Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-06-07
HIS FRIEND A SLAVE.
CoYLE's MANY ATTEMPTS TO RES
CUE HIS BOSOM coMRADE.

the Mahdists-LOng Efforts May Now
Result In Success.
''It has been my dream by night and my
study by day for ten long years. said
James j. Coyle of Pomona, Cal, to q 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-
ity 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
iomitabe energy, has won successes that
others would never have dared to even
consider. AS a matter of fact. there Is not
more unobtrusive, modest and domestic
man in the length and breadth of Pomona
valley than James j. Coyle. He is about
DO years old, slight and low of stature, but
muscular and wiry. His face is bronzed
by the sun Of many seasons on the deserts
of Egypt and his square shoulders and
heavy lower jaw betoken a firmness and
strength of purpose.
More than decads 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 a native Of
England, and when II years of age became
attached to a corps of royal civil engineers
in the military service of Egypt. He lived
in Alexandria several years and spent SOW
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 1889 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, young Austrian physi-
clan, who was in the hospital service.
They were 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 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 fall of Khartum, in September,
1884, when Gordon was assassinated by
the soldiers of the mahdi, about 20 Of his
officers and personal followers were taken
captive, among them DR.. Neufeldt Coyle
was stationed at Berber, 200 miles to 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 "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 Sudan and our comrades would DO
rescued from their slavery. This delusive
hope cheercd me for a long time. When
the engineer corps was ordered to Cairo,
knew we would soon leave Egypt, while
the captives from our forces were to be
left to their fate in tho hands of the mahdi.
was at my wits end to know what to do.
81 got a discharge from the service, and
with the little money 1 had left went back
on my own responsibility up the Nile as
far as Bcrbcr. My object was to be as near
in civilization as possible to the Outposts
of tho country Of the mahdi.
at would take a volume to tell all that
did in Berbcr and Metasumeh on the
Nile during 1885 and 1886 in my efforts to
get news to and from Neufcldt. 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 hostler among the
mahdis camCls."
In 1887 Mr.. Coyle became convinced
that, single handed and alone, he could
never do his friend any good by remaining
in BCrber. 1t seemed to him then that the
only way to accomplish his end was to in
terest capital in behalf of the captive, and
that perhaps an escape from bondage
might be made through the slave trade in
the Sudan. 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.
After more months of work he came to
America. Coyle went to California in the
summer of 1888. He knew of several Eng
lish friends who were in Los Angeles coun-
ty, and he knew there was large number
of rich Englshmen in the state. This
seemed a grand field in which to earn
money and at the same time interest peo-
pie in his plans for the liberation of DR..
Neufeldt and others.
Financial disaster overcame Mr. Coyle
and he was obliged to alter his mode of
livelihood several times. In 1891 he inter-
ested Claude p. johnson, then a well to do
young newspaper writer and business man
in Pomona, in his cherished scheme.
johnson and Coyle went to Cairo in
June, 1891, but found that it was utterly
impossible to go up the Nile, or indeed to
proceed for any distance from Cairo, be-
cause of the cholera that was ravaging that
region. The authorities threatened imme-
liate arrest and punishment if their laws
against going out into the Arab districts
were disobeyed Six months were spent in
waiting in Cairo for favorable time to
move up the river, but it all came to
naught. The travellers came back to Po-
mona, and from that time to this Coyle
has been as busy as ever planning another
trip.
81 don't want to tell just now" said he,
"who has agreed to go with me to Cairo