The Portland daily press., 1895-06-13
WILL RESCUE HIS FRIEND.
Why J.J. Coyle is Making an Ex-
peditiOn to the Soudan.
HAS BEEN A PRISONER FOR TEN
YEARS.

DR.. John Neufeldt was Captured in the
Fall of Khartoum in iSS4.-Prepara-
tions for the Undertaking.
A Pomona, Cal, despatch to the New
York Times says: James J. Coyle, the
hotel keeper of Pomona, who has been
quietly preparing for months for an ex-
pedition of ten OR a dozen persons to enter
the hostile territory of the Mahdi in the
Soudan, says: eff 1 live six months lon
ger l shall have made the most desperate
effort to keep my word to my dearest
friend, and to have accomplished what
has been my dream by night and study
by day for over ten years. 1 mean to let
no fear of death or physical disability
deter me from getting into the country
of the N1ahdi. What England has so
shamefully left undone mean to try to
do''
This sounds like the talk of a big, pow
erful man, who, by boldness and grim
resoluteness of purpose has planned great
things and achieved them, and who, by
indomitable energy, has won successes
that others would never have dared even
to consider AS matter of fact, there is
not a more unobtrusive man in Southern
California than James J. Coyle. He is
about forty years old, slight, and low of
stature, but muscular and wiry. His
face is bronzed by the suns of many seas
ha Of nd hiS
square shoulders and heavy lower jaw be-
token firmness and strength of purpose
More than decade ago Coyle resolved
that he would give his life to an effort to
rescue his nearest and best-loved compan-
ion from most horrible bondage among
the savages of the Soudan in Africa. The
story Coyle tells of the conception of his
all-consuming ambition to rescue his
friend, and what he has been doing
toward the consummation of his purpose,
is intensely interesting. He is a native
of England, and when seventeen years of
age became attached to corps of Royal
Civil Engineers in the military service of
Egypt. He lived in Alexandria several
years. and also spent several years in the
Nile region and one season in Khartoum
He has travelled several times across the
Sahara Desert. He was with the British
Army in it's Egyptian war in 1882 and
| 1883, was present at the bolnbardment of
Alexandria in July, 1882, and assisted in
preparing maps and plans for the use of
Chinese Gordon in the famous cam
paign against the Mahdi.
His bosom friend and cousin was Dr.
John Neufeldt, a young Austrian physi-
clan who was in the hospital 2 service
They were together in the campaign in
ha and both fn11oxNrorsc of
Gordon They well knew the dangers
that were all about them constantly in
| that wild region of African savages, noted
\ for their cunning and cruelty, and they
vowed that should any harm befall either
of them the remaining one would risk
his life to rescue the unfortunate, or, in
any event, to relieve him by death from
misery. Fate decided that Neufeldt
should be the victim. At the Efall of
Khartoum, in September, 1884, when
Gordon was assassinated by the soldiers
of the Mahdi, about twenty of his officers
and followers were taken captive, among
them Dr. Neufeldt. Coyle was stationed
at Berber, 100 miles to the north on the
Nile, when the news was brought there
by fleeing soldiers and couriers Of the dis
aster that the British had sustained at
Khartoum.
"For week." says Mr. CoyIe "I was
beside myself with alarm for Neufeldt,
but for some six months after that it was
promised that, with new and fresh troops,
the British would soon sweep down into
the SouGan and our comrades would be
rescued from their slavery. This delusive
hope cheered me for long time. When
the engineer corps was ordered to Cairo I
knew we would soon leave Egypt, while
the captives from our forces were to be
left to their fate in the hands of the
Mahdi, I was at my wits end to know
what to do. My military friends urged
me to give up my foolish scheme for
rescue. The Colonel said 1 was the big
gest fool in the army. and that Neufeldt
had only to suffer :he fortunes of war.
got discharge from the service in the
course OF few months, and, with the
little money I had left, went back, on my
own responsibility, up the Nile as far as
Berber. My object was to be as near in
civilization as possible to the outposts of
the country of the Mahdi.
1T would take a volume to tell all that
did in Berber and Metasumeh, ON the
Nile, during 1885 and 1886 in my efforts
to get news to and from Neufeldt Three
times in two years l heard from him
through escaped slaves. He was kept in
heavy chains for months, and had lived
in filth and squalor as a hostler among
the Mahdi's camels. He had seen several
of his companions in slavery deliberately
hliiou DcIoIo hlo eyes, dHu ue ku6W no
possible way to escape
In 1887 Mr.. Coyle became convinced
that single handed and alone, he could
never do his friend any good by remain
ing in Berber 1t seemed to him then
that the only way to accomplish his end
was to interest capital in behalf of the
captive, and that perhaps an escape from
bondage might be made through the slave
trade in the Soudan. So he worked hard
and saved money enough to go back to
England There he found little or no
interest in the story he told of the slavery
of his friend, and not pound could he
raise for the relief of the prisoners. After
more months of work he came to America
still keeping the idea of the rescue of his
friend before him. Coyle came to Cali
fornia in the summer of 1885, He knew
Of several English friends who were in
Los Angeles County, and he knew there
was large number of rich Englishmen
in the State. The boom of the year also
had its attractions. This seemed a grand
field in which to earn money, and at the