The Man-Eaters of Tsavo (Colonel J. H. Patterson)

Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O., The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. With a Foreword by Frederick Courteney Selous. London: Macmillan Kenya, 1992.

Paperback, card wraps, 339 pages, illustrations in the text.

Slightest rubbing to the covers, text browning as usual. Very good condition.

Facsimile reprint of the 1907 original edition.

A classic of East Africa.

As a record of adventures of big game hunting, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo has become a classic. In 1898 the author was sent by the Foreign Office to take charge of a section of the railway being built from Mombasa to the interior of Uganda. The man-eaters referred to in the title were two lions who for nine months waged a savage though intermittent war against the railway and in the end actually succeeded in stopping work for a period of three weeks. Before Colonel Patterson had methodically hunted down and killed both lions, they had managed to carry off and devoured a number of workmen and the locals had come to believe they were not beasts but devils.

Besides this account there are also other stories of man-eating lions and of the hunting of other creatures on the African big game trail as well as considerable information on local tribes and customs. The author's own photographs decorate the text. First published in 1907 and now reissued it will appeal both to those, young and old, who have a taste for endurance and quiet courage in the face of danger and all those with an interest in Africa and the world which is now so profoundly changed.