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Temuka Leader, Issue 1373, 1 August 1885, Page 3

AN INCIDENT OF THE SOUDAN

In a letter of one of the special corrcs pendents with the Sydney Contingent appears the following account of an incident which does not reflect much credit upon the invaders ; - “ A good deal of excitement was caused on one ocasioa by the appearance of an Arab ascending a neighboring hill about 800 yards distant. No. 3 Company (Australians and Berks) at once opened fire, and though the bullets were dropping in mil directions around him, he pursued his way calmly up the hill till ho reached the summit, where no doubt ho thought he would be safe, but what must have been his thoughts when ho discovered that a company of Sikhs werb on the other side, making escape by that way impossible ! His only chance lay in again running the gauntlet of our bullets. Pausing for a minute or two, he turned and slowly made his way acroas the side of the hill, taking a downward course, with the object of obtaining cover in that direction. All this time our men were keeping up a brisk fire, though many men refrained from taking aim, saying it was a pity to kill such a brave man. The steepness of the hill (or mountain) made his progress necessarily slow, but onward he went, occasionally stopping to look down on us, or measure the distance that intervened between him and safety. Many men stopped firing to watch him, and the excitement as to whether he would escape or not increased. Bets were given and taken that he would not reach shelter alive, but he teemed to bear a charmed life, for though we could see the bullets striking the ground all round him ho seemed to be invulnerable, Just before reaching cover be appeared as if struck, but recovering himself gave a bound and was out of sight, but only to fall into the hands of the 1 friendlies,’ who were scouring ‘the hills, and with them lie was not so fortunate, being speedily despatched. We found out afterwards that ha had been hit eleven times by our bullets.”