HOW STANLEY FALLS STATION WAS LOST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2304, 16 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW STANLEY FALLS STATION WAS LOST.

Mr Walter Dkane, who was in charge of Stanley Falls station when it was attacked by the Arabs, has, while passing through London, been interviewed by the Daily News : — Three months before the final struggle at the Falls, according to Mr Deane's story, a slave woman camo into the station one morning to seek protection from the persecutions of her master. She could not show any signs of corporal punishment, and unless slaves can prove that they have been ill-treated in this way it is a rule at the station not to interfere, but to send them back. This was done, though the poor woman begged and prayed to be protected. About ten days after she returned to the station one mass of wounds, her master having tied her up to a tree, thrashing her unmercifully many hours a day till her back and limbs were bloody and raw. Mr Deane now resolved to keep her. This act was the primary cause of the hostilities shown by the slave-dealers. Money was offered to buy the woman from her master. But the Arabs were sullen and refused. The Arabs eventually fired on the settlement. Mr Deane, Lieut. Dubois (his Belgian colleague), with a handful of Houssas, attacked and finally drove them on to their own village, which they burned, capturing some weapons and banners. The steamer Stanley, with stores, came up to the Falls about this time, but without the expected fresh ammunition and reinforcements of Houssas. The appearance of the little steamer, however, creatsd considerable moral effect on the Arabs. Mr Deane, though often threatened that if captured he would have his throat cut, went alone into the native camp, and succeeded in bringing on their chief to Stanley Falls to have a palaver; but when the steamer left the Arab promises of friendship were broken, and hardly had the smoke from the little boat disappeared in the dense foliage of the river side than the Arabs closed in upon the settlement. Stanley Falls station is situated almost in the centre of the river, and is an island ai high water. Just at this period the river was exceptionally low, and the Arabs could easily approach from the maiulaud on one side ; ou the other there were six hundred yards of water from shore to shore.

All men in the little station had been busy erecting barricades and earthworks for three small Krupp guns. The garrison consisted of thirty-eight Houssas and forty Banglas, caunibals trained by Dubois and Deane. The fight commenced about ten o'clock ou the morning of the Tuesday. Mr Deane worked two of the guns, and Dubois took the other. This brave little band of eighty men fought against enormous odds till the following Saturday, when their ammunition fell short. At dawn on Saturday, when the enemy were largely rainforced, they "rushed" the little position, charging right into the station. Deane's men had by this time only three cartridges left. These were soon expended, and they clubbed the enemy with their rifles, driving them out of the station, but the Arabs had succeeded in capturing a No. 4 Snider pivot-gnu. There was now just breathing time, to look rouud. Three Houssas had been killed, seventeen were lying vvouuded, and many Banglas bad disappeared. At last only seven Houssas remained, and they promised faithfully to stand by the two white men. Wich this small force, and no ammunition, there was nothing to be done but to retire. AH the stores were piled together, petroleum poured over them, the breechpieces of the guns made useless, and the place was set on fire.

Stealing away along the slippery bank of the river, hiding in the dense shadows caused by the blazing station, Mr Deane and M. Dubois, with their sergeantmajor and a few Honssas, tried to pass through the Arab lines. In attempting to cross some slippery rocks, both Mr Deaue and M. Dubois fell into the water. The former succeeded in reaching the shore, but Dubois was carried away and drowned. Wandering by the banks and under cover of the jungle, when the sun was up Dean cook his clothes off to dry. While his things were drying there was a discharge of firearms from the wood in front of him, and he saw the Arabs closing rouud him. He snatched up his revolver and fired right and left, aud rushed through the lines, and. running for dear life, heat last distanced his pursuers. Now he was hunted, tracked by the Arabs for thirty days, with nothing to cover him but the blanket he wore to keep the sun off while his clothes were drying. Barefooted, a spear wound in his left arm, one of his fingers of the right hand split with a slug, and a flesh wound in his thigh, he wandered through the jungle and by the river, living on ground fruit and locusts, till at last he found some friendly natives, who got him a canoe, and he arrived safely at Bangala, 500 miles lower down the river.