Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1922-12-14

in his effort to relieve Emin Pasha
And Chauvannes seems TO have haC
precisely the same experiences a,
Stanley, in that the poisoned arrows
which the dwarf tribes used, wer,
always fatal to the natives, but no
10 the white men OF the expedition
At least, the three white men with
Chauvannes. and the explorer him.
self always escaped. while the per.
sistent destruction Of the other
members of the expedition continued
until only Chauvannes and the other
white men came out alive.
The expedition was not large. II
was as small as Chauvannes could
get on with. He never intended II
TO be more than a scouting party, to
lay out the thing he was looking
for. The discovery Of the emeralds
was a sort Of accident in removing
the portion Of an ancient wall that
an uprooted tree had dislodged."
There was a moments silence.
Then Monsieur Jonquelle went on:
Il said awhile ago that the sin
credible things set out in the journal
did not begin to appear until about
the seventeenth OF December, when
they had finally come out. It is true
that some indicatory things are
noted In the journal before that
date. Chauvannes could not sleep
He returns again and again to this
fact. Bromides did no good. He con
tinues TO complain about the failure
OK the bromides.
He wonders il the drugs have lost
their virtue, or II they could not
have been pure. He notes that he
tested this with one OF the other
men and observed the effect. The
bromides were all right. This fact
gave him a good deal OF concern
He could not sleep. And the drugs
upon which the medical profession
depend in such a case. failed.
I'VE find this feature in consider
able detail and beginning some time
before December seventeenth while
the expedition was still in the forest
Of the Congo. in its awful march to
the northeast.
Il don't know when Il was that
. chauvaDnes realized what was ahead
he saw it almost from the first day
OF the march north.
Il studied that journal word by
word and sentence by sentence. /
felt at the time that no one OF us
understood it, that the thing meant
something which ought to appear II
We were able TO grasp proper con
oeption of 1t. I felt before Il as l
used to feel before those clever Ger
man dispatches, which appeared on
their faces TO be merely a narrative
Of domestic incident, when they
were in fact army orders contain
ing a definite direction. l was
right. as events proved. but the gov
eminent authorities in Paris at the
time considered my notion faDtas-
tic.
still. as I have said. the strange
digressions in his journal did not be-
gin to appear until about the seven
teeDth Of December, when they
came out onto the great grass-cov-
cred plateau outlined TO the east by
low mountain range, beneath
which lay Lake Albert Nyanza. AS
1t happened. they had come out ten
days ahead OF the date which they
had determined upon for the arrival
of the lake boat. II was TO receive
the expedition at the same point on
the Nyanza that Stanley met Emin
Pasha.
Now. here was another indica-
tory point They did not go ahead
10 the Nyanza as Stanley had done.
They camped on grassy slope-it
looked like an English lawn,
Chauvannes eaid--within the first
days march out of the forest. Here
they remained.
'Chauvannes had all the modern
implements that an explorer carries
with him, and he laid down the ex-
act location of this camp with the
most painstaking accuracy. II was
charted in the journal in half do
zen different forms and checked in
every variety Of way He seemed TO
have spent a lot Of time at this. He
was determined that the exact spot
of this camp should be definitely To-
Gated for all time and beyond any
possibility Of error. And he did not +,
fail. The exact location OF that camp 1
3 is as certain as any boundary mon |
ument on our Belgian frontier It |
can be located today within the |
error of half a meter. He had
plenty Of time for this, because he
remained in this camp with Lecture
while the other men went on to the
Nyanza.
The route TO the lake could not
be laid out TO the eye. 1t was d.
rectly below a marked rocky pro-
moDtory OF the skyline. But the
men with Chauvannes thought it
better TO be certain of the way out.
and as they had to put in the time
until the boat arrived. ic seemed adj
yisable TO go over the route. The
American beachcomber Dix and the
Finn set out for the Albert. Lecture |
remaining in the camp with Chau-
vannes.
1T was here alone with Lecture |
that chauvannes finished the jour
nal, which 1 finally decided, as one
might say. at the Service de la /
Surete in Paris.
Il have said that the only thing /
indicating Chauvannes' condition be.
fore the seventeenth OF December,