The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-03

SOUTH AFRICAN LION HUNT.
IMPRISONED BY THE BOERS IN JO-
HANNEsBURG.
on to the Land of Kau-Face to Face
With a Man-Eater in the open.
Souvenirs of the Chase.


With a Man-Eater in the open.
Souvenirs of the Chase.
From Field and Stream.
1t was during the early winter of 1S9-
that 1 had my first experience In hunting
large game IN Africa. Although 1 had
been a resident of South Africa for sew
eral years my duties as mining engineer
in the employ of the DeBeers Mining Com
pany had taken up all my time, with the
exception of a few "off" days spent in the
vedlt country Of the Transvaal hunting
African gazelle and their much larger
cousins, oryx. While I had managed on
one occasion to bring down two of the
former diminutive creatures (but little
larger than an American jaekrabbiD, I
was never able to get within rifle shot of
the wary oryx.
For a number of years feeling Of dis
content had been manifest among the for
eign or "Uitlander" population Of the
Dutch republic caused by the passage of
obnoxious alien laws by the Beers. This
feeling finally resulted in d half-hearted
instruction, during which DR.. Jameson
of the British army made his since famous
raid into the Transvaal, which resulted
in the death of some fifty Beers and twice
that number of English soldiers. Although
1 had always had much sympathy for the
original settlers of the Transvaal, my
surroundings at the time were such that
I was forced to take part in the uprising
and as a result was iucarcerated In the
grim, one-story prison at johannesburg
for several days When, through the IN
fuence of friends l was liberated, l at
first thought of returning to the United
States, but as mining engineers were then
scarce in South Africa, the company at
last induced me to remain, agreeing to
send me out of the Transvaal at once upon
prospecting tour into the wilds of Gen.
trail Africa.
Making up a caravan or "katifa," as 1t
is called there, for the purpose OF pene-
trating the wilderness, is by no means a
small undertaking. First and foremost in
importance is the selection of competent
and faithful guides and attendants.
managed % get toge lher a party of wenty
COMO ed of two white men myself and
an Englshman by the name of Wilson,
who was to take direct charge of the ka-
flfa), twelve Matabeles, five Kaftirs, and
an old Zulu, by name Gan LiRa (Which
soon shortened into Gam, who was said
to be remarkably expert in hunting large
game. He was striking fellow, several
inches above six feet in hight, straight
as en- arrow, his chest back, and limbs
covered with punches Of muscles as hard
as bone He was a leopard-hunter by PRO
fession," and for many years had made
a business of Riding the country of these
troublesome pests.
We left johannesburg in the latter part
of April, with instruction to proceed by
rail to Port Lorenzo, where a small coast
ing steamer had been chartered to take
us to the mouth of the Zambesi river
Mozambique We were to follow this
stream inland for about three hundred
miles, then move north 10 Lake Bangweo-
10. latitude ten degrees ten minutes south,
thence along the eastern border of the
Congo Free Stale ten degrees, and then
east to the coast, striking some of the
many small trading posts between Cape
De,gado and Zanzibar. whence we could
embark for home. In addition to our arms,
we had six camels, twenty donkeys, and
twenty-six ponies, also one thousand five
hundred pounds of ''gee,"s one thousand
FIVE humid ed pounds of rice, large assort-
ment of cooking pots, water-casks, and
condensers, and several hundred small
trnkets for pi esents. In due time we were
aboa the steamer, and after very rough
jou ney of nearly a weeks duration, were
landed "bag and baggage upon the barren
shores of Mozambique, mile north of the
Zambesi.
This is indeed a most desolate country;
the Zambesi and its fatS-a broad ribbon
of silver and green, bordered here and
there by black cliffs-split the desert from
east to west To the north and east as
far as the eye can reach stretches waste
of mesa-land; sand cactus, sand, black
rock, and more sand-sand that dazzles
the eye like snow, with here and there a
cluster of palms and jungle grass, which
indicate where periodical springs rise out
of the blistering earth to greet Mother
Zambesi. To the east is the ceaseless wash
of the quiet sea, with its short reefs OF
gray coral, shining white in the eternal
sunshine, and over all a dreary, deathlike
stiffness, broken only when the deadly 81
moon sweeps the sand in whirling clouds
from the north, bury1ng all before il. Look-
ing westward over the dreary waste of des-
ert, one could hardly believe that but a
few hundred miles awaywas land second
to none in point of fertility.
One evening in the latter part of May
we encamped upon the outskirts of a wadi
of unusual size, pitching our tents near
a large spring, the water of which was
as clear as crystal and very cool As 1t
was already dark when we had finished
supper, 1 omitted my usual evening stroll
and prepared to retire at once informing
the men that we would remain over here
for at least a day, the animals needing
rest badly after their long pull through
the sand. The camels had been driven in
and made to lie down in a circle. when
they were secured by the tying up of a
foreleg Around the fire my native men,
their number increased by two we had
picked up belonging to a neighboring viii
lage sat cheerfully eating their dates and
rice The starlight shone dimly on the
long necks and misshapen backs of the
camels, and showed family the solitary,
white-clad figure of the sentry as he stood
at the outskirts of the camp, grooming to
himself a mournful Matabele song. Soon
the men had finished eating, and were
stretched at full length about the fire,
while the silence of the jungle crept over
ALA silence broken frequently by the
cry of a jackal or the weird howl Of a
hyena. AS I lay in my tent / could look
through the opening and imagine that at
times 1 saw the dusky outlines of huge
forms in the jungle, while frequent growls
and muffied shorts and roars told me that
it was not all imagination.
I was rapidly passing into dreamland
when, following a period of intense 81
far a,,Ss,