The record-union., 1897-07-18
DEFENSE OF SAN ANDRES.

era1 hundred miles north OF the R1Ver
Senegal, stood an ancient Spanish fort.
| It's gray walls rose just above high
water mark on the laundering surf
swept beach, near the mouth Of ra-
| vine filled with scorching white stones
and hot dust, where for week or two
once year little water trickled down;
and this is what the Arabs call a Wady
or river. Whose hands raised the mass
i've stones into the shape of a hollow
square, with walls twenty feet high and
six feet thick, or fitted the solid IRON
bound door. no man knew. Most prob
ably it was the work " Diego de Her
rera or his followers, who vainly tried
TO force the yoke of Spain upon the
freest people in the world-the desert
| Arabs-four hundred years ago.
No doubt the ancient walls had looked
down upon many a grim fight in past
| days. for time after time the Spaniards
attempted to gain a footing in this wild
region-why no one but themselves
| could ever understand; but invariably
their soldiers were driven into the sea,
on died of starvation and disease in their
isolated forts.
To this day it is a Norman s-land
for the dominions of the Moorish Sultan
cease at Wady Draa, far to the north,
and the shadowy claims of Spain are
laughed at by the Arabs at least as white
and considerably finer in physique than
the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula.
These do what is right in their own eyes
and move about from oasis to oasis with
large f1ocks of sheep, followed by tribes
of brown skinned Berbers, their vassals
10, c-1e frrF1 IA
Sudan.
1t is a popular delusion that the Sa-
hara desert" is a waste of hot sand.
There is sand there, plenty of it; but
only few days march behind the west
ern coast line lie GASES, many acres IN
extent, where are clustering date palms,
fields of rustling maize and barley, and
apparently numberless fiocks of sheep;
while the Arab Sheikhs wear heavy
jewels of native gold.
| The wandering tribes, however, cher
ish a deadly hatred against all Euro
! peans (said to have been caused by the
| Nanton cruelty of the early Span1ards,
who during the fifteenth century, pene-
trated far inland, and have shown over
| and over again that they will permit
neither trader nor explorer to traverse
their land. Many a Spanish officer ana
british adventurer has found this out to
his cost of late years, and at present the
way is resolutely barred against West
| ern commerce.
| Now. it came about that some years
| ago a Spanish Colonel of infantry, Don
Rosendo de Agular, and many other
names. was sent with twenty-five SOL
diers, Cazedores Canarios, or half
trained conscript militia from the neigh
boring Canary Islands, to reoccupy this
post for Spain.
Things soon went badly with the little
garrison for news that the Sultan S sol
diers were driving the hated foreigners
| out of Morocco Travelled south across
many a stony range and waste OF not
sand, and Berber tribes who at nfSt
brought in sheep and dates were driven
away by the Arabs, and provisions grew
| scarce The we'll went nearly dry, anu
| the water that remained was tull Oh muu
and sand; while at frequent Intervals
| hands of Arabs swept past on thelr
small white horses, with long blue tunics
and white burnooseS streaming IN the
wind. and saluted the Spanish ensign
which waved its blood and gold ABOVE
the fort, with showers of slugs from
their long barrelled guns. Then dySeh-
tery broke out, and one by one SIX men
| gave lp their lives in agony, ana Wele
| buried in the hot sand.
| Once or twice, by means OF a chance
fishing schooner which dropped anchor
off the fort to sell bacalao, or sun-drleo
sea-bream, Don Rosendo sent dls-
| match to the Governor at Tenerl1Ie,
begging for reinforcements, food ana
medicine. But as day after day passed
| bv. and there was neither welcome
| gleam of white canvas nor dlngy trall
| of smoke to break the azure seml-clrcle
| of ocean. the Commandante grew SAD
| and bitter at heart as he paced the
ramparts with anxious eyes turned sea-
ward. looking for help which never
| came.
| So provisions grew scarcer and
scarcer, until at last a handful of goflo,
| which is meal made from roasted
maize an ounce or two of salty ba-
| calao and a pint of Shiny water was
each mans share. Soon some famine
worn corpses were buried at night;
while the Commandante, with true
Spanish inconsistency. knelt each
! morning before his silver crucifix and
PRAYED that succor might be sent, and
| afterward went out into the hot sun
! shine and stamped up and down the
ramparts, biting his long white mus
tache and cursing the Government by
all the saints in heaven and the fiends
| of the bottomless pit.
| At length two Berbers, who, owing to
| some mistake as to the ownership of
certain sheep had joined the little gar
rison, begged leave to make a journey
inland, in the hope that once-friendly
tribe might be induced to send them a
| few dates or fanegas of barley. 1t
seemed certain that they would never
return, yet the need was desperate, and
the officer agreed, for hunger knows no
law.
Standing in the clear southern moon
light, the garrison watched their COM
rades disappear into the black shadow
of the ravine, then emerge again into
the brightness, and grow smaller and
smaller as they marched east over the
stony plain, until at last they appeared
no more than two black specks crawl
ing across a sea of silver light.
Eight days passed. Then one morn
ing, just as the glowing sun swung up
through purple haze, and the sleepy
sentry yawned and rubbed his eyes as
he brushed the night dew from his rifle
barrel, there was a dull Gathering of
unshod hoofs in the dark ravine A
moment later a band of swarthy horse
men swept past the walls of the fort
and disappeared amid the rocks, while
the startled soldier fired his rifle wildly
into the air. Afterward he stopped to
pick up basket of palm leaves which
nf he Arc hol ~,