From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People — Sec 18 Africa, Part 3

STANLEY'S GREAT JOURNEY

In the autumn of 1874 Stanley was back in Zanzibar to try his fortune once more in Darkest Africa.

He organised a caravan of three hundred porters, provided himself with cloth, beads, brass-wire, arms, boats which could be taken to pieces, tents, and everything else necessary for a journey of several years.

He made first for the Victoria Nyanza, and circumnavigated the whole lake.

He visited Uganda, came again to Ujiji, where Livingstone's hut had long been razed to the ground, and sailed all round Lake Tanganyika.

Two years after he started he was at Nyangwé on the Lualaba.

Livingstone and Cameron had been there before, and we can imagine Stanley's feelings when he at last found himself at this, the most westerly point ever reached by a European from the coast of the Indian Ocean.

Behind him lay the known country and the great lakes; before him lay a land as large as Europe, completely unknown and appearing as a blank on maps.

Travellers had come to its outskirts from all sides, but none knew what the interior was like.

It was not even known whither the Lualaba ran.

Livingstone had vainly questioned the natives and Arabs about it, and vainly Stanley also tried to obtain information.

At Nyangwé the Arab slave-traders held their most western market.

Thither corn, fruit, and vegetables were brought for sale; there were sold animals, fish, grass mats, brass-wire, bows, arrows, and spears; and thither were brought ivory and slaves from the interior.

But though routes from all directions met at Nyangwé, the Arabs were as ignorant of the country as any one.

The black continent, "Darkest Africa," lay before Stanley.

He was a bold man, to whom difficulties were nothing.

He had a will of iron.

All opposition, all obstacles placed in his way, must go down before him.

He had determined not to return eastwards, whence he had come, but to march straight westwards to the Atlantic coast, or die in the attempt.

Accordingly, early on the morning of November 5, 1876, Stanley left Nyangwé in company with the rich and powerful Arab chief, Tippu Tib, and directed his way northwards towards the great forest.

Tippu Tib's party consisted of 700 men, women, and children, while Stanley had 154 followers armed with rifles, revolvers, and axes.

"Bismillah--in the name of God!"

cried the Mohammedan leaders of the company, as they took the first step on the dangerous road.

The huge caravan, an interminable file of black men, entered the forest.

There majestic trees stood like pillars in a colonnade; there palms struggled for room with wild vines and canes; there flourished ferns, spear-grass, and reeds, and there bushes in tropical profusion formed impenetrable brushwood; while through the whole was entangled a network of climbing plants, which ran up the trunks and hung down from the branches.

Everything was damp and wet.

Dew dropped from all the branches and leaves in a continuous trickle.

The air was close and sultry, and heavy with the odour of plants and mould.

It was deadly still, and seldom was the slightest breeze perceptible; storms might rage above the tree-tops, but no wind reached the ground, sheltered in the dimness of the undergrowth.

The men struggle along over the slippery ground.

Balancing their loads on their heads with their hands, they stoop under boughs, push saplings aside with their elbows, thrust their feet firmly into the mud in order not to slip.

Those who are clothed have their clothes torn, while the naked black men graze their skins.

Very slowly the caravan forces its way through the forest, and a passage has frequently to be cut for those who carry the sections of the boats.

All who, after Stanley, have travelled through the great primeval forest in the heart of Africa have likewise described its suffocating hot-house air, the peaceful silence, only broken by the cries of monkeys and parrots, its deep, depressing gloom.

If the journey is of long duration men get wearied, experiencing a feeling of confinement, and long for air, freedom, sun, and wind.

It is like going through a tunnel, no country being visible on either side.

The illumination is uniform, without shadows, without gleams, and the perpetual gloom, only interrupted by pitch-dark night, is exceedingly wearisome.

Like polar explorers in the long winter night, the traveller longs for the sun and the return of light.

The party travelled northwards at some distance east of the Lualaba.

Stanley climbed up a tree which grew somewhat apart on a hillock.

Here he found himself above the tree-tops, and saw the sunlit surface of the primeval forest of closely growing trees below him.

A continuous sea of boughs and foliage fell like a swell down to the bank of the Lualaba.

Up here there was a breeze and the leaves fluttered in the wind; but down below reigned darkness and silence and the exuberant life of the tropics.

Even for such a man as Stanley this primeval forest was a hard nut to crack.

Sickness, weariness, and insubordination prevailed in his troop.

The great Tippu Tib considered it impossible to advance through such a country, and wished to turn back with all his black rabble, but after much hesitation he was at last persuaded to accompany Stanley for twenty days longer.

So on they went once more, and after innumerable difficulties came again to the bank of the Lualaba.

The huge volumes of water glided along silently and majestically.

Brown and thick with decaying vegetation, the Lualaba flowed between dense woods to the unknown region inhabited by negro tribes never heard of by Europeans, and where no white man had ever set his foot.

Here Stanley decided to leave the terrible forest and to make use of the waterway of the Lualaba.

There were the boats in sections, and a whole fleet of canoes could soon be made from the splendid trees growing at hand.

The whole caravan was accordingly assembled, and Stanley explained his purpose.

At first the men grumbled loudly, but Stanley declared that he would make the voyage even if no one went with him but Frank Pocock, the only survivor of the three white men who had started with him from Zanzibar.

He turned to his boat's crew and called out, "You have followed me and sailed round the great lakes with me.

Shall I and my white brother go alone?

Speak and show me those who dare follow me!"

On this a few stepped forward, and then a few more, and in the end thirty-eight men declared themselves willing to take part in the voyage.

At this juncture many canoes full of natives were observed at the opposite side of the river, so Stanley and Tippu Tib and some other Arabs entered the boat and rowed up to a small island in mid-stream.

Here the black warriors were in swarms, and thirty canoes lay at the water's edge.

At a safe distance, Stanley's interpreter called out that the white man only wished to see their country, that nothing belonging to them should be touched, and that they themselves should not be disturbed.

They answered that if the white man would row out to the island in the morning with ten servants, their own chief would meet him with ten men, and would enter into blood-brotherhood with him.

After that the strangers might cross the river and visit their villages.

Suspecting treachery, however, Stanley sent twenty armed men by night to the island to hide themselves in the brushwood.

Then in the morning Pocock and ten men rowed out to the meeting-place, near which Stanley waited in his boat.

A swarm of canoes put out from the western bank, and when they came to the island the rowers raised their wild war-whoop, _Ooh-hu!

Ooh-hu-hu!

_ and rushed ashore with bows bent and raised spears.

Then Stanley's twenty men came out of their hiding-place, the fight was short, and the savages dashed headlong into their boats and rowed away for their lives.

The next morning, with thirty men on board his boat, Stanley began his journey down the river, while Tippu Tib and Pocock marched with all the rest of the troop along the bank.

The natives had retired, but their cry of _Ooh-hu-hu!

_ was still heard in the distance.

On an island between the main river and a tributary Stanley's party landed to wait for the caravan and help it over the affluent.

In the meantime Stanley made a short excursion up the tributary, the water of which was inky-black owing to the dark tree roots which wound about its bottom.

On his return he found the camp island surrounded by hostile canoes and heard random shots, but when his boat drew near, the savages were frightened and rowed away.

At length Tippu Tib straggled up with his party, and the journey could be continued.

The boat was rowed near the bank, and the two divisions were kept in touch with each other by means of drums.

All the villages they came to were deserted, but the natives were evidently keeping a close watch on these wonderful strangers, for one day when some of Stanley's men were out scouting on two captured canoes, they were attacked, and when they tried to escape they came among eddies and rapids, where their boats capsized and four rifles were lost.

The men climbed up and sat astride the upturned canoes until they were rescued by their comrades.

Then the expedition went on again.

The river was usually half a mile broad or more, and frequently divided by long rows of islands and holms.

The large village of Ikondu consisted of cage-like reed huts built in two long rows.

All the inhabitants had fled, but pitchers full of wine were suspended from the palms, melons and bananas emitted their fragrance, and there was plenty of manioc plantations, ground-nuts, and sugar-cane.

Near the place was found a large old canoe, cracked, leaky, and dilapidated, but it was patched up, put in the river, and used as a hospital.

Smallpox and dysentery raged in the caravan, and two or three corpses were thrown daily into the river.

Once, as the small flotilla was rowing quietly along not far from the bank, a man in the hospital canoe cried out.

He had been hit in the chest by a poisoned barb, and this was followed by a whole shower of arrows.

The boats were rowed out from the dangerous bank, and a camp was afterwards pitched on an old market-place.

The usual fence was set up round the tents, and sentinels were posted in the bush.

Then were heard shots, cries, and noise.

The watchman ran in calling out, "Look out, they are coming," and immediately arrows and javelins rattled against the stockade, and the savages rushed on, singing their dreadful war-songs.

But their arrows and javelins were little use against powder and ball, and they soon had to retire.

They were reinforced, however, and returned again and again to the attack, and did not desist till the fight had lasted two hours and twilight had come on.

After other combats, Stanley and Tippu Tib came to a country on the western bank densely peopled with hostile natives, where they had to fight again.

The savages were repulsed, and rowed out to a long island, where they moored their canoes by ropes fastened round posts.

They would certainly renew the attack next day.

But this time they were to be thoroughly checkmated.

Rain pelted down on the river, the night was pitch dark, and there was a fresh breeze.

Stanley rowed to the island, and his boat stole silently and cautiously under the high tree-covered bank.

He cut the ropes of every canoe he got hold of, and in a short time thirty canoes were sent adrift down the river, many of them being caught by boatmen posted farther down stream.

Before dawn the men were back at the camp with their looted boats.

The savages, who lay crouching in their grass hovels on the island, must certainly have felt foolish in the morning when they found that they had lost their canoes and were left helpless.

Then an interpreter rowed out to them to put before them the conditions exacted by the white man.

They had treacherously attacked his troop, killing four and wounding thirteen.

Now they must furnish provisions, and then they would be paid for the captured canoes and peace would be established.

It was important that the expedition should have a few days' rest at this place, for Tippu Tib had had enough, and refused to advance a step farther down the river with its warlike natives.

Accordingly, he was to turn back with his black retinue, while Stanley was to continue the journey with a selected party, many of whom had their wives and children with them.

The troop consisted of a hundred and fifty souls.

Provisions were collected for twenty days.

The canoes were fastened together in pairs by poles, that they might not capsize, and the flotilla consisted of twenty-three boats.

It was one of the last days in December.

A thick mist hung over the river and the nearest palms were scarcely visible, but a breeze sprang up and thinned the haze.

Then the trumpets and drums sounded the signal for starting, and Stanley gave the order to get into the boats.

The parting song of the sons of Unyamwezi was answered by Tippu Tib's returning troop, and the flotilla of canoes glided down the dark river towards unknown lands and destiny.

Stanley believed that this mighty river, which he named after Livingstone, was none other than the Congo, the mouth of which had been known for more than four hundred years; but he did not reject the possibility that it might also unite with the Nile or be connected with the Niger far away to the north-west.

The journey which was now to solve this problem will be famous for all time for its boldness and daring, for the dangers overcome and adventures experienced, and is quite comparable with the boat journeys of the Spaniards who discovered the Amazons and Mississippi rivers in America.

Fourteen villages lie buried in the dense bush, and Stanley's flotilla makes for the bank to encamp for the first time after parting from Tippu Tib.

Here the natives are friendly, but there is trouble a little farther on, where the woods echo with the noise of war-drums and the savages are drawn up with shield and spear.

The drum signals are repeated from village to village, from the one bank to the other.

Canoes are manned and put out from both banks and Stanley's flotilla is surrounded.

The interpreters call out "Peace!

Peace!"

but the savages answer peremptorily, "Turn back or fight."

Consultations and negotiations are held, while the river sweeps down the whole assemblage of friends and foes.

More villages peep out from the trees where dwell enemies of the attacking savages, so the latter dip their oars in the water and row back without coming to blows.

But soon there was a different scene.

Javelins were thrown from other canoes and the dreadful poisoned arrows were discharged, so the death-dealing European firearms had to be used in self-defence.

On this occasion Stanley's men succeeded in capturing a number of shields, of which indeed they had need.

Again the war-drum is heard, just as the flotilla is passing a small island.

Stanley orders his boats to keep in the middle of the river ready for action.

Swarms of canoes shoot out from the bank like wild ducks, and the black warriors beat their spears against their shields.

The interpreter gets up in the bow and shouts out "Peace!

Take care or we strike!"

Then the savages hesitate, and retire quietly under promontories and overhanging wooded banks.

By the single word "Peace!"

the interpreter could often check parties of warriors, but others answered the offer of peace with a scornful laugh, and their showers of arrows and assegais had to be met with a volley of rifle bullets.

The New Year (1877) had already come, when a friendly tribe warned the travellers of dangerous falls and rapids, the roar of which they would shortly hear.

The flotilla glided along the right bank, and all listened for the expected thunder.

Suddenly savages appeared on the bank and hurled their assegais; then the war-drums were heard again, and a large number of long canoes approached (Plate XXX.

).

The warriors had painted one half of their bodies white and the other red, with broad black stripes, and looked hideous.

Their howls and horn blasts betokened a serious attack.

By this time Stanley's boats were out in the middle of the stream in order of battle, with the shields placed along the gunwales to protect the non-combatants.

A canoe 80 feet long rowed straight for Stanley's boat, but was received by a rattling volley.

Then it was Stanley's turn to attack, for the great canoe could not turn in time.

Warriors and oarsmen jumped overboard to save themselves by swimming to land, and as the other boats vanished the expedition could go on towards the falls.

Now was heard the roar of the water as it tumbled in wild commotion over the barriers in its bed.

The natives thought that this was just the place to catch the strangers, and Stanley had to fight his way step by step, sometimes on land and sometimes on the river.

In quiet water between the various falls the men could row, but in other places paths had to be cut through the brushwood on the bank and the canoes hauled over land.

Often they had to fight from tree to tree.

Once the savages tried to surround Stanley's whole party in a large net, and lost eight of their own men for their trouble.

These captives were tattooed on the forehead and had their front teeth filed to a point.

Like all the other people in the country, they were cannibals, and were eager for human flesh.

One day at the end of January Stanley's boats crossed the equator, and the great river turned more and more towards the west, so that it evidently could not belong to the Nile.

Here the party passed the seventh and last fall, where the brown water hurled itself in mad fury over the barrier.

Thus the series of cascades afterwards known as the Stanley Falls was discovered and passed.

Below the falls the river expands, sometimes to as much as two miles in breadth.

The opposite bank could hardly be seen, and the boats came into a labyrinth of channels between islands.

The rowers sang to the swing of their oars, and a sharp look-out had always to be kept.

Sometimes canoes followed them, and occasionally ventured to attack.

Wild warriors were seen with loathsome features, and red and grey parrots' feathers on their heads, and bangles of ivory round their arms.

[Illustration: PLATE XXX.

THE FIGHT ON THE CONGO.

From Stanley's _Through the Dark Continent.

_] In one village was found a temple with a round roof supported on thirty-three elephants' tusks.

In the middle was set up an idol carved in wood and painted red, with black eyes, hair, and beard.

Knives, spears, and battle-axes were wrought with great skill, and were ornamented with bands of copper, iron, and bone.

Among the refuse heaps were seen remains of horrible feasts, and human skulls were set up on posts round the huts.

Interminable forests grew on the banks and islands, with the many-rooted mangrove-tree, tall, snake-like canes with drooping tufts of leaves, the dragon's-blood tree, the india-rubber, and many others.

Danger and treachery lurked behind every promontory, and the men had to look out for currents, falls, rapids, and whirlpools.

Hippopotami and crocodiles were plentiful.

But the savages were the worst danger.

Stanley and his men were worn out with running the gauntlet month after month.

At the village of Rubunga, where the natives were friendly, Stanley heard for the first time that the river actually was the Congo.

Here the traveller was able to replenish his stock of provisions, and when the drums of Rubunga were sounded it was not for battle but to summon the inhabitants to market, and from the surrounding villages the people came to offer for sale fish, snails, oysters, dried dog-flesh, goats, bananas, meal, and bread.

As a rule, however, no trust could be placed in the natives.

In their hideous tattooing, with strings of human teeth round their necks and their own teeth filed to a point like a wolf's, with a small belt of grass round their loins and spears and bows in their hands, they did not inspire confidence, and frequently the boats had barely put out from the bank where the people seemed friendly before the natives manned their canoes and pursued them.

In this region they were armed with muskets procured from the coast.

Once Stanley's small flotilla was surrounded by sixty-three canoes, and there was a hard fight with firearms on both sides.

In the foremost canoe stood a young chief, handsome, calm, and dignified, directing the attack.

He wore a head-covering and a mantle of goatskin, and on his arms, legs, and neck he had large rings of brass wire.

A bullet struck him in the thigh.

He quietly wound a rag round the wound and signed to his oarsmen to make for the bank.

Then the others lost courage and followed their leader's canoe.

They struggled southwards from one combat to another.

The passage of the great curve of the Congo had cost thirty-two fights.

Now remained a difficult stretch, where the mighty river breaks in foaming falls and rapids through the escarpment which follows the line of the west coast of Africa.

These falls Stanley named after Livingstone; he was well aware that the river could never be called by any other name than the Congo, but the falls would preserve the great missionary's name.

Innumerable difficulties awaited him here.

On one occasion half a dozen men were drowned and several canoes were lost, and the party had to wait while others were cut out in the forest.

One day Pocock drifted towards a fall, and was not aware of the danger until it was too late and he was swept over the barrier.

Thus perished the last of Stanley's white companions.

At another fall the coxswain and the carpenter went adrift in a newly excavated canoe.

They had no oars.

"Jump, man," called out the former, but the other answered, "I cannot swim."

"Well, then, good-bye, my brother," said the quartermaster, and swam ashore.

The other went over the fall.

The canoe disappeared in the seething whirlpool, came up again with the man clinging fast to it, was sucked under once more, and rose again still with the carpenter.

But when it reappeared for the third time in another whirlpool the man was gone.

At last all the boats were abandoned and the men travelled by land.

The party was entirely destitute, all were emaciated, miserable, and hungry.

A black chief demanded toll for their passage through his country, and they had nothing to give.

He would be satisfied with a bottle of rum he said.

Rum, indeed, when they had been three years in the depths of Africa!

Stanley was reasoning with the chief when the coxswain came and asked what was the matter.

"There's rum for him," he said, and gave the chief a buffet which knocked him over and put his whole retinue to flight.

Now it was only a couple of days' journey to Boma, near the mouth of the Congo, where there were trade factories and Europeans.

Stanley wrote a letter to them, and was soon supplied with all necessaries; and after a short rest at Boma the party made the voyage round the south of Africa to Zanzibar, where Stanley dismissed his men.

He then travelled home, and was, of course, fêted everywhere.

For a thousand years the Arabs had travelled into the interior of Africa, but they did not know the course of the Congo.

European explorers had for centuries striven to penetrate the darkness.

The natives themselves did not know whither the Lualaba ran.

All at once Stanley had filled up the blank and knit together the scattered meshes of the net; and now a railway runs beside the falls, and busy steamboats fly up and down the Congo.

Well did Stanley deserve his native name of Bula Matadi, or "the breaker of stones," for no difficulty was too great for him to overcome.

After a life of restless activity--including another great African journey to find Emin Pasha, the Governor of the Equatorial Province after Gordon's death--Stanley was gathered to his fathers in 1904. He was buried in a village churchyard outside London, and a block of rough granite was placed above the grave.

Here may be read beneath a cross, "Henry Morton Stanley--Bula Matadi--1841-1904," and lastly the word that sums up all the work of his life, "Africa."

TIMBUKTU AND THE SAHARA

In the middle of north-western Africa, where the continent shoots a gigantic tongue out into the Atlantic, lies one of the world's most famous towns, Timbuktu.

Compared with Cairo or Algiers, Timbuktu is a small town.

Its three poor mosques cannot vie with the grand temples which under French, Turkish, or English dominion raise their graceful minarets on the Mediterranean shores of Africa.

Not a building attracts the eye of the stranger amidst a confusion of greyish-yellow mud houses with flat roofs and without windows, and neglect and decay stare out from heaps of ruins.

There is hardly a tottering caravanserai to invite the desert wanderer to rest.

Some streets are abandoned, while in others the foot sinks over the ankle in blown sand from the Sahara.

Timbuktu is not so famous as the sparkling jewels in the diadem of Asia--Jerusalem and Mecca, Benares and Lhasa.

The very name of each of these is, as it were, a vital portion of a great religion, and indeed almost stands for the religion itself.

Timbuktu has scarcely any religion, or, more correctly, too many.

And yet this town has borne a proud name during its eight hundred years of existence--the great, the learned, the mysterious city.

No pilgrims flock thither to fall down in prayer before a redeemer's grave or be blessed by a high priest.

No pyramids, no marble temples, make Timbuktu one of the world's wonders.

No wealth, no luxuriant vegetation exist to make it an outer court to Paradise.

[Illustration: NORTH-WEST AFRICA.

] And yet Timbuktu is an object of desire.

Millions long to go there, and when they have been, long to get away again.

Caravan men who have wandered for months through the desert long for the tones of the flute and the cithern, and the light swayings of the troops of dancers.

Palms and mimosa grow sparsely round Timbuktu, but after the dangers of the desert the monotonous, dilapidated town with its dusty, dreary streets seems really like an entrance to Paradise.

Travelling merchants who have risked their wealth in the Sahara among savage robbers, and have been fortunate to escape all dangers, are glad at the sight of Timbuktu, and think its grey walls more lovely than anything they can imagine.

The remarkable features of Timbuktu are, then, its situation and its trade.

We have only to take a look at the map to perceive that this town stands like a spider in its web.

The web is composed of all the routes which start from the coast and converge on Timbuktu.

They come from Tripoli and Tunis, from Algeria and Morocco, from Senegal and Sierra Leone, from the Pepper Coast, the Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, the Gold Coast, and from the countries round the Gulf of Guinea, which have been annexed by France, England, and Germany.

They come also from the heart of the Sahara, where savage and warlike nomad tribes still to this day maintain their freedom against foreign interference.

In Timbuktu meet Arabs and negroes, Mohammedans and heathens from the deserts and fruitful lands of the Sahara and Sudan.

Timbuktu stands on the threshold of the great wastes, and at the same time on the third in rank of the rivers of Africa.

At the town the Niger is two and a half miles broad, and from its mouth it discharges more water than the Nile, but much less than the Congo.

Like the Congo, the Niger makes a curve to the north, bidding defiance to the Sahara; but the desert wins in the end, and the river turns off towards the south.

It is a struggle between life and death.

The life-giving water washes the choking sand, and just where the strife is fiercest lies Timbuktu.

From the north goods come on dromedaries to be transported farther in canoes or long, narrow boats with arched awnings of matting, or, where the river is not navigable, on oxen and asses or the backs of men.

Dromedaries cannot endure the damp climate near the Niger, which especially in winter overflows its banks for a long distance.

Therefore they are led back through the Sahara.

They thrive on the dry deserts.

The constantly blowing north-east trade-wind dries up the Sahara, and in certain regions years may pass without a drop of rain.

The name Timbuktu has a singular sound.

It stands for all the mystery and fascination connected with the Sahara It leads the thoughts to the greatest expanse of desert in the world, to long and lonely roads, to bloody feuds and treacherous ambushes, to the ring of caravan bells and the clank of the stirrups of the Beduins (Plate XXXI.

).

There seems to be a ring in the name itself, and we seem to hear the splash of the turbid waters of the Niger in its vowels.

We seem to hear the plaintive howl of the jackal, the moan of the desert wind, the squealing of dromedaries outside the northern gateway, and the boatmen splashing with oars and poles in the creeks of the river.

Caravans from the northern coast bring cloth, arms, powder, paper, tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, and a quantity of other articles to Timbuktu.

But when they begin their journey through the Sahara, only half the camels are laden.

The other half are loaded with blocks of salt on the way, for salt is in great demand at Timbuktu.

Caravans may be glad if they come safely through the country of the Tuaregs, and at best they can only obtain an unmolested passage by the payment of a heavy toll.

On the return journey northwards the dromedaries are laden with wares from the Sudan, rice, manioc, honey, nuts, monkey breadfruit, dried fish, ivory, ostrich feathers, india-rubber, leather, and many other things.

A small number of black slaves also accompany them.

The largest caravans contain five hundred or a thousand dromedaries and five hundred men at most.

The goods they can transport may be worth twenty-eight thousand pounds or more.

Five great caravan roads cross the Sahara from north to south.

Let us set out on a journey from Timbuktu, and let us go first eastwards to the singular Lake Chad, which is half filled with islands, is shallow and swampy, choked with reeds, rises and falls with the discharge of the great rivers which flow into it, and has a certain similarity to Lop-nor in Central Asia.

Nearly 17 cubic miles of water are estimated to enter Lake Chad in the year, and when we know that the lake on the whole remains much about the same size, we can conceive how great the evaporation must be.

We have our own dromedaries and our own Arab guide on whom we can rely.

We can therefore go where we like, and we steer our course from Lake Chad towards the eastern Sudan, where we have already been in the company of General Gordon.

But before we come to the Nile we turn off northwards to cross the Libyan desert, the most inaccessible and desolate, and therefore the least known, part of the Sahara.

On our way northwards we notice that animal and vegetation life becomes more scanty.

Even in the Sudan the grasslands are more thinly clothed and the steppes more desert-like the farther we travel, and at last blown sand predominates.

We must follow a well-known road which has been used for thousands of years by Arabs and Egyptians.

[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.

A GROUP OF BEDUINS.

] We are in the midst of the sea of sand.

Here lie at certain places dunes of reddish-yellow drift sand as high as the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral.

We see no path, for it has been swept away by the last storm;

but the guide has his landmarks and does not lose his way.

The sand becomes lower and the country more open.

Then the guide points to a bare and barren ridge which rises out of the sand like a rock out of the sea, and says that he can find his way by this landmark, which remains in sight for several days, and is then replaced by another elevation.

We encamp at a deep well, drink and water our camels.

Next day we are out in the sandy sea again.

The sky has assumed an unusual hue.

It is yellow, and soon changes into bluish grey.

The sun is a red disc.

It is calm and sultry.

The guide looks serious, and says in a low tone "samum."

The hot, devastating desert storm which is the scourge of Arabia and Egypt is approaching.

The guide stops and turns round.

He is uncertain.

But he goes on again when he sees that we cannot get back to the well before the storm is upon us.

It is useless to look for shelter, for the dunes are too flat to protect us from the wind.

And now the storm sweeps down, and it becomes suffocatingly close and hot.

The dromedaries seem uneasy, halt, and turn away from the wind.

We dismount.

The dromedaries lie down and bury their muzzles in the sand.

We wrap up our heads in cloths and lie on our faces beside our animals to get some shelter between them and the ground.

And so we may lie by the hour panting for breath, and we may be glad if we get off with our lives from a _samum_ when we are out in the desert.

Even in the oases it causes a feeling of anxiety and trouble, for the burning heat is most harmful to palms and crops.