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Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics

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Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 75 Number 778

Date May 18 1889
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper The Daily Sun

info The language of the text is the original used in the newspaper entry and as transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson. Records acquired by the Provincial Archives are not translated from the language in which they originate.

St. Andrews 'Beacon' - 'Yes', said George EGGLETON, 'It is true that I was among the first to introduce cricket into St. John. In was in the 76th Regt. which was quartered in St. John for a time.' 'It was in 1835 or thereabouts that I left my home in Newbury, Yorkshire and joined the British army. Our regiment was sent to Malta soon after I went into it, and it was only a few years afterwards that we were ordered to Egypt to suppress the rebellion there. During that rebellion I got my first stast of powder and received my first wound. A detachment of us had been sent out to scour the mountains for the rebels. We came across a small party and they fired upon us. One of the bullets struck a rock, and glancing from it, entered my leg at my knee. When my comrades found I was wounded they rushed for the top of the hill where the rebels were hiding and began firing upon them. One of the rebels was killed and another wounded and the rest of them took to their heels. For twelve days afterwards I rode on the back of a mule, my only pillow at night being a rock. On the thirteenth day I was so tired mule riding that I begged the doctor to let me off. He allowed me to get off, and from that day to this I have never been on a mule's back. Yes, I have seen some strange sights during the 22 years or more that I was in the army. At Cephalonia, in the Ionian islands, I had quite an experience. A detachment from our regiment had been sent up into the mountains to capture a gang of bandits who had been pillaging the country around. We clambered up the mountain and surprised the gang. We brought twelve of them back to camp, when a drumhead court was held, and the twelve prisoners were ordered to be hung up. A gallows was hastily made in an olive tree and the twelve robbers were hanged together. To make sure they were dead, I was ordered to put a bullet through each of their heads. I had to do it, otherwise a bullet would have been put through my head, and they wouldn't have been long thinking about it either. I was for a time at Demarara with my regiment, and in twelve months, out of 150 men, only six were left alive. All of the others had died of yellow fever and black vomit. Oh it was a beastly country! There was so much water where we buried our dead that one man had to stand on the coffin to keep it down, while the others heaped the mud around the grave.' Mr. Eggleton has been 40 years living in St. Andrews (Charlotte Co.) and has reared quite a large family here. Although 76 years of age, he still takes an active interest in cricket and is prepared to give the boys a pointer whenever they need it.

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