Evening star., 1937-01-10

Turk and Egyptian marine stokers,
money changers and jewelers. from
Yemen. with a sprinkling of Greeks,
Italians, Magyars, Armenians, Monte
negrins, all dominated by a few
Frenchmen.
EINDING that French enterprise
had built railroad running about
$50 miles to the border of Menelik's
dominions. we made camp to await
the first train expected to move out
within a few days. While we tarried,
an interpreter was discovered, an
Abyssinian named Oualdo, son of
Mikael. He had been a French pro-
spector's personal servant, and when
the natives killed the Frenchman,
faithful Oualdo gathered together
his masters belongings and delivered
them to the authorities at Djoubiti.
His devotion was rewarded by relatives
Of the deceased and the young
AbysSinian was taken to France to
be civilized. He had braved out a
few months in civilization, barely long
enough to learn to speak French indif-
ferently, when the call of Africa be-
came too strong. He had just worked
his way back to Djoubiti when we ar
rived to claim his services. He was
our reliable means Of communication
with the different tribes of our
caravan (AbysSinians, Arabs, Danakils
and Somalis) as well as with the many
other tribes in the countries we
traversed. At least six languages were
current in our caravan every day.
The expedition embarked in railway
cars, double-roofed as protection
against the sun, early on the morn
ing of November l9, 1903, and started
on the long trip that promised at
least two months desert life with the
best of luck. AS we travelled all day
time to contemplate the immensely of
the territories known as Habesh and
| the imperial sway of the "conquering
lion of Judah. Menelik II, by the Grace
Of God, Negus NagaSti." The Biblical
story Of the Queen of Sheba was re-,
called Of how she yearned to know If
Solomon was as wise as reputed, of the
rich caravan that took her to visit the
munificent potentate, OF the return
trip and the halt in the desert, the
birth of Menelik the second self,
Solomon Junior.
1t was nearly night when re reached
the border line of the dominions Of
Sheba's descendant. We were now
separated from the Red Sea by the
narrow strip of Somaliland with the
Soudan to the westward, and British
| East Africa was to the south. The
Blue Nile takes precious waters from
Lake Tsana. The Kongo and Uganda
were not far away.
! In the darkness we were dumped
off the railway cars at Dire Daoua,
on the outskirts of the desert. Camp
was made and the Stars and Stripes
were soon flying over tents that had
sheltered marines at Guantanamo and
that would shelter still others within a
| few months in far Pacific islands
The services of French traders at Dire
Daoua were enlisted to aid us in OBJ
tanning men and animals for the cara
van of about so mules and so camels
7 HAD supposed that the soft-eyed,
velvety-nosed dromedary was a
gentle beast, but when went out to
inspect our herd and to stroke sup
posedly faithful heads, the first one
reached for opened his mouth wide.
exhaled an offensive breath. and
lunged at me with long yellow fangs.
They all were in a bad humor they
made no effort to conceal, when it
came time to begin packing. A type
writer was among our numerous
presents for the Emperor and when
the crate was lashed to camel with
fathoms Of rope, he rose from his
crouching position, looked around at
the box, snorted, and began prancing
around the plain in true bronco fash
ion with the advantage of having long
legs to give him great elevating range
and a powerful descent. When he
plunged forward and stiffened his
front knees, I imagined that every
screw in that Yankee typewriting ma
chine would be shattered. Although
the lashing had been we'll done the
camel kept to his purpose with such
persistency that at least the type
writer went whizzing through the air
and landed in the desert sands with
q heavy thud.
The mules were little better. They
did not like the looks of the white
marines who knew about as much of
mules as they did of camels. That
first day Of organizing a Cavalry
troop of mule marines was a trying
experience for the officers, whose
sensibilities we're harassed at seeing
their gallant followers strewn over
the landscape like so many corpses.
| I doubt If terms of understanding ever
were reached between the mules and
white men of the Abyssinian diplomatic
expedition. Although their previous
masters had given them nothing but
cruelty, while with us they grew sleek
and fat on kindness, they tried to kill
us every day, right up to the end,
after the constant companionship of
two months.
We were to make two expeditions,
one to Adds. Ababa and the other
to Harrar, to visit the viceroy Of Tigre,
Ras Mekonnen, the Emperor's nephew,
for the purpose of enlisting his sup
port for our treaty, and to induce
him to send messengers ahead to
Adds Ababa to give good account
Of us. Rumors were in the air that
certain European diplomats were
representing that we were only Yankee