The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-05

the wilds of Africa as governor of the great
province of Darfur For twelve years he
had been a slave in the hands of the Nah
dists. suffering every indignity that the
ingenuity of the Mahdi and his successor,
the khalifa. could invent. The officers gave
food 70 him and dressed him once more as
white man. They rewarded those who had
guided him to Assuan. and the mess re-
Joiced over him as one back from the dead.
As soon as he was able to travel Slatin
WENT TO Cairo, where he was allowed 10 re-
ctperate his health before making report
on me condition of the khalifas power to
MS military sGperiorS After he had been
some time in Cairo he wrote:
ne contrast between my past and my
present ME the many changes see around
me, sometimes make my head feel heavy
heaVy as though l had just awoke from an
evil dream-twelve years captivity, 9 long
cream. indeed 1t was long before my ex-
cltement subsidized but gradually began TO
again in the midst of civilized society,
man among men, my thanks are due to God.
whose protecting hand has led me safely
through all the dangers behind me-
1t was the information brought by Slatin
or the khallfa and his followers that made
the British resolve to send out the present
expedition for the recor 1uest of Khar-
toum and the equatorial provinces, and for
avenging the death of Gordon. Slatin was
loaded with favors by the Khedive and went
along with the expedition, attached to the
intelligence department, to meet once more
the barbaric tyrant whose slave he had
been.
Slatin was a young lieutenant in a crack
Austrian regiment when he went TO meet
Gordon at Khartoum, and was sent to rule
over Darfur. He was twenty-five years old,
full OF fire and ambition with what seemed
a brilliant future before him. When the
Mahdist uprising occurred Slatin tried his
best. to hold his province of Darfur. and
fought many battles to keep 1t for the khe-
dive, but finally, with the annihiation OF
the army of General Hicks Pasha. in No
vember, 1853, he was left isolated without
hope of succor while between him and
Egypt tossed the great Black sea that had
out the civiiza ton which had been planted
In the upper Nile.
SLAVE OF THE MAHDIST.
In December, 1881 he surrendered and
was thenceforth the slave of the Mahdist
ruler Now and again he would be treated
with favor, and then again be loaded with
chains and made to live as meanly as pos
sible. The khalifa used to like to have
him wait outside his door in the morning
until he came out to go to the mosque,
train
After the death of the Mahdi one of the
khallfa S amusements was to make Slatin
walk behind his horse as the barbaric po-
te1tate rode through the streets of Omdur-
man, and as he passed along through the
multitude he would cry, out to them 20 looN
upon the Christian who once ruled OAR
fur and was now delivered into his hands.
The khalifa enjoyed this little diversion the
more as he and his tribe were from the
province over which Slatin had been gov
error
:, When Khartoum was taken Slatin was
living in a hut at Omdurman, heavily
chained and exposed daily to the insults of
the mob. After the taking of the city some
Dervishes came to him with something
to stand forth. they unrolled suddenly their
bundle and showed him the CORY head of
Gordon. Afterward he learned how Gordon
al nd hQ
Mahdists were swarming through the city
Gordon came down the stairway of his
house and demanded the leader of the in
vaders He was speared to death where he
stood. and his head cut off to show to the
Slatins escape from captivity is like a
story of the Arabian Nights" One day a
man, disguised an Arab trader, passed
him in the street and whispered to him that
rector of military intelligence. Egyptian
army, and Baron Heidler, Austrian ambas-
sador in Cairo. TO help him to escape. They
managed to have several interviews, and
finally one night, after the khaifa had gone
to bed and the city was asleep. Slatin
mounted a donkey and rode TO where the
faithful Arab, Hussein, had camels in wait
ing. Then long and hazardous flight be-
gan, which, after much suffering and many
perils, ended in the officers mess at As
suan.
DOOM OF HICKS PAsHA.
Next to the fall of Khartoum and the
murder of General Gordon, the one occur
renee in all the long and bloody history of
the Sudan that makes Englishmen feel like
taking vengeance is the massacre of the
army Of Hicks Pasha and the killing of that
able commander himself. He met his death
on Nov. 2 1883. and the British have never
forgotten the debt they owe to the followers
OF the Mahdi for that affair.
William Hicks entered the Bombay army
as an ensign in 1S45 and served in Bengal
during the campaign Of 1857 to 1853 He was
member of the First Belooch battalion and
staff officer to the Punjah movable column.
He went through the Abyssinial campaign
as brgadier major, end was gaZetted lieu
tenant colonel in 1875 and honorary colonel
in 1880. I'm 1888 Baker Pasha was re-
quested to secure the services of retired off
GERS for the expedition which was oeing pre-
pared to march against the Mahdi he ap-
pointed Colonel Hicks to the post of chief of
staff.
on Sept of that year Hicks Pasha, with
more than 10000 men, began his march up
the Nile from Omdurman, keeping close to
the western side of the White Nile. The
general decided to strike across the desert
to FL Obeid, trusting to the surface pools
for water Fer several weeks all Great
Britain was eager for news of the army un-
der the pasha, but none came. When 1T last
word reached Khartoum it WAS learned that
through the treachery of a guide Hicks
Pasha and all of his men had been trapped,
surrounded and destroyed, without nan
left to tell the tale