ACROSS SAHARA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 906, 27 August 1910, Page 14

ACROSS SAHARA.

BRITISH OFFICER'S DARING JOURNEY. HIS EXPERIENCES. • That" a young' British officer should elect to spend a six months' furlough from tho West Coast of Africa in crossing the Sahara Desert is one. .of those things which only those can understand who know the. spirit of advonturo which pos-sesses-Englishmen. . ■ . ■ Captain . A.. H. W. Hayivood, E.A., a young officer serving in West Africa, arrived ..in England recently from this adventurous trip. Sun-browned and fatigued by tho experienct., li<; slill • lootal back upon it with pleasure. He has been where fow jyill'cyer follow. ■ Ho. has satisfied his curiosity,- and . he has added something to our knowledge of the great sandy plain.. ■ . Leaving Free Town, Sierra Leone, on January 6, Captain Haywood spent two months in exploring and shooting in the' country about tho source of the Niger and along .that river. /Reaching' Jiiuuako, on the Niger, the capital of French Senegal and the Upptr Niger Colony, where ho was most hospitably, received by the ;Acting-Oovernor, Captain..'. Hayvood mndd his way by steamer to Nrafunke, passing throughiako Dhobo, the great ; natural reservoir of the river, which keeps the navigation open below Timbuctoo during- the-dry feather. . Hβ was now ,in the big bend of the river,-a grazing. district in which he l shot u. lion;, two elephants, and other big game, and out of which, he made' his way by a tributary of. the Niger to Timbuotoo. .•■■..'. In the historic, capital of 'Timbuctoo Captain , Haywood again . met his ■ friends the Freniili, and sol: about finding a way rfcrbS9 the Sahara. "I meant," he said," "to .go straight across from Timbuctoo to Insalah, which is situated on the twenty-eighth parallelin the direction of Algiers, but 1 found that the route was practically closed by the heat. It was said that we. should have to go ten days' between wells, and I could not h'nd a guide willing to take the risk, I was advised to make for Gao, on the Niger, by barge, and strike across from that spot.. • "Travelling night and day for seven days I reached Gao on April ,18, and formed my little party. From tho Kounta traders, I hired' a ridiii? camel and four baggage ■ camels, '■■' and with a Hansa boy from Timbuctoo as servant and cook started, off, with an escort of six men of : the Senegalese Tirailleurs, ■due north of Kirlal. . . '■--■. "This wa3 my. first experience of the desert, ami I soon , realised the discomforts of it. We went two. and three clays between wells,' I riding and my boy alternately, riding a baggage animal and walking. 'At first - we found considerable Knharan vegetation in the dried-up watercourses, which meant good gazelle shooting and pasturage for'tho camels,,but as we pushed farther. north the. vegetation 'grew' scantier and the persistent northcast winds, blowing the. sand in our laces, becamo more unpleasant. "At Kidal I said good-bye to-my escort, hired five new cornels and an Arab guide, and began my longest and most difficult trek to Insalah.. We had now 800 miles, of truo Saharan desert..in front of us, with the possibility of meeting Touaregs, tho wandering bandits of the desert, al-, ways on,the look-out and the certainty, of death from; thirst if wo lost our way. .■ '■' , ' -. ' ■>■ "North of Adrar wo came'into.a country in which thoro was no sign of water for the camels,, wood for a camp ,fire, or vegetation. We now had to carry water for seven days and seven nights, and wo marched almost continuously, taking but four or ■,five hours' rest, in the twentyfour.' : , ~-.,■ ..-.-.-- : ' "Day after day we endured the driving sand, , which penetrated our nostrils, makiug them bleed,,.and. the .jy.irid blew with such violeiicu that it was impossible to pitch.my small ten( or prepare.any food, i'or the last two or three days'l ate nothing , but' dates and ■ drank as little, as possible. .The water in our skins became putrid 'and almost' umlriukable, and there was always "the chance that we might run oat of it altogether.' In this uncomfort.ablo.- fashion, scarcely resting, at all, we' covered 200 miles of the Tanezrbuft. region, and thought ourselves' lucky i to, finish this , trek oii; June 'I. ; "During this-time, we-met only 'three, Touarog3, mysterious-looking bandits with' their faces covered with blue cloth to pro-: tect- them from- the sand—a fashion whichi I- adopted myself—who jtalked' to . .my: guide, and seeing/that /we were well' armed left.Sis>lpne., •.-;,.", ?'. ■ "Although '• we * were ' nw -through 'the had .two or three'days' between wolls until we reiiched Insalah on June 12. With'iny guide "as niy sole companion—my cook boy haying: struck— I travelled another 400 .miles to Ouragla, aiid thence another 100 miles'to Tougourt; with one baggage camel, having now eaten most, of my stores.'and,used a good part of my ammunition. On July 5 I left Tougourt by the coach;" whicli runs for tho. benefit-of tourists who want to see the desert, to Siskra, and so by rail to Algiers. Altogether I had.travelled from I'ree.Town 1750 miles, of which 1600 were across the Sahara." ■■■'■■.