Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1878-05-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MASSACRE OF AN ENGLISH EXPEDITION AT NVARLA.—Three or four weeks MO the Church Missionary Society received new, by telegraph of the murder in Aft ica of Mr. Strergol Smith and Mr. O'Neill, with their party. The taws is confirmed by the Times of indict, which publishes the following letter from its correspondent at Zaes:bar, dated March 6: "The unfortunate news I have to send you today will probably reach your renders before it is known in London, where it is certain to create excitement as the first practical result of Mr. Stanley's swashbuckling policy. Two or three days ago Dr. Kirk, the Political Agent and ConsulGeneral of Zansibar, received information of the brutal murder of Mr. Shergold Smith, late a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Mr. O'Neill, together with nearly the whole of their party. The expedition, it imams, had landed on an island in Lake Victoria Nyansa, where the people were known to be friendly. As soon, however, as the news or their arrival wee bruited abroad a large gang of natives, belonging ton tribe against whom Stanley, with the British flag flying before him, had conducted a murderous campaign, assembled together and attacked them. The expedition seem to have made no defence, and it is known that their ammunition wee scanty. The whole party were brutally murdered as they stood, only one or two natives escaping to tell the tale. Some two year, ago a roving correspondent, dating from Aden, deeicribed this little missionary enterprise in your columns, and I may recall with melancholy interest one paragraph from that letter: The whole party have resolved to make any sacrifice of time and distance rather than stain their sacred mission by a single drop of blood. Even from a mere practical point of view there is a strong necessity for nothing but peaceful measures, if they desire a permanent connecting road to &melba,' Stanley's lawless cone tent hue, however, changed all this. Many of your reaaers will remember poor Shergold Smith as a naval officer of much distinction in the Ashantee campaign. He afterwards von° out from England is a little steam yacht, the Highland Lassie, which was intended for covet eervice in connection with the Mombes Mission. At Zansibar he was joined by O'Neill, an engineer and architect, who was the practical man of the party, and three or four other Europeans, and, engaging the services of an escort of natives, they left for Nyanna last August twelve month. 'Here they were to have been joined by the Rev. 0, T. Wile 3n, 8.A., of St. Mary's Hall, Oxon, who was the spiritual, as Smith was the lay, leader of the I expedition, together with the surgeon, Mr. J. Smith, and four other Europeans, who all came out toi gather ae far as Aden in the Siam in June, 1876. , The minion was started by "An Unprofitable Serwant," who anonymously offered £5OOO to the Church Missionary Society to organise a permanent settlement at Lake Nyanza—an offer that was at once seconded by a number of sealous people. But the mission may now be considered as over. The first 'may have been massacred, Mr. Wilson himself is the only survivor of the second party, while the doctor and carpenter both died of fever within a few days of leaving Zanzibar. It is a melancholy end to the eager hopes of these enthusiastic men, but one that was unhappily foramen by everybody who met them here. They had enthusiasm, but they had little beside.. The whole of the second party, indeed, were raw and inexperienced young men, without the !reining, without the knowledge, without the phyeique to render such a task as they attempted at all feasible."