Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1910 — African Hunting,Travel Warfare [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

African Hunting,Travel Warfare

I

, NEVER, never leave I anything in reach I of a hungry hyena, I hot oven saddle or I harness must be I left at the mercy of I the hungry brutes. I I have seen but two | specimens of hyaena, the spotted

■nd the brown. Th« one I got by Betting a trap gun. The trap is easily set Tie the bait oyer the muzzle of the rifle. Use in preference a piece of offal, for instance a bit of highly odoriferous goatskin. Suspend or fasten the rifle horizontally at such a height from the ground, that the hyaena can conveniently grab the bait. Attention must be paid to expose the bait in such a way, that the hyaena cannot seize it from the side, but has to approach the front of the muzzle. Place the trigger at full cock and tie it by a bit of string to the tree or bush behind It; now pull the muzzle forward, and, if the trap is In good working order, the trigger will at once respond and strike. If the trap works satisfactorily, the rifle may now be loaded ■nd left in situ. Any prowling hyaena is sure to be attracted and to Immolate itself; the bullet is almost certain to blow its brains out. In a wilderness the only precaution necessary is to warn every one of the caravan, and to see that the gun points away from the camp. Hyaenas seem to be attacked by the same sort of tick which is a parasite of rhinos At Sakwa’s village in Kavlrondo a donkey was so badly mauled by a hyaena that it died. Most travellers take some goats or sheep along with their caravan in the event of failing to shoot game or to buy meat from the natives. The animals should be carefully penned up at night and surrounded with a strong protecting thorn-fence, called “boma" by the Swahllies. On my second journey, we had bought some sheep and goats at Kikuyu, in anticipation of continuing our march next morning. The animals were placed for the night in the customary penfold, outside of the fort. Next morning we found that hyaenas had carried off two of the sheep, badly lacerated a third which we had to kill on the spot, and wounded a fourth. One such lesson serves a lifetime, not to trust to any enclosure offering a single weak point to a possible nocturnal visit from these marauders. Hostilities Begin In the latter part of 1895 a large caravan of Wakikuyu and Swahilles was returning from the Ravine to Fort Smith; it reached the Kedong valley and came across some Masai kraals. How the subsequent bloodshed arose Is not exactly known, as only a few survivors managed to escape. According to one story, the Swahilles behaved aggressively toward the Masai and, relying on their superior numbers, tried to levy blackmail. The Masai resented it, and in a moment a fierce carnage was going on. Over 400 of, the unfortunate Wakikuyu and Swahilles were slaughtered; for the lust of blood once roused, innocent and guilty were indiscriminately butchered. The news of the disaster was brought to Fort' smith, and was immediately followed by smother tragedy; for a trader, Mr. Dick, was on his way up-country. A French scientific mission also was on its way to Uganda; arriving at the Fort, two of their num|ber, military men, volunteered to recall Dick. They found him,-but instead of persuading him to return with them to the security of the Fort, he persuaded them to accompany him across the Kedong. What were the motives which prompted the trader, no one will ever know. According to some, he wanted to pay out the Masai for the horrible and wholesale butchery they had just perpetrated; according to others, he thought it a good pretext for capturing their valuable herds. He did seize a lot of cattle, for several hundred head were brought in by the Frenchmen to the Fort. Death of Mr. Dick I ... r I met these gentlemen a few weeks later in Uganda and, as I knew Dick personally, gathered from them some particulars of the flgMm They told me that Dick fought most fearlessly and bravely and, being an excellent shot, dropped one Masai after another. He went to pick up the shield and spear of a Masai he had just slain, when the enemy made a desperate rush, and at a critical moment Dick’s rifle jammed. He turned round to his men to get another, when a Masai rushed forward and speared him through the back, killing him on the spot. The Frenchmen killed Dick’s assailant, but fighting against overwhelming odds, they were compelled to retreat to the Fort In a couple of days they returned to the scene of the fight In order to bury Dick. They found the body stripped naked, and buried it on the Kedong escarpment They erected a, plain wooden cross over the grave, Which I saw still standing when I journeyed thdt way. The inscription simply states that the cross was erected by his comrades In arms to the memory of the deceased, slain by the Masai. One of these two French-* men has died since; he suffered from fever on his way down the Congo; broken in health he reached Paris, and died. I have met Wanderobo men near ftalvasha, but the first Anderobo woman 1 saw at the Ravine; she was dressed tn monkey skins. The Wanderobo pre a race of elephant-hunters. Those J saw resembled the Masai In dress and ornaments. The Eldoma mountain range is inhabited by a race called the Kahnasia. Where caravans used to cross form•rJr, the ravine has steep sides, and deep down at the bottom there is »

By Dr. W. J. Ansorge, M. A., LL. D., M. R. C. S., L. R. C. P.

mountain stream which, when swollen by the heavy rains, may become a fierce torrent but in the dry season is only ankle-deep. Formerly caravans lost a day In crossing the ravine. By the present caravan route, a few hundred yards higher up the river, caravans can pass without any difficulty whatever. The former ravine crossing is, however, worth a visit. Pretty ferns, amongst them the maiden hair, grow here In wild profusion. Mr. James Martin, the officer in charge of the Ravine station. Is a veteran traveler, having done a score of journeys, though not always right up to Kampala. He was the first of the bachelor officials who got married, and his example has been followed by others from storekeeper to commissioner. Since English Mission ladles by their presence demonstrated that Uganda suited European ladles, there has been quite a matrimonial epidemic. \ A Memorable Bath From the Ravine the traveler next passes on to the cold and wind-swept Mau escarpment, over 9,000 feet above sea-level. Sometimes it is very cold here. I have seen hoar-frost on the ground and a thin coating of ice on the edge of shallow springs. On my fourth journey it was so cold during the night, that my boy in the early morning found to his astonishment, the water in the pail frozen into a solid lump. He had seen sleet, but never anything like this. When he came to tell me that my matutinal tub was not ready, I was only too glad of

a legitimate excuse to snuggle down in the warm blankets for a little longer; so I told him to put the pail near, but not too near the fire, and to call me again when the bath was ready. Leaving bleak Mau, the traveler descends to the Nandi country only opened to traffic since the last few years. Formerly the inhabitants were fierce and treacherous. A confirmation of this was the sad tragedy which befell Mr. West, an Kpglish trader, at the hands of the WKnandi. br. West des to His Death The last time I saw Mr. West alive was at Mumia’s. He was then on the point of going to the Nandi country to buy ivory in exchange for cows. I asked him whether he was not afraid to venture with such a small number of men, barely 20 porters, among a race not yet brought under subjection and reported to be hostile. He replied that it might be dangerous for any other white man to try, but not for him, as he had already once visited the country, and although it was only at a frontier village, that he had made blood-brotherhood with a chief. The porters whom he selected were picked men, some of the best of the porters, with whom I had only a short while previously arrived from the coast. Little did I • reckon, when we shook hands and said good-bye, that it was the last I should see of him, and that he was another about to meet with a violent death. The next news we heard was brought by a few survivors of his caravan, covered with ghastly wounds which I had to treat. According to them, West was received with apparent friendship by his so-called bloodbrother. He then sent off some of his men to the surrounding villages to purchase various tusks of ivory said to be for sale. West felt so secure, that he tied up all his rifles inside his tent. Without any provocation on his part, and simply prompted by lust of blood and plunder, the treacherous natives one night fell upon him and

his caravan and massacred all but a very few. Poor West! He was down with Illness at the time, and they thrust their spears through the tent and speared him where he lay on his bed. The black woman who had been West's faithful and InteUigent helpmate for many a long year was speared by his side. The savages carried off everything, but the naked bodies of the slaughtered were left to be devoured by hyaenas. A curious sequel to this story I heard many months afterwards. It was on my return journey to the coast I was asked, by one of the officials I met to take along with me to the coast a man who professed to have belonged to the late Mr. West’s caravan and who said he had only now succeeded in making his escape from the hands of the Wanandi. Return of Poor Bom-bom When I saw the man, I at once recognized him as “Bom-bom,” one of my Wanamwezl porters who had accompanied West’s 111-starred caravan. The man, of course, knew me too/and was delighted to see me again. Heaccompanied me to the coast, and, as he was in rags, for the sake of auld-lang-syne I rigged him out in a 'new cotton cloth. He related to me some curious experiences. West had sent him and two others to a certain village to fetch a tusk of ivory. Arrived at the village, one of the three remained in the hut assigned to them by the natives, whilst the other two were told to accompany two old men to the

river. There the two natives looked for an insignificant dry twig, washed hither and thither by the current. This tyrig was a buoy, and by pulling at it they drew two magnificent tusks of ivory, each over five feet in length, out of the river. Bom-bom and his, companion were asked to carry the tusks to the village. Encumbered with the heavy load of ivory, they were suddenly set upon by young Wanandi warriors in full war-paint ot red earth and grease, who deprived them at once of their rifles and then threatened them with death. Bom-bom tells me that if it had not been for the two old men interceding with the young warriors, he and his Swahili companion would have been massacred on the spot; But one of the old men claimed him as a slave, and the other claimed the Swahili. They now returned to the village. Here a pool of blood was pointed out as the spot where the third man they had left at the village was killed during their absence. Near it there .were a few other drops of blood, said to be from a chicken their companion was just killing for dinner, when the treacherous murderers stabbed him to death from behind. Bom-bom thought he had a chance of escaping,- when no one was watching; but the young warriors were on the look-out, and Bombom fled back to the old man’s hut, where the murderers were kept with difficulty from following and spearing him. Bom-bom Regains His Freedom Bom-bom and the Swahili now resigned themselves to their condition of slavery. They lived separated, as their owners did not belong to the same household. The old man who owned the Swahili decided one day to sell him, and for this purpose took him to another village; but such n wretched sum was offered for the slave, that no sale was effected. The Swahili was a very merry fellow who submitted to bls slavery with the greatest equanimity. The old man’s

daughter happened to be a widow with some children, and the Swahili slave so gained her affections that she married him. He was now regarded no longer as a slave, but as an honoured son-in-law. Bom-bom was not as lucky as his companion. He was of a different temperament, and submitted with a bad grace to his captivity and slavery. Nor did he take at all kindly to being sent to cultivate the field In company with women. Nor did any native lady fall in love with him and desire him for a husband. In desperation he determined to escape, and his master apparently helped him off; but pot knowing the way out of the country, he nearly died of hunger, <md, after wandering for days, he was compelled to return to the village. Here he was at once seized by the natives and tied hand and foot preparatory to being butchered. His Swahili friend arrived opportunely on the scene, and told the Wanandi that he knew an infallible charm for preventing a recaptured slave from ever succeeding in escaping. He professed to be willing to divulge the secret on solemn promise that Bom-bom’s life should be spared in order to test the efficacy of the charm. The natives are very superstitious and equally curious to hear about something supernatural. The promise was therefore readily given. Bom-bom was set free, and a cupful of water was poured over his feet by the Swahili who declared this to be the magic charm. Of course it was only a trick; for if Bom-bom made a successful escape, he would obviously be

out of danger, charm or no charm, and the Swahili was meditating to effect his own escape shortly. In his heart, the Swahili yearned for freedom, and his wife determined to help him and to accompany him, leaving her children in the meantime in the care of the old grandfather. Owing to her knowledge of the country, this devoted wife got the Swahili safely out of it. Both lived afterwards for a while in a Kavlrondo village, and then the wife decided to return to her father’s village to fetch her children to the new home and probably to bring her old father as well. Bom-bom finding that the Swahili had managed to escape, decided to make another effort. He succeeded; and this is how he came to accompany me to the coast. Expedition Prepares to Attack The massacre by the Wakitosh, followed by the disaster which overtook Mr. West in Nandi, had also rendered the natives of Kabras hostile. A message reached us at Mumia’s that the natives, having found out that white men were mortal (Mr. West was speared and killed in a treacherous night attack) had determined to prevent in future any white man from passing through their ‘ country. It shows what curious notions some of these savages had hitherto held with regard to white men. The whole district now became insecure, and the Europeans up-country were threatened with being cut off from all communication with the coast. This sufficiently explains the absolute necessity of the punitive expedition, unless the government were prepared to abandon all the Europeans up-coun-try and to surrender the country to the tender mercies of the blood-thirsty savages. When the expedition approached the first hostile village, we saw numbers of armed natives waiting outside their gates as if to give us battle; but as we drew nearer, they retired within their walls and barricaded the gates.

The enemy had a few men armed with muzzle-loaders. When the fight began, one of our Waganda friendlies near me had his arm' shattered by a bullet. I amputated it there and then on the open field. But when the bullets continued whizzing and singing unpleasantly near me, I removed the wounded behind the shelter of a whiteant hillock and there attended to them. Then I was called in a hurty to see a Swahili shot down a little distance off; on examining him, I found he was dead. A bullet had struck him full in the chest, and must have passed tnrough the heart. Burning of the Fortified Village The reason why the Kavlrondo have several entrances to their village, appears to be to enable them to escape by one if overpowered at any of the others. This happened in the present case. Several natives burst out from a gate the existence of which was unsuspected. They escaped, though, of course, there was an Immediate rush by our men towards the spot Strict orders had been given to spare women and children; a few of the women and children, however, perished. This might happen, and probably does happen, at the siege and capture of every fortified place. There were a great many wounded, and I had a busy time of it. The village was plundered and burnt. There was very little for our savage alies to lout—a few shields and spears and some Kavlrondo drums, harps and stools. A Masai on the warpath is a horrid object. He is naked, except that at

his waist he wears a broad leather scabbard. Very often he has also a knobkerry, usually of some hard wood, but I have one in my possession carved out of a rhino horn. In his left hand he carries a large oval shield, and in his right hand a spear. To one or both of his ankles he ties a peculiar ornament made of feathers, and on bis head he wears a similar arrangement of black ostrich feathers fastened to a leather band which passes round the forehead and occiput. The Masai sword has a straight leather-covered hilt The blade is narrow, but gradually gets broader towards the end, where it suddenly terminates in a point The weapon answers its purpose of slashing rather than of piercing an enemy. The shields are made of bullock-hide and are ornamented with various patterns in white, red and black. The spear is very handsome, though somewhat peculiar. The long double edged blade is rather narrow, and, tapers to a. point. To poise this unwieldy mass of metal, the wooden shaft is almost entirely covered about the middle, where the hand grasps the spear. Horrible Cruelty of Masai Two of these fierce warriors had darted in pursuit of two naked urchins who, turning round and finding themselves hard pressed, stopped running and held out entreating hands to their pursuers. The Masai were jerking their spears horizontally with the peculiar thrusting movement used in striking a victim. Friends and foes stopped fighting to watch this sudden side-act, as Trojans and Greeks may have paused to watch Achillesi pursuing Hector round the walls of Troy. One of the Masai did not strike his captive, but, passing shield and spear to one hand, he the little boy with the other, hcfflrod him on to his shoulder, and darted back to our ranks amidst the loud laughter of our savage allies. But the other villain poised Jiis spear and struck the poor trembling child full in the chest. As the

boy fell backwards fn the grass, the Masai gave one more lunge with his spear and then darted back to where our friendlies stood; and the battl* instantly raged with greater fury than before. It al! happened within a few seconds, and so quickly that I had no time to put a bullet through the murderer, though an Intense desire to do so now possessed me. I had already noticed some barbarities perpetrated on dead bodies at the first village we captured, for the human wolves which accompany every army had cut off a hand here and there, in order more quickly to possess themselves of the coveted iron bracelets. It was barefaced murder, this slaying of the little urchin In the sight of friend and foe. Of course it was impossible to discover afterwards the villain among the many thousands who flocked like vultures to th. 6 slaughter. In the relentless pursuit ta the enemy these savage allies rendered considerable assistance to the > government Among the slain in the stronghold were found the principal hostile leaders; and the enemy thereafter no longer made a stand. As we advanced, they evacuated their villages and fled before us. Looted Native Village. I had rather a curious experience on my flrat journey. I was asked to accompany a fleet of about 20 ot these boats from Sio Bay (in Kavlrondo) to Luba’s (in Usoga); my companion was to join me later on. We rowed almost without a break from early dawn to 4 p. m., then the Wasoga boatmen gave me to understand by signs, for there was not a soul present who could speak to them, that they had done enough work for the day and would like to land; they pointed to a spot where smoke indicated the presence of huts. Believing that they; must know their own business best, 1 nodded assent. At once the boats placed themselves in a sort of llne-of-battle array, and with incredible speed, the boatmen shouting and yelling like mad, we dashed towards one of the numerous inlets. Instead of the expected peaceful landing, I witnessed with surprise what looked for all the world like a bold attack on an enemy’s country. Most of my crew rushed ashore armed with shields and spears. Some terrified inhabitants ran away into the woods, while my lawless mob of boatmen pounced on fowls and chickens tore up. vegetable marrows and pumpkins, cut down banana trees right and left to get at the fruit Screams made me hurry unarmed ashore, just in time to save a poor old woman from having three young goats snatched from her. As soon as I had enabled her to retreat to the safe shelter of the woods I had to save a man whom the boatmen had seized and, for ail I knew, were .going to spear. The wretches bolted off when they saw me, and the man I had saved ran for his life and escaped. Then some armed natives deployed out of the banana groves. At the sight of this score of armed men, my 400 cowardly Wasoga robbers fled to the boats. A shower of stones was flung at us and wounded a few. Al stone about the size of my fist struck me in the pit of the stomach. Fortunately it was a spent stone, or I should have been doubled up on the spot and would then moat probably . have been speared. It served as a hint that unarmed I should only be throwing away my life by remaining. Under cover of this shower of stones some tried to rush us with spears, when “bang!” went off some muzzle loaders, proving that the natives could muster a few guns.

Swimming for My Life When I turned round, I found my men had got into their boats and were vigorously paddling off. I was quite alone. I reached the lake, threw my. self in, and struck out for the boata! I am a very indifferent swimmer, as 1 get too quickly exhausted. I would] not have ventured upon such a performance in time of peace on any inj ducement It is astonishing what urn dreamt-of feats the pressure of cirt cumstances may get the most reluct* ant of us to attempt! It was my first swim with my clothes on. I did not relish it and I have no desire to repeat it. Not one of the boats came to my help. I only wonder I did not get drowned before I reached a boat. The crocodiles had probably been scared off by the awful din. Many of the nearer boats paddled away the quicker when I apprbeched them, iq their terror taking me for a desperate enemy wishing to board them.'- My boy had remained in the boqt, but when be drew my rifle out of its canvas covering, my boatmen paused, allowed me to reach them, and drew me into the boat. With the boat at a pretty safe dis* tance, and with me aboard, and how armed with a rifle, my bohtmen became quite plucky again. Pointing to a solitary sentinel posted on a conspicuous rock, they begged me to shoot him,F felt more inclined to shoot them for having been, the aggressors. . I ,was told afterwards, that we had landed on one of the Uvuma Islands, inhabited by a plucky hut treacherous race which hates’the Wasoga. The Uvama islanders fall, for admln-:st:-ative purposes, under the jurisdiction of the official in charge of Usdgx. (Copyright, 1809, by Benj. E. HamptonJ

HE TURNED ROUND TO HIS MEN TO GET ANOTHER, WHEN A MASAI RUBHED FORWARD AND SPEARED HIM THROUGH THE BACK.