A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-KikuyuBoyes, John
History
A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-Kikuyu
Boyes, John
Africa, East; Kikuyu (African people)
His kraal was high up amongst some almost inaccessible crags on the
mountain side, and all efforts failed to dislodge him, until a few of
the Dutch Corps, of whom I was one, managed to steal upon him unawares.
We reached his cave in the early dawn, and saw him, through the opening,
sitting, with only a few of his followers, round some lighted candles
which he had probably looted from one of the stores. One of our men,
taking careful aim, shot him through the shoulder, and then, rushing the
cave, we took him prisoner. He was tried by a court martial, and
sentenced to be shot, and when the time came for the sentence to be
carried out he showed himself a thoroughly brave man, refusing to be
blindfolded or to stand with his back to the firing party, saying that
he wished to see death coming.
It was about this time that I first met B.-P.—now General Sir R. S. S.
Baden-Powell, but then only Colonel—who had been sent up to take charge
of the operations, and who confirmed the court martial’s sentence on
Umwini. I was on water guard that day, to see that the natives did not
poison the stream, when a man whom I took for a trooper came up and
entered into conversation with me, asking about my past experiences,
&c., and it was only when I got back to camp, after going off duty, that
I found I had been talking to the officer in command of the expedition.
A general plan of attack was now organised, under the direction of
Colonel Baden-Powell, and the natives were finally dislodged from the
hills and the rebellion crushed.
On the successful termination of the patrol a fort was built at Umvunga
Drift, where I remained for some time; but it was a most unhealthy
place, nearly every man going down, sooner or later, with fever and
dysentery. There was absolutely no medicine of any sort in the place,
and we consequently lost several men. I myself had a bad attack of
dysentery, but managed to cure it by making a very thin mixture with my
ration of flour and some water, which I drank daily until the attack was
cured.
In the centre of the fort stood a big tree, and after cutting away the
branches at the top we erected a platform on the trunk, which, besides
serving as a look-out, made a splendid platform for a Maxim gun which we
mounted there, and were thus able to command the surrounding country
within range.
During my stay here we had one or two brushes with the natives, but they
gradually settled down; so, on a relief force being sent up, I returned
to Bulawayo, where the corps was disbanded. I then got a post as one of
the guard over a number of murderers lying in Bulawayo gaol awaiting
sentence, all of whom were finally hanged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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