Bedouin women 1892 - Public domain book illustration

Bedouin women 1892
Identifier: storyofafricaits03brow (find matches)
Title: The story of Africa and its explorers
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Brown, Robert, 1842-1895
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Cassell
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
les on the route intended to be , The massacre taken by the railway, when, of the Flat-on the 16th of February, 1881, uon.anr*^ Colonel Flatters, Captain Masson, Retreat of the, . . i survivors, the engineers Bermger and Roche, and Dr. Guiard were killed near the wellsof Bir el-Gharama by Touaregs, who forseveral days had followed the party, bidingtheir time. These implacable tribesmen alsomurdered M. Deverny, the commissary ofthe expedition, and thirty of the camel-drivers, who had been leadinsf their boaststo water, and captured all the camels. Themurderers were, however, afraid to attaclvthe main camp, their victims having been 96 THE STOBY OF AFRICA. surprised when engaged at a distance fromthe party. No sooner was the disaster knownthan it was necessary to discuss the situa-tion. With so serious a loss both in men andbeasts of burden, there was no ahernativebut to retreat to Wargla. Yet the situationwas a desperate one, for between them andtlie base lay a sixty days march without
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BEDOUIN WOMEN. (From a Pliotograph in the Paris-Tunis Colkction, camels, and, further, only with such waterand food as could be carried by the retreat-ing members of the expedition through aregion of such forbidding aspect that evento the desert wanderers it is known as the land of thirst. Nor could the remnantsof the expedition conceal from themselvesthe extreme likelihood that they would befollowed by the murderers of Colonel Flattersand his companions, and be compelledto defend themselves in circumstancesof the least favourable character. In short,to use an apt simile of M. Napoleon Ney, who has written so admirable a sketchof the Saharan railway surveys, these un-fortunates were shipwrecked m the desert.Still, as no time was to be lost^the survivorsstarted the very night that news of thecatastrophe to their companions reachedthem. The baggage was broken up, and adivision made of the money, food, and am-munition which it contained.The water-skins were in-trusted to the strongest me