Public-domain ebook
by Ohrwalder, Josef; Wingate, F. R. (Francis Reginald), Sir
Language: en1,360 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Biographies·History - Other·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #32875.
The work is a first‑hand account of Father Josef Ohrwalder’s ten‑year imprisonment among the followers of the Mahdi in Sudan, from the initial arrival of the missionary party in Khartoum in early 1881 through the dramatic escape across the Nubian desert in 1892. The narrative is presented as a “roughly translated” English version of Ohrwalder’s original German manuscript, re‑crafted by Sir F. R. Wingate into a continuous story. It opens with a preface explaining the collaborative translation process, the author’s desire to honor the British public, and the inclusion of photographs and illustrations taken in Cairo. The table of contents then maps a detailed chronology: the Mahdi’s rise, the capture of missionaries, the sieges of El Obeid and Khartoum, the Mahdi’s death, the Khalifa’s rule, and finally the daring flight of Ohrwalder and his companions.
The voice is that of a 19th‑century British editor narrating a missionary’s testimony, blending solemn reportage with occasional personal reflection. The prose is formal, descriptive, and often laden with the period’s imperial vocabulary, while the extensive chapter headings promise a comprehensive survey of military, religious, and social events in the Sudanese conflict. Readers interested in Victorian travel literature, colonial history, or the detailed chronicling of the Mahdist wars will find this volume a valuable, if dense, window into a turbulent decade of Sudanese and British interaction.
The opening · free to read
It should be borne in mind that the circumstances under which Father Ohrwalder lived in the Sudan precluded him from keeping any written record of his life; it was therefore agreed that I should supervise his work which, I need scarcely add, it has given me great pleasure to do. Father Ohrwalder's manuscript, which was in the first instance written in German, was roughly translated into English by Yusef Effendi Cudzi, a Syrian; this I entirely rewrote in narrative form. The work does not therefore profess to be a literal translation of the original manuscript, but rather an English version, in which I have sought to reproduce accurately Father Ohrwalder's meaning in the language of simple narration.
England and the British public in general have shown so much interest in the stirring events which have occurred in the Sudan, and in which many gallant British officers and men have lost their lives, that it is Father Ohrwalder's desire that the narrative of his experiences should be published in the first instance in England, as his modest tribute to the nation which struggled so gallantly, and so nearly successfully, to effect the relief of Khartum and the rescue of those unfortunate Europeans who, like himself, had fallen into the hands of a cruel and merciless enemy.
It seems almost incredible that such sufferings as the European captives endured did not long ago bring to them the happy release of death they so ardently longed for; but it was not to be. The door of escape, which they had thought closed to them for ever, suddenly opened, and they did not fear to risk the dangers and perils of that terrible desert journey, with scanty food and water, and the sure knowledge that they must ride for bare life; re-capture would have ended in certain death, or, at best, perpetual incarceration in a prison, the horrors of which beggar description. In spite, however, of all he has endured, Father Ohrwalder longs for the time when it may be possible for him to return to the Sudan and continue the Mission work so suddenly and hopelessly interrupted since 1882.
I am greatly indebted to Mr. Walter C. Horsley for the admirable manner in which he has executed his portion of the illustrations. The remainder are chiefly from photographs, taken by Mr. Lekegian in his photographic studio in Cairo, of Dervish prisoners captured at the action of Toski, and of refugees who have recently reached Cairo from Equatoria, through the territory administered by the Imperial British East Africa Company.
F. R. WINGATE. CAIRO, 30th July, 1892.
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