INTO THE DESERT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 10, 13 January 1933, Page 5

INTO THE DESERT

ME. SMITH'S DESCENT

THE VEILED TUAREGS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) .LONDON, 29th November. Mr. Victor C. Smith, the 19-year-old South African airman, -who has be'en flying from Cape Town to London and has arrived safely after several delays, • tells of his experiences in the Sahara desert. He spent five and a half days in the desert as a guest of the veiled Tuaregs. "I had been following the Niger on the west coast route of Africa," he said, '' and I left it to fly ■ to" Gao by tompass. Suddenly I found that - the feed connecting the main tank with the auxiliary tank had been leaking. Instead of having, as I thought, about twenty-five gallons of petrol, all I had was enough to keep me in the air for about tea minutes. I circled round to look for somewhere to land/and saw a pool of ttvater xbeneath iae.' I landed near quiie safely. ' . .. "I was" absolutely alone. The, heat was intense. For the rest of r the : day the only thing I could do was to' lie under the jvings of my aeroplane. I saw no onesat all until-'the next morning, when a-^nan who was nak«d save* for a few rags, and who looked more like a beast, peered cautiously at mo from a distance. He was about to run away, in horror, but I held up my hand and tried to make him understand that I was friehdly.; He approached very warily, and I giive him a note in the hope that he mould take it to some white people.' •; "The next daT —after a night of intense cold —he rt^urned witK seven or eight Tuaregs. I>uring this time the only food I had was two bars of chocolate, a few biscuits, some oranges,, and a few, acid, drops. X- make treks to"."the pool, of water, whioJi was about threequarters of a mile away from,, my. machine. The waterf\was terrible. The only way I could .ijlrink it was to squeeze orange juice piito it, and whea that had gone some Jfiuit salts "I had, and afterwards acid clrops, and ' thga hold my nose and gulp tit down. — "All through the irights, while I . tried to sleep, I heard, the roar'of . lions, and although they, never-•.canie up to me, in the.early Haorning I,saw the. spoors they had madW not more . than 200 yards away from where T slept. On the first night saw 'tw» lions prowling in the distaitee. ■■'. ATBAID OF THE HiOT. . .- "When the Tuaregs arr3» red I was greeted by three of the chiefsjyon horse^ back. They: wore flowing roftjes,- ■ and - .kept their faces veiled. ThW chiefs wore white veils, while the" ■raUbesmen, had veils of bine. The slayea," ; were . absolutely naked. The Tuaregtel jwera armed with spears, swords, -aid- car" bines. -...•." "However, the Tuaregs appeaned to be perfectly friendly, and offeiiad me some goats' milk in skins. PorV. the life of me, I could not drink-it,^, and when they were" not looking I had to throw it away. They seemed to\ be very anxious that I should sleep, and tried to get me by pantomime to lio down. I noticed that they were lighting fires, and I was afraid that.l migjbifc - have been popped into the pot if ;I went to. sleep, so I stayed awake. ■ "It was soon obvious to.me,.howeyer,i that they were only . trying' to. bft^ friendly, and later theyu gave.; me somO' goats' flesh. It was scarcely "cooked,, and I could not eat "it. ' * These tribesmen seemed to be of -» very low level of intelligence, and their chief, "Warra "Warra, seemed to be the biggest simpleton of .the lot. "Whenever/I spoke he nodded his.head unceasingly. Perhaps he wanted to b% helpful, but it became very irritating. '' The Tuaregs took, me to their encampment, which was two or threa miles away. Here they built me a hut, and then appointed one of their slaves to sleep at my feet to protect me from lions. Around the encampment theybuilt a wall of thorn bushes to keep the beasts away.. ■ '"'■ '' The chief, Warra Warra,. hung ' amulets round nly heck so that I, would know he wasjiy friend.' I ; bathed in the pool 'of: water, with., some of the Tuaregs, and they gave me rides on their camels. ' .:.■..;.. "At last I made them': understand that I wanted a message taken to the white people. It took two days to get to white civilisation by. runnerj although Dori was .only sixty miles iaway. Three days later. I nearly.went wild * with joy when I saw the.man"" Return with two native French soldiers.-They; brought me food—whit© man,'s food— and sixteen gallons of petrol." .. Z Mr. Smith failed by. only a few houri to beat the existing record of elevem days for the Cape-England flight.;- '--■ '