238 ON SAFARI 



Simba means " Lion "), as the following extract, in the 

 breezy colonial journalism of the Globe Trotter (Jmie 6, 

 1906), will serve to show — 



" The lions of East Africa appear to be watching 

 the progress of civilisation with deep interest, and 

 nothing has done more to arouse their curiosity than 

 the trains on the Uganda railway. The railway from 

 the Indian Ocean to Victoria Nyanza is 584 miles long, 

 and betw^een the terminal points are thirty-nine stations. 

 The line is managed on the system of the Indian 

 railways, and most of the men in the track, train and 

 station service are East Indians. The Indian station- 

 agent is known as a babu, and he leads a lonesome life, 

 Simba, for example, w^here the lions have been making a 

 special study of the railway station, has only a station 

 building, a water-tank for the engines, and a siding, this 

 being one of the places where trains pass each other on 

 the single-track road. 



" The trouble began at Simba eleven months ago — 

 in July 1905 — when the traffic-manager at Nairobi one 

 morning received this astonishing telegram from the 

 babu at Simba — 



" ' A lion has been bothering me for three niohts. 

 He comes up on the station platform and goes to sleep. 

 Then he walks up and down, scratches on the wall and 

 door, and tries to get into the office. Please send 

 cartridges for a Snider rifle by the first train for my 

 protection. I have blank cartridges, but they are of no 

 use against lions.' 



" This profound observation has the ear-mark of sober 

 truth. Whether the lion desired to buy a ticket or 

 whether a fellow-feeling for the lonesome babu induced 

 him to try to cultivate his acquaintance is not known, 

 but it is quite certain that blank cartridges were not 

 appropriate ammunition, and that bullets were in 

 demand. 



"It is to be supposed that these were promptly sup- 



