Evening star., 1925-03-29
Are Crazed by Lack of Water on Plain of Pitch
Story Adventure Among Head Hunters of Escape From

ridge. md there before us to the east
lay the unknown field for future ad-
ventures.
As LIS invariably the case, the men,
drawn by personal sympathies, had by
| this time paired off in couples Every
body had somebody else to consider
as his pal" or puddle" In the course
of natural selection the chief geolo-
gist and myself had become chums.
I said that everybody had some
body else for buddy" That is,
everybody but Jones. For while all
the others were SO happily paired. he
tcontinued to be an outcast-and de-
servedly SO. His speech was vile, his
manners gross. and only by force
lcouid we compel him to enter into
| friendly relations with soap and wa
ter. The meanness of his spirit was
quickly manifested by the selfishness
with which he always tried to secure
for himself any slight convenience or
comfort which our rough camp life
| might have to offer. And because Of
all this. and because he picked our
pockets for cigarettes and chocolates,
We designated him "the Pig
We descended part way down the
trackless east slope of the Andes and
marveled at what we found there
the buried remains Of an old Indian
city. perhaps the Inca nation. The
| slight excavation work which we
were able to do revealed the massive
walls Of a windowless house-walls
| of uncemented stones. smoothly and
| squarely cut
| Fragments Of stained pottery, which
denoted high degree of develop
ment in that art, were uncovered.
And surrounding these ruins on the
barren sides of the hill, whose stony
! soil produces but a poor scrub veg
| citation. We found arttfically built ter
Traces, supported by strong stone walls
and filled with rich vegetable soil.
Several well defined trails led in va
rious directions from the ruined city.
and one of these followed downward
| the slope Of the mountains.
| Thus. alternating the natural hard
| ships Of the trail with now and then
a most interesting discovery, we con-
tinued on our way toward the heart
of the "oriente." But those hardships
increased daily. Two of the porters
having suffered injuries from falls.
| had to be carried on stretchers. This
limited the speed of the entire party
TO the pace of the stretcher-bearers
| In consequence our food supplies be-
gan to reach a low ebb.
These had been calculated to last un-
| til we should make the jungles of the
| lowland-where We hoped to find game
| and other sustenance in abundance and
from where the main train of porters
| would be returned to Quito and to pro-
vide for whose return caches of pro-
visions had to be made along our route
! Of march 1t was now necessary to put
| all hands on half rations. And while we
suffered thus Jones repeatedly pilfered
our scant supplies. For such acts, in
our indignation, we punished him with
blows.
| IN time we came to the lower slopes
of the Andes, where those dreadful
| little savages. the Head Hunters" $50
| called because il is their practice to
decapitate their victims and, by extract
ing the skull. preserve and reduce the
| head to about the size of an orange),
| commenced to harass us. Small in size
copper-colored and naked, with master
/ ly woodcraft they would approach our
camps. or ambush us on the trail, and
| from the shelter of the surrounding
bush. would noiselessiy fire upon US with
their reed blow-pipes. five to six feet in
length. And the little poisoned darts
with which they showered US brought
death to our midst.
! Our heavy clothing provided consider
| able defense against these blow-pipe
attacks, because the darts did not have
|
them. but those unfortunates who were
struck on naked places, such as the
| hands, neck and face, perished.
No less than 81 members Of our party
/ were killed by these terrible little
| shafts Nine more fell before other
weapons. So We were compelled to re-
| sist these attacks. which We did, in
| fiicting devastating losses on the little
brown men with our modern firearms
On other occasions, while crossing
| some clearings, we suddenly would find
ourselves surrounded by large numbers
| OF the Indians, who emerged from the
| bush and. brandishing their heavy clubs,
stone hatchets and spears, rushed upon
| US uttering hideous shouts. And some
| OF US, conscious Of their inability to re
| sist our arms and being desirous to
avoid the shedding Of their blood, would
by friendly signs endeavor to stop them;
but Jones, on every such occasion, with
curses would protest, saying: Jaw,
let the ---- come! They
can't hurt us-let's give it to them"
He seemed to have a Inaniac's love for
the cruel, and We hated him for it.
And thus we marched and fought and
suffered wounds and the sorrow of los
ing some of our friends. And with en-
| tering the jungles our hardships in
creased, so that now it was but rare
l
word was heard. But we all agreed
that our greatest trouble was Jones'. We
| detested him, and in many ways we
made him feel our hatred. Reciprocal
ing, he would curse US all.
Then we came to an asphalt lake.
Black, and shimmering in the hot sum-
II lay before US as far as eye could
see. We knew we had made an i'm
portant discovery-one which must
be investigated in every possible de-
tail. So it was decided that at once
we must proceed to make a survey
of II. It was also decided that a
small detachment made up of the
strongest and best-conditioned men
would do this work, while the main
party camped and rested on the shore
Of the lake.
THAT evening a council was held
for the purpose Of determining
the best method which should be fol-
lowed in exploring the lake. At that
meeting II resulted that, although
several Of the members Of the party
had had considerable past experience
in travel through ice fields. jungles
and sandy deserts, not one Of them
had ever before seen an asphalt lake
All were inexperienced as to the con-
dItions to be faced In travelling over
its surface.
Based merely on the fact, therefore,
that the largest asphalt lake known
to exist. rs soms one recalled, was Of
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