-^ Hostile Forces 



to arrive at their destination on the very clay appointed, 

 even after journeys of weeks and months. 



Of course, my kind of expedition was a different 

 matter. We went into unknown and uninhabited parts 

 of the velt. My most difficult problem was that of our 

 food-supply. Besides his sixty-pound load, his cooking- 

 utensils, and his few personal possessions, a man cannot 

 carry more vegetable food than will last for a fortnight 

 or three weeks. In practice he will generally have none 

 of it left atter twelve or fourteen days. Therefore all 

 the arrangements for the journey must be made in such 

 a way that food is always obtainable. Water must, of 

 course, be come upon daily, or at least every forty- 

 eight hours ; for the carrier's capability for work depends 

 very much on the temperature, and in hot weather a 

 man cannot carry his load farther than a day's journey 

 without water. 



In the good old times people went, according to 

 report, right through the desert depending solely upon 

 the game they killed for food. The servants, camp once 

 reached, swarmed in all directions through the desert in 

 pursuit of antelopes and other game. But though I, too,^ 

 gave my servants a certain quantity of meat, I nevertheless 

 most sternly insisted that every man should daily receive 

 a corresponding quantity of vegetable food. This — often 

 with the greatest difficulty and expense — I somehow 

 always managed to accomplish. Unfortunately it is not 

 always done by caravan-leaders ; but instead, the game is 

 shot down in the most irresponsible fashion. . . . 



In the famine year of 1899- 1900 this method of mine 



649 



