The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO AND Other East African
Adventures
BY Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O.
WITH A FOREWORD BY FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE

It is with feelings of the greatest diffidence that I place the following
pages before the public; but those of my friends who happen to have
heard of my rather unique experiences in the wilds have so often urged
me to write an account of my adventures, that after much hesitation I at
last determined to do so.
I have no doubt that many of my readers, who have perhaps never been
very far away from civilisation, will be inclined to think that some of
the incidents are exaggerated. I can only assure them that I have toned
down the facts rather than otherwise, and have endeavoured to write a
perfectly plain and straightforward account of things as they actually
happened.
It must be remembered that at the time these events occurred, the
conditions prevailing in British East Africa were very different from
what they are to-day. The railway, which has modernised the aspect of
the place and brought civilisation in its train, was then only in process
of construction, and the country through which it was being built was
still in its primitive savage state, as indeed, away from the railway, it
still is.
If this simple account of two years' work and play in the wilds should

prove of any interest, or help even in a small way to call attention to the
beautiful and valuable country which we possess on the Equator, I shall
feel more than compensated for the trouble I have taken in writing it.
I am much indebted to the Hon. Mrs. Cyril Ward, Sir Guilford
Molesworth, K.C.I.E., Mr. T.J. Spooner and Mr C. Rawson for their
kindness in allowing me to reproduce photographs taken by them. My
warmest thanks are also due to that veteran pioneer of Africa, Mr. F.C.
Selous, for giving my little book so kindly an introduction to the public
as is provided by the "Foreword" which he has been good enough to
write.
J.H.P. August, 1907.

FOREWORD

It was some seven or eight years ago that I first read, in the pages of
The Field newspaper, a brief account written by Col. J.H. Patterson,
then an engineer engaged on the construction of the Uganda Railway,
of the Tsavo man-eating lions.
My own long experience of African hunting told me at once that every
word in this thrilling narrative was absolutely true. Nay more: I knew
that the author had told his story in a most modest manner, laying but
little stress on the dangers he had run when sitting up at nights to try
and compass the death of the terrible man-eaters, especially on that one
occasion when whilst watching from a very light scaffolding, supported
only by four rickety poles, he was himself stalked by one of the dread
beasts. Fortunately he did not lose his nerve, and succeeded in shooting
the lion, just when it was on the point of springing upon him. But had
this lion approached him from behind, I think it would probably have
added Col. Patterson to its long list of victims, for in my own
experience I have known of three instances of men having been pulled
from trees or huts built on platforms at a greater height from the ground
than the crazy structure on which Col. Patterson was watching on that

night of terrors.
From the time of Herodotus until to-day, lion stories innumerable have
been told and written. I have put some on record myself. But no lion
story I have ever heard or read equals in its long-sustained and dramatic
interest the story of the Tsavo man-eaters as told by Col. Patterson. A
lion story is usually a tale of adventures, often very terrible and pathetic,
which occupied but a few hours of one night; but the tale of the Tsavo
man-eaters is an epic of terrible tragedies spread out over several
months, and only at last brought to an end by the resource and
determination of one man.
It was some years after I read the first account published of the Tsavo
man-eaters that I made the acquaintance of President Roosevelt. I told
him all I remembered about it, and he was so deeply interested in the
story -- as he is in all true stories of the nature and characteristics of
wild animals -- that he begged me to send him the short printed account
as published in The Field. This I did; and it was only in the last letter I
received from him that, referring to this story, President Roosevelt
wrote: "I think that the incident of the Uganda man-eating lions,
described in those two articles you