Caravan route

“ The fact that a party of ten or twelve men with a caravan of sixty or seventy mules makes this journey from Tali in Yunnan, viâ Kiang Hung and Kiang Tung, to Zimmé, is a sufficient indication of the safety of the route. A caravan of sixty mules will ordinarily carry merchandise to the value of 12,000 to 15,000 dollars, occasionally a larger amount. ”

“ The number of camels or mules in a single caravan varies from forty or so up to six hundred and more; sometimes, as on the reopening of a long-closed route, it reaches a thousand. The ordinary caravan seasons are the months of spring, early summer and later autumn. Friday, in accordance with a recommendation made in the Koran itself, is the favourite day for setting out, the most auspicious hour being that immediately following noonday prayer. The first day’s march never does more than just clear the starting-point. Subsequently each day’s route is divided into two stages,—from 3 or 4 a.m. ”

“ Can see nothing but the sandy billows on every side, and am entirely at a loss which way to go. At last, after half an hour’s blind wandering, stumble by accident on the road by the lakeside, and see the caravan in the distance. ”

“ They rose on every side of the road, completely shutting out the view, and their pale livid yellowness, scarcely relieved with a glimpse of greenness, was wearisome and lonely in the extreme. As we advanced among them, the road we were pursuing grew worse and worse, till it became so choked and covered with drifted sand as to be hardly recognizable, and I need hardly say that it was hard work for one horse to pull the caravan along; more than once, indeed, the wheels fairly stuck, and Tim and I had to pull with might and main to get them free. ”

“ They are never thoroughly tamed; the drivers take care to tie them one to another, with strong ropes, fifty in a string, led by an ass, on which the driver rides. I have seen three hundred in one caravan. They carry the third part more than any horse; but 'tis a particular art to load them, because of the bunch on their backs. ”

“ Oh! the rumbling caravan—
The women under cover,
While the men before them scan,
For Indians or water,
For the’re mounds along the trail,
It’s thousand miles of stretches,
Of man, and child and mother,
Fair flowers and hardened wretches;
Where the sandstorms blow and blow,
And obliterate all traces.
Moving twenty miles a day,
With mules and horses straining
Through the deep and parching sand, [Pg 13]
The wagon wheels a-squeaking,
With the hot sun beating down
On whitened bones a bleaching. ”

“ In one of our rambles through the New Forest—driven we were in a dogcart over the green sward, through the ferns and through the furze, over glades and natural lawns, into tree caves, and round and about the gigantic monarchs of the woods—we were taken by our guide to see the king and queen oaks, a morsel of the bark of each of which now lies in the caravan. ”

“ Now let us see how far the rules of health may be carried out in a caravan like the Wanderer.
First comes early rising. You get up almost with the lark—you are bound to, for there is a deal to be done in a caravan; what with getting breakfast, having the carriage tidied and dusted, the beds stowed away on the roof, dishes washed, stove cleaned, carpets shaken, and pantry swept and washed, eight o’clock comes before you know where you are. ”

“ Only the creaking, slowly moving, patient carts and the clumsy, straining oxen or little ponies, going on by themselves without the flick of a whip or the whisper of a master’s voice. And, coming close up to the wagons, I would hear snoring. The whole caravan would be sleeping and snoring in the shelter of the tarpaulin tilts, and yet going ever slowly on, slowly on, through the blaze of the Asian noon-day, over the desert, toward the happy valleys of the East. ”

“ In the morning when we see the first loads actually on the horses we ride off at the head of the caravan followed by a straggling line of mules and horses picking their way over the jagged stones of the road. It is delightful in the early morning for the air is fresh and brisk like that of October at home, but later in the day when the sun is higher it is uncomfortably hot, and we are glad to find a bit of shade where we can rest until the caravan arrives. ”

“ We started about noon, but lost our way, and when we inquired at a farm were wrongly directed, so we did not get to Dinsmore till 2.30. Just as we were entering the town we got on to a rough trail with a lot of big clods. A front wheel struck one of these and badly bent the steering-rod, which made it very difficult to steer the van, as it kept veering towards the left of the trail all the time. When we reached the vicarage we found the vicar had gone, but I knew that he had a service at Surbiton on Sunday afternoons and so asked the way there. The caravan got more and more difficult to steer. ”

“ Half a dozen small trout, each about the size of a small herring, reward my enterprise. When I have captured them, the moon is high up above the sand-hills, and it is quite dark.
“Such is the chronicle of the past day. By the light of my lamp inside the caravan I have written it down. It has been all very tranquil and uneventful, but very delightful, and a day to be marked with a white stone in one respect—that from dawn to sunset I have not set eyes on a human being, except my servant. ”

“ They are also generally hillier, and so narrow that once a caravan is in one on it has to go whatever happens, trusting to luck not to meet anything else on wheels till it reaches, after many anxieties, the haven of another highroad. This lane ran deep between towering hedges and did not leave off again for five miles,{173} and none of you would believe how long it took us to do those five miles because none of you know—how should you?—what the getting of caravans up hills by means of tracing is. ”

“ At one point his attention was arrested by the tearful voices of women and the weeping of little children: a company of travellers with pack-horses—one of the caravans across the desert of the Western woods—was moving off to return by the Wilderness Road to the old abandoned homes in Virginia and North Carolina. Farther on, his passage was blocked by a joyous crowd that had gathered about another caravan newly arrived—not one traveller having perished on the way. ”

“ We could easily, on foot, outstrip the caravan under all its impediments of march. Every where I found the mountains of like appearance as exhibited to the traveller on the common road, with the only difference that views even more dreary and terrific occasionally caught the eye: it having been matter of course to work and conduct the road along the least rugged vallies. ”

“ An excited colloquy, angry on the one side, and apologetic on the other, ensued, and did not cease, even when the driver, with a flick of his whip, put the caravan again in motion, while the other strode alongside on foot.
It was just such a caravan as may be seen any summer day forming part of the camp on an English common, with the swart face of a gipsy woman looking out at the door, and half a dozen ragged imps and elves rolling on the grass beneath ”

“ The caravan limbered up and stepped out down an avenue thirty feet wide, cut from the forest to provide for the winter sleigh traffic. The stumps were still in situ; rocks and boulders were scattered about everywhere between the grim forest-walls. An unmeddled-with undergrowth lay breast-high all down the clearing. A tiny winding ribband of track gave us just space in which to set our feet as we marched; and even this led into quagmires and morasses, which we were forced to wade through or circumnavigate. ”

“ The salt is all tied up in small bales or bundles, the outward wrapper being matting or platting of strips of the leaves of the doom-palm, called by the people kabba. Our caravan resembles the march of a wandering tribe, there being camels, sheep, oxen, asses, dogs, with all the paraphernalia of tents, cooking utensils, &c. Some of the animals are laden, some unladen, playing, running, and skipping about. Then come the human animals, men, women, and children of every age. Our own caravan is mostly composed of the household and slaves of En-Noor, with two or three strangers. ”

“ The very rods on which ran the crimson silken hangings of the skylight windows were wrenched out and added to the pile.
It struck me at first, and the same thought occurred to the goods manager, that burglars had been at work and sacked the Wanderer.
But no, for nothing was missing.
Moral to all whom it concerns: Never put your caravan on a railway track. ”

“ Then follow the pack animals, each one bearing three packs—one on each side, and one on top—so nicely adjusted as not to slip in traveling. These are in charge of certain men called camp-keepers, who have each three of these to look after. The trappers and hunters have two horses, or mules, one to ride, and one to pack their traps. If there are women and children in the train, all are mounted. Where the country is safe, the caravan moves in single file, often stretching out for half or three-quarters of a mile. ”

“ The rear is brought up by the master or the masters of the caravan, who often remains far behind for the convenience of walking and to prevent desertion.
All the caravan is habited in its worst attire, the East African derides those who wear upon a journey the cloth which should be reserved for display at home. If rain fall they will doff the single goat-skin hung round their sooty limbs, and, folding it up, place it between the shoulder and the load. When grain is served out for some days’ march, each porter bears his posho or rations fastened like a large “bussel” to the small of his back. ”

“ The project of caravanning on the prairie in the interests of religious education appealed to me very strongly, and as Aylmer Bosanquet soon afterwards came home to England to recuperate, we were able to discuss the matter together. Her idea was to have a horse caravan which should be moved on from place to place by the farmers. But as I have lived all my life in an agricultural district, I knew the difficulties consequent on wanting the use of farm horses in seed-time and harvest—the very seasons when the trails are open—and I also knew that horses could never cover the necessary distances. ”

“ The Caravan scene at night is often very impressive. The dull red fires flickering and forming a circle of ruddy light in the depths of the black forest, flaming against the tall trunks, and defining the foliage of the nearer trees, illuminate lurid groups of savage men, in every variety of shape and posture. ”

“ But really, without a cycle, one would sometimes feel lost in caravan travelling. The Wanderer is so large that she cannot turn on narrow roads, so that on approaching a village, where I wish to stay all night, I find it judicious to stop her about a quarter of a mile out and tool on, mounted on the Marlborough, to find out convenient quarters. Then a signal brings the Wanderer on.
Another advantage of having a tender is this. In narrow lanes your valet rides on ahead, and if there really be no room for a trap to pass us, he warns any carriage that may chance to be coming our way. ”

“ It was easier for them to get through the sand-drifts than for us because their cars were so much lighter, although a good deal of the caravan was made of a kind of stout beaver-boarding to save weight, but this was counteracted by our camping equipment, etc.
Our helpers pulled us out with great difficulty, and we continued on our way through Moose Jaw. Towards evening we sighted Buffalo Lake church and steered for it, expecting that the vicarage would be near by. But before we reached it, in trying to negotiate a mud hole, we stuck fast once more. ”

“ It was a white caravan that looked down from the crest of the mountains upon the green wilderness, called by the Indians, Kain-tuck-ee. The wagons, a score or so in number, were covered with arched canvas, bleached by the rains, and, as they stood there, side by side, they looked like a snowdrift against the emerald expanse of forest and foliage. ”

“ In consequence of several calculations much too long to be reported here, I consider the day’s journey of the medium caravan to be eighteen geographical miles and four tenths, the hour being between two miles and two miles and one tenth. I shall not here take the light caravans into account; these travel longer, and the progress of each hour is at the same time greater; but I think it may in many cases be estimated at twenty-two miles, or ten hours of two miles and two tenths. Persons travelling in small parties, without reckoning men mounted on horses or dromedaries, move still quicker. ”

“ A caravan, both exteriorly and interiorly, is capable of an infinite amount of ornamentation. But I do not think a gentleman gipsy’s carriage ought to, in any way, resemble that of a travelling showman, although it certainly should not be like a Salvationist’s “barrow.”
The entrance door may be at the side, or behind, as in the Wanderer.
The windows should be large and neat, and prettily curtained or upholstered. A caravannist is constantly being gazed at, and people will assuredly judge of your interior fittings by the taste and appearance displayed outside. ”

“ No gipsy caravan of to-day would so much as suggest that bizarre and irresponsible company of men, women, and children, clad in motley rags, some in carts, some trudging on foot, some mounted on asses or horses rivaling Rosinante in bony ugliness, the men armed with lance, cutlass and rifle, a cask of wine strapped to the back of one, a lamb in the arms of another. ”