Adventures on the high mountains

Front matter

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Preface

It is a curious fact that until two or three generations ago men did not see beauty in mountain scenery. To them the mountains were always forbidding, full of terror, awful, never alluring or fascinating. Towering peaks, rugged glaciers, lofty precipices, dark ravines, stupendous crags were things to shudder at and avoid.

It is sometimes said that the mountains have lost their terrors, and certainly men seek them in our day from pure love of them, undeterred by the dangers and difficulties which must still be encountered by those who would scale their heights, or penetrate into their recesses. The exploits of Alpine climbers are wonderful for the enthusiasm and the daring which they display ; and the achievements of others who have braved the same perils in pursuit of science or commerce show a not less adventurous spirit. Of ventures on the high mountains, therefore, the records of travel are full, and the avalanche, the steep and slippery ice-slope, the storm, the exposure to extreme cold, to fatigue, to hunger, to attacks from wild beasts or still wilder men — these and a hundred other forms of danger

vii

PREFACE

will still attract, and not deter, those in whose hearts the spirit of adventure stirs.

The compiler desires to offer his grateful thanks to the various authors and publishers who have kindly permitted him to quote from their works. Full acknowledgment is made in each case at the end of the chapter concerned.

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. NAPOLEON ON THE GREAT ST. BERNARD - 13

II. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OF ABYSSINIA - - 26

Chapter I

NAPOLEON ON THE GREAT ST. BERNARD

Napoleon prepares to invade Italy — Four Alpine passes — Main body of forty thousand men to take the Pass of St. Bernard — Stores and ammunition sent on in vast quantities — A start from St. Pierre — Napoleon himself remains at Martigny — Heavy toil up to St. Bernard Hospice — Dangerous work for the artillery — Guns encased in split fir-trees — Refreshments at the hospice — A hundred peasants to each gun — Peasants, exhausted, run away — Mules give out — Soldiers harness themselves to their guns — A night with the ordnance on the open snow field — The fort of Bard in the valley below — A formidable obstacle — Unsuccessful assaults — Messengers sent back to Bonaparte — He hastens over the mountains to Bard — Precipitous track over Albaredo mountain, above the fort, repaired and improved — Commander of Bard refuses to surrender — Guns on the heights above — An escalade attempted — Gunners uselessly sacrificed — Light-balls used by the Austrians in the fort — A straw-covered road — Success — March down the valley — Outlet from the Alps defended by Austrians — The Chiusella stream — Austrians dislodged — A stupendous enterprise ends with full and marvellous success.

Amongst the many recorded adventures on great mountains, few excel in thrilling interest those connected with military exploits, whether those exploits be glorious and

FOUR ALPINE PASSES

successful, like those of Hannibal in ancient, and those of Wolfe in more modern times ; or whether they be such as the melancholy and disastrous retreat from Cabul, in those terrible early days of the year 1842. And perhaps no story of them all is more marvellous than that of Napoleon's passage of the Alps, when he led an army across the highest mountains in our quarter of the globe — a stupendous enterprise, perhaps unrivalled in the history of the world.

It was in the May of 1800 that Bonaparte prepared to lead his troops across this almost impassable barrier into the plains of Italy, where, near Turin, lay encamped his enemies, the Austrians. As every one knows, the vast range of the Alps lies between France and Italy, with its towering peaks, its ice and snow, its frightful passes, its rocks and precipices, its avalanches, its thousand and one dangers. The notion of leading a great body of men, with all their stores, their food, their ammunition, their horses — with the necessary guns, tents, pontoons, and other implements, across the tremendous Alpine barrier could enter the brain of none save a madman — or a genius.

There were four passes available for the army, and of these that of St. Gothard was reserved for troops coming from Germany under General Moncey. There remained three — the passes of the Simplon, the Great St. Bernard, and Mont Cenis. None of these had roads over them, as in our days. Napoleon chose for the main body of his army the middle route — that over the Great St. Bernard Pass, because the Simplon entailed a much longer march, and that by Mont Cenis would have led the troops right into

OPERATIONS ON THE MOUNTAINS

the jaws of the Austrian force before Turin. So through this central pass was to travel a force numbering thirty-five thousand infantry and artillery, and five thousand cavalry, or forty thousand men in all. Smaller divisions of four or five thousand were sent to occupy the other passes, with orders to rejoin the main army in the plains of Lombardy. If all went well, there would in the course of a week or two be massed in Italy an army of no less than sixty-five thousand men, while Napoleon would hold all the passes of the Alps, so that, in case of defeat, he would have several lines of retreat open to him.

Leaving untold the story of his earlier marches from Lausanne to Villeneuve, at the head of the Lake of Geneva, and thence to Martigny and St. Pierre, we may pass on at once to the operations on the mountains themselves. "At St. Pierre the troops began to ascend by paths, covered with snow and bordered by precipices, scarcely more than two or three feet wide, exposed in noonday heat to the fall of frightful avalanches.'' 1 In all there were fully thirty miles of mountain to be traversed, by passes with nothing like a road, ascending to heights of many thousand feet. Over all this everything had to be carried that was necessary for a numerous army and a campaign on a vast scale.

The preliminary work was in itself enormous. Immense stores of food for man and beast had to be sent on in advance ; all the mules the country could supply had to be brought up ; workmen in great gangs had to be engaged. Further, guns had to be dismounted and sent on separately on sledges with low wheels, the carriages themselves being taken to pieces and placed on the backs

NAPOLEON AT MARTIGNY

of mules. Ammunition had to be packed in boxes for conveyance in the same manner, and so with various other stores, A veritable army of workmen carried out all this work on the northern side of the Alps, while a similar body of craftsmen pushed on over the mountains to be ready to put the guns together and to do similar work when the worst of the defiles should have been passed. Napoleon neglected nothing; even saddlers' shops were fitted up at intervals, so that any repairs needed could be done at once on the march.

The great General himself remained at Martigny to see to the dispatch of the stores and the separate army divisions, while General Lannes went on with a strong advance-guard to receive the rest as they arrived. The start was made on the 15th of May soon after one in the morning, in order that good progress might be made before the heat of the sun should bring down avalanches of ice and snow upon the troops toiling through those wild and dangerous gorges. The men were in the highest spirits, though they were heavily laden, having to carry their supply of biscuit for several days, as well as a stock of cartridges. Up the toilsome ascents they climbed cheerfully, and with many a burst of song; they threaded the wild ravines, they stepped cautiously but confidently along the narrow ledges, they risked the falls of snow or rocks. It was heavy work for the infantry, but for the cavalry it was a far more serious affair. On an upward slope progress was fairly safe, if slow, but on the descents the injn^had to go in front and lead their horses. So narro^Rspften were the ledges on which they walked, that if one of the animals slipped, there was great danger of his dragging

Napoleon's Army crossing the Alps

AT THE ST. BERNARD HOSPICE

his master with him, down to the frightful depths beneath. A few poor fellows perished in this way, but on the whole no great number of such accidents occurred.

The first stage of the journey, up to the St. Bernard Hospice, was completed in eight hours from the start. There, by previous arrangement with the monks, the soldiers experienced a pleasant surprise, provided for them by the care and forethought of their Commander-in-Chief. Tables had been spread in readiness, with huge supplies of food and drink. Every man halted for a few minutes, and received a ration of bread, cheese, and wine. Lannes and his men then passed on in the best of humours down the descent to St. Remy. There they encamped, to receive the other divisions of the army as they came along. So far everything had gone splendidly.

In similar fashion, each day saw the passing over of an army division up to the hospice, every man receiving from the monks his dole of bread, cheese, and wine, and down to St. Remy. Of course, several days were spent on this work, Bonaparte superintending the start from Martigny ; and those who had successfully made the passage to St. Remy were not idle. Every day vast quantities of materiel were brought to the spot, and much unpacking, much putting together, much rearranging had to be done. The artillery gave by far the most trouble, and involved most risk to the men. The gun-carriages, indeed, as has been said before, were got over the pass without so much difficulty, though the number of mules available fell far short of what was required ; but in the case of the guns themselves the trouble was great. They had, in the first instance, been mounted on low-wheeled sledges ; but it

CARRIAGE OF THE GUNS

was soon found that there were many parts of the route where the sledges could not be used.

Then some one hit upon another plan. The trunk of a fir-tree was split along its length, and the two halves hollowed out ; between these the gun was tightly bound. In this way it was possible to draw the pieces along the ravines without injury. So long as they were ascending, the men in charge of the cannon got on well enough ; but each descent was attended with great risk. The pieces could be kept on the track only by sheer strength of arm. The danger of having the gun fall over the precipice, and drag with it men and beasts, was often very great. To make matters worse, both mules and muleteers became exhausted after a few days of this heavy and dangerous work. It was now necessary to try other means. The peasantry of the district were offered a thousand francs for every gun they safely conveyed over the pass, and hundreds of men lent their help on these terms. Every gun required a hundred men to drag it along, and two days to get it to its destination — one day in making the ascent to the hospice, the other in getting down to St. Remy. No farther proof of the arduous and hazardous nature of the task is needed than this, that the peasants at length struck work and disappeared, though still larger offers of pay were made by the French Generals. Officers went in search of the runaways, I but in vain ; no gain would tempt the country-folk to resume their task.

It requires no great effort of imagination to picture the U scene. Men and beasts exhausted, no more to be had ; heavy guns left stranded at all points of the route, often amidst wastes of ice and snow. Yet without these guns it

A LAMENTABLE CONDITION

was impossible for the army to venture down into the plains below, for there lay the enemy in all his strength. There was but one way out of the difficulty — to beg the soldiers themselves to drag along the fallen cannon. Few leaders could have called forth from his men such signal devotion ; but the leader of the Frenchmen was Napoleon Bonaparte. With such a General and such men nothing was impossible. Harnessing themselves to the guns, in gangs of a hundred, the soldiers dragged along their heavy loads to the sound of inspiriting music, especially in the more difficult places. As an additional incentive, the money the peasants had refused to earn was promised to the soldiers ; but they would have none of it, saying that it was the duty of the troops to save their guns. With what worship must the First Consul have been regarded by his army ! It is said that certain of the soldiers, finding themselves high up on the mountain when night came on, chose to endure all the rigours of those ice-bound elevations rather than desert their guns, even till morning. There is a branch of the Po, called the Dora Baltea, which rises high among the Alps, and along its course the French troops passed presently on their way down to the Italian plains. Much of the valley of the Dora Baltea is but a cleft in the mountains, bounded on either hand by towering heights, most of them quite inaccessible. In one part of the valley a huge rock has at some time fallen from the mountain above, almost blocking up the passage. The river runs on one side of this rock and the road on the other. For a short distance the road is lined with houses, forming the town of Bard. The little place was dominated by a fort, occupied by the Austrians, and, though not strong

THE LEADER UNDAUNTED

in itself, it was splendidly situated for defensive operations. To pass this fort on their way down into Piedmont was soon seen by the French to be almost an impossibility. In truth, several of the Generals pronounced the passage to be quite impracticable. Here, then, was an unlooked-for check : the French army had, with untold labour and risk, passed over the lofty and savage mountains only to be stopped by an insignificant fort like this ! It seemed all too ridiculous at first sight ; but the more the problem was confronted, the more insoluble did it appear. In vain Lannes, never a man to be easily daunted, sent his companies of grenadiers into the town ; the fort swept the street with its fire. Other Generals were sent for, but all agreed that the place was impregnable. At last it was necessary to dispatch messengers to the Commander himself, who had not yet crossed the pass.

The news that the farther progress of his army was impossible, and that it was absolutely necessary to bring back all his men and munitions over that tremendous j range, was at first staggering to Bonaparte. But he had not brought his army over one of the highest ranges in the World to be stopped by a little hill fortress.

" They will take the fort by a bold dash,'" he ordered ; " or if it is not taken, they will turn it.' 1

He further directed that if the artillery could not be I got over, the troops should scale the heights above the \ Rock of Bard, and proceed without the guns. The French, ( he said, were both sufficiently brave and sufficiently numerous to fall upon the Austrian artillery and supply , themselves with guns. There spoke a military leader of' the first rank.

THOUGHTFULNESS OF NAPOLEON

Bonaparte studied his maps assiduously, and messengers were sent flying about the country to the Generals in command of the different divisions of his army. But he did more : presently he was crossing the Alps himself. The prevalent notion that he careered across the Alpine snows on a fiery white charger has no warrant — in fact, the Consul rode a mule. On the way he entered freely into conversation with his humble mule-driver, drawing from the man the story of his life. It is strange that the famous military leader should have had room in his thoughts for such matters at a time when he must have been full of anxiety lest this expedition — one of the greatest the world had ever seen — should come to utter failure. It is worth recording, to the credit of a man in whose character there was only too much that was blameworthy, that he provided for the poor mule-driver, giving him a little farm, and thus enabling him to marry the girl of his choice and settle down in the world. Nor did Bonaparte forget to thank the monks of St. Bernard for their attention to his army : he left with them a magnificent present. Then, descending the slopes to the south, he followed the fashion of the mountaineers, and let himself slide over the snow.

In due time he was before the troublesome fort of Bard, and he at once admitted that all he had been told by his Generals was correct : that Bard was an obstacle hardly to be passed. His mind was soon made up. First, he sent over the precipices leading to the mountain of Albaredo, which overshadows the valley, his infantry, cavalry, and four-pounders. To enable this to be done, it was, of course, necessary to make some sort of a road. An army

UNSUCCESSFUL ASSAULTS

of fifteen hundred labourers was soon at work cutting the road, removing obstacles, and bridging torrents. The commander of the fort was much chagrined when he saw the French passing up and out of his reach, while he could do nothing whatever to stop them, and he sent word to his superior that the enemy would to a certainty get down into the plains of Piedmont. He added, however, that he would wager his head they would arrive there without a single gun.

Meantime Napoleon himself, down below in the valley, set to work to take the fort, if it might be, or, if not, to pass it somehow. He began by summoning the commander of it to capitulate. But the Austrian officer was far too sensible of the importance and advantage of his position, and replied that he would yield to nothing but superior force. A few of the artillery, who had scrambled up to the heights above, opened fire upon the fort, but without effect. Then Napoleon ordered an escalade of the outer works of the fort, the only result of which was the loss of a valuable officer and several brave grenadiers. The next move of the French was to attempt to carry past the place a piece of cannon under cover of the night, but the noise attracted the attention of the Austrians within. They threw up light-balls, which lit up the whole locality ; then, directing their guns upon the adventurous Frenchmen, they killed or wounded no fewer than seven out of the thirteen soldiers in charge of the cannon. This sort of thing was enough to daunt even the most valiant, and another plan was tried.

" The street was covered with straw and stable dung, and bands of tow were placed round the gun in such

TRIUMPH OF THE FRENCH

a manner as to prevent the least clash of the mass of metal upon the carriage. The horses were detached, and bold artillerymen dragged them by main strength, venturing to pass under the batteries of the fort along the street of Bard. The plan perfectly succeeded. The enemy, who occasionally fired by way of precaution, struck some of the gunners ; but in no long time, in spite of the fire, the heavy artillery was moved to the other side of the defile, and this formidable difficulty, which had caused the First Consul more anxiety than the passage of St. Bernard itself, was thus overcome. The artillery horses had been taken round by the Albaredo path."

Down the valley of the Dora Baltea, with its great rocky sides, the French now marched triumphant. The chief obstacle had been surmounted. And all this while the other sections of the army had been traversing the Alps, each by the pass assigned to it. A vast body of troops was ready to pour down upon the plains of Italy, there to concentrate against the Austrian forces. Lannes, with the advance-guard, now determined to leave the mountains and show himself openly in the plains below. But before this could be done it was necessary that he should dislodge the Austrian General in charge of the outlet from the Alps. This officer, Haddick, had with him a considerable force of infantry and cavalry, and he was well posted near the bridge over the Chiusella, a tributary of the Dora Baltea.

The bridge was strongly defended, and the French found it impossible to take it by assault. Nothing daunted, however, the troops dashed into the river itself, and began to scramble up the opposite bank. Here they

FIGHT AT THE CHIUSELLA BRIDGE

were met by the Austrian cavalry, under General Palfy. A hard fight took place, but when Palfy fell dead from his horse, his troops immediately fled. All the while other Austrian troops kept up a deadly fire against Lannes and his men. General Haddick presently came to the attack with spirit, and for a time the issue was doubtful. Yet the French infantry sustained the onset of the enemy's cavalry with splendid firmness, and held their ground.

A final effort was made by the Austrians. A thousand of their cavalry dashed with tremendous fury against the French foot. Thrice they charged, and as often the shock was sustained and the assault repulsed at the point of the bayonet. The Austrian Commander, after gallant but ineffectual efforts, was now compelled to give the order to retreat, and the French army, after unexampled difficulties and dangers amidst the wild, snow-bound fastnesses of the Alps, was now free to pour forth from the mountain valleys into the rich fields of Piedmont.

Thirteen days only had passed since the first troops had set their faces towards the Alpine slopes at St. Pierre. Now the stupendous enterprise planned by the First Consul had been carried out with extraordinary success. " An army of forty thousand men — infantry, cavalry, and artillery — had passed by unbeaten paths over the highest mountains in Europe, dragging its artillery by main strength along the snow, or pushing it forward under the murderous fire of a fort, almost close to the muzzles of its guns. One division of five thousand men had descended the Little St. Bernard ; another of four thousand had passed over Mont Cenis; a detachment occupied the Simplon; and lastly, a corps of fifteen thousand men,

A STUPENDOUS UNDERTAKING

under General Moncey, was on the summit of the St. Gothard. There were thus sixty thousand soldiers and more about to enter Italy ; still, it is true, separated from each other by considerable distances, but assured of soon rallying round the principal mass of forty thousand, who had come by Ivrea, in the centre of the semicircle of the Alps."

And, it must not be forgotten, Bonaparte was in possession of all the mountain tracks that led back to his own country, and was thus prepared for retreat should disaster befall his troops. The extraordinary expedition across the stupendous Alpine barrier had been no mere whim of a proud conqueror, but the outcome of a well -reasoned plan, conceived and carried out by a master of the military art.

Chapter II Among The Mountains Of Abyssinia

James Bruce, one of the most noted of British travellers — He reaches Abyssinia — Departs for the interior — Reaches the mountains — A great storm — Wonderful rise of a river — Traces of elephants seen in plenty — Inhabitants of the district live in cages of hide — A troublesome growth of acacias— Tameness of the antelopes — Mount Taranta and its difficulties — Getting the instruments up the heights — Sleep in caves — Dixan, a mountain stronghold — Slave-trading rife — Bruce joins a party of Moor^ and becomes the leader of a caravan — An Abyssinian chief, and his methods of horse-dealing — Dangers of the Shangalla country — The ( ' steeples " of the Adowa Mountains — A wicked town — ■ Natives cut steaks out of a live cow — A frightful mountain track — Bruce reaches Gondar — The royal family down with the small-pox — A saint vainly tries magic — Bruce forced to undertake the sick cases — His lucky success — Installed as Court physician — On most intimate terms with the King — Starts for the source of the Nile — Is admitted to brotherhood with the wild Gallas — Given a steed — " No man will touch you who sees that horse "— Arrives at the mountains and village of Geesh — Sees one of the springs of the Nile — His triumphant reflections.

Few British travellers have been more enterprising and more active than the famous Scotch explorer, James Bruce. His journeyings covered an immense extent and variety of country, and many of his adventures and strange experiences were so extraordinary that not a few of his contemporaries were inclined to doubt his veracity. But

BRUCE'S JOURNEY TO ABYSSINIA

there seems to be no reason for distrusting the general accuracy of Bruce's stories. He travelled over most of Europe, a part of Asia, and a good deal of Africa, — in Egypt, in Algeria, in Nubia, in Abyssinia — playing many parts.

When Bruce first set foot in Abyssinia, now more than a hundred and thirty years ago, exceedingly little was known of the interior of that far-off land. But it was among its mountains that the mysterious and historic Nile was believed to have its rise, and one of the things to which Bruce looked forward with almost feverish interest was the possibility of penetrating to the long-hidden source of that mighty river.

The traveller had been detained by a chief nearer the coast, but at length he was suffered to depart for the interior. For a short time his route lay over plains, but when he reached the neighbourhood of the mountains he found his way full of difficulties. The ground was rough, steep, and stony, and he was obliged to march along the bed of a mountain torrent. Then, striking off from the stream, he made for a grassy hill, and there pitched his tent for the night. His early experiences among the Abyssinian mountains were sufficiently exciting. A violent storm suddenly came on. The thunder and lightning were terrific, the lightning very vivid and blue in tint, and the thunder-peals tremendous. Up to the beginning of the storm the bed of the torrent had been almost dry, but in an incredibly short space of time it presented a very different aspect. Bruce's own description is worth quoting :

" The river scarcely ran at our passing it. All on a sudden, however, we heard a noise on the mountains above

TRACES OF ELEPHANTS

louder than the loudest thunder. Our guides upon this flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top of the green hill, which was no sooner done than we saw the river coming down in a stream about the height of a man, and the breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. The water was thickly tinged with red earth, and swelled a little above its banks, but did not reach our station on the hill."

Soon the traveller came upon plentiful evidences of the existence of elephants in the district. Along the tracks by which the animals had marched, many trees were broken in the middle, or thrown down, while in places the ground was strewn with the branches they had snapped off and partly eaten. But none of the elephants were actually met with thereabouts. The people of the locality dwelt for the most part in mountain caverns and hollows, though some of them lived in what might be called cages — constructions made of wood and skins, and built to accommodate two persons. The tribes, strange to say, were coppercoloured rather than black or white. The travelling after this district was left behind became still more difficult, and even painful, for presently the explorer and his men had to push their way through thick groves of acacias, and the prickly branches of the trees tore the flesh and clothing in a cruel manner.

A wild and desolate hill region followed, and the travellers were glad to make a short stay at a station called Tubbo, where the surroundings were much more agreeable. Then on again, the mountains once more very steep, much broken, and full of crags and precipices of a dangerous character. But the ravines were lovely with

MOUNT TARANTA

abundant foliage and splendid flowers, and delightful with the song of birds. The amount of bird-life, in truth, Bruce found astonishing. He specially noted that the song of the skylark, among these Abyssinian fastnesses, was exactly the same as in England. Game was plentiful, especially antelopes and partridges. The antelopes were evidently quite unused to the presence of man, for they exhibited not the least fear on the approach of Bruce and his following, merely standing aside to let them pass, and gazing at them in wonder.