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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 8 June 1902
It had been decided (very reluctantly on my part) that Eckenstein [Oscar Eckenstein] should stay behind at Paiyu to arrange a flour-dak. Special men were selected for this job who would be willing to go two marches a day and thus effect a saving of time in both senses. Eckenstein and I agreed that the advance party - we had arranged to march in three shifts—must be led either by him or by me, as we could trust no one else in the matter of mountain work; we had already seen too much. Another year’s work would perhaps have fitted Knowles [Guy Knowles] to undertake the difficult task of leading; but as it was he had never been on big mountains before, or even the Alps on anything but minor expeditions, and it was out of the question. Also we thought he did not speak Hindustani sufficiently well to remain in charge of the dak at Paiyu. Now though Eckenstein and I were both confident enough to lead an advance party, I cannot pretend to rival his magnificent talent of organization; and though I was going on this journey more for his sake than my own I felt compelled to assent to his self-sacrificing proposal to remain himself in the anxious and tedious work of supplying the expedition with food until we reached our main camp. The other puzzle was what to do with Wesseley [Victor Wessely]; but we put him with Pfannl [Heinrich Pfannl] and trusted to luck. We had had several times to complain of his striking natives merely because they did not understand his broken English; further, they did not accord him the respect which the rest of us had won; and we were seriously afraid that very little trouble of this sort on the glacier might lead to a general revolt of the coolies in the party with which he travelled.
It would have been better to have put him with Knowles; but the latter absolutely refused to go under these conditions, for which I do not feel myself able to blame him. On the 8th, after finishing with Abdulla Khan, the final preparations were made for my advance party.
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