The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-24
A VOICE FROM THE soUDAN.

away or IN the SOudan under the
African sun, soldier of Great Britain,
one of the Nile expedition, read in the
columns of The Herald an account of
the rout of the Dervishes, battle in
which he had taken part.
1t was only the Associated Press re-
pers all over the world about, but T.
W. Brown of company G, First Cam
eron Highlanders of the Nile expedi-
ton, happened to read it in The Her.
aid. This prompted him to write adj
ditional information concerning the
war in Africa and the fight at the At
bara, to his aunt, Mrs. Brown Richards
of this city.
His letters are interesting, being the
views Of a private in the ranks of
mighty army, forcing and fighting its
way through the jungles and unknown
dangers of a savage land.
He relates that the entire British
force employed in the expedition
amounts to $4,000, whereas the press
reports placed the number much larger.
There are 1000 British and 1900 Sou
udneSe ana Egyptians.
When we fought the Dervishes at
the Atbara," he wrote, 1--WE were only
5000 strong and the enemy about 49,
0O0" Of the battle he gave the follow
ing account: ''It was a very hard fight
and 1 am sorry to say we lost more
men than the regiment did at Tel-eI-
Kebir. We had II killed and 80
wounded, some of whom have since
died. We started to advance on the
enemy's position in the night, and at
dawn, when our artillery opened fire.
the enemy's cavalry was seen riding
through the bush to flank u.s. But we
never saw them again. After the ar
tillery shelled the position about two
hours, we started to advance, laugh
ing and chatting, believing we had
wasted ammunition on foe which had
long since abandoned the field. Sud-
denly. the Dervishes opened fire on us.
which checked our hilarity and
knocked down ten men of my COM
pany. We kept on, though, under a
heavy fire. At ten yards we charged
them and they rose up out of the
ground and swarmed about US like
ants. They had been in rifle pits
about five feet deep, with stakes driven
in front. But we soon got our bayo-
nets working, and they began to fall
like rabbits. Some threw down their
arms and started to run, but were
soon knocked over and in three-quar-
tiers of an hour we had killed between
1000 and 5000. 1t was regular mas
sacre. Since the fight they have been
in and giving themselves up;
400 surrendered yesterday
BY this time the expedition is adj
on Khartoum, taking advan-
tage of the rise of the Nile, which usu-
ally occurs towards the middle of
June. AT the time the young man adj
dressed his letter it was estimated that
10000 Dervishes were awaiting the
British in ambush somewhere along
the line of march. Reinforcements
were looked for about the 10th of June,
to the extent of 1000 Egyptians. an
equal number of British and two bat
teries of artillery.
It seems that the Soudanese have
1911 ClLCClING dlQ TO the
British army. For while they cap
tured hundred prisoners a day, and
and cattle by the drove. In
their own way they fought savagely.
too, and kept it UP long after the en-
emy had started to leave the country
n panic of superstitious dread.
Two women" said Mr.. Brown, "re-
Vealed the hiding place of Mahomed
and caused his capture" He was |
found hiding in a trench covered with
palm leaves, quaking with fear.
By this time the June battles are in
and it will not be long before |
'unners bring the news to the coast
md tie wires tell us that British SUI
'remacy has been reasserted in the
lark continent