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 mungu' C 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 
