was gone. Driven to desperation, to greater degradations and insults, they affected to embrace Islamism. They were then taken as wives by three Greeks who themselves had become Mahommedans. The names of their so-called husbands were Demetri Cocoronbo, Audre, and Paragioli. Theso men declare that they only did this to save the women from a worse fate, and that the marriage is really one in name only. I therefore consider them to be deserving of the highest honor, for by so doing they incurred great risk of life. " On the 20th of April I was sent myself to Rabat with my two companions, and kept there till the 30th of August, when we were conducted back to El Obeid with heavy chains round our necks, after the manner of conducting criminals in the country. We were again released, and dwelt in a house of Es Sherrif Mahmoud, full liberty being given to go to and fro about the town, and even in its neighborhood.

" And now the day of my deliverance was at hand. Little attention was paid to my ingoings and outgoings. Famine stalked through thf town, and it; was full of that direst of diseases, smallpox. Men were dying—masses of corruption right and left. As the Egyptian soldiers had done during the siege the Arabs were doing now—actually digging up skeletons of carcasses buried years back. There was little corn ; it was sold at 50 reals an ardeb. It was found that many merchants who hal fled from Obeid had buried their gum in the ground. This, though it had become rotten, was now dug up and eaten by hundreds. Es Sherrif Mahmoud, the Mahdi's Emir, had gone to Buka with an army of 2.C00 men, half of them carrying rifles. His intention was to attack Nowai, the chief of the Howaymaand Homran Baggaras—the Arabs who had deserted at Omdurman, and raised the standard of revolt against him among the Bedouin 3in Gcbel Kowaleeb. It was the loth of last Regib when he set forth to battle against these men. While he thus threatens the Arabs from the north Abo Anza menaces them from the east. I hear that Nowai, hearing of their approach retreated to Gebel Dinka, in the south; but some submitted to Mahmoud, while others did the same to Abo Anga. Others, again, fled to their homes. As Abo Anga advanced from Omdurman he collected reinforcements on the way, and at last, when he had 10,000, he made an attack on Gebel Lamman, one of the Tagala mountains. He laid waste all the country round, and carried off the inhabitants as slaves, besides taking large quantities of grain, cattle, and sheep. He now advanced upon Gebel Dair, and drove El Mek Kumbo to the mountains. Thus, as he has possession of the land at the foot of the mountains, the inhabitants are unable to till the land. A guerilla war is carried on there; every now and then the brave mountaineers sweep down at night and retake their cattle. This they do with great success, and their raids actually extend to near Obeid. On the one hand the mountaineers dare not risk an open battle ; on the other, the dervishes dare not ascend the mountains.

" The story sent you about Anga's defeat is utterly untrue. These stories were circulated by the opponents of the Mahdi to encourage the English. The Mahdi's power i.s not on the wane, a story so briskly, it appeared, circulated for your edification. Utterly broken, indeed! The so-called Mahomet Achmct is supreme all through Kordofan, though the cruelties and oppression of his dervishes have made his rule detested; therefore, the unfortuuate inhabitants who have to pay higher taxes than they did to the Egyptian Government long for its return. By June 1 Abo Anga had arrived from Gebel Tagala, and had taken up a position at Gebel Dair. Terror was struck into the hearts of all the Arabs when the news of your victory at Abu Klea and at Metemma arrived. You were looked upon as invincible, and the Arabs flatly refused to appear in arms against the British. The whole army, had you advanced, intended flying to the mountains and deserts ; so you ! would have walked in to Khartoum, or gone wherever you pleased without the least opposition. But every single movemont of the British, their intentions even, were well known and spied out, and swiftly reported. You were surrounded by spies ; they dwelt among you. So it came to pass that your intention of giving up the game was quickly known, and the Arabs took courage who before had been thrown into a perfect panic. ' The Inglezi are retreating, are retreating,' was shouted and passed along all over Kordofan, from sakeyeh wheel to sakeyeh wheel, by camel, by donkey, and swift messenger. " Regarding Olivier Pain, I will tell you. When I was in Obeid in August last there entered the town one day a little Frenchman, about thirty-five years old. His beard was scrubby and carroty ; his complexion a muddy red-clay color. I was ordered to examine this strange man's papers. I found a passport, with ' Olivier Pain. Profession, homme de kttres,' written on it. His Arabic was very imperfect; but he would invariably try to speak in that tongue. He was dressed a la dervish. He always passed us by without the slightest recognition, and even if saluted he neither returned the compliment nor spoke. When addressed by a European, if he replied at all, it was in bad Arabic. He remained at Obeid ten days, and then went to join Mahomet Achmet at Rabat. He then went to Shat, and reached aid reached Onderoo by Duem, passing down by water. Here he sickened, and died of a grievous malady. The dervishes rule the country with a rod of iron—so much for these people fighting for their liberty. Patriots indeed ! The dervishes and the men who fight are a perfect terror to the poor peaceful inhabitants, who only wish to allowed to till the land, but they are forced to take arms everywhere. If they do not, they were made slaves, their villages pillages, and their wives and maidene carried off for the use of Dervishes and their officers. Often these poor down-trodden villagers are massacred. And this is what some people in England call' fighting for their country.' There was regular news sent between Khartoum and Obeid.' Much of this agrees with the statements of meii escaped from Khartoum regarding the massacres at Khartoum. When I fled I escaped by way of Assaf, north of Barra-Rajmar and Safia. I was nineteen days on the road. Westruck the Nile at Abou Goss, and after a rest proceeded to Dongola, arriving at the house of Major Turner, Intelligence Department, where he and Captain Luke White received me most hospitably. It is to the exertions of the first-named gentleman, who arranged with my guide my escape, that I owe my release from my cruel and savage persecutors. The sum of LIOO, besides an advance of lOOdol, was paid by him, with General Lord Wolseley's sanction." Father Bononi is a thin spare man of ordinary height, sharp aquiline features, extremely dark from exposure, of about forty years of age. He is of an extremely excitable temperament and very voluble. He arrived in rags. Major Turner took the greatest care of him, and afterwards conducted him down to Wady Haifa. [Wo have since heard by telegraph that Father Bononi has arrived at Cairo, and has had an interview with the Khedive.] Great credit is clue to Major Turner, of the Intelligence Department, for the skilful manner in which he arranged Bononi's escape. Sir R. Buller considered the sum of LIOO too much, and would not sanction this on his own responsibility. Lord Wolseley was telegraphed to, and he sanctioned it. The total expense was about Ll5O. This, ais far as is yet known, will not be repaid either by the Latin mission or by the Italian Government, as is erroneously supposed. The money comes out of the Secret Service Fund. It should be clearly understood that it is the British Government that pays this sum. It is to be observed that Sir C. Wilson, J.P.,

always declared that it would be impossible to get a messenger to El Obeid. Major Turner, his successor in the office of the Intelligence Department, has managed to show the fallacy of this statement. Our correspondent sends us also a narrative by the messenger who was sent to El Obeid to rescue the priest, from which we extract the following passage : " I met him (Bononi) at El Obeid, where I remained four days, walking about the streets. I asked him : ' Would you that I should take you hence ?' He answered : ' I would that you furnished me the means whereby I may depart with all haste from this unhallowed spot, where I find no rest.' 'lt shall be done even as you desire,' I replied. 'Fear not; and this shall be a sign to you. Lift up your eyes at eventide and they will light upon a camel kneeling yonder by the stone wall. That camel will remain there all night. Before the sun has risen upon the earth you must go there. I shall be theie. Bo circumspect in all your ways.' I charged him also that he should tell no man. We are a people treacherous to the last degree—that is our character. Friend will betray friend; father betray son; son father; father-in-law his son-iu-law. You never know who is your friend among us Arabs. The priest was there at the appointment. We quickly mounted our camels, and before the sun spread forth his rays over the sanda El Obeid was out of sight. My heart was lighter than it had been for many a long day. As for Bononi, he looked very shattered, miserable, and worn, but he had a bold heart. I bade him be of good cheer. ' We are safe now,' I said, as I looked back to curse the town and its inhabitants. 'Be of good cheer they will not pursue.' Well, we journeyed on at a rapid pace for many an hour, till we reached Mahdool. We were famished and exhausted, for we had ridden for dear life. As we slumbered and slept under a large mesond tree, we were aroused by some spies of Salet Yedlallah. They seized the priest's knife and my large leather bag—containing two pairs of sandals, two letters, fifty thaleries. They then took the priest'd gun, his revolver, and the camel's bridle. They refused to give back the letters, because they said they knew they were for Mahomet Achmet. At last it dawned upon them that we were not dervishes after all. So they returned everything except a pair of shoes, one revolver, the gun, the money, and the letters." The priest, observes our correspondent, confirms this, but says he does not know what was in the bag.