WHITE TREASURE

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1929, Page 9

WHITE TREASURE

LODESTONE OF THE JUNGLE. LEGENDS OF TIPPOO TIB. There are rigid restrictions in East Africa on elephant hunting. Abdulla, an Arabian outlaw, long thought dead, reappeared recently, with ivory. He always disregarded these mandates in the past. His stronghold in Somaliland was long the bane of those in charge. Many years ago he was driven from his lair by a large expeditionary force, his band wiped out, and he himself supposedly killed. What explanation had he to make for his suddenly acquired wealth of forbidden ivory? Blandly he affirms: It, is the secret wealth of Tippoo Tib. Tippoo Tib is another name written large in 'the annals of the Dark Continent.

Secret stores of ivory are to the jungle what sunken galleon and pirate gold are to the sea. It is a popular saying that the body of an elephant dead from natural causes never yet has been found in the African jungle. Natives and white men believe the monster animals bury their dead in common pits. If the location of one of these is discovered, the accumulated tusks of centuries will be found, making the finder wealthier than Croesus, Midas and Plutus combined. Tib’s store is said to contain a billion dollars’ worth of the white treasure of the wilds. It is part of the spoils of his many, plundering expeditions into the heart of the Congo. He was half negro, half Arab, an adventurer, a trader in slaves and ivory. In his day, a little over a quarter of a century ago, there was no law in the jungle —unless that .aw was Tippoo Tib. Stanley knew Tib; in fact sought his advice on trails through the unmapped lands. * Merciless and cruel in his dealings with natives, he always exhibited a friendly interest in Europeans and their expeditions. Therfe was a touch of mockery in his language and manner, but he never opposed the white man’s invasion of his dominions.

The supply of ivory has greatly diminished since Tippoo Tib used to return from the hunt with a string of shackled slaves, each bearing an elephant tusk on his shoulder. Restrictive measures weic introduced that brought into being the poacher bands —“a hard-bit set, the world’s toughest vagabonds.” Some years ago a company of these marauders were wiped out by French authorities, and £20,000 in contraband ivory confiscated.

It is, of course, possible that the returned outlaw -located one of Tippoo Tib’s secret lairs, for he once was a member of that desperado’s band, and may have had some inkling as to the whereabouts of the treasure-trove. But his reputation is against him.