In the Volcanic Region i6i 



without even the shelter of trees or the possibility of making 

 any fire, would only mean certain death for all of us, whilst the 

 crater-edge with its tree and plant growths would vouchsafe us 

 shelter and succour. I insisted upon their standing up again. 

 All in vain! To no purpose! Nothing sufficed to awaken them 

 from their lethargy. 



"All my persuasion, insistence and even threats brought no 

 result. ' Amri ya mungii ' (' It is the decree of the gods, we must 

 die ') was the only reply that I could elicit. What was to be 

 done? The will power and the intelligence of the European 

 were powerless here against the fatalism and stupid apathy of 

 the negro. Summoning up all my remaining strength of will I 

 fought my way, wading up to my knees in icy cold water, accom- 

 panied by my two Askari and a very few followers, through 

 the storm and snow straight to the edge of the crater. Arrived 

 there we contrived to erect a temporary camp in the shelter of 

 the trees and made a fire. Time after time, accompanied only 

 by the two Askari, I penetrated the pathless swamp, and so 

 brought one hapless native after the other to the warm camp fire. 

 I ordered my men to leave the loads where they were so long 

 as they rescued the people. But even our own strength failed 

 at last. * Master, if we have to go out again, we shall never 

 return alive; we can do no more!' declared the Askari, and 

 their looks corroborated only too well the truth of their words. 

 These brave fellows had really done all that it was possible for 

 human power to do. They had come to the end of their strength. 

 The closing darkness, too, made any further attempt at rescue 

 hopeless, as the nearly rigid and numbed unfortunates, who 

 were invisible to us through the tall reed-grass, appeared to be 

 unable to reply any longer to our calls. There was therefore 

 nothing else to be done but to leave them to their fate until the 

 morning. 



"Absolutely drenched through, without any tent, limbs 

 shivering from emotion and cold, and wrapped in a blanket 

 only — that is how we spent the sleepless night round the camp 



fire, only to have to resume our work of exhumation again with 

 V 



