In 1898, the British decided to send Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson to build the railway bridge over the Tsavo river. In the March of the same year he set forth with about a thousand Indian workers to finish the job at hand. The job was to take a few months but it ended up taking more than one year. His greatest problem was the mane less lions of the Tsavo who were waiting to devour any human being who dared cross their path. This the Lieutenant did not know of course. He almost did not make it back home but a hundred of his workers were not as lucky as he was.

The two man eaters would prey on the Indian workers at night. They would ambush them from their sleeping quarters at night, drag them in the bushes and maul them to death and eat some of their body parts. The workers tried building a safety wall of thorns around the sleeping quarters but these dangerous creatures were not afraid of the thorns piercing their flesh as they made their way through the thorn fence to the Indians. They also tried to make campfires at night but this too did not help.

Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson had to think fast of how to get rid of these man eaters as they were a major problem to the workers and most of them had even fled the construction site. He tried trapping them but he was not successful. H e also tried to ambush them from a tree at night but this too was not bearing fruits. After months of agony, he shot and killed the first lion on the 9th of December the same year and the other lion, he killed three weeks later. The work on the bridge resumed and it was completed the following year. He kept the trophies as souvenirs but sold them to the Chicago field Museum where they can be publicly viewed to date.

Dickson is the Chief Tour Guide and one of the Directors of Adventure Africa Expedition. For more information on his work please visit http://advenafrica.com/index.htm