THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE 9 



him with the negro who dwells in Africa untouched, or but 

 lightly touched, by white influence. 



In such a community as one finds in Mombasa or Nairobi 

 one continually runs across quiet, modest men whose lives 

 have been fuller of wild adventure than the life of a viking 

 leader of the ninth century. One of the public officials 

 whom I met at the Governor's table was Major Hinde. 

 He had at one time served under the Government of the 

 Congo Free State; and, at a crisis in the fortunes of the 

 State, when the Arab slave traders bade fair to get the 

 upper hand, he was one of the eight or ten white men, repre- 

 senting half as many distinct nationalities, who overthrew 

 the savage soldiery of the slave-traders and shattered beyond 

 recovery the Arab power. They organized the wild pagan 

 tribes just as their Arab foes had done; they fought in a 

 land where deadly sickness struck down victor and van- 

 quished with ruthless impartiality; they found their com- 

 missariat as best they could wherever they happened to be; 

 often they depended upon one day's victory to furnish the 

 ammunition with which to wage the morrow's battle; and 

 ever they had to be on guard no less against the thousands 

 of cannibals in their own ranks than against the thousands 

 of cannibals in the hostile ranks, for, on whichever side 

 they fought, after every battle the warriors of the man-eating 

 tribes watched their chance to butcher the wounded in- 

 discriminately and to feast on the bodies of the slain. 



The most thrilling book of true lion stories ever written 

 is Colonel Patterson's "The Man-eaters of Tsavo." Colonel 

 Patterson was one of the engineers engaged, some ten or 

 twelve years back, in building the Uganda Railway; he 

 was in charge of the work, at a place called Tsavo, when it 



