New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1927-02-23
EXPLORERS RELATE
Thrilling JOURNEY
Lives Often Despaired Of in Trip
Through 1urkestan

New York. Feb. 20 dPt-A tale of
barbaric torture by Mongolians, in
which he hoped he would be shot
by his captors to avoid further suf-
fering. was related today by James |
l.. Clark, assistant director of they
museum of natural history, who
with William ]. Morden, hunted owls
poll in Asia last year.
A group of armed men, wearing
Russian caps and the star of the
Russian soldier, surrounded the par
ty one night, he said, and appro-
priated their arms and ammunition.
The captors then seated themselves
around a fire and for hours paid no
attention to the captives. The Mon
gos smoked their short pipes in ST.
lence until finally Clark showed
them their American and Russian
passports. These were thrown
aside.
After a time, the Mongols begang
to whisper to themselves and Clark
said to his companion: BILL, we
are in wrong" He started to get
up and the captors bounced upon
them, pinning them to the ground.
''They looked like bad men," he
said. Their eyes were glary. like
the eyes OF men excited by cruelty"
"One of them took pan of boil
ing water from the fire and Bill
yelled They are going to scald me'
l could not see at first what they
were doing and I couldn't have help
ed him anyway, but after while
saw they were pouring water on
the ropes with which they were
binding us. The idea was to make
the ropes, which were twisted
around our wrists, tighter. That
was to be our torture, apparently,
for the ropes were already as tight
as the men could make them.
After that they went through our
pockets. 1 suppose they were doing
it because it would he easier to do it
while we We're alive than when We
were dead. We couldn't possibly get
away. If we got outside we would
freeze to death, as it was way below
zero.
one of the men and I asked him
what he had heard. He said they
were going to kill us. That was no
news; it sounded reasonable. Our
hands got cold and We put them
over the fire to keep from freezing.
our hands were swollen. They felt
like balls of fire.
I'VE wondered how long it would
take to find out what had become
of us and how the news would leak
out. We were glad we had insur-
ance. We We're not afraid any more;
we didn't care what happened, ex-
ccpt that we hoped they would shoot
US and make it snappy, instead of
torturing us to death. Our arms
hurt so that even being shot would
have been q relief.
II tried TO faint and so did Bill, so
we wouldn't feel the pain. | would
keep quiet and so would he and then
I would say Bill, are you out yet
and he would say, No. how do you
feel%' @. pretty good I would say.
After a while men came in with guns
and Bill said Well, we are going to
get It now
''Thcy took us out and tied us
back to back to a pole in a small
tent. We were placed sitting down,
our elbows fastened together, and
ropes from our elbows to our knees
That didn't matter; a little more
didn't make any difference
There was no fire in the tent,
but We didn't feel the cold because
OF the pain. We We're so nervous
We wero sweating. After while
they came in and felt of our hands.
] don't know how long the night
was but they finally took the
ropes off and We got back spark
OF hope. Then they brought us tea
and we got more hopeful that VIC
weren't to be tortured to death. In
an hour We We're almost right.
Then they had long confer
ence about us and refused to let
Us go forward or back the way we
had come. They told us we would
have to go as We were, without
equipment, a distance OF $50 miles
over the mountains, with the
temperature some times 40 below
zero, accompanied by soldiers. I
knew we couldn't stand that and
finally they agreed to let us have
our caravan and go to Kodo under
guard. I was so unndrved by the
reaction to suspense and torture
that I cried"
That was the end Of their suf-
fering. They We're released in Kodo
through the intervention of a Rus
sian and made their way to PEEK
ing via the Trans Siberian railroad,
arriving there on January 1.
The expedition brought back 49,
600 feet of moving picture film and
1000 still photographs.