A MASSACRE OF COWARDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 118, 9 May 1908, Page 6

A MASSACRE OF COWARDS

the li.ood-ied standard of revolt was ' raised iu the Kaatern fcioudau in 1883, i ■hy Osman Wgna, for his iiiuster, Uie and loree afier foit-e ol iroops were wijjea out of being a.s completely as 1 1" tliey had never exisled, for ieroeious Hadendowars slaughtered and slo\y lik® the extonuluatiiig hordes of Attila. After this, Umhhil k 4 vested Suii;ai and Tokar, and then the Uoverninent at Cairo 'began to *iir ii «elf in earnest. To relieve these two towns, it hastened to dispatch Uaker Pallia, then commanding the Kgyplian gendarmerie; but formerly the Colonel of the 10th (Prince of Wales' Own.) Jlu>sars, with a motley army of some 3,<00 blacks, iiasln-Bazouks and eon.stabnlary, und six guns, iiisembarking iiis iroiij,, .n Trinikital, some distance south ol Muikiii, Uaker, without loss ol tinui, moved on Tokar on February 4th, Jo 61; but he had not gone far before "!•» who.e ioa u was overwhelmed with ( : as lonnpleto almo»t a.s that iiad uvarwlielnu'd the army of UJek, iii l\urdofan. When tin* Arab,; were .seen, the Kgvptian .coUls began liring wildly and retreated. The <\»\ahy u.*io ordered to charge a small !J ' dy oi ine enemy on the unlit Hank; out, the *eouls returning, they .'No turned t:iil, and rushed lia-.-k in

> i' ii111* ami mi the uiaiu body, which at once became panic-struck ami could not even form square properly. The enemy then .sin rounded the Egyptians, when there <-i;-;i< d a scene of butchery which hiirj proSiably never been equalled. "The Kgy])tians were shrieking madly, hardly attempting to run away, but trying to shelter themselves one behind the other. Armed wiih rilie and bayonet, they allowed themselves to be slaughtered without an effort at self-defence, by savage* inferior lo them in numbers, and armed only with *pear tS and swords." Mo efforts of the gallant Baker and his British oliicei's (eleven of whom were killed) eould induce the Egyptian pol* ironiis !.i r.illv and IV.ce tne foe; so. seeing tiial matters were utterly hopeless, ho and his stall' put «puis to their horses, and charged the enemy, hewing their way out towards the shore through a forest of Arab swords and huu-es. The Kgyptiau- (who lo«st 112 ollieers and 2,2.~>0 men, with their guns and Catlings and 3,fl()i) rilles), were slaughtered aa they ran, leaving a long trail of corpses from the main shambles to the shore.