xxii PREFACE 



one worried because one's native boots were full of holes, 

 at the next perhaps, one wondered how long one would 

 be alive to wear them. This book records the former 

 mood as well as the latter, because both at the time were 

 equally important. 



Naturally such an impossible, illogical journey leaves 

 one indebted to so many people that it is difficult to pick 

 out those to whom one owes most. 



I have dedicated the story of our adventures to my 

 co-explorer Ahmed Bey Hassanein, for his knowledge of 

 the Senussi acquired during his secretaryship to the Talbot 

 Mission in 1916 was invaluable to me, and he was the 

 loyalest of my allies throughout the expedition. His tact 

 and eloquence so often saved the situation when my 

 Arabic failed, and we laughed and fought through all our 

 difficulties together. 



Long before my Kufara expedition merged from im- 

 possible dream to probable fact, many officers stationed 

 in the Western Desert lent me their knowledge of the 

 Senussi oasis, gathered from careful conversations with 

 Beduin sheikhs and merchants, while from Khartum, 

 El Fasher and Cairo came maps and route reports which 

 were most useful. 



I now know that we might have benefited exceedingly 

 from Rohlfs's most careful and valuable writings on the 

 subject of his North African travels, but unfortunately 

 we only possessed his "Kufra," which does not attempt 

 much description of the oasis he was the first European 

 to visit, confining itself chiefly to the relation of the 

 story of the destruction of his camp and the break-up of 

 the expedition. In a Journal of the African Society the 

 great German explorer gives the exact bearing on which 

 he marched from Jalo. Had we known this at the time 

 we might have arrived at Taiserbo in spite of the error 



