LONE TRIP TO ORINOCO

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 184, 2 May 1931, Page 17

LONE TRIP TO ORINOCO

Lady Dorothy Mills In search of material for a new book Lady Dorothy Mills, author and traveller, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Orford, who ilve in Auckland, is planning a lone trip up toe Orinoco for the purpose of studying the little-known Indians in the jungles of the upper tributaries of the mighty river. Lady Dorothy was the first Englishwoman to visit Timbuctoo, and she travelled in Liberia in 1926. Lady Dorothy Mills, although in Venezuela for the purpose of making the trip up the Orisoco, resolved to visit Maracaibo and: its oilfields, and at the same time make a brief survey of. the Indians of the Goajira Peninsula. Accordingly, travelling quite alone, she mado her way overland from Caracas to La Ceiba, on Maracaibo Lake, a distance of several hundred miles, using as her sole means of conveyance the ramshackle trucks and lorries which travel from village to village with market produce. ' ■ From La'Ceiba she crossed the lake to Marecaibo, where she was the guest of the Caribbean Petroleum Company, visiting. the various oilfields in the vicinity. Later, accompanied by J. A. Weston and G. W. Whitaker, who are familiar with the trails across the primitive Goajira country, she made a quick run by automobile as far as the Colombian coast. Many of the Indians had never seen A white woman before, and evinced as much Interest in Lady Dorothy, as she did in: them. In fact, many of the women could' not refrain from touching her clothes and handling her bead necklet enviously. It was quite easy to make friends with thq Indians. All that was necessary was to distribute cigarettes and matches to the men and candy to the women and children. One woman with a baby accidentally dropped into the sand a sugar sweet she was sucking. She picked it .up, and thrust it, all coated with sand, into her baby’s mouth, and then, a few moments later, when the phild had removed all the sand, restored it' to her own mouth 1 ’Altogether about 350 miles were covered in two days, quite a record for sueh rough' and primitive country. Fry™ Curacao Lady Dorothy has nowgone to Caracas again, prior to making her way Ciudad Bolivar, which will be her! headquarters while She is studying the Indians of the Orinoco;