The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African AdventuresPatterson, J. H. (John Henry)
History
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures
Patterson, J. H. (John Henry)
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Hunting -- Africa, East; Uganda Railway
On leaving my tent one morning when work was at a standstill owing to
the rain, I noticed a great herd of zebra about a couple of miles away
on the north side of the railway. Now, it had long been my ambition to
capture one of these animals alive; so I said to myself, "Here is my
chance!" The men could do nothing owing to the rain, and the ground was
very boggy, so I thought that if we could surround the herd judiciously
and chase the zebra up and down from point to point through the heavy
ground, some of them would soon get exhausted and we should then be
able to catch them. I selected for the hunt a dozen fleet-footed
Indians who were employed on the earth works, and who at once entered
with great zest into the spirit of the scheme. After having partially
surrounded the herd, the half-circle of coolies began to advance with
wild shouts, whereupon the zebras galloped madly about from side to
side, and then did just what we wished them to do--made straight for an
exceptionally boggy part of the ground, where they soon became more or
less helpless. We singled out a few young ones and succeeded in running
them to an absolute standstill, when we threw them down and sat on
their heads until the other men came up with ropes. In this way we
captured no less than six: they were very wild and fractious, giving us
a great deal of trouble in getting them along, but eventually we
managed to bring them in triumph to the camp, where they were firmly
secured. The whole expedition lasted little more than a couple of hours.
Three of the captured zebras I kept for myself, while the other three
were given to the Surfacing Engineer, whose men had assisted in the
hunt. Two of my three unfortunately died very shortly after; but the
third, a sturdy two-year-old, flourished splendidly. At first he was
exceedingly vicious, biting and kicking everyone who approached him;
indeed, he once planted both his hind feet on my chest, but did me no
serious damage beyond throwing me heavily to the ground. In time,
however, he became very tame and domesticated, allowing himself to be
led about by a rope and head collar, and would drink from a bucket and
eat from my hand. He used to be left to graze picketed by a long rope
to a stake in the ground; but one afternoon on returning to camp I
found, much to my annoyance, that he had disappeared. On making
enquiry, I learned from my servants that a herd of wild zebra had
galloped close by, and that this had so excited him that he managed to
tear the picketing peg out of the ground and so rejoin his brethren in
freedom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account