The "Ayesha," being the adventures of the landing squad of the "Emden"Mücke, Hellmuth von
History
The "Ayesha," being the adventures of the landing squad of the "Emden"
Mücke, Hellmuth von
Ayesha (Schooner); Choising (Steamship)
The enemy fired upon us without intermission. But, as we were pretty
well protected, we returned their fire sparingly. That we were not
engaged in an ordinary encounter with robbers, but were facing a
thoroughly organized attack, now became doubly evident. From our
fortified camp we could plainly see two large zambuks lying at anchor
near the shore in the far distance. Between them and the Arabs who
were besieging us, a regular relief system was being carried on. A
large number of our foes must have come in these two ships. Others
had arrived by land, which was shown by the fact that far off in the
desert, near the horizon, a large number of camels could be seen
grazing. On this day, unhappily, two more of our men were severely
wounded. Of these, Lanig, a fireman, was shot through the breast and
abdomen, and died during the night. Unfortunately, we could give our
wounded but little aid, as all our medical stores were lost together
with the zambuk that foundered. All that we had left was the emergency
bandage packages that we had brought with us from the _Emden_, and a
few bottles of brandy.
The day brought forth nothing of special interest. A camel that had
escaped from our enclosure was shot by a stray bullet to leeward of
us, and the intense odor of decay that the wind brought with it was
a source of annoyance. Within our camp itself, some very unpleasant
guests had made their appearance. Hundreds and thousands of nasty
black beetles about the length of a man's thumb ran about everywhere,
carrying the camel dung all over the camp. Our trenches were alive
with these insects, and it mattered little how many we killed, for
new ones came to fill their places as fast as we killed them. Sleep
was impossible. They crawled into our clothing, and ran over our
faces. Aside from the annoyance they caused us, they brought a very
real danger to our wounded. The tetanus bacilli develop more readily
in horse and camel manure than in anything else, and the inevitable
result of this infection is the deadly lockjaw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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