With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



In the punitive expedition undertaken by the colonial 

 police, who had been strongly reinforced from the coast, 

 some most remarkable individual cases of heroism were 

 shown by the rebels. A warrior of the Meru Hills, 

 when asked : " Did he not fear to struggle in vain 

 against the all - powerful European arms ? " answered 

 laconically, " I know no Europeans ; I know only myself, 

 my spears, my wives, and my cattle." 



And one of the chiefs who were executed, named 

 Meli, would not allow himself to be pushed down by 

 the Askari from the plank to the gallows, but sprang, 

 with the rope round his neck, to his death, calling out 

 with his last breath to the Commandant, " Kwaheri 

 Bwana ! " 



Four years later, in the autumn of 1903, I once more 

 found myself on the other side of Kilimanjaro, far out 

 in the desert, with my caravan of about one hundred 

 and twenty men, with perhaps thirty armed. 



It was not unknown to me that Masai Ol Morani 

 about a year before then had massacred at night, not 

 far from my camping-place, a caravan consisting of three 

 Greek traders and a number of blacks, and had stolen 

 all the cattle belonging to it. Only one of these Greeks, 

 an old man, who had had the presence of mind to feign 

 death on getting a spear-wound in the thigh, escaped. 

 In a trice the Masai had driven off the cattle into the 

 dark night. After some time the wounded man, hearing 

 nothing more, crept up to one of the camp-fires, warmed 

 himself as well as he could in the cold night, and next 

 morning was carried to the fort at Meru Hill by some 



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