The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-21
Worlds Greatest Elephant Hunter Coming America


away. l made a desperate effort 10 rise
but found that owing to the injuries 1
had received. this was an impossibility.
I discovered too, that my left thumb
was disloeated and my left arm and
shoulder so badly sprained that L was
quite unable to hold my rifle.
Bidding Simba sit down beside me,
managed, with some difficulty to
place my BIS across his boulder and
fire for the elephants ear, but. try as
I would, ] could not keep my rifle
steady. and the bullet, instead of going
through his brain, went wide and
struck him high mp on the right side oe
the head. AZ once he Slowed round
aud advanced toward us as il utterly
surprised to find that he had failed to
finish his enemy. So. telling simba to
hold my rifle barrel firmly, I drove an
other cartridge into the breech and
waited patiently for my lord the Gle
phant When he was within Il or Is
yards, ! took aim and. making a su.
preme effort to control my breath and
steady my hand. pressed the trigger.
The bullet struck him right between
the eyes bringing him 10 his knees as
if po1e-aNed, and as he struggled to
rise. / finished him with another shot"
More striking, perhaps, even than his
hunting adVeptures, is the story ot
the part which the elephant hunter
played in the native rising In German
East Africa In 1905 and 1906, In rec
ognitfon of which he was decorated
by the German government "But don't
put that ini' he urged.
I'VE needn't bother with the details
of how it began. said he, "though the
chief, causes were native discomfort at
having to pay hut taxes and to build
roads and to give UP some of their au-
eient pursuits that didn't fit I'm with
civilized ideas; discomfort which was
famed by the Arabs. whose slave trad
ing had been put stop to, and eventu-
ally made them decide to make a clean
, sweep of the Eropeans in the country
! was in German East Africa after ell
ephants when the trouble began, and
as hunting was impossible, | made up
, my mind to see what fighting natives
was like, and voluteered for service ON
, the German side.
There was awful slaughter [ am
= sorry to say" Sutherland went on
.much of which would have been avert
, ed had 1t not been for the native med
, ieine men--who are queer iossers--
/ though If it had not been for them and
their freakish ideas, most Of kus un-
, doubtedly would have lost oar lives
/, Wherever there was lighting. the native
onslaughts were desperate and fearless
The medicine men had told them, it
. seems. that when we fred on them our
: bullets would be miracu1ously changed
| into water and nothing but steam
| would issue from the muzzles of our
| guns.
| Great Lordr' cried the hunter chow
| much better we taught them! 7 had a
| 500 cordite rifle. firing an expansive
] bullet that weighed an ounce and was
driven by so grains of powder. Ny
S shots absolutely drilled through the
= Angonis when they advanced, and [
blew the head clean off the first man I
fred at A few weeks later | took part
In the defense of the central station,
! or collectorate, at Mahenge and there
! we saw some astonishing displays of
= fanaticism,' sure enough. We were
: armed with machine guns, and the
tives knew this, but in this case the
) medicine men had told them that those
: of their number who were killed by our
. fire would reawallen after two days.
. and be ready to fight again. The ma
n tive force that attacked this, collect
crate must have been 5000 strong and
! they were armed with anything, from
! pruning hooks to spears. a fair per-
: centage, too, having old fashioned muz-
: zle loading rifles, firing small bullets.
Intent on killing and torturing the
lot of u.s." continued Sutherland. they
charged almost to the walls of the col
1ectorate and were moved down by our
: MaXims, eventually being forced to re-
treat after heavy slaughter. With firm
belief, however, in the promise of their
medicine men that the slain would come
l. to life again, and join in the lighting,
and again We're moved down by the
: score. the dead men falling to comply
with the prophesy and help to turn the
tide of battle Four times in success
sion did they do this, and then gave
it up, convinced at last, apparently.
that the dead We're going to stay dead.
, in spite of the assurances of the witch
doctors.
II was a bit useful too" said the
ivory hunter, continuing his story. 'in
1T.
to turn the tide of battle in another
fight. You have to remember that we
were up against enemies who were bent
on exterminating us, and the German
commander Captain Richter. conceived
the idea, of leaving cartridges about
where the natives could get them which
would burst their guns when they tried
to shoot them. They tried both heavy
charges of ordinary powder and then
dynamite, but neither was powerful
enough for the purpose
TRY my cordite,p said T. ''and we
tried 1t, loading some 200 cartridges
with rs grains each and then scattering
them about so that the Angonis would
think they had been dropped by mistake.
Man alive. what mischief they did when
those niggers tried to fire them. They
We're in high glee at discovering them,
but when they fitted them INTO the
breech of their rifles and pulled the
trigger. gun and man. too, were blown
to bits. The ground was Uttered with
corpses with their faces torn off As a
fact we must have done astonishing
execution In that fight for a few days
afterward, reconnitering the ground
we counted over 200 graves"
This ivory hunters latest expedition,
with Captain Anderson--who had never
before seen an elephant outside of a zoo
and had a mighty close call with his
first one-took close on a year, and re-
suited IN the bagging of a couple OF
tons of ivory. The sportsmen visited
the camps of Emin Pasha and Henry NJ
Stanley. and made their way In canoes
padded by natives, up the Semilihie
river-"never have seen such an aw-
ful place for crocodiles" observed
Sutherland-until they eventually came
TO the pigmy forest, IN which they
spent 90 days. once being attacked by
the little people armed with poisoned
arrows. Later on, Captain Anderson
having been recalled to his regiment
Sutherland had the responsibility of
seeing their ivory transported by ma
tives through Belgian territories and
eventually to Cairo. 1t was no light
undertaking for danger of being set
upon and robbed threatened several
times
After all the years he has spent In
the 'pori." this elephant hunter says
frankly that he prefers 1t to civiiza-
tion. "I find" he said, '.that chafe at
the insincerity of life In cities. In the
middle of Africa every mans word Is
his hopd and life oh from