A FIGHT ON THE NILE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 96, 26 March 1885, Page 3

A FIGHT ON THE NILE.

• A correspondent of the Daily News, j wilting from Debbeh, mentions how, ! tinie after tiiue, the little garrison of | Bashi-Bajcbuks there had been attacked, j and how they repulsed these 'onslaughts. At the Itot attack the Arabs tnid recourse tto ■ strategy. They beat their tomtoms "very vigorously half a mile off ; mean--while they, crept silently into the ditch •underneath the low bastion where was the one gun ofthelort. One of them, however, let off a rifle by accident, and the garrison were aft once alarmed. Though it was dark, they could perceive thousands' in the ditch, and they opened a Withering fire upon them. The enemy however, succeeded m; actually seizing the wheels of the gun, andalso the legs of the Turkish commandant, who. was standing by, and a ■'* pttll devil, pull baker " took place. At length the officer, was dragged within the ramparts. Hundreds of Arabs were mown down m their . desperate , attempt to enter. In soriie places they threw skins over the zareeba, and thus walked over the prickly abattis. At others,, where there was no! ditch, but merely mimosa against the wall, they' mounted on each other's :. shoulders. -At one time.' they actually succeeded m busting open' a wicket near the gate, but all who entered were caught m a rat-trap-^they ' found them- ■ -selves m an open,, court .from which I there was no exit, and they were mown down mercilessly.' ' "Fox two hours did the assault continue. At length the Arabs,' having lost the greater part of their number, retired. (KLEOTRIO TELEGRAPH. — COPYRIGHT.) (SPECIAL TO UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) TiONDour, Jan. 24. In the last engagement on the road to Tamai, the loss among the British and. Indian troops was 245. The Arab los& wsis 1500. Major-General McNeil has been blamed for the engagement. '"■'