In This, However, A Case Or Two Of
Plague Broke Out Before Very Long, So I Gave The
Natives And
Indians who inhabited it an hour's
notice to clear out, and on my own responsibility
promptly burned the whole place
To the ground.
For this somewhat arbitrary proceeding I was
mildly called over the coals, as I expected; but
all the same it effectually stamped out the plague,
which did not reappear during the time I was in
the country.
With a little persuasion I managed to induce
several hundred of the Wa Kikuyu, in whose
country we now were, to come and work at
Nairobi, and very useful and capable they proved
themselves after a little training. They
frequently brought me in word that the shambas
(plantations, gardens) at the back of the hill on
which my camp was pitched were being destroyed
by elephants, but unfortunately I could never
spare time to go out in quest of them. On one
occasion, however, I passed the news on to my
friend, Dr. Winston Waters, with the result that
he had a most exciting adventure with a big bull
elephant. He set out in quest of the depredator,
and, guided by a few of the Wa Kikuyu, soon
came upon him hidden among some shady trees.
Waters was a great believer in a close shot, so
he stalked up to within a few yards of the animal
and then fired his .577, aiming for the heart. The
elephant responded by a prompt and determined
charge, and although Waters quickly let him have
the left barrel as well, it proved of no effect; and
on he came, screaming and trumpeting with rage.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to fly for
dear life; so down a path raced Waters for all he
was worth, the elephant giving vigorous chase and
gaining rapidly. In a few seconds matters began
to look very serious for the sportsman, for the huge
monster was almost on him; but at the critical
moment he stepped on to the false cover of a
carefully-concealed game pit and disappeared
from view as if by magic. This sudden descent
of his enemy apparently into the bowels of the
earth so startled the elephant that he stopped
short in his career and made off into the jungle.
As for Waters, he was luckily none the worse for
his fall, as the pit was neither staked at the
bottom nor very deep; he soon scrambled out,
and, following up the wounded elephant, succeeded
in finishing him off without further trouble.
Towards the end of 1899 I left for England.
A few days before I started all my Wa Kikuyu
"children", as they called themselves, came in
a body and begged to be taken with me. I
pictured to them the cold, wet climate of
England and its great distance from their native
land; but they assured me that these were
nothing to them, as they only wished to continue
my "children" and to go wherever I went. I
could hardly imagine myself arriving in London
with a body-guard of four hundred more or less
naked savages, but it was only with difficulty that
I persuaded them that they had better remain in
their own country. The ever-faithful Mahina,
my "boy" Roshan Khan, my honest chaukidar,
Meeanh, and a few other coolies who had been a
long time with me, accompanied me to the coast,
where they bade me a sorrowful farewell and left
for India the day before I sailed on my homeward
journey.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE FINDING OF THE NEW ELAND
During the early part of last year (1906) I
revisited the scene of my former labours and
adventures on a shooting trip. Unfortunately the
train by which I travelled up from Mombasa
reached Tsavo at midnight, but all the same I
got out and prowled about as long as time would
permit, half wondering every moment if the
ghosts of the two man-eaters would spring at
me out of the bushes. I wanted very much to
spend a day or two in the old place, but my
companions were anxious to push on as quickly
as possible to better hunting-grounds. I took
the trouble, however, to wake them out of their
peaceful slumbers in order to point out to them,
by the pale moonlight, the strength and beauty
of the Tsavo bridge; but I fear this delicate little
attention was scarcely appreciated as it deserved.
Naturally I could not expect them, or anyone
else, to view the bridge quite from my point of
view; I looked on it as a child of mine, brought
up through stress and danger and troubles of all
kinds, but the ordinary traveller of course knows
nothing of this and doubtless thinks it only a
very commonplace and insignificant structure
indeed.
We spent a few days at Nairobi, now a
flourishing town of some 6,000 inhabitants,
supplied with every modern comfort and luxury,
including a well laid-out race course; and after
a short trip to Lake Victoria Nyanza and
Uganda, we made our way back to the Eldama
Ravine, which lies some twenty miles north of
Landiani Station in the province of Naivasha.
Here we started in earnest on our big game
expedition, which I am glad to say proved to
be a most delightful and interesting one in every
way. The country was lovely, and the climate
cool and bracing. We all got a fair amount of
sport, our bag including rhino, hippo, waterbuck,
reedbuck, hartebeeste, wildebeeste, ostrich,
impala, oryx, roan antelope, etc.; but for the present
I must confine myself to a short account of how
I was lucky enough to shoot a specimen of an
entirely new race of eland.
Our party of five, including one lady who rode
and shot equally straight, left the Eldama Ravine
on January 22, and trekked off in an easterly
direction across the Laikipia Plateau. As the
trail which we were to take was very little known
and almost impossible to follow without a guide,
Mr. Foaker, the District Officer at the Ravine,
very kindly procured us a reliable man - a young
Uashin Gishu Masai named Uliagurma.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 59 of 67
Words from 59574 to 60613
of 68125
