[b]OLD NEWS[/b] - [i]October & November[/i]

In 1898 John Henry Patterson, a 29-year-old British army engineer, was commissioned to oversee the construction of a bridge for the Uganda Railway in British East Africa.  Patterson was an experienced overseer of construction projects in British India, where he had built military forts, learned how to speak Hindi, and hunted big game. 

In March, Patterson sailed from India to the port of Mombasa, in what is now the African nation of Kenya, where construction of the railway had begun two years earlier.  The new railroad, financed by British tax dollars, was intended to spur modern commercial development of the interior of East Africa, a region where most trade had previously relied on caravans of slaves trudging with heavy burdens along footpaths.  British officials claimed that the new railroad would suppress the slave trade; they also hoped to outmaneuver Britain's colonial rival, Germany, which was building a competing railway in German East Africa.

When Patterson arrived in British East Africa, 132 miles of tracks had already been laid from Mombasa to Tsavo, a stop on the old slave caravan route.  His job was to build a permanent bridge over the Tsavo River and to finish laying rails for 30 miles on either side of the town.

He arrived late at night, and slept in a doorless bamboo hut near the rail line.  The next morning he rose early.  "My first impression on coming out of my hut was that the whole country was far as I could see was covered with low, stunted trees, thick undergrowth and thorns.  The only clearing, indeed, appeared to be where the narrow track for the railway had been cut."

Patterson started working immediately.  He took measurements for his bridge, found positions for the three stone piers that would support it, estimated the number of men and the quantities of materials he would need, and sent out requisitions.  Soon afterwards, he wrote, "Workmen and supplies came pouring in, and the noise of hammers and sledges, drilling and blasting echoed merrily through the district."

Patterson's workers were all Indians who had come to East Africa on contract to build the railroad.

A few days after work began, Patterson heard a report from his crew that two men, who had mysteriously disappeared the night before, had been carried off and eaten by lions.  Patterson didn't believe the story.  He suspected that the two men had been robbed and murdered by some of their comrades.  The idea that lions would attack men in their tents seemed unlikely.  Patterson believed that lions rarely attacked humans; but Tsavo was a station along the slave route, where sick slaves were often abandoned where they fell.  Lion attacks were common there, possibly because the local lions had learned to feed on the bodies of dead and dying slaves.

Two weeks later Patterson was wakened at daybreak with the news that one of his trusted junior officers, a man named Ungan Singh, had been seized by a lion, dragged off, and eaten.  The body had not been found.  Patterson found lion paw prints in the sand near Singh's tent and "furrows made by the heels of the victim," as he was dragged off.  Another man, who had been sleeping in the same tent, had witnessed the attack.  He said that he lion had suddenly put its head in at the open tent door, seized Ungan Singh, and dragged him into the bushes.

Confident of his own prowess as a hunter, Patterson decided to track the lion and kill it.  He set out immediately with an assistant and tracked the animal through the bushes to the point where he discovered Ungan Singh's remains.  He wrote, "The places was considerably cut up, and on closer examination we found that two lions had been there."

Patterson spent the following night in a tree near where Singh had been seized.  "I had with my me .303 and a 12-bore shot gun, one barrel loaded with a ball and the other with a slug."  Around midnight Patterson heard the roar of lions in the distance; then for two hours they were silent.  He wrote, "All at once, however, we heard a great uproar and frenzied cries coming from another camp about half a mile away."  As he suspected, the lions had claimed another victim.

Patterson spent the next night in a tree overlooking the tent where the second victim had been taken.  As a lure to the lions, he tied a goat at the base of a tree.  He wrote: "A steady drizzle commenced shortly after I had settled down to my night of watching, and I was soon thoroughly chilled and wet...  About midnight I heard screams and cries and a heart-rending shriek, which told me that the man-eaters had again eluded me and had claimed another victim elsewhere.

"Their tactics seemed to be to break into a different camp each night...  No matter in how likely or how tempting a spot we lay in wait for them, they invariably avoided that particular place and seized their victim for the night from some other camp."

Patterson attempted hunting the lions by day, but the wilderness was extremely dense and difficult to move through.  He wrote, "Still I continued to devote all my spare time to crawling about through the undergrowth."

Over two thousand workers were camped along the eight-mile stretch of rail bed on either side of Tsavo as the tracks were being laid.  Patterson wrote that the workers "appeared not to take much notice of the dreadful deaths of their comrades."

He wrote: "Each man felt, I suppose, that as the man-eaters had such a large number of victims to choose from, the chances of their selecting him in particular were very small.

"But when the large camp moved ahead with the railway in April, matters altered considerably.  I was then left with only some few hundred men to complete the permanent bridge over the Tsavo River."

As all the remaining workmen were naturally camped together, the attentions of the lions became more apparent and made a deeper impression.

Many of the workers became frightened and threatened to quit.  Patterson allowed the men to take several days off work to build high thick walls of thorn bushes around each camp.  To discourage the lions, the men kept fires burning, and at each camp a night watchman clattered empty oil tins throughout the night.  Patterson wrote, "In spite of all these precautions, however, the lions would not be denied, and men continued to disappear."

On April 23, after a sleeping man was attacked by a lion at the hospital camp, Patterson and the medical officer, Dr. Brock, moved the patients to a more secure location.  Patterson wrote: "I had a covered goods-wagon placed close to the site which had just been abandoned, and in this Brock and I arranged to sit up that night.  We left a couple of tents still standing within the fenced-in enclosure, and also tied up a few cattle in it as bait for the lions,  who had been seen in no less than three different places in the neighborhood during this afternoon."

That evening, after dinner, Patterson and Brock walked along the rail line one mile to the deserted hospital camp and got into the goods-wagon.  They closed the bottom half of the door and left the top open to see out.  For two hours there was quiet.  Then Patterson heard a noise.  He wrote: "Suddenly, to our right, a dry twig snapped, and we knew that an animal of some sort was about.  Soon afterwards we heard a dull thud, as if some heavy body had jumped over the fence.  The cattle, too, became very uneasy, and we could hear them moving about restlessly.  Presently I fancied I saw something coming very stealthily like towards us...  Under my breath I asked Brock whether he saw anything, at the same time covering the dark object as well as I could with my rifle.  Brock did not answer; then with a sudden bound a huge body sprang at us.  'The lion!' I shouted, and we both fired almost simultaneously--not a moment too soon, for in another second the brute would assuredly have landed inside the wagon. As it was, he must have swerved off in his spring, probably blinded by the flash and frightened by the noise of the double report...  We realized that we had had a very lucky and very narrow escape.  The next morning we found Brock's bullet embedded in the sand close to a footprint; it could not have missed the lion by more than an inch or two.  Mine was nowhere to be found."

After this incident, the rogue lions left the area.  Patterson received reports of lion attacks from further west along the rail line, but at Tsavo no attacks were reported.  The workers gradually became less vigilant, believing that the problem had been resolved.  Then one night, three months later, the lions returned.  Patterson wrote: "A number of men had been sleeping outside their tents for the sake of coolness, thinking, of course, that the lions had one for good, when suddenly in the middle of the night one of the brutes was discovered forcing its way through the wall of thorn bushes.  The alarm was at once given, and sticks, stones and firebrands were hurled in the direction of the intruder.  All was of no avail, however, for the lion burst into the midst of the terrified group, seized an unfortunate wretch amid the cries and shrieks of his companions, and dragged him off through the thick thorn fence.  The other lion was also nearby.  The men fired several shots at the lions but they remained within a short distance, eating their prey."

Patterson stayed up every night for a week at one camp or another, but to no avail.  He wrote: "Either the lions saw me and then went elsewhere, or else I was unlucky, for they took man after man from different places without ever once giving me a chance of a shot at them.  This constant night watching was most dreary and fatiguing work, but I felt that it was a duty that had to be undertaken as the men naturally looked to me for protection."

As word of Patterson's plight spread among the British officers in Mombasa, several of them joined him in hunting parties searching for the lions, but without success.  The attacks not only continued, but the two lions also began entering the camp together, each claiming a victim.

On December 1, Patterson was confronted by an angry delegation of workers who insisted they would not stay any longer.  "They had come from India on an agreement to work for the Government, not to supply food for lions."  Hundreds of men boarded the next train for the coast, shutting down operations at Tsavo.

Those railway workers who remained on the site built shelters on the top of water-tanks, roofs, and girders.  Some men dug pits inside their tents, Patterson wrote, "into which they descended at night, covering the top over with heavy logs of wood.  Every good-sized tree in the camp had as many beds lashed onto it as its branches would bear."

On December 9, Patterson learned that the lions had just slain a donkey in one of the camps, and were not far away.  Thinking that this might be his chance to kill them, Patterson brought a high-powered double-barrel rifle that the superintendent of police had left with him for that purpose.  He stalked the lions and determined that at least one of them was in a certain thicket.  Quickly returning to the camp, he summoned all available workmen and had them bring tom-toms, tin cans, and other noisy instruments.

He wrote: "As quickly as possible I posted them in a half-circle round the thicket, and gave the head man instruction to start a simultaneous beating of the tom-toms and cans as soon as he judged that I had had time to get round to the other side.  I then crept round by myself and soon found a good position and one which the lion was most likely to retreat past, as it was in the middle of a broad animal path leading straight from the place where he was concealed.  Very soon I heard a tremendous din being raised by the advancing line of coolies, and almost immediately, to my intense joy, out in the open path stepped a huge maneless lion.  Slowly he advanced along the path, stopping every few seconds to look round....  As he was oblivious to my presence I let him approach to within about fifteen yards of me, and then covered him with my rifle.  The moment I moved to do this, he caught sight of me, and seemed much astonished at my sudden appearance, for he stuck his forefeet into the ground, threw himself back on his haunches and growled savagely.  As I covered him with my rifle I felt that at last I had him absolutely at my mercy.  ... I pulled the trigger, and to my horror, herd the dull snap that tells of a misfire....  I was so taken aback that I entirely forgot to fire the left barrel, and lowered the rifle from my shoulder with the intention of reloading.  Fortunately for me, the lion was so distracted by the terrific din and uproar of the tom-toms and tin cans behind him that instead of springing on me he bounded aside into the jungle again.  By this time I had collected my wits, and just as he jumped I let him have the left barrel.  And answering angry growl told me that he had been hit; but nevertheless he succeeded once more in getting clear away."

Patterson tracked the lion but lost his trail in a rocky patch of ground.  Hoping that the lions would return the following night to retrieve the uneaten donkey carcass, Patterson had it secured to a nearby stump by heavy wires.  That evening he climbed up onto a hastily constructed platform sitting on four posts--this time with his own rifle.

He wrote: "Darkness fell almost immediately, and everything became extraordinarily still.  ...  I gradually fell into a dreamy mood.  Then suddenly I was startled out of my reverie by the snapping of a twig: and, straining my ears for a further sound, I fancied I could hear the rustling of a large body forcing its way through the bush.  ...   A deep, long-drawn sigh--sure sign of hunger--came up from the bushes, and the rustling commenced again as he cautiously advanced....  For about two hours he horrified me by slowly creeping round and round my structure, gradually edging his way nearer and nearer.  Every moment I expected him to rush it....  I kept perfectly still, however, hardly daring even to blink my eyes: but the long-continued strain was telling on my nerves.  ...  In a short while I heard the lion begin to creep stealthily towards me.  I could barely make out his form as he crouched among the whitish undergrowth; but I saw enough for my purpose, and before he could come any nearer, I took careful aim and pulled the trigger.  The sound of the shot was at once followed by a most terrific roar, and then I could hear him leaping about in all directions.  I was no longer able to see him, however, as his first bound had taken him into the thick bush; but I kept blazing away in the direction in which I heard him plunging about.  At length came a series of might groans, gradually subsiding into deep sights, and finally ceasing altogether."

Patterson suspected that the lion was dead but he decided not to look for the body that night in case the other lion was close by.

The next morning he found the body with two bullets in it.  One had pierced the heart.  He wrote, "It took eight men to carry him back to camp.  ...  The news of the death of one of the notorious man-eaters soon spread far and wide over the country: Telegrams of congratulation came pouring in, and scores of people flocked from up and down the railway to see the skin for themselves."  But Patterson could not rest until the second lion was also dead.
A visiting dignitary, Sir Guilford Molesworth, made an inspection tour of the briege work shortly afterwards.  Patterson wrote, "He was delighted that one of the lions was dead.  When he asked me if I expected to get the second lion soon, I will remember his half-doubting smile as I rather too confidently asserted that I hoped to bag him also in the course of a few days."

Ten days later, on the night of December 27, the lion returned.  Patterson wrote: "I was suddenly aroused by terrific shouts from my men, who slept in a tree close outside my house, to the effect that a lion was trying to get them....  The moon was hidden by dense clouds and it was absolutely impossible to see anything more than a yard in front of one; so all I could do was to fire off a few rounds just to frighten the brute away.  This apparently had the desired effect, for the men were not further molested that night; but the man-eater had evidently prowled about for some time, for we found in the morning that he had gone right into every one of their tents, and round the tree was a regular ring of footmarks.

"The following evening I took up my position in the tree where them men had been sleeping in the hope that he would make another attempt....  Fortunately the night was clear and cloudless, and the moon made everything almost as bright as day.  I kept watch until about 2 a.m., when I roused my gun-bearer, Mahina, to take his turn.  For about an hour I slept peacefully with my back to the tree, and then woke suddenly with an uncanny feeling that something was wrong.  Mahina, however, was on the alert, and had seen nothing; and although I looked carefully round us on all sides, I too could discover nothing unusual.  Only half satisfied, I was about to lie back again, when I fancied Is aw something move a little way off among the low bushes.  On gazing intently at the spot for a few seconds, I found I was not mistaken.  It was the man-eater, cautiously stalking us.

"The ground was fairly open round our tree, with only a small bush every here and there; and from our position it was a most fascinating sight to watch this great brute stealing stealthily round us, taking advantage of every bit of cover as he came.  His skill showed that he was an old hand at the terrible game of man-hunting: so I determined to run no undue risk of losing him this time.  I accordingly waited until he got quite close--about twenty yards away--and then fired my .303 at his chest.  I heard the bullet strike him, but unfortunately it had no knockdown effect, for with a fierce growl he turned and made off with great long bounds.  Before he disappeared from sight, however, I managed to have three more shots at him from the magazine rifle, and another growl told me that the last of these had also taken effect.

"We awaited daylight with impatience, and at the first glimmer of dawn we set out to hunt him down.  I took a native tracker with me, so that I was free to keep a good look-out, while Mahina followed immediately behind with a Martini carbine.  Splashes of blood being plentiful, we were able to get along quickly; and we had not proceeded more than a quarter of a mile through the jungle when suddenly a fierce warning growl was heard right in front of us.  Looking cautiously through the bushes, I could see the man-eater glaring out in our direction, and showing his tusks in an angry snarl.  I at once took careful aim and fired.  Instantly he sprang out and made a most determined charge down on us.  I fired again and knocked him over; but in a second he was up once more and coming for me as fast as he could in his crippled condition.  A third shot had not apparent effect, so I put out my hand for the Martini, hoping to stop him with it.  To my dismay, however, it was not there.  The terror of the sudden charge had proved too much for Mahina, and both he and the carbine were by this time well on their way up a tree.  In the circumstances there was nothing to do but follow suit, which I did without loss of time: and but for the fact that one of my shots had broken a hind leg, the brute would most certainly have had me.  Even as it was, I had barely time to swing myself up out of his reach before he arrived at the foot of the tree.

"When the lion found he was too late, he started to limp back to the thicket; but by this time I had seized the carbine from Mahina, and the first shot I fired from it seemed to give him his quietus, for he fell over and lay motionless.  Rather foolishly, I at once scrambled down from the tree and walked up towards him.  To my surprise and no little alarm he jumped up and attempted another charge.  This time, however, a Martini bullet in the chest and another in the head finished him off for good; he dropped in his tracks not five yards away from me, and died gamely, biting savagely at a branch which had fallen to the ground."

When all the excitement had died down and there was no longer any dread of the man-eaters, work went on briskly, and the bridge over the Tsavo rapidly neared completion.

Patterson was delighted to receive a silver bowl from a delegation of Indian workers.  The bowl was inscribed, "We present you with this bowl as a token of our gratitude to you for your bravery in in killing two man-eating lions at great risk to your own life, thereby saving us from the fate of being devoured by these terrible monsters who nightly broke into our tents and took our fellow workers from our side."

In 1901, his work on the railroad finished, Patterson returned to England.

The completed Uganda railway radically transformed the economy of British East Africa, allowing the development of vast coffee and tea plantations in the Kenyan highlands.  Slavery was suppressed, and a new industry arose to send wealthy tourists on big-game hunting safaris.  The town of Nairobi, founded in 1899 as a simple rail depot along the tracks, grew to be the capital of modern Kenya, with a population of over three million people.

Patterson's bet-selling account, [i]The Man-Eaters of Tsavo[/i], was published in 1907, and has since become a classic adventure story, inspiring three motion pictures: [i]Bwana Devil[/i] (1953), [i]Killers of Kilimanjaro[/i] (1959), and [i]The Ghost and the Darkness[/i] (1996).

The two man-eating lions' skins were later sold to the Field Museum on Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, where they are still on display.