Seeking African Gold and Game 
II.—A Meeting of Old Friends in the Desert— 
The African Jigger—A Cow Elephant 
that Charged 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
A FEW days afterward Eli told me that not 
many miles away another Bwana (mas¬ 
ter) was camped. He had gathered this 
from the natives and as it was not out of my way 
I determined to go over and see who it was. On 
the evening of the second day I reached his camp, 
and.in spite of his changed appearance I recog¬ 
nized an old schoolmate. Who would have thought 
of meeting an acquaintance miles away from any¬ 
where and in the wilds of Africa? To my great 
surprise he recognized me at once and remembered 
my name. Some people are blessed in that way. 
A good many years ago I remember being in 
the club at Vancouver, B. C., and recognized an 
old master from my school (Charles Lonse). 
He looked at me for a few seconds and then 
said : “Oh, I know you. Let me see; Lethbridge 
is your name, and initials J. A. M.” Yet it must 
have been at least eighteen or twenty years since 
he had seen me and he had known thousands of 
boys besides. It is a wonderful gift. 
This man told me that he had been out several 
months and was making his way south, taking 
it easy, and that he was going home as soon as 
he could get back to a railway line. He had had 
good sport and killed two magnificent elephants, 
besides any amount of other game and had got 
together a fine collection of trophies. I stayed 
with him for three days, resting myself and the 
caravan and having a real good loaf. He said 
that there was no doubt gold in and around Lake 
Rudolph, which was now at no very great dis¬ 
tance, but he thought lack of water would neces¬ 
sitate my turning back, and added that in his 
opinion I ought to have planned this trip in the 
rainy season. To this I did not agree, as if I had 
come during the wet season I should never have 
been able to cross the rivers. 
There was plenty of game there to keep us 
going, but not nearly as much as further east, 
and comparatively few lions, although he killed 
a fine male the following day. As we had plenty 
of boys we determined to have a drive, and as 
there were some large reed beds, it was very 
probable that we should come across one or 
more; at any rate we should have sport of some 
kind. The first patch yielded nothing, but in the 
second we had more fun. It was a big triangu¬ 
lar piece of reeds in some places very wet; too 
much so, I thought, to make good lying for lions. 
The beaters spread out and entered at the base, 
driving toward the apex, each hunter taking a 
side. They had only been in about three minutes 
when a hyena came out my side, but as it got 
behind a small rise, I had no chance to shoot. 
Shortly after a lion and a lioness broke cover 
on his side. He fired twice at the lioness, miss¬ 
ing her each time, but bowled over the lion first 
shot. This was a fine male in prime condition 
with a fair mane. We tried several more 
patches, but saw no more lions, although the 
female had disappeared into one that we after¬ 
ward drove, but evidently she had moved on. 
On another day we started out up stream and 
after going about eight miles came to a fine 
sandbar where I panned out most carefully sev¬ 
eral pans of dirt, but always with the same re¬ 
sult, a color and no more. I felt a bit disheart¬ 
ened at this, and as my friend. was leaving on 
the morrow, I very nearly decided to go with 
him. That night we had our parting dinner and 
I sacrificed my last bottle of Scotch whiskey, 
though I still had some brandy to fall back on. 
Some of my boys wanted to turn back with him 
and I had a little difficulty with them, but that 
was soon over and we went our different ways. 
For a time I was very blue, and on reaching 
camp that night took thirty grains of quinine 
to back me up. To drive away my melancholy 
thoughts I made a long march, although the heat 
was intense, and on getting to camp and after 
supper 1 was mighty glad to turn in and slept 
like a top. 
When hunting or being out I always let my 
boys examine my feet every night for that 
curse of Africa, the “jigger.” In spite of every 
precaution it is hard to keep him away and 
once under a toe nail and not discovered, look 
out for trouble. A native boy knows more 
about taking out these insects than anybody, 
and with a wooden match with the useful 
end burnt off he can generally take out the 
sack of eggs without breaking the sack. This 
is the secret. Should the sack be broken and an 
egg left in, you will soon know it. Your toe 
will begin to fester and you are in for a bad 
time. There are all sorts of cures for these, 
but I think when you cannot get paraffin oil, a 
good disinfectant such as Condy's or carbolic 
acid just to put in the little hole, is the best. I 
once had one in the sole of my foot, and as I 
was on my way home I thought the ship’s doctor 
could find it, but it got worse and worse, and 
on my arrival in London I had to walk with 
crutches and it was several weeks before I could 
put my foot to the ground. 
That night he took out a large sack of eggs, 
and although I used carbolic that toe gave me a 
deal of pain for several days. Precaution is bet¬ 
ter than cure. One should never walk about in 
bare feet under any consideration and should 
never leave his socks on the ground. 
I shot a hartebeeste in the evening and set a 
gun, and the following morning found a hyena, 
but hi's skin was useless, for he was in bad con¬ 
dition, absolutely emaciated, though a young ani¬ 
mal. In the small ponds and sloughs we passed 
were any number of ducks and the ubiquitous 
coot. This bird seems to be found almost all 
over the world—in Europe, America, Africa and 
India. Ducks and guinea fowl made a pleasant 
change from everlasting meat. The flesh of the 
clik-dik is to my mind overestimated. They 
are a beautiful little animal, but the meat is very 
dry and not as good eating as a jack rabbit. 
The following day we came to a large village 
where I bought an ox. People who have never 
lived on wild meat for a long time cannot im¬ 
agine what a change beef makes, or how wel¬ 
come it may be. 
The natives here had all sorts of flocks, cattle, 
goats and sheep, donkeys and camels, and I got 
a large sauce pan of milk. The natives were 
very kind and friendly, eager to do anything 
asked of them, but they were quite of a superior 
class to the ordinary Kikayu, who are degraded, 
but these people more resemble the Somali or 
Abyssinian. They were very keen to trade ivory, 
but this I did not dare to do, as ivory is a gov¬ 
ernment monopoly. Although one might be able 
to get rid of it, it might very easily cause a 
lot of trouble. It was not worth chancing. Here 
I got some donkeys to help in the packing, but 
I was sorry for it afterward, for they were very 
slow and added to our water difficulty when it 
came not long afterward. I ought instead to 
have bought six or eight camels, but these things 
can only be learnt by experience. When I bought 
those donkeys, only ten I am glad to say, my 
real troubles began. I ought to have known bet¬ 
ter, for I had traveled Africa. I paid off twenty 
porters and congratulated myself on quite a sav¬ 
ing of expense. 
From the commencement there was always 
trouble. I was obliged to build a zareba at night 
to protect the donkeys, which after all never kick 
to do their duty. Neither did the porters, for 
that matter, but they at least marched on, while 
the donkeys required about four men to make 
them do so, carrying only about the loads of two 
