Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-17
PER1Ls OF DESERT EXPLORERS.
Fate of Party That Undertook to Sur
vey the Desert of Seistan.
from the London Times.


| From the London Times
The seistan boundary commission, which
has now returned to India. was one Of
those hazardous enterprises that the sur
vey officers of the government of India
are every now and then called upon to UNI
dertake in remote. unfrequented and inhos-
pitable regions, to penetrate into which,
even with such supplies and escort as are
feasible, is practically to carry ones life
In ones hand.
For many months the heat in Seistan is
overpower:ng, while a wind known as the
''120 days wind" blows from the northwest
with the force of hurricane, its pace vary
ing up to seventy miles an hour. In the
winter there are violent snowstorms ana
billiards., while the thermometer falls al
most to zero. In a great blizzard which
ragged for five days In March, 1903, during
the progress OF the mission, the wind &C
tually rose to 100 miles an hour.
One conspicuous piece of devotion on the
part of a native surveyor named Moni-ud-
din deserves mention He was a man OF
some distinction who had won the title OF
Khan Bahadur by previous notable surveys
on the frontier. While in Sestan he was
particularly DESTROYS of exploring the Dashi-
i-Margu, a very forbidding desert between
the Helmund and Kash rivers, and in June.
1908. in spite of the extreme heat, he struck
out from point west of Budbar on the
Helmund on course nearly due north.
his party consisting of four survey assist
ants, four Afghan guides and two camel
men.
They marched all night, called a halt In
the early morning and continued the march
during the day. AT nightfall the water car
ried by the camels had given out, and the
guides urged that either the return journey
should be begun at once or route taken
due west. so as to strike the northern bend
of the Helmund. Mohi-ud-din. however, was
determined to push on, and a guide was
sent off a camel to find water. He re-
turned with leather skin full, but 1t was
so brackish that those who drank It fell
Ill and could not eat their food. The party
had then to march on, and they were for
tunate enough to reach another well, where
g. small supply of drinking water OBJ
tanned.
At midnight on the 18th they started
again. still steering northrard, and at day
break they halted on a high desert plain.
There was no sign of water, and, the po-
sition being critical, Mohi-ud-din reluct-
| antly recognized the futility of further ex-
ploration. He agreed to return. but by
night, after great sufferings from thirst
two OF the guides became insensible. A
third guide Sultan Mahomed, tied each of
them upon a riding camel and himself on
third camel. The animals were then link
ed together and left to go whittier their
instinct would lead them. Sultan Mahomed
fell unconscious during the night and re-
membered nothing till he came TO through
water being poured down his throat He
d
ter who had wandered into the desert in
quest of wild asses. The party were within
an ace OF death. but were taken to Chakan-
sur, an Afghan village on the Kash river,
and under careful treatment recovered.
The rest of the party under Mohi-ud-din
met with melancholy fate. They We're too
weak to march, and the first to die was a
camel man, who wandered into the desert
and never returned. The others remained
all night with Mohi-ud-din, and in the ear
ly morning, seeing he was nearly dying,
they crawled to a ravine close by and dug
for water. No spring was found, and their
only relief was TO throw the damp earth
over their bodies. In the evening some of
these men succeeded in struggling back to
camp where they found Mohi- nd din dead
alongside of his horse.
His faithful attendant, strong in his
sense of duty. cut the map Off the survey
or's plane table and wrapped II around his
body in his waistband. He afterward ,ex-
planned that he was afraid to carry It in
his hand for fear he might become insensi-
BILE and lose II. They then wandered from
the camp, and finally all but Sadu lay
down in the shade of high mound to die
Saidu struggled on the whole day but must
have become delirlous, for he remembered
nothing till he regained consciousness for
a time by stumbling Into a pool of water.
On coming to again he found himself be-
ing carried on mans back to Chakansur.
He had been discovered by some villagers
and, as in the case of the three guides,
his life was saved with difficulty
The Afghan authorities sent out search
parties with water, and eventually recov-
cred the bodies of Mohi-ud-din and the
three subsurveyors, together with the camp
kit. The bodies were reverently Inferred
by the Afghans at the shrine of Amiran q
place Of peculiar sanctity, as Aniran is said
TO have been a first cousin of the prophet
Mohi-un-din's death, although brought on
perhaps by too venturesome a disregard of
danger was a conspicuous instance of the
devotion met with in the native ranks OF
the Indian survey department, and It is
gratifying to learn that fitting reward has
been accorded to the faithful Saidu.