ship to take them to Jiddah--an old Greek vessel chartered by a
syndicate of Persians--would not start till its owners considered
that sufficient pilgrims had arrived. Abdul Wahid now became the
popular leader. At the head of a mob of passengers he seized the
Persians and carried them off to the Governor. Mounted on a pile of
sugar bags he delivered an impassioned address, concluding with "We
had better be dealing with Christians than Moslems, who cheat their
brethren in this fashion." "Murmurs of protest," says Mr. Wavell,
"deprecated this revolting comparison. We all thought he was going a
little too far." The Persians finally capitulated, and the ship got
under way. But there came one last _contretemps_. A party of
Megribi Arabs had passed the quarantine and were half-way out to the
ship when one of them died. The shore authorities refused to let
them land again and the Persians declined to take the corpse aboard.
The Arabs could not throw it into the sea because there were certain
ceremonial washings to be performed and certain prayers to be said.
An Egyptian lawyer on board gave it as his opinion that the man,
having taken his ticket, was entitled to his passage, dead or alive,
there being no saving clause in the contract. Finally the Megribis
got sick of arguing, swarmed over the bulwarks, and hoisted up their
departed comrade. Their fierce faces and long knives settled the
point of law.
At half-past four in the afternoon the syren blew to announce that
the pilgrims were within that latitude where they must exchange their
ordinary clothes for the Ihram--the garb which has to be worn by all
travellers who attain a certain distance from Mecca. The costume
consists of two white bath towels, one worn round the loins and the
other over the shoulders. The head is unprotected, but deaths from
sunstroke are singularly few. The costume is not becoming,
especially in the case of a fat man. "A party of elderly European
Turks close to us looked peculiarly ludicrous, their appearance
suggesting members of the Athenæum Club suddenly evicted from a
Turkish bath."
The party remained four days at Jiddah, visiting among other places
the tomb of Eve, who apparently was about a quarter of a mile in
height, so it was a tiring business to make the necessary
perambulation of her sepulchre. Owing to their behaviour at Yembu
they had acquired much kudos among the pilgrims and had no
difficulties during their stay. The only anxiety was about the
Mombasa Swahilis, and also about a certain Mombasa sheikh who knew
Mr. Wavell and was proposing to go to Mecca that year. As neither
sheikh nor Swahilis arrived, they decided to risk it and go on to
Mecca, after Mr. Wavell had left a letter for the sheikh requesting
him to hold his tongue. They found a Mutowif who was a local agent
of one of the principal Mecca guides, to whom he wrote recommending
them. They never intended to employ this guide, but the
recommendation gave them an excuse to refuse to employ others.
Having taken every precaution they could think of, they prepared for
the last stage of the journey. "Abdul Wahid made a vow that if he
returned safely he would present three dollars to the poor of Jiddah.
We told him we thought he was asking the Almighty to do it too
cheaply and that he had much better make it a sovereign. To our
disgust, when he did get back, he utterly declined to disgorge the
promised sum."
The journey from Jiddah to Mecca can be performed in a day, for it is
only some forty miles. The road is protected by a line of
blockhouses, every mile or so there is a restaurant or a booth for
refreshment, and all day long during the pilgrimage season there is a
continuous caravan. A strange silence broods over everything. There
is no shouting or singing or firing of guns, and the camels move over
the deep soft sand with scarcely a sound, for to the Moslem it is the
approach to the holy of holies. "To him it is a place hardly
belonging to this world, overshadowed like the Tabernacle of old by
the almost tangible presence of the deity. Five times daily
throughout his life has he turned his face towards this city, whose
mysteries he is now about to view with his own eyes. Moreover,
according to the common belief, pilgrimage brings certain
responsibilities and even perils along with its manifold blessings.
Good deeds in Mecca count many thousand times their value elsewhere,
but sin that is committed there will reap its reward in hell." Mr.
Wavell and his companions, decently but simply clad in their bath
towels, approached the city repeating the ceremonial prayers. To one
which began, "O Lord, Who hast brought me in safety to this place, do
Thou bring me safely out again," he said a fervid "Amen."
Mecca lies in a deep-cut hollow of the hills, and is not visible till
travellers are at its gates. Presently they found themselves in the
great square which contains the Kaaba, the black covering of which is
in startling contrast with the dazzling white marble of the pavement.
The Kaaba itself is a cube about forty feet square, built of granite
blocks, and let into the wall is a great black stone. This stone is
believed to have fallen from heaven, which it probably did, as it is
clearly a meteorite. Barefooted, the little party moved round it the
requisite seven times, chanting the proper prayers. Then a small
circular patch of hair was shaved from their heads, and the first
part of the ceremony was over.
Mecca was then under the semi-independent rule of Sherif Hussein,
and, on the whole, seemed to be well governed; but the problem of the
municipal authorities in looking after the vast crowd of pilgrims was
no easy one. As at Medina, every race on earth was represented
there. Mr. Wavell was most struck by the Javanese, who were present
in great numbers, for there was then a strong Islamic revival in the
Far East. The party found comfortable lodgings in a quiet street,
and, as at Medina, went much into society, owing to the wide
acquaintance of Abdul Wahid. Mecca is one of the few places
remaining where there is an open slave-market, and female slaves may
be bought for prices ranging from £20 to £100, though Georgians and
Circassians fetch more. Masaudi discovered an acquaintance in a boy
called Kepi from Mombasa, whose father had died on the pilgrimage,
and was now left destitute. Kepi was accordingly attached to the
party. Mr. Wavell heard the good news that the Mombasa sheikh, whose
coming he had been warned of, had now written saying that he would
not arrive that year.
[Illustration: View of Mecca. (_By permission of Messrs. Arch.
Constable & Co., Ltd._)]
The time passed pleasantly in sight-seeing and giving and receiving
hospitality. Mr. Wavell gave one dinner to no less than twelve
guests, which, since he had an excellent cook, was very successful.
There are few more curious incidents in the literature of travel than
this party given by a disguised Christian in the Moslem holy of
holies to a company which included Arabs from Bussorah and Mecca, two
Persian merchants, and a Turkish officer from the Bagdad Corps. Most
Western luxuries can be obtained in Mecca, including ice cream,
which, according to Mr. Wavell, is a frozen mixture of tinned milk,
dirty water, and cholera germs! Alcoholic liquor can also be got if
you know where to go for it.
The great festival was now approaching. A white linen band was
fastened round the black covering of the Kaaba, which remained there
till the great day, when the covering was changed. A new covering is
brought every year from Egypt, made of dull black silk and cotton,
embroidered with the name of God on every square foot. It is
prepared in Constantinople, and is said to cost £3,600. The main
ceremony of the festival is as follows: On a certain fixed day all
adults must leave the city before nightfall, and go to a village
called Mina, some five miles to the north. They pass the night
there, and go nine miles farther on the next morning to Mount Arafat,
where they remain till sunset. They then return, and sleep at
Nimrah, half-way between Arafat and Mina. The third day they must be
back at Mina in the morning, go through the ceremony of throwing
stones at the Three Devils, proceed to Mecca for other ceremonies,
and return to Mina for the night. The fourth day is spent at Mina,
and at noon on the fifth day they return to Mecca. The bath towels
of the Ihram are now relinquished, and the pilgrim dons the best new
clothes which he can afford. He is then entitled to the name of
Hadji, and thereafter through life can wear a special headgear, such
as a green turban.
The exodus from the city to Mina was a strange sight. The different
holy carpets were escorted by regiments and brass bands, that of
Egypt marching to the tune of the "Barren Rocks of Aden." Sherif
Hussein was there on horseback, accompanied by a crowd of spearmen
and a squadron of racing camels. The ride to Mina beggared
description. "The best idea of what it is like," Mr. Wavell wrote,
"will be gained by considering that at least half a million people
are traversing these nine miles of road between sunrise and ten
o'clock this day; that about half of them are mounted, and that many
of them possess baggage animals as well. The roar of this great
column is like a breaking sea, and the dust spreads for miles over
the surrounding country. When, passing through the second defile, we
came in sight of Arafat itself, the spectacle was stranger still.
The hill was literally black with people, and tents were springing up
around it, hundreds to the minute, in an ever-widening circle. As we
approached, the dull murmur caused by thousands of people shouting
the formula, 'Lebéka, lebéka, Allahooma lebéka,' which had long been
audible, became so loud that it dominated every other sound. In the
distance it sounded rather ominous, suggestive of some deep
disturbance of great power, like the rumble of an earthquake."
The hygienic conditions of the exodus were of course abominable.
Tanks and springs were soon fouled by people bathing in them, and the
condition of the hill-side was filthy beyond description. Often some
infectious disease like cholera decimates the pilgrims, but our
travellers were fortunate in escaping it. They went through all the
proper ceremonies, and stoned the Three Devils at Mina with gusto.
The Three Devils are three stone pillars, and, in a mob of many
thousands of bad shots, a good many pilgrims are bound to suffer.
They bought a sheep to sacrifice, like the others, and a mess of
offal and blood was soon added to the attractions of the countryside.
They then went back to Mecca, kissed the Black Stone, had another
square inch of hair shaved from their temples, and were free to put
off the bath towels. Now was the moment for the new clothes. Abdul
Wahid appeared in a bilious yellow garment brought from Damascus;
Masaudi in an obsolete regimental mess waistcoat; while Mr. Wavell
was chastely arrayed in white cloth robes, a black jubba, and a gold
sash with a dagger.
Thus attired they set out again for Mina for the last ceremonies. In
the night a thief got into their tent, and carried off Masaudi's new
turban, £5 in gold, and various oddments, including a couple of
pistols. In the morning they went to salute the Sherif, and when
they had returned and were sitting in their tent, passed through the
most dangerous moment of the adventure. The wall of the tent was
down, as is usual in the heat of the day, and they were squatting on
the carpet, when suddenly they heard an exclamation from Masaudi.
Looking round, they saw, standing within a few feet of them and
looking straight into the tent, three of the Mombasa Swahilis whom
they had met at Medina. It scarcely seemed possible that they could
miss seeing Masaudi, and if they did they would certainly come into
the tent to greet him, when Mr. Wavell was bound to be recognized.
The morning sun, however, was shining right in their eyes, so they
saw nothing, and passed on. As soon as they had turned their backs
Mr. Wavell and Masaudi ran out of the tent on the other side and
mingled with the crowd. They returned to Mecca, to be congratulated
by their friends on the successfully accomplished pilgrimage, and Mr.
Wavell was free to go into the world as Hadji Ali bin Mohammed.
It was now their business to get out of Mecca as soon as possible,
especially as money was running low. They paid the necessary
farewell visits, hired the transport, and started, intending to do
the journey in one day. They were, however, held up by a sentry on
the road, and had to spend a cold and comfortless night in the open,
and did not enter Jiddah till sunrise. At Jiddah they separated;
Masaudi went to Mombasa, Abdul Wahid to Persia, and Mr. Wavell to
Egypt.
In summing up the expedition, Mr. Wavell was disposed to attribute
his success not to any histrionic gifts of his own, but to the
ignorance of the inhabitants of the Holy Cities, and their lack of
interest in the outside world, even the Islamic world. "There are so
many different sects in Islam, and its adherents are found in so many
different countries, that I seriously believe that if some one
invented for himself a country and a language that did not exist at
all, and journeyed thus to Mecca, no one there would know enough
geography to find him out. Yet with all, they are quick enough in
their way, and if some Mutowif would take the trouble to write a book
on ethnography in its relation to the Islam of to-day, and classify
the different races that come to Mecca, such a deception as I
practised would become impossible." They did, as a matter of fact,
excite a certain suspicion, and their two servants, though they were
Persians and knew little Arabic, must have had their own views. The
great assets of the travellers were their knowledge of Arabic and
Moslem ceremonial, and the fact that Mr. Wavell took up his disguise
long before he approached the Hedjaz. He considered that Medina was
much the more dangerous place of the two, and that no traveller
should go there who was not thoroughly at home in his oriental
character.
Whatever may be said, the journey is one of extreme danger and
delicacy, and demands not only great knowledge, but perpetual
vigilance. It must be remembered that a European is all the time in
the midst of a fanatical and devout people, and that the highest
merit would be acquired by any one who might discover and denounce
the unbeliever. In spite of every precaution there must be an
enormous element of luck, and Mr. Wavell's conclusion is that his
escape was due rather to a series of happy chances than to his own
good management.
VIII
THE EXPLORATION OF NEW GUINEA
THE EXPLORATION OF NEW GUINEA
(_Map_, p. 248.)
Almost every part of the globe has suffered some change in the past
century. It may have altered its appearance by settlement and
cultivation and the growth of cities; or, if it still remains a
wilderness, there are routes of commerce through it which bring it to
the knowledge of the world. But the great island of New Guinea is
almost as little changed to-day by the advent of white adventurers as
when, in the year 1527, Jorge de Meneses, the Portuguese Governor of
the Spice Islands, first landed on its swampy shores. In 1545,
eighteen years later, it received the name by which it is known
to-day. The Portuguese Empire decayed, and during the seventeenth
century the Dutch appeared. In the eighteenth century many famous
voyagers, like Dampier, Carteret, and Captain Cook, touched the
island, and in the last century the rapid opening up of the world by
travellers and missionaries bore fruit even in those remote seas.
The Dutch held the western end; in 1884 Germany laid claim to the
north-eastern part; and that same year the south-eastern section,
which had been formally taken over in 1883 by Queensland, was annexed
to the British Crown. In 1899 the Dutch boundary was delimited, and
Holland, with the assent of the Powers, assumed direct control of her
share. The one change to-day in these arrangements is that the
former German section is now administered under mandate by the
Commonwealth of Australia.
The first decade of this century saw great exploring activity on the
part of all three European masters. The Dutch especially did
excellent work, and Dr. Lorentz was the first man to reach the snows
of the inland mountains. But few of the secrets of the
island--geographical, zoological, and botanical--have yet been
unriddled. The place is so remote from Europe, its climate is so
deadly, its inhabitants so treacherous, and its forests and swamps so
impenetrable, that exploration there is in many ways a more desperate
undertaking than anywhere else on the globe.
I have selected two expeditions as an example of what the pioneer
must undergo. In 1910 the Ornithologists' Union sent out an
expedition to investigate the New Guinea fauna and collect specimens.
Captain Cecil Rawling, whose thirst for the unknown was unquenchable,
accompanied it on the geographical side, and Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston
as medical officer. There was no proper survey equipment, as the
mission was primarily one of naturalists. Ten Gurkhas were enlisted
from India, and the Dutch Government supplied a certain number of
Javanese troops. Coolies also were recruited in Java, who turned out
to be hopelessly unsuitable both in physique and character for any
serious travel in the wilds. The majority were about sixteen years
of age, and they appeared in the jungle decently dressed in black
frock coats and bowler hats!
The part selected was the southern coast of the Dutch territory, and
it was Captain Rawling's hope that they would be able to penetrate to
that belt of snow mountains, at the head of the coastal rivers,
running from the Nassau Range in the west to Wilhelmina Peak in the
east, where Dr. Lorentz had been the pioneer. Obviously it was vital
to find a river which would take them direct to the hills. But they
had no previous information to go upon, and were compelled to select
their stream at random. Had they gone farther east, and chosen the
Utakwa, they would have found a current navigable for an ocean-going
steamer for seventeen miles from its mouth, and for launches for many
miles more--a river, moreover, running directly from the highest
snows of Mount Carstensz. As it was, they hit upon a river called
the Mimika, a small jungle-fed stream rising in the low foothills
sixty miles to the west of Carstensz, and twenty miles or so short of
the main range. The Mimika, too, was full of endless windings and
liable to sudden and violent floodings. Hence it was of little use
to the expedition in the way of transport. This was the more
regrettable since transport was the essence of the problem. From the
foothills of the mountains to the sea lies a belt of forest like a
barbed-wire entanglement. This forest is so dense that the cutting
of a road can only progress at the rate of 100 yards a day. It is
swampy, and often, in flood-time, under water, and filled with every
form of noxious insect life. Unless this nightmare land can be
circumvented by the use of a broad river channel, it must take even a
strong party many months before they reach the base of the hills.
This was what happened to Captain Rawling. On January 26, 1910,
after a base camp had been established at Wakatimi, not far from the
Mimika mouth, he set off to ascend the river. Here is his
description of the country:--
"It is quite impossible for any one who has not visited these parts
of New Guinea to realize the density of the forest growth. The
vegetation, through which only the scantiest glimpses of the sky can
be obtained, appears to form, as it were, two great horizontal
strata. The first comprises the giant trees, whose topmost boughs
are 150 feet or more above the ground; the other, the bushes, shrubs,
and trees of lesser growth, which never attain a greater height than
30 to 40 feet. Such is the richness of the soil that not one square
foot remains untenanted, and the never-ending struggle to reach
upwards towards the longed-for light goes on silently and
relentlessly. Creepers and parasites in endless variety cling to
every stem, slowly but surely throttling their hosts. From tree to
tree their tentacles stretch out, seizing on to the first projecting
branch and limb, and forming such a close and tangled mass that the
dead and dying giants of the forest are prevented from falling to the
ground....
"The various devices recommended in the books of one's childhood,
and, it may be added, in learned books as well, whereby the traveller
is enabled to recover a lost trail or regain the right direction, are
here of no avail. For instance, moss does not grow more on one side
of a tree-trunk than on the other; trees do not lean away from the
prevailing wind; nor is the position of the sun a guide, for it is
seldom visible. In fact, the traveller has nothing to rely upon but
the compass or a local guide, and even the latter is often at fault.
Hopeless indeed does the outlook appear when the wanderer, hedged in
by a wall of scrub and creeper which limits his vision to a distance
of ten or twelve yards, realizes that he has lost his bearings; when
the vastness of the forest seems to press upon him, and there is no
sound to be heard but the drip, drip of the water-laden trees and the
bubbling of the stinking bog underfoot. His only chance of escape is
to find a stream, and follow it down till it joins a main river."
The first big episode was the discovery of the Pygmies who lived in
the foothills, and were assiduously hunted by the forest tribes. The
average height of these little men was 4 feet 7 inches, and Captain
Rawling penetrated to their village in a clearing above the head
waters of the Mimika. The Mimika source was reached, but led them
nowhere, and they fared no better with another small stream to the
west, called the Kapare. Then by accident a secret native path was
discovered running eastward--a mere tunnel in the matted forest. By
this route they were able to reach a parallel river, called the
Tuaba, which was a tributary of the larger Kamura. From a village
called Ibo as a centre, the expedition made various casts east and
north, but found it impossible to get near the skirts of the hills.
Captain Rawling returned to the coast and made excursions along the
eastern shore, but found no adjacent river mouth which promised
better. By this time it was June, and the floods began with such
vigour that practically the whole country between the mountains and
the sea was under water. When the floods ebbed, a resolute attempt
was made to push east from Ibo, and with a good deal of trouble
another parallel stream was reached, called the Wataikwa. The party
founded a camp there, and explored the upper waters of that stream.
Travelling was extremely difficult, because the only decent road was
the river bed, and this route was promptly made impossible by a new
spate. The travellers had to face the fact that the farther they
went eastward the greater became the labour of carrying supplies, for
their base camp remained on the Mimika.
Still, an effort must be made unless the expedition was to admit
failure. It was decided that the best plan was to try and cut a road
through the forest to the next stream on the east, in the hope that
it would lead them into the hills. This was done, and the Iwaka
River was reached after much severe toil. They had entered a
desperate country, strewn with moss-covered boulders and seamed with
gullies covered with an impenetrable mass of timber. The density of
this growth was unbelievable; through it no man could force a way
unless with an axe in hand, and as most of the trees were of very
hard wood--the stems varying from four to eight inches in
diameter--and clothed from top to bottom with damp earth covered with
moss, progress at times became impossible. An idea of the labour
involved in the task of clearing a two-foot path through this forest
may be judged by the fact that a stretch of five thousand yards
required three weeks' constant work before a man could pass freely
along. On one day two cutters achieved a length of two hundred and
ten yards, and on another, when Captain Rawling was working by
himself, all he could add was a piece of ninety yards in length. No
wonder he asks, "Can this forest, with its horrible monotony and
impregnability, be equalled by any other in the world?"
[Illustration: The Exploration of New Guinea]
Down came the rain again, and in August the country was all under
water. The advance was not renewed till the beginning of 1911, when
fresh supplies had arrived from England, and the old motor-boat had
been put in repair. So far, a year's hard labour had not taken the
explorers within measurable distance of their goal. With the help of
a launch, food supplies for eight weeks were stored at the head of
the Mimika. One story may be quoted as a piece of comic relief in a
very grim campaign. On 4th January two men quarrelled in camp and
killed each other.