3-082-170 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Somali attack on an East African mission station, 1895. 'From a Sketch by Captain F. S. Dugmore, late of the 64th Regiment. At a place named Kulessa, on the Tana river, in British East Africa, the Somali natives, on Oct. 26, attacked the unfinished church of the American and Swedish missionaries. The five defenders, commanded by Captain Dugmore, after an engagement lasting an hour, drove off the assailants with the loss of thirty killed and wounded. This was effected by firing from the roof, whence the movements of the enemy in breast-high grass and scrub could be watched and thwarted. The Somali commander was shot by Captain Dugmore at 600 yards' distance, with a Männlicher carbine. This gallant defence saved the lives of a large number of helpless refugees sheltered by the missionaries. The assailants numbered about 1500, and were, until the loss of their leader, very ably handled...There was not a single British official, or Government-employed native, soldier, or policeman, on the whole length of the Tana...Yet this region is British, one bank of the river belonging to the English Protectorate of Witu, and the other to the Imperial British East Africa Company. It was the third hostile raiding incursion of the Somalis during last year'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.