The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-10-31
LIONS IN THE LAND OF oP4IR

/ Las NO4llc " It's ONAA SAM COfcE44ie dA4-
! Gent fortresses and palace walls with
| growth that looks as if it never had
| been disturbed by man since the world
began.
And in that jungle the wild beasts rule.
| When DR.. Peters entered the country
| with his expedition he was amazed al
the profusion of life. The land and the
waters and the air were full OF it.
Since his return from his last trip he
| has declared that the big game hunting
in many portions of the territory is the
best in the world The ZambeSi river
there is full of hippopotami and crocO-
| dies
He saw herd after herd OF elephant.
buffalo and rhinoceros. Everywhere he
| marked the tracks OF zebra and
! qUagga-
He describes the wealth of birds as
colossal. Guinea hens. pheasants, cranes,
/ hercns. storks, fiamingoes. pelicans, ducks
/ and geese were seen by him not in thou
/ sd nds. but in hundreds Of thousands on
the banks and islands of the mighty Afri-
I can river.
Book and antelope he found in enor-
nous numbers. And east of the Manica
! land the hunters met lions and leopards
/ that not only were plentiful but fearless.
providing the very climax of sport and
/ excitement
! DR.. Peters says that whatever may be
I the case in some parts OF Africa. the
/ statement made occasionally by lion hun
! tiers to the effect that the sport is not
very dangerous is not true in this re-
! gion. Lions and Iecpards there attack
J the domestic animals of man and man
/ himself by preference.
| They pass tempting antelopes and other
! game deliberately and enter the villages
/ TO break into kraals, where they beat
| down steers and sheep and carry them of.
In the summer OF 1859 two officials of the
| MashOnaland railroad were actually
/ dragged out of their rooms in their huts
| BY lions and carried off within full view
| OF the laborers along the railroad. On
/ each occasion the lions made their attack
| in the middle of the day.
! Another lion leaped into tent on the
/ Sabi river and carried away a British
| prospector while he was at luncheon.
One day, when DIR. Peters, DR. Blocker
an Englishman named Thompson and sew
/ eral others were at breakfast in the val
| ley of the Lupata, negroes arrived breath
| lessly with the news that three lions had
/ Broken into a kraal in the neighboring
village of Merula and had killed and
dragged off a man and a number of hogs.
The lions, said the messenger. were then
sitting in a thick bush near the village,
eating their prey.
Blocker and Peters seized their rifles,
and, accompanied by two unarmed men.
who carried cartridges. they soon reached
the village, whore there was intense ex-
element, all the negroes screaming and
shouting in an effort to drive the beasts
away The bush was only thirty feet
from the settlement. and extended 10 the
river, which was about 80 feet distant
Peters took his position near big tree
about thirty feet from the bush Bloeck-
e. stood on the other side of the beasts
hiding place. The negroes gathered on
the other end of the bush and began TO
fire old muskets. beat drums and make all
the noise possible to drive the lions to-
ward the hunters.
Before many minutes tremendous roar
| sounded right in front of Peters. and
grand lion. heavily named. sprang to-
ward the tree. The hunter fired and
scored a clean miss.
Instantly the brute leaped again, this
time directly at the doctor. He stepped
Sideways and in the next moment the
lion had beaten down four negroes who
had been hiding behind the tree and
Knocked them insensible with sweeps of
his great paws.
DR.. Peters was just about to fire when
the lion leaped on Afth man. tearing
savagely at his neck and shoulders with
fcrepaws and teeth. Fearing to shoot the
man, Peters aimed a little too high and
shot into the lions ribs instead of HIS
backbone.
But the bullet had the desired effect of
diverting the beasts attention from his
victim, and he turned, arose majestically
10 his full noble height and glared at
Peters, who stood barely ten feet away.
The doctor reached out for more cart
ridges. and failing to get them, peered
backward. To his horror, he saw his
cartridge bearer running at top speed to-
ward the village.
Convinced that he was at the end of his
earthly hunting. he dubbed his rife TO
make one last hopeless fight for his life.
The lion crouched. gathered himself for
a spring, and-fell in a heap. The ex-
panding bullets effect on the blood vessels
had made itself felt just in the nick of
time, and not a tenth of second too
soon.
With his last strength the beautiful
creature, still facing the hunter fearless
~ dragged himself toward some high
grass. On the way a big negro tried 70
spear him.
Dying though he was, the lion. with a
motion as If he were tanning fly away.
struck his assailant one light patti could
hardly be called a blow That pat ripped
ofs ali the flesh of the mans left leg
from the upper thigh to the knee
With one last roar Of defiance the
found him far away. dead. near the foot
OF the mountains toward which he had
crawled despite his terrible injuries
The other two lions were not found
The wounded men were taken TO camp
and saved only by the expenditure Of all
the remedies carried by the expedition
4 month later some Of the blacks OF the
party appeared in camp and reported
that a leopard had been seen by them
IEfrfC n u-afr Of Ill
Peters and Blocker started at once
Blocker had his rife. Peters shouted to
his servants 10 follow with him
The water hole was only a few yards
away. Before DR. Peters dreamed that
n was anywhere near the animal his
CO napsnion's rifle rang. and an immense
leopard bounded into the air and fell back
irto the thicket
He had been lying directly IN front 81
Peters. and yet. despite his gaudy hide
the markings were SO perfectly blended
with the jungle that the doctor mad not
seen him at all
This leopard did not need another shot
The soft bullet. in mushr0oming. tore the
brute vitais 70 pieces
- If they were matching their wits
against man. the cracodiles and hippo
potami are becoming more daring ard
dangerous every year in that country.
Two black men belonging 60 the Peters
expedition we're killed by croeodiles az one
tine.
The creatures lay III wait under the
hank Of the river and when the men
stopped 20 wash the immensely powerful
tails OF the amphibians we're swung 20
them and whipped them into the watez
where the crncoalies seized them and
carried them away % an island Fl the
Riddle % the river
Mr. Thompson saw the whole occur
rtnce. he could see the bodies q the