GERMAN EAST AMIGA.

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 September 1917, Page 8

GERMAN EAST AMIGA.

■ . : i. » UNHEALTHY AND BARREN. ' EXPERIENCES WITH LIONS. A Hastings lady has got. an inter'esting.letter from her cousin in Africa, dated ‘‘Dodoma. late German East Africa.” He is an officer in the Army Veterinary Department, and he writes from “The Wilderness where 1 am buying live stock for the troops.” •’it is,” he continues, “a. very rotten s ort of job, not a little bit heroic, very hard work, horrible responsibility with the money one carries, and very lonely. Still it is a job that suits me and one that can only be carried out by a man who knows Uiecvmntry and the. language. "Know the language ! Ye Gods ! 1 have, I suppose, spoken a. thousand nigger words every letter that I have spoken in English during the last few years; the thing to do is, to take great care that one docs not get to think like a nigger. Some little time, ago 1 was alarmed to find that 1 had been dreaming in the lingo of a, tribe that

I had a lot to do with in the Congo. To lr • \ myself of that habit T had to sh ,p without a net. and the punhhnient thereby administered cured me very thoroughly. “f so- pose yon read in the papers t!ri( th'-.-i country we are trying to conquer is a. sort of a. ‘Garden of Eden.’ Don't, you believe a word of t. With Hie exception of that hand round Kilimanjaro, 1 would not lake a chunk of land in German East Africa, even if £IOOO a, year went with it. The climate is, the niggers, about the last thing in the human race, the soil ]»oor < and, to make a lof.ig story short, everything in lhe country is the most rotten that 1 have seen during my rather extensive African travel, of over twelve

years 1 . , “Kven (lie lions of Hie eountiy have no pluck. (Thank God!) I'll tell you a lion story. 1 know you won't believe it people never do. I have got. MU) bullocks on hand at the moment. These animals) were placed in their various: zaribas) last night, as usual, the niegers were dished out with their rations, mules and horses l‘ed t myself led, and eventually we were all nice and cosy in bed. 1 had been, warned by sonic passing natives that lions were bad in this locality, hut, as 1 have in> option but to camp here for a few days, 7 took no further notice than to have plenty of firewood handy and the guns all loaded. “About midnight. I awoke with n 1 T of a shock to find there was Hie most unholy din conceivable —niggers 1 vetting cattle stampeding, and lions roaiimr. About half the cattle cleared d(f into the night and the remainder maved in the vicinity of the camp. t got out very quickly nnd i with a corporal, rounded up Hie cattle and I ui. them back in their zariba, i lie noise made frightened the Imiisi find they made off m the scrub and stood snarling and roaring a. few bundled yards awav. I had all the fires lighted and stood at “the ready, and myself and the corporal kept between the lions: and the cattle. The lions were now circling round and trying to gather courage for a dash: there were four ot them. Sometimes- inej would come quite near and we would shoot, them off, but more often they would stay away about a hundred yards off and raise Cain with their roars. 1 here was a bit of a moon, but shooting with any degree ot accuracy was impossible, so 1 decided on purely defensive measures' and simply walked round and round keeping the guns between the lions and Hie eatu.e, mat, although we could not see them, I think they could see us. “And these Herman blast African lions are like their German friends; they were choc en bloc of themselves until they found they bad a hit more than niggers to contend with, arid when they discovered there was the remotest chance of defeat, they funked the fight. “f must admit T was glad they kept away. A lion wound is no joke f>t Hie best of times and, when there,is no medical attention handy, it is, as a. ride the last accident one has. One of our chaps only received a gentle nibble in the leg from a. liorp just in ihe- last gasps. It was a slight wound, as lion wounds go, but it very nearly cost that chap his life. Then, when his life wasi safe, it became a question of how much leg had to go. The man refused amputation and, though he is sHfl in hospital, I think he will recover. “We are all looking forward greatly to this little tin-pot war finishing—it is a. very tiring jolp and no glory to be bad at alb T, myself, feel that I Avon bl like to have at least six months in lied, I am so tired. One gets saturated with malaria, takes quinine in hiuye doses and carries on to. Hie last ounce of strength remaining. The b’o-rrpfit Tore I have is eating. Hie sicilH of food is absolutely repulsive.”