Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1890-01-25 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE FATE OF DR. PETERS.  It may be remembered (says the Times Berlin correspondent) that a German living at Aden recently wrote home to his friends here to the effect that he had seen and spoken with the home-returning Commander Rust, leader of the rear column of Dr. Peters's expedition, and had heard from his lips that he had been furnished with direct and personal eviience of the death of both Dr. Peters and Lieutenant von Tiedemann. Soon after this, however, Commander Rust Med that he had ever made any euch statement, and now, after having returned here to Berlin, he writes to the National Zee time asseverating his denial, and adding : I myself first heard of these evil rumours, on meeting, to my surprise, with Herr Borchert, on the 22nd November, at Mitole, on the Lower Tana ; but I smiled at them, knowing that in Africa it is not far from a gnat to WI elephant. After my arrival, however, in Lamu Herr Denhardt returned to the subject, and referred we to Mr. Simons, the English ViceConsul, as a well.informed authority. On talking with this gentleman I learned that three Galls tribesmen from the Upper Tana had given him an identical and detailed narrative of the destruction of Dr. , Peters and his column. Vice-Consul sieving had given credence to the otherwise little trustworthy Gallas, but none of the circumstances which I considered with him were calculated to bear out their story or make me look upon it in any other light than that of o African rumour." During my stay at Aden I had s talk with several Somali chiefs, and among others with Duallah Idris, well known for his connection with Count Teleekr, expedition. and who is well sequainted with the ways of the Kabalalla Somalis and the Gallas on the Upper Tana. This man thought it anything but probable that the Kabalalla would have dared to attack, when encamped, a column like that of Dr. Peters, provided, as it was, with good firearms. At the same time I never heard any of the Aden and Berbera Somalis, who frequently came to see me, and among whom the expedition of Dr. Peters had been , recruited, express any apprehension as to the fate of their friends and comrades.  I have had (continues the Time, Berlin correspondent) • long conversation with Commander Rust on I the subject of Dr. Peters and his rumoured fate, but I could gather nothing - that officer of • nature to dispel the pensi,ist vv.- a which continue to prevail here in spite of recent telegrams of an opposite tendency from Zanzibar. liefore the receipt of these telegrams the mainstay of the optimists was the assurance of Herr Borchert that the rumours concerning the murder of Dr. Peters and his companions were I all groundless, and that the doctor, on the contrary, I had intrenched himself rear Mount Kenia. But Commander Bust now admits what I perceived and pointed out from the very beginning of • consideration of all the circumstances of the case, that Herr Borchert had no justification whatever at the time for making such a state-neat as he did. The latest optimist telegrams from Zanzibar referred to the arrival of letters at Lanni which Dr. Peters had despatched while on the march between Mount Kenis and Lake Batingo, but Commander Rust fails to see how such letters, even if they had been written in the region referred to, could have reached the coast by the route of which he himself had experienced the difficulties. It was obvious that, for reasons best known to himself, Commander Rust did not wish to commit himself to any definite expression of opinion touching the fate of Dr. Peters, but without doing this himself one way or the other it was just as clear to me that he attached much weight to the belief of Mr. Simons, the English Vice-Consul at Lamu, who had convinced himself of the perfect trmtworthMess of the three Galls messengers who brought down to the coast the first news of disaster to Dr. Pi tern and his men. I may add that Commander Rust looks the picture of robust and manly health, retaining no traces whatever of the terrible fevers, the long fits of unconsciousness, and the other physical sufi flings which induced him to leave the stores, with which 39 leader of the rear column he had been intrusted for Dr. Peters, in charge of a few natives, and then to make his way back to the coast as soon as pus, sible, and so home to Germany.