Man Eaters of Tsavo - 1447 Words

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo The drive to colonize the continent of Africa in the 19th centuries brought the European imperial powers against difficulties which had never been encountered before. One such difficulty is that of the local wildlife in Africa, such as lions or other big game animals. In The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, by Colonel John Patterson, a railway bridge project in East Africa is terrorized by a pair of man-eating lions. This completely true story shows the great difficulty in colonizing Africa by demonstrating the somewhat harsh environment of Africa. The story begins with Col. John Patterson arriving in Mombassa in March of 1898 on the East African coast. All Patterson knows is that he is supposed to help with the†¦show more content†¦An owl mistakes Patterson for a branch of a tree and bumps into him. The lion then tries to attack, but Patterson is able to get a shot off and wounds the lion. Patterson follows the lion and manages to get another hit, thusly b ringing down the lion. The lion dies out in the brush, and then is taken back to the camp where it is skinned. The other lion is killed roughly two weeks later, taking 6 shots from Patterson to finally bring the lion down after a long and difficult struggle. Upon the news of the lions being killed, the workers return to work on the railroad. The railroad reaches Nairobi shortly thereafter. This story has been put into movie format on two occasions, the most recent being The Ghost and The Darkness in 1996 starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Although this book was extremely popular when it was first published, the movies have made the story much more popular (it was my first exposure to the story of the man-eating lions). The movie does capture the basic essence of the terror caused by the lions, but doesn t follow the story as originally told by Patterson, they even create a whole new character. Overall, I enjoy the movie a great deal, but it doesn t follow the actual sto ry close enough for it to be on par with reading the book. This tale is an autobiographical account of the most famous incident of man-eating animals by the man who hunted them, Col. John