The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-01-07
E,lNl CLAN rs B Il s L sc OUT,
Tho American Who sKilled the
Great Matabele Doctor. !.
He Is = Fighter from Texas Engaged in
South AfricA-A Long Ride on Hos
tile sOil-The Shooting Of :
~ M limo. ,g+s !

y ~
can, and he Is never in the rear ranks.
The best scout in the Matabele war 5
an American, Burnham, a Texan, who
wears a Texan sombrero and rides a
Texas saddle. He fights for the pleas.
ure of fighting. Ills education and his
natural powers of inductive reasoning"
says an English newspaper correspond
ent, raise him. at once to high rank
among the scouts of this or any other
country" Burnham's eyes are the won
der of all beholders. They are small,
rowing, blue eyes. Women fall in love
with them. Cecil Rhodes says they can
see right through mountain when 6.
Matabele is on the other side of it. An
other correspondent declares the sin
envy little mamie is only five feet
four in height-to be veritable pocket
edition of Hercules. Then he adds,
most impressively: "And withal he is
modest and truthful" which is some
thing wonderful and unaccountable in
South Africa.
Burnham's greatest feat was the
shooting of M'limo under circumstances
that would have done credit to Davy
Crockett. M'limo was the great witch
doctor of the Matabele He started the
rebellion, saying that he could turn
away the bullets from Uncle Hiram
Maxim's patent music box into water
it his fellow countrtymen would only
bring him presents in return for the
favor. His throne was in cave which
was the center of pilgrimages for the
natives far and near. Burnham deter
mined to kill him. The British officers
laughed at his attempt as a "fool's
Grand" But he enlisted the assistance
of a sturdy young Englishulan named
Armstrong, and they started for
M'limo's cave. The hills were fairly
swarming with natives, and Burnham
and Armstrong travelled by night and
slept by day. They led their horses, 50
as to make as little noise as possible.
and also to keep them fresh, as they
knew after M'limo had been killed it
would depend upon their horses wheth-
er they would be able to return to the
lager or not.
When they arrived in sight of the
cave they found hundreds of natives
about, but were Disguised to find that
M'llmo himself was not there, being two
or three miles away. They sent the
negro servant whom they had brought
with them to tell the witch doctor that
some natives were waiting for him with
great Quantities of presents. Then, like
the good scouts they were, they moved
on some distance from the place where
they told the servant they would wait
FOR him, so as to be on guard in case he
played them false. But in doing so they
ran plump into a body of EaHirs. Had
the KafliTs been Matabele the two scouts,
would have been killed then and there
Burnham pretended they were in great
fear of M'limo and wanted to- make him
presents. The Kaffirs persuaded the
Matabele to leave the scouts alone until
Mlimo came and decided what should
be done with them. So they started
down the road from the cave to meet
Mlimo. When they met him Burnham
saw that if he shot M'limo the whole
crowd of natives would be on them in
a minute: After going through
long orgy, M'limo invited them into :,
cave alone and told the natives to clear
out. No sooner were they in the cave
than Burnham sent bullet through
M'limo's skull. ! il.
::We didn't wait to lay the body
out" says Burnham, "but we ran for
our horses with all our might. The mig
gers followed and shot at us repeated
ly, buttheir aim was bad. We put our
horses to it for all they were worth
It seemed to me that our horsas jumped
over some rocks as high as their heads,
and it is wonder to me that they didn't
break their necks and ours into the bur-
gain" Though the killing of M'limo
did not have the effect that was ex-
pected, this detracts none from Burn
hams daredevil cleverness.-N.Y Y. Press.