Across Africa by Motor Cape to Cairo. By Stella Court
Treat t, F.R.C.S. Wills a Fore- word by the Earl of Clarendon. (Harrnp. 21s.) "Iv is a matter of taste," says Lord Clarendon, "whether you would prefer to have your car held up by a policeman or a rhinoceros, whether it is pleasanter to be delayed by streams of traffic in Piccadilly or by the Zambesi in flood." - The present reviewer would choose the policeman, but he would like other people to be impeded by the rhinoceros — if they could turn the adventure to such readable account as Mrs. Treatt has done in this racy record of the first journey by motor-car from the Cape to Cairo. The expedition followed the " all-British " route and lasted sixteen months', Mrs. Treatt was the only woman of the expedition, which was led by her husband, and acted as cook, doctor, seamstress and diarist to the party. "Thrills," says Mrs. Treatt, except in crossing the split-cane bridges, which jumped up and down "like a spring mattress," were comparatively few, though the Red Din kas near the Bahr el Arab proved " a nasty crowd" of people. Not only did they hinder progress by refusing at first to reveal the solitary path which Major Treatt knew to exist through a tract of country marked " uninhabited—unsurveyed," but they were treacherous in the extreme. For the first time Mrs. Treatt felt the fear of a horrible death as she lay in bed, while in close proximity two hundred savages, smeared with ash, "moved like distorted shadows between their scores of little glowing fires, brandishing their spears and axes above their heads." For the most part, however, the, foes encountered were mud (such muct!);-insects; tracless forests, and bridgeless rivers and swamps. There was, too, occasional - shortage of food, and, during its penultimate stage the expedition lost its way in the desert and came near to disaster . through lack of water. Abnormal weather conditions had, moreover, to be faced. Normally, for example, the 1,200 miles from Bulawayo to the borders of the Tanganyika- Territory should,: with the exception of the' Gwaai Desert,- have been traversed com- paratively easily. But the rains came on earlier and more heavily than the natives had ever known them to do, and caused--the motorists-- immense anxiety- awl- taidglitp;"-
took them four months to cover 380 miles, and they almost decided to abandon the adventure. .
Mrs. Treatt describes scenery and peoples with a sprightly
pen, but she has written more than a travel book. This is a diary in the best sense of being an intimate reflection of the Writer's personality. For. alt her modesty, Mrs. Treat-Cs fOrtitude shines out radiantly ; and it is the more attractive for being shot through with Streak of true femininity. 4 is clear that the five men Of her party's* all" boys" needing a 'Mother's care. But sometimes She is lonely :— " I should not feel like this, -I.suppose have the others ; but somehow I need a woinan friend to-day: It is trying to be coif- tinually with men, even if they ate dears. - I have never realised this before, but now I wish my sister were here."
And again :— _
" I like my shorts, and would not. change them for a skirt. I arn trying to forget that I am a woman; it isn't always easy, but I am sure it is the only way to get through. But how I would love a big bath and silky clothes to wear, just this once."
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