IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2682, 11 December 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA.

MAN-KILLING GAME

In his second! article decribing his hunting experiences in Africa, ex-Presi-dent Roosov-elt says :

The dangerous game of Africa are the lion, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and leopard. The hunter who follows any of tliose animals always does so at a icertain risk to life or limb; a risk which it is his business to minimis© by coolness, caution, good judgment, and straight shooting. ..The leopard is, in point of pluck and ferocity, more than the equal of the four; but his small size always renders it li'iiely that he will merely maul, and not kill, a man. My friend, Carl Akoly, of Chicago, actually killed, bare-handed, a leopard which, sprang on him. H-e had already wounded the beast twice, crippling it in one front and one back paw, whereupon it charged, followed him as he tried to dodge the charge, and struck him full ust as lie turned. It bit him in one .arm, biting again and again as it worked up the arm from the wrist to the elbow; but Akely threw it, holding its throat with the other hand, and' flinging its body to one side. It luckily fell on its side with its two wounded legs uppermost, so that it could not tear him. He fell forward with it and crushed in its chest with his knees until lie distinctlv felt one of,its legs crack; this, said Akely, was the first moment when lie •'t he might oonquer. Redoubling his efforts with knees and hand, he actually choked and crushed the life out of it, although his arm was badly bitten. A leopard will charge at least as readily as one of the big beasts, and is rather more apt to get his charge home, but the risk is less to life than to limb. There are other animals often or occasionally llangeroufs to human life vliicli are, nevertheless, not dangerous to the hunter. Crocodiles are far greater pests, and far more often maneaters, than lions or leopards ; but their shooting is not accompanied by the smallest element of risk. Poisonous snakes are fruitful sources of accident, but they are actuated only by fear, and the anger born of fear. The hippopotamus sometimes destroys boats, and kills those in them; but again, there is no risk in hunting him. Finally, the hyena, too cowardly ever to be a source of danger to the hunter, is sometimes a dreadful curse to the weak and helpless. The hyena is a beast of unusual strength, and of enormous power in his jaws and teeth, and thrice over would he be dreaded were fang and sinew driven by a beast with the cruel courage of the leopard. But though the creature’s foul iand evil ferocity has no such backing as that yielded by the angry daring of the spotted cat, it is yet fraught with a. terror all its own; for on occasions the hyena takes to man-eating after its own fashion. Carrion-feeder though he is, in certain places it will enter native huts and carry away children, or even sleeping adults ; and where famine or disease has worked havoc among a people, the hideous spotted beasts become bolder, and prey on the survivors. HORRORS OF SLEEPING SICKNESS For some past Uganda has been scourged by the sleeping sickness, which has ravaged it as in the middle ages the Black Death ravaged Europe. Hundreds of thousands of natives have died. Every effort has been made by the Government officials/ to cope with the disease; and, among other things, sleeping-sickness camps have been established, where those stricken by the dread malady can be isolated and cease to he possible sources of infection to their fellows. Recovery among those stricken is so rare as to be almost unknown, but the disease is often slow and months may elapse during which the diseased man is still able to live his life much as usual. In the big camps, of doomed men and women thus established there were, therefore, many persons carrying on their avocations much as in an ordinary native village. But the hyenas speedily found that in many of the hilts the inmates were a helpless prey. In 1908 and throughout the early part of 1909 they grew constantly bolder, haunting these sleepsickness camps, and each night entering them, bursting into the huts, and ca laying off and eating the dying people. To guard against them each little group of huts was enclosed by a thick hedge; but after a while, the hyenas learned to break through the hedges, and continued their ravages; so that every night armed) sentries liad to patrol the camps, and every night they could be heard firing at the marauders. The men thus preyed on were side to death, and for the most part helpless. But ocasionally men in full vigor were attacked. One of Pease’s native hunters had l been seized by a hyena as he slept beside the camp fire, and part of his face torn- off. Selous informed me that a friend of his/Major R. T. Coryndon, then administrator of Northwestern Rhodesia, was attacked by a hyena but two or three years ago. At the time. Major Coryndon was lying, wrapped in a blanket, beside his waggon. A hyena, stealthily approaching through the night, seized him by the hand, and dragged him out of bed.; hut as he struggled and 1 called out the beast left him and ran off in the darkness. ' In spite of his torn hand, the major was determined to l get his assailant, which he felt sure would soon return. Accordingly, he went back to his bed, drew his cocked rifle beside him, pointing toward his feet, and feigned sleep. AVhen all was still once more a dim form loomed up through the uncertain light toward the foot of "the bed ; it was the ravenous beast returning for his prey; and the major shot and killed it where it stood. A LEOPARD UNDER THE BED. A few months ago a hyena entered the outskirts of Nairobi, crept into a hut, and seized and killed a native man. At Nairobi the wild creatures are always at the threshold of the town, and often cross it. At Governor Jackson’s table, at Government House, I met Mrs. and Mrs. Sandiford. Mr. Sandiford 1 is managing the railroad. A few months previously, while he: was sitting, with: his family, in his own house in Nairobi, he happened to ask liis daughter to look for something in one of the bedrooms. She returned, m a minute, quietly remarking: “Father, there’s a leopard under the bed.” So there was; and it was then remembered that the house-cat had been showing a marked and alert distrust of the room in. question—very probably the leopard had! gotten into the: house while trying tp catch her or one of the dogs. A neighbor with a rifle was summoned, and shot the leopard. - ,