ADVENTURES IN PERU.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES IN PERU.

'ENGLISHWOMAN'S EXPERIENCES.

The remarkable story of the'adventures of an English family'in the interior of Peru was related, recently.by Mrs. Evelyn Ankers, who is temporarily resident at Twickenham.' ...Mr. ... Sydney Raymond Ankers, the lady's ;. husband, is an engineer, who was engaged to' take a motor-launch' to' a Spanish rubber magnate, the launch 'being intended for use in the conveyance of rubber -on the Amazon. Mr. Ankers decided to take with him hie wife and his little boy Derrick.

When the motor-launch l* j d be.m put together and the Indians h 'd been drilled in the handling of it, the Spaniard, fearing that the natives would be unable to execute any necessary repairs, desired Mr. Ankers to stay, and when the Englishman decided not to stay, steps were taken to prevent him leaving.

Mr. Ankers managed to secure a canoe, and with ,1 crew of friendly Indians started with his wife and child upon a journey to the coaet. On the fourth day, whilst they were camping, the canoe was swept away, all the food, with the exception of a box of biscuits, going with the canoe. - •

One vain and fatal attempt to Teseue the craft was made by an'lndian; who dived into the water and was swept away by the strong current and drowned.

The river, was in flood, and as the waters rose Mr. and Mi*. Ankers and their three and a-half years old son had to climb a tree, •on which they remained perched for three days and nights,' subsisting on the tin of "biscuits. One canoe was sighted, but beyond hail, and a second, which came within hail, wag found to be. manned by the Spaniard's own men. They, however, were unaware of their master's desire to prevent Mr. Anker's escape, and they carried the family through the twelve days' journey separating them from Astailero, where mules and guides ■ were obtainable for the crossing of the Andes.

One of the Spaniard's. agents at Astallero made a vain attempt to prevent Mr. Ankers continuing his journey, and the party made nine leagues of their mountain trail on the first day. At night they sheltered in a mountain hut, which in the morning they found had been surrounded by two dozen armed Indians sent forward by the Spaniard's Astallero agent. Faced by this band of armed men, Mr. Ankers bowed to the inevitable fate of return to Madre de Dios, whflst Mrs. Ankers, then in a very weak state of health, decided to travel on to the nearest British Consul, a journey of at least eleven days, never before accomplished by any white woman, and one which but few men have made without guides.

After a sad parting between husband and wife, Mrs. Ankers and her ' boy mounted a mule and faced the terrors of a mountain journey and the wild, beasts infesting the route. .

The first day passed without incident, but on the second a fallen tree barring the narrow route, flanked on each side by a precipitous drop threatening certain death as the penalty of any slip, proved an obstacle which cost several hours of desperate effort to overcome. As they approached running water the mule, with the aversion of his kind for crossing a stream in darkness, became restive, and Mrs. Ankers dismounted to hunt for crossing stones. Then the mule bolted across the stream, and Mrs. Ankers and her child were left to spend a night of horror, soaked by rain and maddened by the bites of insects, Mrs. Ankers having to stuff torn strips of her handkerchief in her nose and ears ' to protect herself against the insects. Ultimately the stream was crossed by the stepping-stones which daylight had disclosed, and for once Mrs. Ankers's'luck was in. She found her wayward mule, and on his back reached the second shelter at La Pampa, where, couched upon filthy sheepskin beds, she and her child slept the clock round twice. More good fortune lay ahead, for in a mining district, a party of American mine managers feted and comforted mother and child, who here were happily reunited to Mr. Ankers, who, pursued by Indians, had covered a four (lays' journey in two days, and so overtaken his wife. The next halt, was at Tirapata, whence once a week there runs a train.

Here a final effort, abandoned when the Spaniard at last.realised.that he had no grounds to act upon, was made-to prevent Mr-. Ankers'? free movement. From that point the family, pursued their journey, unhindered and unnamed."