Ill THE TSAVO MAN-EATERS 49 



when the Hon first seized him, but fortunately had 

 not suffered any further injuries, and was able to 

 proceed with his friend to Salisbury as soon as the 

 moon had risen. He had to be sent to the Hos- 

 pital on his arrival there, as, although his hurts were 

 not very serious, any wound inflicted by the teeth 

 of a lion is, as a rule, very difficult to heal unless 

 carefully attended to at once and cauterised with a 

 strong lotion of carbolic acid. Dr. Livingstone has 

 described how he suffered for years from the bite of 

 a lion ; and I have myself seen wounds from the teeth 

 of one of these animals in a horse's neck, which had 

 never been properly attended to, still suppurating 

 thirteen months after they had been inflicted ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, I have seen wounds from the 

 bite of a lion, which were cauterised at once, heal 

 up very quickly and never reopen. 



Of all the lion stories that I have ever heard or 

 read, I think none equals in dramatic interest the 

 thrilling narrative of Mr. J. H. Patterson's^ experi- 

 ences with two man-eaters during the construc- 

 tion of the Uganda Railway in 1898. This very 

 remarkable story, a brief account of which I first 

 read some years ago with the most absorbing 

 interest in the Field newspaper, has now, I am 

 glad to say, been incorporated in the record of his 

 experiences in East Africa which Colonel Patterson 

 has recently published under the title of The Man- 

 Eaters of Tsavo. Mr. Patterson (as he then was) 

 at last succeeded in ridding the country of both of 

 these dread beasts, but not before they had killed 

 and eaten twenty-eight Indian coolies employed upon 

 the construction of the Uganda Railway, and caused 

 such a panic through the country-side, that at one 

 time it looked as if the building of the railway would 

 have to be abandoned altogether for the time being. 



^ This gentleman greatly distinguished himself in the late South African 

 War, and is now Lieut. -Col. Patterson, D.S.O. 



E 



