Evening Star Newspaper, March 16, 1930, Page 114

. oo THE- SUNDAY: STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 16, 1930. At Grips With Death in Trackless Wilds EDITOR'S. NOTE. — With a small' party, the ‘auther—an officer of the Roval Stols and a meniber of the Roval Geographical Society —set off from North Nigeria to cross ' the Sahara Desert, going north to Algeria. In the worst, stretch of the: route, the guide lost the way.. Therc were no twater- holes and the supplies of the group dwindled swiftly, in spite- of strict rationing. BY DONALD R. G. CAMERON. OON after sunrise the dreary march over this terrible stretch of desolation was resumed. By 4 o’clock in the aft- érnoon I was beginning to feel des- perate—very thirsty and exhausted. Except for a short period of not more than an hour each day, when I rode one of the baggage .camels, I had walked the whole distance, and _this, combined with the fact that I had eaten ‘practically nothing since we had been on the short water ration, was beginning to have its effect. Then we discovered the skeleton of a camel. That meant that others had passed that way. Farther on was a small patch of tufted grass which we found to be growing in a shallow water course. Searching along it, we perceived several other similar patches. Our quest for pasture, at any rate, was ended, but the most hopeful discovery was that a faint track could _be discerned following thé bed of the water course. That night a more cheerful and hopeful spirit “pervaded the party. Atahair, the guide, was ‘bubbling over with optimism and swore by all ‘he knew that we were on the Katelet-Tighighi track and should reach the latter place by noon the next day. If we did not, he said, I ‘could slay him. Little did he realize, perhaps, the many occasions on which I had felt like doing so! - THE better outlook and Atahair’s optimistic prophecy brought forth a request from “Sakari for an extra ration of water, but I had %0 tell the men bluntly that I did not share the guide’s views and therefore thought it wiser to keep to ‘the same ration. I did not wish them ‘to become too elated, for should the next day ‘find us no better off—a contingency for which further ‘request. When I was giving out the - water, howeéver, I fancy I did give them a little :drl.nklng purposes, let alone for cooking. AFROH 'now, onward, therefore, they shared B my own stores, but biscuits, chocolate, and ‘a tiny tin of bully-beef or tinned salmon ‘mot give them the same WRtisfaction as their I decided to put this ) rather prematurely by reason of a of the same nature that Sakari made. was that he should go with Atahair, hind him on the riding camel. distrusted the guide, and feared that unless watched he might go off .and mnever return. ., To a certain extent I shared this distrust myself. ‘I was doubtful, however, whether Sakari's power of endurance would prove anything like ‘equal to Atahair’s, and accordingly told that we had better.risk the latter deserting us, as I did not think that he (Sakari) could stand the strain -of an exhausting ride on so little water. But he insisted that he was quite strong enough, and showed such keenness that I finally gave in. ‘The pair started off by moon- light that night,- taking with them some bis- cuits and tinned food and the equivalent of two full mugs of water. We set off after them in the morning as fast as our weary camels: would allow. We had not traveled very long when it was found that the guide had picked up the tracks of four other camels; they did not look more than two or B is gg.si - foot, with a raging thirst mourishment, was having a disastrous effect, The thought of those bulging water skins made me rush forward madly to meet the approaching figures. ; three days old. Tracks of goats and donkeys were also visible from time to time. Now a donkey cannot go for more than four days without water, and it began to look as if we were really almost in sight of safety. By this time, however, the physical condition of the party was becoming alarming. March- ing for eight or nine hours a day, mostly on and insufficient and the limit of our endurance was not far distant. Plodding along, hour after hour, forcing our unwilling feet to keep moving, eagerly ae.n':h- H 5 | g g § 2 * somehow struggled onward, of every rise with renewed the view on the other' side great and ‘happy surprise. Sometimes I went ahead of taking advantage of the lead, rest, hoping the others would to catch me up. I fancy I headed; by noon it seemed as in a trance. The mind seemed from the body, and from look down dispassionately on group of animals and. painful way through this awful wilderness. By good fortine, except for odd | §§§<g§§ E§§'E§: R[] el Al i il about the four fairly | following, but' which we k of tracks near the head of the valley.: 3:}!5 Sakari was greatly exhausted, and when dismounted ‘from. the camel lay at full length on the ground. - We put him on one of the baggage camels and, weary and sick at heart, retraced our steps to the previous night’s camp- ing place. That was a black day; the prospect seemed well-nigh hopeless, for our last few days’ wanderings had resulted in complete fail- g ure. Nevertheless, one had to show a cheerful . face, but I tried:to think of some way out of our desperate position. In the afternoon Atahair went off again on the strongest baggage camel, accompanied by Mahomed, to search the surrounding hills for . a possible pool; it was arranged that they would return not later than that night. But that night there was no sign of them. : It was the following morning that I made the horrifying discovery that the camel men had commenced opening the veins in the cam- els’ necks and were drinking the blood thereby obtained! This is apparently a common prac- tice with the Tuareg when he is on a long ride and has no water; but I told them that it must stop at once for, apart from weakening the un- {1 completely exhausted. The ration, by the way, was now down to nearly half a mugful apiece. By. g it a little further—barely sufficient to support life though that would be—I calculated it would last five more days. Beyond those five days I did not dare to look. To refrain from drinking from: early morn- ing until nightfall had now become a matter of that the first drink would be taken. My pipe was blessing; I smoked it continuously through- ut the day’s march. When one pipeful was finished and thirst began to take hold another S'ri:u. another night went by without any sign of our scouts, and we entered on the tenth day since it.had been discovered that we were lost. f Sakari, aithough weaker than the remainder ‘of the party, had now considerably improved, and suggested that a little Worcester sauce mixed with their.food might improve the taste and would not increase ‘their thirst. On trying to open a bottle I was alarmed to discover that I hadn’t enough strength to pull out the stop- per. I knew I had become fairly weak, but had not realized that matters were so bad. Later in the morning I sent Hainja down to the camels’ feeding place in order to bring one of them back to me so that I could go out and reconnoiter. During the last few days Hainja had shown a somewhat unusual anxiety for the animals’ welfare, and Whenever I wanted him I was told that “he go for look dem camel.” The suspicion that I had formed proved to ", The thought of those bulging water I startéd off on the camel—or rather with it, for the brute stubbornly refused to allow me to mount—and made for a hill lying on the north- northeast with the intention of ascending it and studying the landscape. I left my camel hobbled' at the bottom and hegan to' scale the steep, rocky side of the hill. The effort of climbing, however, was too much for me, and I had to give up half way from the summit, and . there laid myself down to watch. Here I remained for an hour or so, glad to be away from the depressing atmosphere of the camp and trying to banish the peril of our situation from my mind by daydreams of kinder countries and of all the most refreshing drinks I had tasted in my life. As I lay sprawled up\n my back, gazing up at the blue sky, I conjured up a picture of a snug little English wayside inn, and on the counter beside a long row of large tankards capped with white froth hiding cool, clear depths of beer, I made a vow that on reaching civilization I would walk down a street and have a drink in every place that sold any sort of beverage, be it beer, milk or lemonade! “While I was enjoying my daydreams Baragai came to me and said in his quaint pidgin English, “Sah, I tink Sakari him go finish!” I jumped up. “What do you mean?” I de- manded. “He go die2” Forthwith I hurried over to examine the sick man. Sure enough, the poor fellow was dead! Nothing I could do would revive him. Neat whisky was forced between his teeth and every possible means resorted to to bring back life, but all without avail. Sakari’s sudden death came as great shock, "for I had no idea that his condition was so precarious. Only the previous morning he had run around the camp to show me how much better he felt, and that very morning, consid- ering the circumstances, he had been compara- tively cheerful. I asked the other two boys if they had thoughthewasashaduthh,:ndtheybo&h expressed the same surprise. He had been sleeping covered with a blanket, and thinking that he had been still for an unusually long time, they lifted it and found that he was dead. The main reason for his col pSe was une doubtedly the exhausting ride the guide which he had courageously volunteered to un- dertake. It was a sad blow, for he was a very capable and intelligent fellow and—considering that he had made a comparatively long visit to England—very little spoiled by contact with Western civilization. His loss was greatly felt and emphasized the peril of our plight. Wedu(hlsmveonwpotthehnk.and there buried him in Mohammedan fashion, lye ing on his right sidé facing the east. Mallam, who was very much affected, Sakari having _been a great friend, performed the last rites of the Mohammedan burial service while Baragai ‘and Hainja stood by. WHIN the sad little ceremony left them and sat down to Sakari’s kit. I had not been ‘utes, however, when a cry “Look, master! Look, master! ;:“mere are some men!” made glasses. Approaching down the watercourse from a southerly somie figures, ‘but too distant to recognize - Poor Sakati! "It was an ironic stroke of Fate had died, aioueh & & ‘ounee s & o ‘have saved him, = . . i - . It also. was a curious fact that water should lg_.yep&lvedfifihempflhddnfln;mm sk made me rush forward madly to- meet the proaching figuies, and when I reac Mahomed promptly jumped Jn no time handed. me a calabash of sparkling, water. . Then and there first proper drink for. 10 days—a never forget! ¢ I expected to see the calabash & suction pump were at work on matter of fact I was rather disappoin smaliness of my swallow, for I could A or 2 inches off the top. Probably . just as well, for I had just been im the natives the necessity for being very over their first drink, in case of 80 long a period of abstinence. EG .='EE§55 others. His behavior during the last few days had been anything but plucky, and he had spent most of his time cowering under a blan- ket, bemoaning his unfortunate fate. « No time was lost in ‘pouring the precious water from the skins into the drums, where there was no chance of it leaking away. Fires were then lighted and water put on to boil in order to prepare a hot meal for the natives and tea for myself. That first mug of tea was the most exquisite sensation of my life! Closing my