HF The History of Photography 600pág

292 The collodion period
always brought difficulties, for the coolies, who had not at first realized what they
were undertaking, had a way of abandoning their burdens on the road and seeking
refuge in native huts. Bourne often had to search for them, and to force them under
threat of punishment to continue. A serious mishap occurred when two coolies carrying
a large case of (unused) glass plates slipped on a steep mountain path, badly injuring
themselves and letting the case roll down a thousand feet, for this accident
necessitated a month's journey to the nearest town where glass could be bought. The
result of this tour was 500 negatives.
Another expedition, in 1868, took Bourne to the higher Himalayas.23 Having this
time sixty coolies, his main problem was the supply of fresh food. At a village called
Mani at the foot of the Manirung Pass, the peasants used every possible argument to
dissuade Bourne from crossing the pass, and to go by an easier route. The reason for
their anxiety lay in the fact that Bourne insisted on hiring twenty extra men and buying
additional food, for the pass was long and difficult. The village elders pleaded
that they could spare neither men nor food, but Bourne remained unmoved, at last
obtaining the men and supplies: bags of flour, a drove of sheep and goats, a yak for
him to ride on, and three ponies for his servants. We can hardly imagine the extraordinary
sight of that army of eighty men ascending the J\1anirung Pass, driving in
front of them their live food supply. On the top of the pass, 18,600 ft up, Bourne
managed to obtain three views before clouds came up. Until I 880 that was the greatest
altitude at which photographs had been taken ;24 everybody suffered from headache,
and the coolies lay down groaning and wanting to be left to die. Finding that
persuasion was of no avail, Bourne had to use coercion to get his men on the march
agam.
The mountaineering part of this expedition was in itself a stupendous feat. Bourne
relates that they had to descend a mile-long slope, almost a precipice; the next day
they climbed 5 miles on a ledge so narrow that the intrepid explorer dared not look
down. What the coolies, encumbered with heavy baggage, felt, is left to one's
imagination. But the worst was still to come. Having pitched camp for two days and
nights I 4,000 ft up on a broad open glacier in snow and sleet and icy wind, Bourne
discovered to his consternation that only one day's food remained, for the headman
had disobediently bought only half the quantity ordered from the last village.
Reckoning that they were three days from the next settlement, Bourne sent two men
hurriedly in advance, while the main party continued at caravan speed. Eventually
the men returned with food, but only after the coolies had been two days without
any, and exhausted with hunger and cold, had become desperate. 'Had not relief
come when it did', Bourne remarked drily, 'I do not know what might have been
the consequence. They would probably have done for me, as the author of their
misery.' Towards the end of the journey, the man carrying the nitrate of silver bath
fell and broke it, and as Bourne lacked this chemical, the photographic activities
came to an abrupt end. There was no alternative but to push on by the quickest route
to the nearest civilized station, seven days' march distant. Sending a man ahead to
order replacement by telegraph, Bourne obtained the chemical four days after reaching
the town.
This description is necessarily shorn of many of the adventures with which Samuel
Bourne enlivened his narratives, but we may at least have succeeded in conveying an
impression of a truly unique achievement. 'I think photographic enthusiasm could
not go much farther than this,' remarked Bourne.