Evening star., 1924-07-20

blazed with spurts Of flame and we
black powder smoke. 1t was i'm
possible to see anything in front of
US, but / could hear the shouts of
the warriors above the rattle and
roar of the rifles and machine guns.
A number of spears had fallen with
in the square formed by my men, and
could see. by looking over my
shoulder hurriedly, that some of them
had found mark. I kept on firing
from the machine gun for several
more minutes. Then. as none of the
warriors appeared to have broken
our formation. l blew my whistle to
signal "ceass fire."
In a circle on the ground In front
of the square were heaped a number
OF bodies. The remainder of the
warriors had Withdrawn sullenly to
about a hundred yards from us. They
were watching US intently.
How many casualties, sergeant?'
I called out.
Seven of our men killed, sir; and
about ten wounded"
Attend to their wounds, then, and
see that the ranks are closed up.
for they'll probably attack again"
Y WAS a good prophet. Three times
L more that mass of warriors rushed
right up oour rine- -muzzles. and
each time they were driven back by
our heavy rifle fire. The last time
proved more than they could stand.
We had simply moved them down.
and there were several hundred dead
and wounded on the ground in front
of us and all round our square.
They're boiling, Foran." called out
Capt. Jenkins from his machine gun.
Let the poor devils go. Don't fire
any more at them. for they've had
enough" / ordered.
Obviously the Kisii tribe had never
been up against modern weapons be-
fore-otherwise they would not have
attacked so boldly. Their lesson
would be effective, and 1 did not
fancy they would give any more trou-
BILE. They had now withdrawn COM
to count our losses. We found that
we had not come off scatheless by any
manner of means. Eleven Of my men
had been killed. and eight OF the K.
A. RS. were also dead; we also had
twenty-five wounded by spears.
That night we buried our dead by
light of a brilliant tropical moon; and
beside them we buried Kisii killed.
We gave first aid to Kisii wounded. as
best we could. and then allowed them
to 60 back to their friends. Through
! one of my men. who could make him
self understood, 1 sent a message to
their laibon (medicine man and ruler)
demanding that he should come in and
surrender.
At daybreak the old laibon came
in, accompanied by about thirty war
riors, and we agreed upon terms of
peace. He admitted that he had
never before seen weapons that could
kill with such deadly accuracy and so
much noise.
The noise-spears OF the white
man travel many days journey in one
march," he said sorrowfully. Hence
forth I and my people live in peace
with the white man."
And SO the armistice was agreed
upon. Our "new-oaught, sullen peo-
pies half devil and half child" had
been pacified. A few weeks later I
escorted a young district commits
sioner out to the Kisii country and
helped him to establish a new gov
ernment post in the center of their
country. The tribe was fined 1000
head of cattle and 1000 sheep as a
punishment for the murders they had
committed; and these were later re-
turned to them in payment for labor
they had performed in the making Of
roads and bridges so that the new
country might be opened up to CIV
| ilization and prosperity.
A few months later the Sotik tribe
| rose in revolt and open rebellion
Again the Indian and Arab traders
| were the first victims. The Sotiis
country was a much larger territory
than that of the Kisii tribe. and the
warriors were fully 10000 strong
This required a much larger force OF
troops to Quell the disturbance.
Tho 3rd Kings African Riaes, from
Nsirobi, together with 4 force Of the
East African police under myself and