Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1896-01-29
A DEAD SOLDIERS STORY.
Elias y. Earah's Review Of Famous
Expeditions Up the Niie-Keiief
of "Chinese" Gordon.

Among the manuscripts of Elias s
Farah, the Syrian, whose mortal remain
were laid to rest in Rosario cemetery yes
terday afternoon, ia one that relates in ,
highly entertaining manner the thrilling
details of the Egyptian expedition tina
went to the rescue of Gen. Gordon, ant
some facts concerning the rebellion ot
Arabi Pasha, which was suppressed by
Lord Wclseley, who turned his attention
to the campaign of 1884, when an army
was sent out to rescue Gordon. During
both of these expeditions Mr.. Farah went
as an Arabic interpreter, being attached
to the Royal Sussex regiment.
In his paper the deceased SAYS the
cataracts of the Nile are what Americans
would term rapids, some of them three
miles long. He says:
"The trip to the second cataract was
made on the old Nile steamers, and took
FIVE days. Here the hardships and diff
culties of the expedition really began.
The army was about 10000 strong. We
had camel corps of over 10000 animals,
and. as they cost from $75 to 800 each,
there was little investment of $4,000, 900
or more in that one item, from which
you may infer something of the cost of
trying to save Gordon from the Mahdi.
At each cataract the supplies for that
host had to be unloaded from the boats
and carried around the obstruction. We
didn't wait for the animals to do it,
either. The men were compelled to pack
great loads on their backs, and it was a
notable fact that the officers put them
selves on the level of the prlvates when
it came to transporting goods by man
power. Our steamers had to be taken to
pieces, carried around the rapids on
camels, and put together again. The
small boats we're dragged up stream by
ropes.
''It was toilsome trip of sixty-two
days from the first cataract to village
called Korti. The boats were sailed at
times and often towed. The mosquitoes
were so thick that every man wore veil,
hanging from his helmet to his shoulders,
and at times the pests covered the yelling
80 thickly that they had to be brushed off
to enable the man to see. At night we
ot0pu iSiiou UP III OuE Olduhots. NluuS
we're constantly blowing, which whirled
the sand over the sleeping men, some
times an inch deep. One morning friend
was looking for me, but he couldn't dis
tinguish the mound which concealed me,
for the drifting sands cover the desert
with such mounds. 1t may specially in
terest Omaha people to know that during
a large part of the expedition our only
food, in addition to hardtack, was canned
beef, put up by the South Omaha packers.
Our lips we're so badly swollen by the heat
that we had to soak the hardtack in water
In order to eat it. Many men were bitten
by scorpions, which we're thick. The
wounded parts would swell up badly, but
there were few fatal cases. Every man
carried pocket filter. We made tea in
the evening, and, after brewing it, we had
to let our tin cups stand until the sand,
which had blown in during the operation,
had settled. The hard work and the coL-
tact with trees tore the clothes Of many
into tatters, and we were sorry lot of
ragamufins when we reached Kort.
"Our objective point was Metammeh,
on the upper Nile, about 100 miles from
Khartoom. We had several skirmishes
on the way, and when still three miles
from the river the Soudanese attacked us
in force. We piled our camel saddles into