INCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 98, 18 April 1885, Page 5

INCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

London, February 13. Long descriptive letters (not to be confounded with telegrams of nearly six weeks later date) are now beginning to arrive from the Soudan, and in a few days we shall probably know all the interesting details there are to know about Colonel Burnaby's death and the terrible action at Abu Klea. For me to send, or you to attempt to publish, all these lengthy epistles, would be absurd. I shall, however, of course, go over them carefully and select for your benefit "the plums" of the correspondence, or in other words, such additional items of intelligence, "tit bits" of military gossip, and good stories as seem likely to interest your readers. The " Telegraph" of Tuesday, February lOth, contains a long letter from Mr Burleigh (their "special"), dated from Gakdul v^v ells just four days prior to the battle of Abu Klea. It describes the commencement of Stewarts march across the desert, which seems to have been principally remarkable for the sufferings of men and beasts from want of water. The Lieutenant Pigott referred to in the following amusing incident was killed at Abu Klea.

The Jack Tars and their Camels. "-I think 1 told you," says Mr Burleigh, 11 that one of the funny things of camp life at Korti was to see the household troops or • Heavies ' learning infantry drill. • Four's -deep,' • fours right and left,' • form square' resounded in their quarters allday long. Lord Chas. Beresford 's Naval Brigade arrived on the Sth, and having promptly pitched their tents and made themselves comfortable on the following day, they turned out on camel-back to learn to handle these ships of the desert. "What's the British army a coming to ?" I overheard a soldier who was looking on saying to his comrades. "It'.s a turning it upside down Lord Wolseley i-~, and metansorphorising everything." "First he makes sailors of us infantry, sending us here in boats, then he turns the cavalry into infantrymen, and I am hanged if he ain't making cavalry of the .sailors " Perhaps he was. Anyhow, the process was droll in the extreme. With much persuasion Jack had towed, strung into line, some sixty camels, for the detachment to ride which was to march to Metemmeh. Lord Charles Beresford and Sir Herbert Stewart and staff, with many more, v ere there to see the Naval Brigade drill. " Mount," shouted Lieutenant Piggot, who vas drilling the contingent, Aboard went Jack, still more quickly the camels snot ted and surged to their feet, spillingand sending sprawling in all directions many a brave sailor Somehow none of the men were hurt, and whilst Jack was trying to remount the lookers-on smiled audibly ; even Lord Charles Beresford himself produced his handkerchief and ftinotheicd something that sounded more like laughter than coughing, though it was his own command which was furnishing the fun. When the pailor.s at length had securely mounted, they seemed unhappy. Possibly they did not like the short lurches and swinging of the camels, and would have preferred a top-gallant yard in a storm at sea. The camels also did not appear to respond promptly to the tugs given by Jack to the guiding head »*ope which serves as a rein for the animal, and the brutes blundered against each other, tin owing the line at times into confusion Their officers, with wary eyes to faults of that sort, strive to correct them by calling to their men, "hard a port" or "hard a starboard there." One failor I heard directed to pass the rope across, as "that brute steers better from the port side." Another Jack had so loaded his animal with the equipment for the march that ho was told to dismount, and " stow it afresh, as the camel's saddle had a bad list." Jack, however, was in dead earnest, and meant learning to ride, so the detachment persevered. The spectators might have, I think, recognised this seriousnes?. No, a good deal of quiet chaff went on all the same. The cruellest thing I have hoard for a long time was said when the troop got the order to trot, and the sailors went jump, thump in their saddles, as if they were playing leapfrog on the camels. "Don't bump so," cried a bystander to one of the sailors ; "you'll make bis head ache." Jack turned upon his tormentor a melancholy eye, moistened either by the poignancy of his situation or the cold callousnes of the remark.

The March Across the Desert. Some time ajter three p m. on the Bth inst General Stewarts column formed up outside of the camp and moved off across the desert. The object in starting in the afternoon was to place the troops clear of the camp, and yet not beyond reach, so that anything overlooked could be recovered, and to have the men all settled in their proper places before the journey was fairly entered upon The following was the actual force which marched, rank and file includod :— Naval Brigade, 58; 19th Hussars, 130 ; Heavies, 400 ; Mounted Infantry, 357; Royal Artillery, 11; Southern Division, 43 ; Boyal Sussex, 417 ; 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment, 58 ; Commis°ariat and Transport Corp?, 77 ; Mounted Field Hospital, 11 ; Bearer Company, 42 : total, 1,607. There wore in addition 304 interpreters, cameldrivers, and others. There wore 2,228 camels, 150 horso.s, and 2 mules. ThevSe, as may be easily understood, made a very long i line ; the front some fifty yards wide, and the length, even in close order, half a mile long. The troops marched in what is technically called open column of companies, each detachment or regiment having its own baggage animals immediately in rear of their line. The transport and hospital corps were near the centre of the column. One driver led four baggage animals, riding the leading camel, the other three walking behind. The head of the second was fastenod to the leading camel's tail, and the heads of the others were secured in the same manner, namely, by a Btoutropeto the tail of the animal In front. There was much trouble in getting the natives to start with the column, many of them bo'ting rather than run what they considered the fearful risk of falling into the hands of the wild Arabs of the desert. It was only with great difficulty, such as nearly everybody experienced who had servants, that I got mine out of Korti. The column went slowly off, marching, nfter getting quite clear of Korti village, nearly due east. We passed under the teleprraph wire stretching to Merawi, which was torn down by the rebels, but has since been replaced and restored on improvised poles cut from dwarf mimosa trees The wire hangs so low that care has to be exercised in passing under it. At sundown the troops were halted for the night on the plain Beven miles from Korti, covered with bunch grass and mimosa. Indeed, our route for most part of the way led through country little differing from the scene of our first night's bivouac, and it was only at rare intervals that the column bad ta wwmbie^ Q-vex tkt

small sharp black atones jihicti <soj*r the rocky ridges and slopes of tfie' fSbildMf; Firewood was plenUful,. and in truth the rough dry cabas grass gave light and heat enough to cook the evening meal.' There was no stint of water, as all had brought what was thought, and should have beta, an ample supply in *' Guoalis," or waterskins, and copious draughts of tea Were drunk, for either the dust or heat, or miy. hap an unconscious nervous apprehension at seeing no water anywhere, but everything arid and parched, creates in the desert » thirst which would make a water arinkirbf a toper.

Tne GraKcuu wens. We take the following interesting de«crit>of these now famous wells in the BajucU Desert from a letter of the late Mr St. Leger Herbert, published in the ''Mornlnfc Post" to-day:— As strange and aft fine* sight as any soldier will see in the way of drawing water for an army in the field may be seen at the Gadkul Wells. There are I three wells here at different levels, one' above the other, though not in a direct line on rbe'perpendicularfaceof the granite cliff. The Boyal Engineers have been conduct* ing the water from the " second or middlt well, by a canvas tube to vessels on the level adjacent to the lowest well, on tht ' level of the ground. The water in this cavity has now sunk, and the pipe fe no longer of sufficient length to reach it. ' It has become necessary, therefore, to transfer the tube to the highest of the three wells, and thence to draw water, keeping it filled to a certain level by drawing up Water buckets from the second well and emptying it into the highest. But to do this men must descend • intothe highest well and thence down a channel of rock to the second. This channel is the natural pathway of the water, which, falling from the surface of the earth into the highest well, rushes, when it has raised the pool to a certain height, out through an opening • into the lower cavity. To deecend by ropes into the first well, to find a foothold through this pre* cipitous turrow of rock into the second, and to arrange a system of hauling up the water by buckets and passing it from the higher to the lower cavern, has been the especial labour of Lord Charles Beresford's sailors. Lanterns are gleaming in the gloomy recesses of the rock, and voices are reverating out of it throughout tho valley. No pantomine in London has a scene as weird, and nowhere in the world i 3 tremendously hard work done more cheerily or more efficiently. And the plain practical result of this fairy theatrical scene, of the unearthly echoing of midnight voices in the rocky bowels of the precipice, of the gleam and flash at regulation lanterns in dark cavernous depths is that the men will fill their water-kins for the march with good water. These three wells, or, more proparly ppeaking, thrae natural reservoirs in the rock are perpendicular, cylindrical cavities', formed as though a giant had pierced 'the granite with a mighty anger, making the lowest well by driving the auger 20ft. below tho level of the valley beneath, and making the others of less depth.