50 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT chap. 



finally, at four o'clock, I fell from my horse, and was 

 compelled to lie under a tree for some time before I 

 could recover sufficient strength to move on. I sent the 

 camels on in front, and the donkeys followed. The 

 porters were not in sight, and my poor retrievers had 

 long since fallen to the rear. At 5.30 I started after 

 my camels, and found them lying in a thick under- 

 growth, surrounded by the donkeys and their drivers. 



Where were the guides } It seemed, one of my 

 Soudanese (Herella) felt thirsty, and upon asking the 

 guides for water, and being told by them that it was 

 still some distance in front, flew into a passion and 

 began beating them ; whereupon these gentle creatures 

 fled. This had not been reported to me, or perhaps I 

 might have caught them and brought them back. The 

 question now presented was : Where were we to get 

 water } and its early, if not immediate solution was fast 

 becoming an important necessity. I sent a Somali to 

 look for it, and he soon returned with the welcome 

 intelligence that it was not far distant. 



The tangled mass of undergrowth, in which my 

 camels and donkeys were found, was so thick that I 

 found it necessary to cut a road for them. All the 

 available men were set to work with axes, and by 6.30 a 

 road was completed. At 7 we managed to reach a pool 

 of water formed by the back-wash of the Tana dur- 

 ing the rainy season. There the camels and donkeys, 

 together with twenty men, formed the only visible por- 

 tion of my caravan. I sent the twenty men back, laden 

 with water, to my struggling porters. This done, I 

 threw myself down to rest, but not to sleep. All 

 through the night the men straggled in by twos and 



A 



