As Soon As I Discovered Them, I Boiled
A Bucketful Of Water, Added Some Tins Of
Condensed Milk And The
Greater part of a bottle of
brandy to it, and fed them with the mixture.
Their feeble cries for some
Of this nourishment
were heartrending; some could only whisper,
"Bwana, Bwana" ("Master, Master"), and then
open their mouths. One or two of them, indeed,
could hardly do even this, and were so weak as
to be unable to swallow the spoonful of milk
which I put between their lips. In the end six
proved to be beyond all help, and died that night;
but the remaining seven I managed to nurse into
complete recovery in about a fortnight's time.
As our camp was moved on, they were brought
along from place to place on the top of trucks,
until finally they were well enough to resume their
journey to Usoga, very grateful indeed for the
care which we had taken of them.
The day after I first found these stricken
natives I had arranged to ride on my pony for
some miles in advance of the railway, in order to
make arrangements for the building of a
temporary bridge over the Stony Athi River - a
tributary of the Athi, and so-called on account of
the enormous numbers of stones in its bed and
along its banks. I ordered my tent to follow
me later in the day, and left directions for the
care of the sick Basoga, as I knew I should be
away all night. My road lay along the route
taken by the home-returning caravan, and every
hundred yards or so I passed the swollen corpse
of some unfortunate porter who had fallen out
and died by the wayside. Before very long I
came up with the rearguard of this straggling
army, and here I was witness of as unfeeling
an act of barbarism as can well be imagined. A
poor wretch, utterly unable to go a step further,
rolled himself up in his scarlet blanket and lay
down by the roadside to die; whereupon one of
his companions, coveting the highly-coloured and
highly-prized article, turned back, seized one end
of the blanket, and callously rolled the dying man
out of it as one would unroll a bale of goods.
This was too much for me, so I put spurs to
my pony and galloped up to the scoundrel,
making as if to thrash him with my kiboko,
or whip made of rhinoceros hide. In a moment
he put his hand on his knife and half drew
it from its sheath, but on seeing me dismount
and point my rifle at him, he desisted and tried
to run away. I made it clear to him by signs,
however, that I would fire if he did not at once
go back and replace the blanket round his
dying comrade. This he eventually did, though
sullenly enough, and I then marched him in front
of me to the main camp of the caravan, some
little distance further on.
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