hooked thorns of the mimosa—the salt/rice, and coffee
bags all sprang leaks, and small streams of these important
stores issued from the rents, which the men
attempted to repair by stuffing dirty rags into the
holes. These thorns were shaped like fish-hooks, thus
it appeared that the perishable baggage must soon
become an utter wreck, as the great strength and
weight of the camels bore all before them, and sometimes
tore the branches from the trees, the thorns
becoming fixed in the leather bags. Meanwhile
the donkeys walked along in comfort, being so
short that they and their loads were beiow the
branches. • . .
I dreaded the approach of night. We were now
at the foot of a range of high rocky hills, from which
the torrents during the rainy season had torn countless
ravines in their passage through the lower ground;
we were marching parallel to the range at the very
base, thus we met every ravine at right angles. Down
tumbled a camel; and away rolled his load of bags,
pots, pans, boxes, &c. into 'the bottom of a ravine in a
confused ruin.—Halt! , . and the camel had to be
raised and helped up the opposite bank, while the late
avalanche of luggage was carried piecemeal after him
to be again adjusted. To avoid a similar catastrophe
the remaining three camels had to be unloaded, and
re-loaded when safe upon the opposite bank. The
operation of loading a camel with about 700 lbs. of
luggage of indescribable variety is at all times tedious ;
but no sooner had we crossed one ravine with difficulty
than we arrived at another, and the same fatiguing
operation had to be repeated, with frightful loss of
time at the moment when I belieyed the Turks were
following on our path.
My wife and I rode about a quarter of a mile at the
head of the party as an advance guard, to warn the
caravan of any difficulty. The very nature of the
country declared that it must be full of ravines, and
yet I could not help hoping against hope that we
might have a clear mile of road without a break. The
evening had passed, and the light faded. What had
been difficult and tedious during the day, now became
most serious ;—we could not see the branches of hooked
thorns that overhung the broken p a th ; I rode in
advance, my face and arms bleeding with countless
scratches, while at each rip of a thorn I gave a warning
shout—“Thorn ! ” for those behind, and a cry of “Hole ! ”
for any deep rut that lay in the path. I t was fortunately
moonlight, but the jungle was so thick that the
narrow track was barely perceptible; thus both camels
and donkeys ran against the trunks of trees, smashing
the luggage, and breaking all that could be broken :