Daily Kennebec journal., 1896-10-20
An AMERICAN scoUT,
Who Shot the matabsIss' Chief witch Doc.
tor.

abeles, now In its last thrOes, the most
useful scout was an American. This
American. F. r.. Burnham, is on his
way home, his killing of the high
priest. or witch doctor, MLimo, having
been recognized by the British govern
lment as service so important toward
the suppression of the insurrection that
Burnham will never need to bother
more about where to get his bread and
butter. He is going out to California
to see the scenes Of his childhood
Burnham els no Fenimore Cooper
here. although his cradle was "prowled
Iround" by the redskin, and he had ex-
perience of the sly ambush sort of
fighting before he went to Rhodesia.
One who recently saw him aboard a
Castle liner bound for England was
surprised to find that he is not physi-
| cally, Of the mould that Is called heroic
He is. If anything, under the middle
height, of a slim build. with fair COM
plexion tempered by the influences Of
| Africa's sun. His bronZed face alone
betrays him as colonist. He was
born 80 years ago. Scouting" he de-
clares. lis like the study of book.
When you are on the trail you grow to
notice every little thing, even to the
| habits Of the insects You get on to
spoor and you can tell whether that is
old or recent. and gauge the approx
mate distance between yourself and
those for whom you are searching. IT
| may have been raining. You can tell
whether the spoor was made before or
after the rainfall. and how long before
| or after. Even the air you breathe
pivac claws The practice1 Scont ca 7,
tell burning kraal miles off, or where
there are cattle near or far. A bent
twig or crumpled leaf may supply ev-
ldence. You come across a spoor and
see that the ants have been across it,
and you know pretty correctly how
long that spoor has been there. | was
gut one day with Captain White on the
rack of wagon that had gone out.
We found the spoors of two wagons on
he same road. ! picked out at once
he one we were after. but the captain |
disagreed with me and said it was the |
,ther. l explained that the thing was
- plain as pikestaff. as you say. l
'ould tell which spoor was the more
recent OF the two. while the wider and
leeper wheelmarks of the spoor and
sile yoerlooper told me that one wagon
~as loaded. while the other was not. i
mink the captain only differed to test
ne.
To be a scout your senses must be
raineI-seht. hearing, smell and
memory. ! am going over TO America,
.:ld shall recall incidents that occurred
,s.irs ago during some journey TIN euGh
fae country. and the scenes are so
.iearly impressed on my memory that
ney will recur TO my mind like so
many photographs-the trees. the
stones. and everything just as they
q tre.
Il got used to the free-and- easy,
ough-and ready life OF Western Amer
ica. and could not settle down to the
peaceful life of the city. So / emil
grated to Mashonaland about four
ears ago before the war. When that
'roke out. joined Major Alan Wilson
Is a scout. and served under him until
hat terrible affair AT Shangani river"
AS for NJ Limo and the way he caught
his witch doctor who had stirred up
he Matabele against the British,
2urnham said: These high priests. or
witch doctors have always been some
What of a bugbear to whites. Two
ears ago DR.. Jameson sent Sergeant
Hook and few men to attempt a cap
-ure of the chief. but on arrival at the .
cave they found that the bird had ]
iown. We had several tries to get the :
1lace at night, but failed.
Shortly after daybreak on the morn
ne of the twenty-third of June Arm
strong and rode off in the direction of ,
ne hills, but after crossing the Shang- 1
nj river (three miles from the Sacred t
Mountain) the country was so rough I
that we had to dismount and walk. ,
eaving our horses tethered in the bush
iome hundred yards from the cave. 1t {
is a terribly rough bit of country; you c
,annot imagine more tremendous I
,onglomeraton of granite and bush. |
shile the Sacred Mountain is the big s
rost of the whole range. composed of q
luge boulders piled one on top of an .
1:her. ascent on hands and knees be- 8
ng alone possible in many places. About [
halfway up the kopje the boulders form i
IN irregular cave, with a long. wind ?
ing entrance. at the end of which is !
IN open cave sacred to the NJ Limo.
We crawled and crept to it hiding Z
behind rocks or any cover handy, and J
expecting every minute TO be spotted ,
and potted' by the Kaffirs. who We're q
seated at the foot of the hill. evidently Q
for a big indaba on the NOR :
row. At length we got good view of
the old gentleman, but we had to be
very cautious; he was going through 2
all sorts of rites and performing the
most curious antics. At one time he
would wave his hands and arms, and
At another only his feet. At another i
point he sat down clapping his hands, :
swaying his head, and chanting in ]!
pure Makalaka, in a strong, rolling. (
bass voice. which added an IL
unpleasant weirdness to the scene The |
kaffirs were squatting on the rocks. 8
ooking at the old man and his cere- t.
-nonies. 1t would not have done for us 4
y let him escape, and capture was i'm ?
possible with the niggers all around
ind an impi on the next kopje. Sc / Z
hought it best to make sure and let &.
o3 bullet from my rifle settle the ques- +
ion. The old villain dropped, and we la
we're pretty soon creeping down the is
lde of the mountain to the huts, which. s.
Ifter some trouble, we managed to put s..
rto good blaze. Then the KafTirs =
rot ta, s,1.