WHITE MAN’S MAGIC

Evening Star, Issue 19062, 3 October 1925, Page 9

WHITE MAN’S MAGIC

EULER OF HALF MILLION SAVAGES ELEPHANT HUNTS IN CANNIBAL ISLAND

The ex-ruler of half .a million African savages has arrived in England (writes the Hull correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’) • H 0 is not, as may be supposed, a picturesque pagan potentate with a, diamond stud through his nostrils and name like a bad cough, but a short, spare, rather timid-looking Yorkshireman named John Boyes. Sheer bluff and ■ “ white _ man’s magic,” performed with the aid of a clock with a musical-box attachment, won him his kingdom; a gramophone and a knowledge of _ sleight-o-hand, wedded to reckless daring and indomitable Yorkshire pluck, enabled him to retain it for three thrilling years. During that time this adventurous “ Quartermaine,” who received practically no schooling and commenced life as a cabin boy and cook aboard a North Sea fishing vessel, ruled the WaKikuyu—one of the fiercest and most treacherous tribes _ in British East Africa—with an iron and despotic hand.

STARTLED SAVAGES. His greatest exploit was the taking of a recalcitrant chief single-handed, armed only with a knob-kerrie and a concealed revolver.

Leaving many hundreds of his own armed soldiers at a distance, he marched straight into the hostile chief’s' village, right to where the dusky potentate was sitting surrounded by warriors, and promptly clubbed him senseless.

With hand on revolver he then awaited the onrush; but his extraordinary pluck had paralysed the savages, who were already aware that he was reputed to possess supernatural powers. One and all threw down their weapons, and Boyes experienced no further trouble from that quarter. But at the apex of his power his reign came to a sudden end. Two British officials arrived on the scene and ordered his arrest on charges of having waged war, personated Government without authority, taken part in six punitive expeditions, and committed daooity. Conviction on any one of these charges meant death. For weeks this King Crusoe languished in an evilsmelling gaol, but when finally he was brought to trial he was honorably acquitted. After these experiences Boyes returned to England. A rover all his life, however, he found it impossible to settle down, and once again he set sail for Africa. This time he tried farming, but it was not long before he was once more seised by the wanderlust, and, leaving his land in responsible hands, he started out on a hazardous elephant-hunting trip to Abyssinia and the Belgian Congo. For nearly fourteen years little or nothing has been heard of him in this country. How he fared after he plunged into the jungle, the thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes ho had, is now made public for the first time in the exclusive story he told me to-day at the home of h is father-in-law at Hull.

“ In order to reach the Congo from Nairobi,” he said, “ I had to_ trek through Kenya, cross Lake Victoria Nyanza, and then strike right through Uganda to the Blue Nile. I had heard that gold had been found in the district, and I determined to have a go at that if the elephant hunting did not come up to expectations. But the prospects or ore soon receded into the background when I arrived at my destination. There was no doubt about the elephant hunt being a success, for there must have been thousands of them. Herd after herd I saw, and the sight fairly made my fingers itch round the trigger. “ Pitching mv camp on the British side of Lake Albert Edward, I started in to do somo fancy shooting. “ At best it was a dangerous job, and to make matters worse most of the natives thereabouts were cannibals, and particularly hostile towards white men. In fact, I was told that if it was a hunter’s luck to escape being gored by the elephants he was almost certain to jump out of the frying pan, so to speak, into the stewpan. The climate was about the worst yon can imagine, and blackwater fever, tick fever, and sleeping sickness were about as common as influenza in England. “ In about a year and three months I shot over 150 'elephants. On one occasion, when I was hunting in the thick bush, I came across two elephants. One I managed to kill, but the other 1 was only able to wound, and later ho made a surprise swoop out of the hush and impaled mo on one of his huge tusks. The next second ho had turned, and his trunk came round like a lash, missing my head by inches. After that I dived into the bush and stopped there until the elephant drew off. WALKED OVER HIM.

“ I had even a narrower escape than this from an elephant when I was trekking up in Abyssinia on another expedition. I was the last man of my party, when suddenly the elephant broke cover and made straight at me. My mule, startled, threw mo off, and by the time I had picked myself up the elephant was not more than three yards away. Quick as a flash I threw my hat at his face and took a header in the bush, thinking he would not follow. But he came on, trumpeting madly, and I thought I was doomed. And then he seemed to step light on top of me, and I closed my eyes. . . . But nothing happened. The great brute had walked clean over me without noticing that I was there. “As I scrambled up, ho saw mo again, and I was thrown into tho air like n stone from a catapult. Fortunately a tree broke my flight, and I hung on to one of the branches and waited until the animal went away. “ On this journey I had considerable trouble with tho Ahyssinians, who frequently were very hostile. At a native village they decided on a lightning strike for double rations.

“ They were stubborn, and said that if they did not get what they wanted thev were going to leaVe mo ,in the lurch. ‘Very well,’ I said, ‘you can clear out straight away.’ “ All this time angry natives from tho village were surging about me. Suddenly the Abyssinian guide who started the trouble walked away with oho of my. mules. I could not shoot him because ho was careful to take cover behind the annual, but I made a big display of my guns, and let it be clear that if there urns going to be a fight I intended to give a good account of myself. n Scared by my bold front, but still spoiling for a scrap, tho natives made a dash at my deserting servants. For a few seconds there was a wild melee, and then my hoys broke away and rushed back to me for protection. They got it, and that finished the trouble as* far as they wore concerned. ABRAHAM MAGIC. “Another time a band of savages, armed with old-fashioned rifles which they carried at full cock, surrounded my caravan and started a war dance, preparatory, 1 suppose, to taking off my head. ■“ When things looked blackest a Somali boy I had with mo calmly walked up to one of the chiefs, took hold of his beard, and said: ‘Abraham!’ What is meant I have not the slightest idea, but it stopped the circus all right.” Before he left Africa for England on his present trip, Mr Boyes made a tour of his former kingdom of WaKikuyu. Very few of his old subjects are left, but the lone white man who organised their array and dealt justice with “ flame and the voice of thunder ” h still regarded with awe. ••JL was rather surprised to find*”

stated Mr Boyes, “ that the tribe heart me no animosity. I asked several X spoke to if they remembered who was the first white man in the country, &nd they said: ‘Yes—Boyes.’ “I also asked them if they remembered what he did, and they replied! ‘Yes, ho burnt whole villages.’ ‘ Surely,’ I said, ‘ho must have been a bad man to do that?’ But much to my usrprise the natives would not have it.” Alas 1 Kikuyu’s former glory and war 5 has passed away. _ The native i now ride about in American motor cars.