The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-12-11

imagine what happened to the other
two-the same thing, doubtless, that
happened to all the persons who
started with ChauTannes northeast to
the Nyanza after he had abandoned
! his excavations"
The big man beyond Monsieur Ion
auelle in the dark seemed to have
composed himself to listen. PIE was
silent, and Monsieur Jonquelle went
on:
These men. who were the only
persons alive with Chauvannes when
he finally reached the Ituri on the
morning of the nth Of December,
must have been three of the most
desperate adventures In the world.
They were evidently men AZ the
Cnd Of their tether, willing to stake
everything on a last chance. or they
would not have joined Chauvannes.
They We're not men he selected. He
never would have selected men of this
character. They seem TO have followed
him in and to have literally annexed
themselves to his expedition when he
left the Congo east of the Leopold.
They must have ben an exquisite
devils guard--thOse three: the little
wolf faced Apache Leturs, the Finn
sailor, and the American beachcomb-
er, they called Captain Dix.
The Apache was the one who came
in with the journal. He must have
been, after all, what you would call
the best man OF the three. Never
thelcss it was these three hell birds
who came out alive with Chauvannes.
And what he had to say about them
IS on every page Of the journal. He
must have changed his mind very
shortly after they Joined him, because
the first impressions he wrote down,
which were probably what our own
scratched out. We might have be-
NeVed hat some one else had made
these crasures but for the fact that
the journal from this time on never
fails to speak of these three men in
the highest terms. Their tirelessness,
their energy, their courage, their de-
votion to Chauvannes Ia the ore note
that continues through this journal
to the end.
"Of course, one could say that as
these men had TO depend on Chau-
y8nneS to bring them out, the pres
ence Of 4 common peril would have
united them in his support and that.
while they were apparently exerting
themselves for him. they were, in
fact, ldborins to get out Of that will
derness alive.
''They were evidently densely ia-
norant persons Of A low order. every
one Of them. The Finn and the
American heachcomher had no odu-
cation whatever: Lecture could read,
he was a deserter, we think from
the Foreign Legion-and he had 4
sort of devils shrewdness. But he
was no match, when it came TO wits.
for Chauvannes. None of them We're
They were ignorant and superSti-
tious. But they we're determined.
desperate to the last degree and
afraid of nothing.
ION OF the features Of the journal
that first impressed me was the fact
that ChauTannes had no Illusions
about these men. He understood each
Of them perfectly. He pinned the
success of his great plan to an &C
curate conception of the Apache Lee
turc. He thought this desperate hui
man creature was what you would
call the best man He expected him
to come out the best man. and he laid
the plan he had in mind to fit that
eventuality. And he was right. 1
saw that when l got to thinking about
the journal
Ana L saw SOH1StNlHE else "a"
that Chauvannes realized his own sit
uation pretty early in the march Of
events. And he knew where the
thing would lead. He realized it a
long way ahead. This fact, as I have
said, was one of the conspicuous fea
lures of the journal. 1 suppose one,
in an incipient madness. might rea-
lie all the accurate features OF the
situation that lay about Chauvannes,
and before him. as he did: but L doubt
it, think only 4 man sound and
sane could have seen it with the Ger
tainty that Chauvannes saw it, and
at the distance beyond the event.
ONLY the soundest intelligence. in the
calm control of every faculty, could
have realized that the thing before
him was inevitable. a man in any
other STATE Of mind would have I'M
dertakGn to delude himself, lie would
have resorted 10 futl!e devices. or to
some tragic issue before the end, or
to some futile hope. 1t took a mind
like Chauvannes'. profoundly sane. to
see that the thing that awaited him
was inevitable,
II studied that journal as closely
rs \ cirher dispatch. The evidences
u ChGuvanne7' mental condition did
not anpear Untl the entries hesin-