An Afrikander’s Journal 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBR.IDGE 
III.—Adventures with Lions and Leopards on a 
Rhodesian Farm 
T oward the latter part of July, 1906, I 
sent out boys into Mashi Kolumbi coun¬ 
try, Barotseland, to trade and buy up 
what cows they could. 
The ordinary native is very averse to part¬ 
ing with his cows, and to trade for them in the 
usual way is now impossible; in these days it 
is necessary for the trader to carry money, for 
with the ordinary trade goods, such as blankets, 
wire, shells, beads, .Americana, he might buy 
sheep and goats, hut to trade for cows is a dif¬ 
ferent proposition. 
I had implicit confidence in my two boys—- 
it is always best to send out two together—and 
gave them £200 in gold, and orders to do the 
best they could. This they promised to do", but 
tried to impress upon me the difficulties of the 
task which lay before them. 
They were away nearly four months, and I 
was' beginning to become anxious about them 
and my money, when they returned one day 
with thirty-seven nice heifers, and giving them 
one apiece as part wages and part present. I 
told them to herd the rest at a small farm I 
had about six miles from the Police Camp at 
Kalomo. f took a lot of trouble in selecting 
a half-breed bull and had great hopes of mak¬ 
ing these the nucleus of a small herd. But the 
general curse of Africa was on the little bunch 
of cattle, just as it seems to be on everything 
the white man touches in that country. 
Running with this little lot of heifers were 
several cows belonging to the Police Camp and 
private individuals, and because of lions. 1 had 
two armed herd boys always with the cattle, so 
that if any of these brutes bothered, the boys 
could fire and frighten them away at any rate, 
if not doing more serious damage. The farm 
was quite a nice one, very good grazing and 
plenty of running water, an ideal place for 
cattle, if it had not been for these pests. 
Everything went on well for some weeks, and 
although the boys brought in occasional news 
of seeing lions, they had not yet commenced 
offensive operations, and by constant vigilance, 
the cattle were left in peace. Occasionally I 
made a trip out there on the chance of seeing 
a lion, and also to kill meat for the Police Camp. 
The boys one morning brought in the news that 
on the previous day two lions had wandered 
round the herd, but the herders had fired four 
shots and scared them off, and so the following 
morning I made an early start, making up my 
mind to put in the next two days at the farm, 
and during that time to try to get rid of these 
pests. 
The trail from the Police Camp ran through 
small timber and then to open vleis, which were 
usually the feeding places of buck,, of which 
there were a good numher, but on account of the 
nearness of the Police Camp, they knew very 
well how to take care of themselves. I had seen 
several pigs and some hartebeeste, but did not 
shoot for fear of disturbing the lions. I came 
across a half-eaten zebra, evidently killed the 
night previous. By the spoor, there were at 
least two full-grown lions at the feast. Mere I 
determined to set a gun, hoping that the lions 
would return during the night. 
A short distance away I found the cattle graz¬ 
ing, and the herd boy explained where he had 
seen the lions on the previous day, and assured 
me that he had hit one of them, and that they 
were both fine large lions with good manes. I 
told him to get another boy to take his place 
for the day and to come on with me. This he 
did with alacrity, no doubt delighted with 
visions of plenty of meat. These natives love 
meat, and will put away a sheep without any 
trouble at all. they glut like an animal, or rather 
an ordinary animal could not eat the amount 
they do, and should they have added to this a 
little tea or coffee, they are in the seventh 
heaven of delight. Turning my horse out to 
graze in charge of a boy, we started out on foot. 
We went slowly through the timber, and on 
coming to an open space, saw a nice bunch of 
wildebeeste, hartebeeste, sable and roan, and 
picking out a roan bull that presented the best 
shot, I rolled him over. After skinning, we 
covered him up with branches to keep off the 
birds, as these are even worse than the animals, 
and went on up the river. Game of all kinds 
was abundant, but I did not shoot again, as 
killing for killing’s sake is a pastime I have 
never indulged in and never intend to, but as 
I carried a camera, I got several very good 
pictures, which I had duly enlarged, and which 
turned out very well. 
“Inkoos hapa,’’ said my boy, pointing to a 
long tree 150 yards from me, where I saw a 
fine male lion standing broadside on, looking at 
us. and another one was lying down about ten 
paces from him. It did not take me many 
seconds to plant a bullet from my .500 behind 
1 is shoulder, and he dropped without moving 
a step; but the other lion, on hearing the re¬ 
port. jumped up. and although 1 ought to have 
bagged him with ease, I shot over him. Our 
lion was young, fat. in perfect condition, and his 
skin was a good one. We skinned him out care¬ 
fully, made our way back to the farm and got 
together enough boys to carry in the roan meat, 
while I rode to the zebra kill to set the gun. 
There was very little remaining, but I collected 
what was left, and round this fixed up a little 
kraal, and soon had things ship-shape. Doubt¬ 
less, some of you know how to set a gun for a 
lion, a very easy matter and a very deadly way 
of dealing with lions. 
That night will always be a nightmare to me. 
I went to bed early and was awakened by the 
agonized yelping of my old Airedale. I ran 
out with my shotgun, but was too late to see 
anything. The dog was gone; a leopard had 
jumped him. I loved that dog, and made up 
my mind to get that leopard by fair means or 
foul. In the morning I could see that the 
leopard had taken him right from the door. It 
was due to my carelessness in shutting him out, 
and this did not tend to soothe my feelings. 
On going to the kill, I found my gun had 
killed a hyena. All that day I hunted hard, but 
saw no lions. In one place we found where a 
lion had evidently pulled a pig out of its hole 
and killed it. This was the only conclusion I 
could come to, as the burrow was quite shallow 
and it had been dug out. It may have been 
hyenas, but I have never come across a similar 
case to this. 
On getting back, I made things ready to try 
for the leopard. I had sent to the nearest 
kraal in the morning for a dog, which I tied 
up on the stoop, and determined to sit, using 
my shotgun loaded with buckshot as the most 
certain weapon in a bad light. I left the door 
open, of course putting out all lights, and 
waited, sitting close to the door in a chair. 
The wretched dog deemed to know that he was 
being used for a bait and was very restless, 
whining continuously. 
Hour after hour passed, and I was very cold 
and could, with difficulty, keep awake, and had 
just made up my mind to give it up as a bad 
job, when I heard a slight sound coming from 
the end of the verandah. The dog was whining 
piteously and trying his best to get into the 
room, when I caught sight of a shadow, and 
without further ado, let drive. The only answer 
was an angry snarl, and then silence. The boys 
hearing my shot, hurried out of their huts and 
we had a search but could only find a few blood 
spots, and could make out no pad marks on the 
gravel. The boys went back to their huts. 
