The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-07

the massive stones Into the shape ol ~ hollow square, with walls twenty rect high and six feet thick or fitted the sol i'd iron bound door, no man knew. Most probably it was the work Of Die go de Herrera 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 grim fight in past days, for time after time the Spaniards attempted to gain footing in this wild region-Why, no one but themselves could ever understand; but invariably their soldiers were driven into the sea, or died of starvation and disease in their isolated forts.
 To this day 1t Is No-man' Hand, 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 Arabs at least as white and considerably finer in physique than the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsu- la. These do what Is right in their own eyes, and move about from oasis to oa- sis with large flocks of sheep, followed by tribes of brown-skinned Berbers, their vassals, and trains of negro slaves from the far Soudan.
 It 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 western coast line lie oases, many acres in extent, where are clustering date palms, fields of rustling maize and bar ley, and apparently numberless flocks of sheep; while the Arab Sheikhs wear heavy jewels of native gold.
 The wandering tribes, however, cher ish deadly hatred against all Euro | peans (said to have been caused by the wanton cruelty of the early Spaniards,
 who. during the fifteenth century, pen | etrated far inland), and have shown
 over and over again that they will per
 init neither trader nor explorer to tra-
 verse their land. Many a Spanish off,
 cer and British adventurer has found
 this out to his cost of late years years, and at present the way is resolutely barred against western commerce. | Now it came about that some years
 ago q Spanish colonel of infantry, Don Rosendo de Aguilar, and many other names, was sent with twenty-five sol- | diers, Cazedores Canarios, or half
 trained conscript militia from the
 neighboring Canary Islands, to reoccu- py this post for Spain
 l Things soon went badly with the lit- | tie garrison, for news that the sultan's
 soldiers were driving the hated foreign
 CTS out of Morocco travelled south
 across many stony range and waste | of hot sand, and Berber tribes who at
 first brought in sheep and dates were
 driven away by the Arabs, and provi-
 sions grew scarce The well went near | ly dry. and the water that remained
 was full of mud and sand; while at ire
 quent intervals bands of Arabs swept l past on their small white horses, with l long blue tunics. and white burnooses l 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 barreled guns. | Then dysentery broke out, and one by
 one six men gave up their lives in ago. ny, and were buried in the hot sand. Once or twice. by means of chance
 fishing schooner which dropped anchor
 off the fort to sell bacalao, or sun n-dried I sea- bream, Don Roeendo sent a dis l patch to the governor at Teneriffe, beg ging for reinforcements, food and medi-
 cine. But as day after day passed by,
 and there was neither welcome gleam
 of white canvas nor dingy trail of
 smoke to break the azure semi-circle of
 ocean, the commandante grew sad and
 bitter at heart as he paced the ram- l parts with anxious eyes turned sea-
 ward. looking for help which never came.
 So provisions grew scarcer and scarcer. until at last q handful of gofio
 which is meal made from roasted maize, an ounce or two of salty bacalao
 and pint of slimy water, was each
 mans share. Soon some famine-wor corpses were buried at night; while the
 commandante, with true Spanish in-
 consistency. knelt each morning before his silver crucifix and prayed that suc-
 cor might be sent, and afterwards went
 out into the hot sunshine and stamped
 up and down the ramparts, biting his
 long white moustache and cursing tho
 government by all the saints in beaver
 and the flends of the bottomless pit At length two Berbers, who. owing tt
 some mistake as to the ownership ot
 certain sheep, had joined the little gar
 rison, begged leave to make journey inland, in the hope that once-friendly
 tribe might be induced to send them 6 few dates or fanegas of barley. | seemed certain that they would never
 return, yet the need was desperate, anc
 the officer agreed, for hunger knows nc . 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 int the brightness, and grow smaller ant
 smaller as they marched east over tht stony plain, until at last they appeared , no more than two black specks crawl ing across sea of silver light
 Eight days passed Then one morn ing, just as the glowing sun swung III ! through 8 purple haze, and the sleepy sentry yawned and rubbed his eyes al
 he brushed the night dew from his rife
 barrel, there was q dull clattering O
 unshod hoofs in the dark ravine 4
 moment later band of swarthy horse
 men swept past the walls of the for
 and disappeared amid the rocks, whil' the startled soldier fired his rifle wildly into the air. Afterwards he stopped tt pick up basket of palm-leaves whicl
 one of the Arabs had hurled over tn, wall. Hastily buckling on his sword belt, the comfnandante rushed out upoi the battlements while the Cazadore.