The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-11-10
Adventure I'm Arabia.


termination of an English expl, ring
expedition which attempted 10 reae-
lrate the deserts of Southern Arsbja.
winch are absolutely unknown to.
white men, and which are Lror,n as
the Dwelling of the Void" lAts alb
previous expeditions. the effor- ye IN
Nestigate the mysterious region ended
IN failure. The members of the party.
headed by G. w. Bury. fortunately es-
capped with their lives but then hard
ships resulted in adding but btt,a 70
the knowledge of Arabia. The fet.sw.
ing account Of the adventure is river.
by the leader:
The region is absolutely unknown
to modern geographers, none OF whom
mas succeeded in penetrating as tays-
'erles we were anxious to reae, the
buried cities in the interior, although
the principal object of the tourney>
was to make natural histoy coueo-
tions.
when we arrived off the little FISH
ing village of Irka We sent our order.
ly Sareb ashore with a letter 70 The
chief, who came out to us. Instead
or really helping us re was conspirins
with the interior chief of Haura 10
get our party up country and leave us
stranded.
Eventually we got away from ,rLa
with an escort of fifteen men and
elSht camels. We were both AIMED
and wore turbans, as the people there
declare that Christians only wear hats
10 hide their horns. On the following
day the chief of Haura sent a rNeS~en-
ger with letter to say that he v,e,,la.
not receive us at any price.
Our whole caravan stopped our,
boxes were dumped in the omen de-.
sert and we found what shelter we.
could under one tree. We got our
camp in state of defense, and took ie
in turns to snatch a little sIeep. '.rhe
chief of Haura proved most unfrisnd~
ly. He would not send us out food,
and set guard over us. Fortunately
We had few biscuits with ,.. but
this was practically all we had for the
week we were stranded in the desert.
I'VE were absolutely in the power
OF the Arabs, and to have attempted
show of force would have been IA
tai. Every now and again the Arabs
nerd pot shots at us for amusement,
but never hit us, although they struck
one tree under which we sat.
After five anxious days had passed
the chief of Haura sent us a final let
ter declining to find us an escoit and
ordering us to leave his country With
in three hours. The three of zig were
very weak, having lived mainly on
jam and biscuits, and the prospert of
flight of S5 miles to the coast was
not pleasant one. We had OF
course. to discard our baggage for
our escort deserted.
II tore out few written pacos OF
my diary, We concealed the two .hro-
nometers about our clothes and. with
certain amount of ammunition. were
prepared to bolt, our intention being
to get away in the middle of the night.
when our guards would probably be
asleep. We regarded it as almos, GER
tain that we should be attacked and,
murdered before We were able 10 60
far.
I'VE did not get away that blight.
and to our surprise on the following
morning the local pundit came out
from the town to reopen negotia ispns,
The chief now demanded all our mon
ey' in return for which he would pro-
vide us with an escort and cahncls
Keeping only a few dollars we Il,
handed over the money, and ,n the
evening % camels arrived. Some shots
were fired at us at intervals, but no
damage was done. Having loaded our
camels We started on our retvrn to
the coast
"The journey was terribly hos. anas
we were very weak, but we had TO maks. .
forced marches, and only snatshcti
three hours sleep. We were ab.
solutely done up when we eyentuaIN
rached the coast at our original start
inE place. Our dhow put in and IN two
days took us to Eden"