The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-03-05
WITH THE KING OF BEASTS.

| A few months before the famous jamie
| son raid 1 left johannesburg in charge
| of a prospecting party for Matabeleland.
| There were four white men in the party
| besides myself and ABOUT eighty or
elghtyfiye kaffirs- We anticipated no
trouble in keeping ourselves in fresh
| meat as the country we were 'trekking
! to was ar that time alive with the numer-
Gus varieties of buck 0ocal parlance
/ for all species of der and antelope) in
! digenoss to South Africa, cape buffalo.
| lions, etc
| The first part of our trip was unevent-
| full and We had no trouble securing game
| enough to keep our party in meat. In this
! tropical country it is necessary to kill
! game fresh every day for white men, as
/ the flesh putre1ies very rapidly, but the
! Aafiirs are not so particular. sight one
| soon gets accustomed to is a party OF ma
/ tives feasting or a carcass which makes
| white man hold his nose at fifty yards.
AS we proceeded north through the
southern rart of Northumberland game COM
/ menced to get scarce, and our foraging
parties more frequently came back empty
handed than with meat Occasionally
/ they would bring in a few small buck,
but big game was scarce and shy. Some
| natives we met informed US. however.
/ that lions were more plentiful than they
/ had been for years. That lions were plen-
! tiful was soon demonstrated, and l shall
never forget my first acquaintance with
( the king Of beasts in his native wilds. \
/ couple of days after meeting the natives
We ran entirely out of meat and / con-
cluded to camp a few days and see if We
could not stock up. Early the next morn
! ing | started four parties out in different
directions. a white man at the head Of
: each, as. while the Kafiirs are all right to
beat up game. they are as a rule vile
shots. / had noticed a few 'kopjes" to
/ the nR-thpa & IA Tarax-iDO1JS night and
| taking but one attendant l started out 10
explore them. The country seemed
perfect paradise for game and | saw
numerous spors, but / tramped until
o'clock without running across a thing
| Tired. perspiring and Disguised ! con-
Guided there was no luck for me that day.
and started for camp. Just before reach
ing the last ''kopje" l started across an
! open place where the grass was about
waist high. When about half way across
| saw the grass moving some twenty
| five or thirty feet ahead of me, and
/ thinking il might be a small buck, called
! the pallah, which when startled jumps
up above the grass, L stopped down in
| search of stone TO throw and scare
/ him up. When l rose up I saw something
! yellow waving 10 and fro above the grass
and, while wondering what il could be,
| the head of an enormous lion emerged
| in front of me. Scared? Well. my hat
rose starlight up two inches Chat was the
| length of my hair. The Kaffir gave one
terrified yell and never stopped running
until he reached camp. where, after he,
got his breath, he told them the boss
had been eaten up by a lion. have often
read of the power of the human eye over
the brute creation, but in my case l think
the power lay with the lion. / could not
move a muscle and the gun in my hand
might as well have been a stick. After a
fau- rp,nv &c rto oh 9TH
seemed hours to me. the Lon gave a con-
| temptuous sniff and bounded off across
| the veldt. The spell was broken and l
realized that / had a gun. but my shot
only served to accelerate his movements.
l might add, incidentally that I did not
throw the stone. Hall way to camp l
met a party headed by my recreant fol-
lower coming out to gather up my re-
! mains, in case the lion had left any. The
other parties had better luck bringing
in several pallahs and water buck and
one sable antelope. All claimed that lion
spoons were thick though they had not
run across any lions.
| A few days after this on our way to
the northward, we struck a native kraal.
or village, and found the natives in great
connection. A lion had killed a man two
nights before we reached there, and the
night before woman had been killed
and the people were afraid to go outside
the kraal. The Zulu or Kaffir kraal is
fenced in with a quick growing thorny
shrub. which makes a wall of eight to
ten feet in height. The headman entreat-
| ed us to stay and kill the lion that night.
| and as I wished to be on good terms with
the natives, / told him the Great White
! Chiefs would kill the lion. A platform
was erected for us in a tree inside the
| wall and a god sized calf was tied 10 a
| stake about thirty feet from the tree.
Tlfr bod r,t- oh "a 80
1t was a clear, starry night but no moon.
| Our position was rather cramped but l
| think we were all half asleep when
! about O'Clock we heard a frightened bel
| low. thud and thenext instant saw a
| dark object bound over the wall bearing
| the calf. The lion had jumped in, seized
/ the calf. broken the rope and cleared a
/ ten-foot wall with the calf in his mouth.
/ We let off our guns but in the darkness
and excitement, coupled with the rapidity
4 of his movements, his kingship got off
! scot free and took his dinner with him.
| The next morning we departed. after
! expressing our regrets to the headman.
with whom I have no doubt our credit
| had fallen considerably.
Not long after this occurrence we had
/ more terrible example of the power of
/ the African lion. After passing over the
| Matoppo mountains we came 10 a place
| called InyungO. and were told of the
death OF couple OF Frenchmen, who
were killed q few nights previous to our
| arrival by a lion. The Frenchmen were
! living in n tent, on the outskirts OF the
place, and 1t seems they had procured
some whiskey during the day and were
playing cards and drinking that evening.
/ During the evening one Of the men step
/ ped outside Of the tent and was killed by
I a lion that was prowling around. The
other man. missing his companion after
I a while. started out TO find him The IN
| fortunate man had the whiskey bottle in
/ his hand, and when he stepped outside
! and discovered the lion eating his COM
rade he marched up and smashed the bot
| tie over the lions head. and had his own
| head instantly crushred TO a pulp by one
! blow Of the lions paw.
! We reached our destination in the Ma
shona mountains without further adven-
/ lures, established our camp and had bare
/ " got everything in working order when
/ I was called to Johannesburg on account
/ of-the unsettled state Of affairs
have killed many lions since but have
1 never gotten over feeling Of great re-
spect for their pr0wess since my trip
/ through Matabeleland-
Persons Talked About.
4 Smoking Of the racing stable ~ Sfe-