My caravan from Gao had a donkey attached to it, which never ceased to fill me with admiration. Its Tuareg master had laden it with a water-skin, which must have weighed about 60 lbs., and in addition to this it used to carry him for the greater part of the march. It only got a drink when we arrived at a well, while it used to snatch at mouthfuls of food if anything came in its way on the march. This little creature was not more than three feet high, so it was an amusing sight to watch the long-legged Tuareg seated on its back, with his legs nearly touching the ground as it walked. It used to take tiny, quick steps, always keeping pace with the big, slow strides of the camels.
Having found a fellow-countryman, Mahomed was most anxious to stop the night at Abeibera, but I was firm, and insisted on continuing our journey at the usual hour that afternoon. It was the following day that I saw the last herd of oryx. Between the wells of Abeibera and Bourassa there was a fair amount of Saharan game. Loder’s gazelle was the most plentiful, but here, also, I got two addax besides an oryx. The country was now getting much wilder in aspect. The rocky ridges on our flanks were higher, “oueds” were less sandy and more strewn with boulders, while, at Bourassa itself, the hills on the east must have been at least 500 feet above the plain. My calculations made the height of Bourassa 2330 feet, so that the hills here were about 2800 feet high.
At Bourassa we took two days’ water in the water-skins, as the next well, called Taoundert, was only some forty miles away. The country was growing wilder every day, and pasturage for the camels was less and less plentiful. On the 16th, having arrived at Taoundert, we found the well quite dry. There was not even a cupful of water to be got out of it, and we had another two days’ march to the succeeding well, In Ouzel. There was very little water now left in the water-skins, so I determined to push on as rapidly as possible and reach In Ouzel with the greatest despatch the camels were capable of. But disasters seldom come singly, and the lack of water was not going to be the only trial the next two days. Halting only an hour for rest at Taoundert, I pushed on that night. It was imperative to reach In Ouzel as soon as possible, there was very little water left in one of the water-skins and nothing at all in the others; besides, this water-skin was losing the precious liquid drop by drop as we marched, owing to the usual leakage from these articles.
The camels, on the march, were always tied in single file, one animal’s tail being attached by a string to the next one’s lower jaw. The order of route was, in front the guide and myself, in the centre my servant Musa, and in rear the camel-driver. It was necessary to have someone in rear, for sometimes a camel would break his string and wander away from the rest of the caravan. We had been marching about six hours when I happened to drop back for a short time. I noticed, to my dismay, that two camels, those carrying my food supplies and luncheon-basket, were missing. The camel-driver, a very sleepy Arab boy of the name of El Bashir, had mounted one of the animals in the middle of the caravan and was calmly sleeping on his beast. There was no sign of the camels, and it was impossible to say when they had strayed.
I could not afford to lose those camels, for they carried all my provisions; at the same time it would have been madness to delay the whole caravan when water was so scarce and time so precious. The remaining water was divided into two portions, and half was given to El Bashir. I threatened him with all sorts of penalties should he dare to return without the lost camels, and sent him off to look for them, while we proceeded on our way to In Ouzel. Next day our water was finished, and at midday I made a frugal repast off the reserve ration I kept always in my haversack. The meal consisted of a handful of dates and a little “couscous.” I shall not easily forget the experiences of the next twenty-four hours. We were all without water, and my “boy” and I were without food. Mahomed offered me some of his dates, but I was prouder than my servant Musa, and declared I was not hungry. The heat seemed more overpowering, and the desert seemed more deathly still than ever, during that time.
Our throats got parched and our tongues began to swell from the heat and thirst. How we longed for the sun to set, and the cool of the evening to relieve us a little from some of our torture! But that night there was no time to rest, we must march on in spite of our fatigue. This was a time when rest for ourselves or camels was not to be thought of, so we trudged wearily on. When the following day we arrived at In Ouzel we were all thoroughly exhausted, and the craving for water was something pitiable. Even that hardy desert wanderer, Mahomed, rushed to the well as soon as it came in sight, hastily lowering a small leather vessel at the end of a rope and drawing it up full of water. I must own that I was relieved beyond expression to see the water, for I had had a horrible fear that, perhaps, this well too would be dry. I had not let my thoughts dwell too much on this possible eventuality, for the consequences would have been too serious to contemplate. Another fear that had crossed my mind was that Mahomed might lose the way. Fortunately, all came right in the end, and even the lost camels turned up that evening. Somehow I did not seem to feel my hunger so much after we got to the well of In Ouzel and I had satisfied my thirst, but when the camels did arrive I soon realized how hungry I really was. After this experience I determined not to trust El Bashir to do rearguard on the march, and in future I always put Musa there when I was not in rear myself.
Sheep at the Wells of Bourassa
When we halted at these wells the Tuaregs were bringing their flocks down to water. It was pitiful to see the unfortunate animals endeavouring to get shade behind the trunks of some leafless trees in the vicinity. The weaker beasts fared even worse, having to be content with such shade as they could find under the shadow of their stronger brethren who had usurped the best places.
