Confessions of Aleister Crowley

253 51 Expedition 1905, au Kangchenjunga. Accord. Le Dr. J. Jacot Guillarmod & ses trois amis fournissent une somme de quinze mille francs. Monsieur Aleister Crowley & un ami fourniront ŕ deux une somme de 5,000 franks (cinq mille). Pour cette derničre contribution, le Dr. J. Jacot Guillarmod s'engage ŕ fournir l'approvisionnement & le transport du moment du départ de Darjeeling jusqu'au retour ŕ Darjeeling. L'expédition sera enterprise dans les meilleures conditions possibles, vu la nature du pays ŕ traverser. Le but de l'expédition sera l'ascension du Kangchenjunga (28,150 feet). On essayera d'abord par le glacier de Yalung. On partira de Darjeeling dans la seconde moitié de juillet; on y reviendra en octobre au plus tard. Aleister Crowley partira pour Darjeeling aussitôt que possible, afin de faire tous les préparatifs & arrangements nécessaires. On respectera soigneusement les préjugés & les croyances indigčnes & on ne s'immiscera pas dans leurs maničres de vivre. On n'achčtera rien sans l'assentiment dy Dr. J. Jacot G. ou de A. Crowley. On s'engage ŕ n'avoir aucune relation directe ou indirecte avec les femmes, indigčnes ou étrangčres, qu'on peut éviter. Le Dr. J. Jacot G. est seul & supręme juge des questions d'hygične ou de santé de la caravane. Aleister Crowley est seul & supręme juge des questions se rapportant exclusivement ŕ l'alpinisme & aux montagnes. Les questions de route & du personnel des caravanes seront décidées par lui seul. Ses camarades se conformeront ŕ ses résolutions. Personne ne sera obligé de risquer sa vie, ŕ cause du froid, du manque de nourriture, d'ascension périlleuse, pouvant entraîner une chute. Toute discussion relative ŕ cet accord doit ętre soumise ŕ l'arbitrage; on ne peut invoquer de loi ou de jugement d'homme de loi. Les clauses de cet accord lient tous les membres de l'expédition par leur honneur. Aleister Crowley Dr. J. Jacot Guillarmod Ch. Reymond A. C. R. de Righi Alexis A. Pache {420} There was no time to spare, if we were to attack Kanchenjunga this summer. It was arranged that the doctor was to get together the necessary provisions and equipment at once in Europe, while I went direct to Darjeeling to make arrangements with the government about transport and such communications as the heliograph, by which means we intended to signal our progress to observers on Signal Hill, above the station, to collect some of our old Kashmir shikaris if possible, to learn a little Nepali, and perhaps to enlist the assistance of enterprising individuals on the spot. I left for London on May 6th and made such preparations with regard to my personal equipment as seemed desirable, and on May 12th left England for the East by the P & O S.S. Marmora. Eckenstein maintained constantly that the adventure was foolhardy; that, for his own part, he would never consent to go on a mountain again with Jacot Duillarmod; and that, in one way or another, his vanity, inexperience, fatuity and folly were certain to land us in disaster. I liked Tartarin so well, personally, that I unconsciously minimized his imbecility; and I was still much too young to realize how much mischief may be done indirectly be the mere presence of such a man, despite every precaution that prudence can suggest and all the supervision that caution can recommend. So I went into it --- and realize only of late how lucky I was to come out of it all! It was part of my policy with regard to physical training to make the whole journey by sea. I fed up and lounged about and told stories till the twenty-third, when I arrived in Cairo. The city is abandoned by tourists by this time of the year on account of some superstition about the climate; but to me Cairo at the end of May was more pleasant that I had ever known it. I joined the P & O on the thirty-first. It was certainly hot in the Red Sea, but I remember with intense pleasure of wonder