The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-15
TO SAVE A FRIEND
COYlE'S MANY ATTEMPTS TO RES
CUE HIS BOSOM cOMRADE.

SOC THO OoOoM COMhGDE.
Was Captured at Khartum With .sChi-
nes." GOrdon-Horrible Slavery Among
the Mahdists-Long Efforts May Now
Result In Success
1t has been my dream by night and my
study by day for ten long years, said
James j. Coyle Of Pomona, Cal, to a cor
respondent the other day, in talking Of his
projected trip TO the Sudan during the
next few months, and the organization
there of an expedition TO go up the river
Nile for the purpose of entering the Su-
dan. 81 will make determined attempt
to accomplish my plans before this year is
out. Nothing short of death or disabil-
tty will deter me-
This sounds like the talk of big, pow.
erful man, who by boldness and grim res
oluteness of purpose, has planned great
things and done them, and who, by in
domitable energy, has won successes that
others would never have dared TO even
consider. As matter of fact, there is not
q more unobtrusive, modest and domestic
man in the length and breadth of Pomona
valley than James J. Coyle He is about
40 years old, slight and low of stature, but
muscular and why. His face is bronzed
by the SUE of many seasons ON the deserts
of Egypt, and his square shoulders and
heavy lower jaw betoken frmness and
strength of purpose.
More than a decade ago Coyle resolved
that he would give his life to an effort to
rescue his nearest and best loved COM
panion from most horrible bondage
among the savages of the Sudan in Africa
The story Coyle tells of the conception
of his all consuming ambition TO rescue
his friend, and what he has been doing to-
ward the contamination of his purpose, is
intensely interesting. He is native of
England, and when II years of age became
attached to corps of royal civil engineers
in the military service of Egypt. He lived
in Alexandria several years and spent sew
en- years in the Nile region and one season
in khartum. He has travelled several
times across the Sahara desert He was
with the British army in its Egyptian war
In 1882 and 1883, was present at the bonn
bardment Of Alexandria in July, 1884, and
assisted in preparing maps and plans for
the use of" Chinese Gordon in the famous
campaign against the mahdi.
His bosom friend and cousin was Dr.
John Neufeldt, a young Austrian physi-
clan, who was in the hospital service
They We're together in the campaign in the
Sudan and were both followers of Cor
don. They well knew the dangers that
were all about them constantly in that
wild region of African sayages, 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 fall of Khartum, in September,
1854, when Gordon was assassinated by
the soldiers OF the mahdi, about 90 of his
officers and personal followers were taken !
captive, among them DR.. Neufeldt Coyle !
was stationed at Berber, 200 miles 10 the |
north, on the Nile, when the news was
brought there by fleeing soldiers and cou-
riers of the disaster that the British had |
sustained at KhartUm.
For week, says Mr.. Coyle, 81 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 Sudan, and our comrades would be /
rescued from their slavery. This delusive
hope chcered me for q long time. When
the engineer corps was ordered to Cairo,
knew we would soon leave Egypt, while
the captives from our forces We're to be
left to their fate in the hands of the mahdi.
was at my wits end 20 know what to do. /
II got discharge from the service, and
with the little money had left went back
on my own responsibility up the Nile as
far rs Berber My object was to be as near
In civilization as possible 10 the outposts
Of the country of the mahdi.
''It would take a volume to tell all that
did in Berber and Metasumeh on the
Nile during 1885 and 1885 in my efforts to
get news to and from NeUfeldt. Three
times in two years / heard from him
through escaped slaves. He was kept in
heavy chains for months and had lived in
ilth and seualor as hostler among the
mahdi's camels.'
IN 1887 Mr.. Coyle became convinced
hat, single handed and alone, no could
never do his friend any good by remaining
N Berber. 1t seemed to him then that the
only way TO accomplish his end was To in
crest capital in behalf OF the captive, and
hat perhaps an escape from bondage
might be made through the slave trade in
he Sudan So he worked hard and saved
siGuC.S go L<iOh " I>t1S-ioil-Na-
There he found little or no interest in the
tory he told Of the slavery OF his friend.
After moro months OF work he came to
merica. C0yle went to California in the
of 1855, He knew of several Eng
ish friends who were in Los Angeles couu-
Y, and he knew there was a large number
# rich Englishmen in the state. This
eemed grand field in which to earn
money and al the same time interest peo-
lie in his plans for the liberation of DR..
>eufeldt and Others.
Financial disaster oyercame Mr.. Coyle, ,
nd he was Obliged to alter his mode of
livelihood several times. In 1891 be inter
sted Claude p. johnson, then well 10 do
Dung newspaper writer and business man
n Pomona, in his cherished schei1e.
johnson and Coyle went TO Cairo in
une, 1891, but found that it was utterly
to go UP the Nile, or indeed to
rooeed for any distance from Cairo. be
ause of the choler;. that was r;.vaging that ]
egion. Tie authorities Threatened imme .
late arrest ana punishment il their laws
gainst going out into the Arab districts
-ere disobeyed. Six months were spent in
-aiting in Cairo for Il favorable time to \
lovc I'D the river, but il all came 10 4.
aught TIE t-s-YClHrs como hecll IL Po- :