Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-12-17
Delivered in Chains.
Further Reports Regarding the
Fate of Stanley.
TREASON AMONG ENNIS OFFICERS.

He and the Intrepid Explorer Declared to
Have Eeen betrayed into the Mahdis
neutrality-suspicious. Who Are Slow to
Relieve the Reports, and Why They Dis
credit Them = Some Suspicious State
ments IN Digma's Letter European Mis-
eelIany
LONDON, Dec l7.-The letter which
Khalija Abdullah is said to have written to
Osman Digma stated that steamer bearing
an expedition to the equator commanded by
Oman Saleh had on board, on arriving at
Lado, Enin Bey aud another white man,
who had been delivered up in chains by the
officers and troops of Emin's command.
The quite general assumption that Henry
NJ. Stanley is a prisoner in the hands Of
Khalfa Abdullah the false prophet of the
Soudan, has not extended to the British In
perial Etst African Company. These gen.
tlemen, including Sir Franc DeWinton and
William Macknnon, express their unquali-
fed belief in the explorers safety and ulti-
mate return to civilization, and quite rea-
sonably base their belief upon the conten-
ton that the proofs of his capture furnished
by Osman Dgma are insufficient, illogical
and contradictory. The Uganda mission
aries, although ample time has elapsed for
their doing SO, make no mention Of the
Mahdi's alleged victory, and the British I'm
peral officials are therefore constrained to
believe that no battle between the MahdPs
forces and those of Stanley, or Emin, or
both, has taken place. Osman Digma palpa-
bly, lies when he pretends that he does not
know the name Of the white traveller be
speaks OF, and the placing of cartridges in
evidence is merely effective as weakening
his assumption that the unknown white man
is Stanley. The last consignment of rifles
sent to Stanley consisted wholly of weapons
of the Remington pattern, which the Snider
cartridges produced could not be made TO fit.
dispatch from Suakim to the Times
SAYS: the natives do not believe that the
equatorial provinces have submitted to the
Mahdi Ii they had, the natives say, proc
hmations TO the people of Emin's terrtory
and of the official acts OF the Mahdi would
have been demanded.
The Sunday Times, in an article on the
probability Of Staniey's safety, says friend
OF Stanley has suggested that The New York
Herald again come to the rescue and send an
expedition to find the explorer
Mr. John Goes, the librarian Of the Brit
lsh Geographic society, expressed his belief,
in an interview Saturday, that Stanley
Is prisoner in the hands of the Mahdi
This theory, he asserts is the only one ac-
counting for SANKEY'S long silence. The
Mahdi is friendly to the Zanzibaris, and the
fact be assumed renders it liksly that Stan
ley and Emin were surrounded in their
stockade by the natives until their provi-
sions gave out, when they surrendered TO the
Zanzlbaris to save their own lives and were
turned over to the Mahdi for a considera-
ton.
BERLIN, Dec 1.-THE Freizinuige Zeitung
and other newspapers argue that If the Os-
man Digma reports are true the Wissmann
expedition will be useless. Some journals
argue that il would take at least four months
to cover the distance which the reports must
travel from I4ado, and that therefore they
must be false.
The National Gazette says that if Emin
has been captured 1t becomes more than ever
duty and an honor to send an expedition
to bis assistance