by Joy Adamson
The state of my leg made it impossible for me to join Makedde and Nuru in searching for the cubs. I tried to make the best of my handicap by telling myself that it would at least prevent me from interfering, and that this was a good thing because if the cubs had been adopted by a pride any disturbance might cause their foster-parents to abandon them. Still, I did not know that they had joined up with a pride and the uncertainty was distressing.
Another two days and nights passed without news of the cubs, then George returned. He at once made a search which proved fruitless. Next morning he and Nuru set out again and found that the cubs had joined up with a young lion or lioness. Feeling sure now that the cubs had been adopted by a pride, George did not pursue them for fear of upsetting the foster-parents.
We began to believe that they had themselves solved the problem of their future, for we had not seen them for twelve days.
29. The Cubs in Trouble
On 16 March George and Nuru left early for their daily search.
I was alone in camp when two Game Scouts and an informer arrived to report that during the night of 13–14 three lions had attacked the bomas of tribesmen on the Tana River and mauled four cows. The Africans had tried to drive them away with stones, fire and wooden clubs, but they had persistently returned. They believed that the raiders were Elsa’s cubs and they begged George to come and dispose of them.
I immediately sent the men to contact George, which they eventually did by firing shots. They all returned to camp and after lunch set off for the scene of the raids.
In all there were eight bomas within a short distance of each other; they consisted of groups of small circular mud huts protected by a shoulder-high thorn fence some six feet wide. The country surrounding the bomas was dense bush, which meant that a lion could approach the huts without being seen. The bomas were close to the Tana River, where the tribesmen watered their stock.
George saw the spoor of a lioness; she had entered an almost impenetrable thorn enclosure and then forced her way out of it. He then tried to examine other lion spoor, but had difficulty in doing so as most of the pugmarks were obliterated by cattle tracks. However, he managed to trace the lions back to the place on the river bank where they had drunk. He continued down river expecting to find fresh spoor where they had probably drunk during the preceding night, and was not disappointed, for he came upon new pugmarks recently made by three lions.
With two scouts and a guide he took up this spoor. About an hour later they were casting about in a dry watercourse covered with thick vegetation when suddenly about ten feet away he saw a lioness lying asleep, partly concealed by the trunk of a tree. He watched her for several minutes; she looked like a mature lioness. A scout who was a few paces behind signalled to George and tapped his rifle. He looked at it and found that he had forgotten to load it. Even the clatter of the bolt as he loaded it failed to wake the sleeping animal. In a whisper the scout urged George to shoot, saying that it was a full-grown lioness. It would have been very easy to put a bullet into her brain. But something made George hesitate. Suddenly, the lioness sat up and looked straight into his eyes. She wrinkled her face into a snarl, and, giving a low growl, dashed off. Simultaneously, he heard two other lions break away. He felt convinced that these were not our cubs, but was glad all the same that he had not fired, for how could he be quite certain? He called the cubs by name, but there was no response. Facts which helped to strengthen his belief that these raids were not the work of our cubs were the cunning manner in which the lions had attacked the village and forced their way through the particularly strong thorn fence, and also the apparent ease with which the two fully grown cows had been killed. All this suggested the work of experienced lions.
George told the tribesmen to report any further raids immediately, and then returned to camp.
On the following morning George and Nuru went off in the direction of the mouth of the elephant lugga; he saw two cubs resting on an island in the river, but they bolted before he could focus his field glasses. Simultaneously, he heard more lions breaking away. Following their spoor, he came upon the carcase of a young buffalo which must have been killed the night before. Five lions had feasted on it. George felt sure these must have been Elsa’s cubs and their foster-parents. He called to Jespah, and went on doing so for a long time, and thought he heard a faint moan from the far side of the river, but no cub came in sight, so he returned to camp.
The next day a terrible thunderstorm struck and all through that night the downpour continued, and by the morning the river was only just fordable. Nevertheless, an informer managed to get across. He brought a message from the headman of the Tana settlement stating that their stock had again been raided by lions.
On hearing this news George set off in his Land Rover for the scene of the raid. It had been raining so heavily that he was obliged to take a circuitous route. I remained in camp to keep a lookout in case the cubs were still in our area.
Two mornings later I went to Elsa’s grave, and while I was there noticed some movement on the Big Rock. Looking through my field glasses, I saw two lions basking on top of the rock. I walked towards them as fast as my injured leg allowed, and soon distinguished three adult lions and three cubs exactly the size of Elsa’s children. They were on top of the ridge, outlined against the sky. I watched them for several minutes; they were resting quietly together, one lioness licking the cubs who were rolling on their backs and playing. I took some photographs, but fearing that the distance was too great to get good results, even with my telescopic lens, I cautiously advanced towards the pride. When I was within about four hundred yards of them, the lions became alarmed and one after the other disappeared into the gap where Elsa had started her labour. Only one cub remained behind. It crouched with its head on its forepaws, watching me. This behaviour made me think that it was probably Jespah. Unfortunately, as it sat right against the morning sun, I could only see its silhouette and could not pick out any details to confirm its identity with Jespah. When I tried to come nearer, the cub sneaked away.
The idyllic family scene I had witnessed made me feel happier than I had felt since Elsa’s death. Though I could not be quite sure that these were her children with their foster-parents, it seemed too great a coincidence that a pair of lions with three cubs exactly the same age as hers should suddenly have appeared near the camp.
When I returned to the tents I was greeted by two Game Scouts with a letter from George. This is what he wrote:
Got to the settlement on the evening of Sunday 26th, after travelling forty miles over bad roads and eight through thick bush. Managed to get a carcase and sat over it close to a Boma which the lions had raided. No lions came that night. In the morning I made camp some two miles from the village on the banks of the Tana and walked down the river to look for spoor. Saw nothing fresh. Later the Scouts arrived to report that the lions had tried to enter another boma during the night but were driven off. The Scouts had followed their spoor but lost it. Yesterday evening I again sat up over a carcase in a clearing half a mile from this other boma. About 11 p.m. without any warning, Little Elsa suddenly appeared and pounced on the carcase which was fastened to a tree stump. She was followed immediately by Jespah, who had an arrow, fortunately not poisoned, sticking in his rump. Both started to eat. Presently I saw Gopa lurking in the distance. Finally he also came to the meat. They were extremely thin and looked starved. They showed no fear when I talked to them and finished off the diminutive goat in an hour. They frequently came up of their own accord to the bowl of water I had placed close to the back of the car. I am confident that they recognized my voice and I am sure that they will come again tonight. There is no doubt that it is the cubs that have been raiding the bomas. We will have to pay lots of compensation. Send Ibrahim with your Land Rover at once with all my goats, some more food for me, also my small tent, table, chair and my boxes. I must immediately take on a gang of local men to cut a track, and then we will have to move the whole camp and get a lorry h
ere with crates and finally move the cubs out of this district. But the most urgent thing is to send the goats with Ibrahim. If the river is too high, he will have to go the long way round, but he must get here today. The cubs are very hungry and will certainly raid the boma unless I feed them. There is no doubt that all the trouble has been caused by the Fierce Lioness who must have chased the cubs away from Elsa’s camp on 4th March.
Yours, G. Please send all my ammunition.
30. Crisis
When I read this I felt as if all my blood were draining away from me. At first I could not get over my surprise at the extraordinary coincidence that a pride with three cubs of the same size as Elsa’s should arrive in the area just now and thus deceive us into thinking that Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa were still around the camp.
Then I remembered the pride to which Elsa, when she herself was pregnant, had given her goat and acted as aunt. Was it possible that the Fierce Lioness was the mother of these cubs, born perhaps just before Elsa’s? If so, it seemed likely that the area around the camp had been the territory of this lioness before Elsa’s release there. In this case, when the Fierce Lioness discovered a rival – and one that kept strange company with human beings – she might have withdrawn up river and brought up her cubs there. I remembered the day last July, when we were looking for Elsa and thought we saw the family near a baobab tree upstream and were astonished at their strange behaviour. Now I wondered whether we might not have mistaken this lioness, whom we have come to call the Fierce Lioness, and her cubs for Elsa’s family. When, later, she had reconnoitred the camp, she had always come from up river. She had come alone, but she might well have preferred to leave her cubs in safety when she was on a scouting expedition. If this supposition were true, then the Fierce Lioness’s attacks on Elsa were no doubt an attempt to re-establish her right to her old home. On these occasions she had found us in residence as well, and had retreated. But now that Elsa was dead what could be more probable than that she had jumped at the opportunity to chase her rival’s cubs away and take possession of her old territory? However this might be, it seemed almost certain that the pride, this morning, I had taken to be Elsa’s cubs was the family of the Fierce Lioness.
This was an anticlimax to the happiness I had felt a few hours earlier, when I believed the cubs were safe and well and exonerated from raiding the Tana bomas.
How they had managed to survive on their own for several weeks, I could not imagine. They were too young to know how to hunt wild animals successfully and they must have gone through a ghastly period of starvation before they came upon the goats which they would regard as their natural food. The angry reception from the enraged tribesmen must have terrified them. The only hope now was to pay such heavy compensation that they would not be in too great a hurry to get rid of the cubs, and at the same time to find a safe place for the family with the least possible delay.
Since there was no longer anything to keep me in camp, I immediately set off with Ibrahim, a scout as a guide, five goats and all our essential camping material. We were very cramped, and the second scout and the rest of our staff had to take the short cut through the bush on foot.
We jolted along over very rough tracks; the country around looked as though some giant had amused himself by throwing rocks about at random. Now and then we passed small African settlements nestling among enormous boulders; the round earth huts resembled mounds and blended perfectly into the landscape.
We reached the Tana just before dark.
From this point the scout had to guide us on foot over the last eight miles, for the bush was so thick that it was impossible to see any distance ahead or to avoid obstacles.
After two long hours of crashing through the bush, we found ourselves on the bank of a fast-flowing river some 150 feet wide. We took the fanbelt off and plunged down a steep bank, and after a lot of pushing knee deep in water, reached the other side.
Here we found the boma of the headman, but we went on another two miles to George’s camp. There we were told that he was sitting up for the cubs. I dropped all my kit and drove on to join him, arriving at about 9 p.m.
While we waited for the arrival of the cubs, intermittently switching on a powerful spotlight to guide them, George told me about Jespah’s wound.
On the night of the 25th a number of tribesmen set out to kill the lions. They cornered one of them (in fact Jespah) in the thorn enclosure which protected a flock of goats. The lion had killed two of the goats but before it could get away with its spoil it was surrounded by a band of angry tribesmen, armed with bows and poisoned arrows. The lion took cover in the thick thorn fence, and into this the Africans shot about twenty poisoned arrows. Luckily the fence was so thick that the arrows did not penetrate. Only one shot loosed by a toto found its mark. Fortunately the arrowhead was not lethal, as the toto was too young to be trusted by his elders with the deadly poison.
The arrowhead had luckily not penetrated deeply into Jespah’s rump. The barb and three inches of the shaft could clearly be seen running under the skin, one inch of the shaft hung downwards. George hoped that its own weight might cause the head to fall out and, as Jespah could easily lick the wound, there was a good chance of his keeping it free from infection. It did not seem to hinder his movements, nor could it be causing him any pain, since George had often seen him lie on it. The cubs were very friendly and did not object to his presence, but of course there was no question of Jespah allowing him to remove the arrowhead.
George had engaged thirty Africans to cut an eight-mile track along the river; this enabled us to bring up our whole camp in the lorry.
Later we moved the camp, taking care not to site it on the hippo paths.
We then made plans for solving our immediate problem. George decided to sit up at night inside his Land Rover on routes which he thought the cubs would take to reach the bomas; he would have meat placed ready for them. I would do the same at the camp, while the scouts, equipped with thunderflashes, would protect the various bomas. Should any of us see the cubs we would warn George by firing shots: one if the scouts sighted them, two if I did.
When it got dark, George left for his vigil, but on this nigh the cubs took a different route, raided a boma and mauled a sheep; before they were able to feed they were driven off by the scouts’ thunderflashes.
It rained during the night, which made tracking difficult next day. Hoping to guide the cubs to his Land Rover, George dragged a carcase through the bush to it, thinking they might pick up the scent; but next morning it turned out that only hyenas and jackals had come for the meal. Consequently, next night the cubs tried their luck at yet another boma and mauled two goats; again before being able to eat they were chased off.
The rains were due to start very soon and we were worried because, when this happened, we would be immobilized if we did not have a four-wheel-drive lorry. The old Thames lorry was useless in virgin bush and we could not borrow Ken Smith’s Bedford truck for an indefinite time. We also needed a lorry to bring up our camp kit, to help the labour gang and, above all, for the final move when we had caught the cubs. Indeed, for this we should need two lorries; for we saw the convoy as comprising a lorry for the lions, a lorry for our camp kit, and two Land Rovers to carry our personal luggage. It was essential that these cars should not be overloaded in case they were required to tow the lorries through bad patches.
Having talked this over, I decided that I had better go to Isiolo and order a new Bedford lorry, the same size as Ken’s, on which the three travelling crates, already ordered, could be loaded.
Next morning, after hearing that the cubs had tried to raid two bomas but had been driven off before doing any damage, I started off with our faithful Ibrahim.
When I enquired about ordering a new Bedford lorry, I was told that delivery would take about three weeks. This was very inconvenient, so I asked if in case of an emergency we could hire a truck from a safari firm. This I was told was possible, and after making the necessary arrangements I s
tarted back in Ken’s truck to Elsa’s camp to pick up the kit we had left behind and to sleep there.
The night was very still and the soft moonlight blended everything into a peaceful harmony. I lay awake and late in the night heard the cubs’ father circling the camp, whuffing, and afterwards moving to the Big Rock, finally crossing the river. This was the last night I spent in our old camp, which had been like a home to me.
We arrived about teatime, at the Tana, and George greeted me with the news that although he had tracked every day and sat up every night he had not once seen the cubs, but each night they had raided a boma.
George looked worn out with sleepless nights, anxiety and the worry of knowing that his work was piling up at Isiolo, but while the present crisis lasted he could not leave the Tana for a single night.
Next morning a tracker reported the spoor of a single lion heading in the direction of Elsa’s camp, but he had lost the pugmarks eventually by the river opposite the scout post.
That evening about 9 p.m. as George was sitting up over the meat, he suddenly saw Jespah and Little Elsa. They were terribly emaciated and the arrow was still in Jespah’s rump. Neither, however, seemed nervous, and Jespah licked the cod-liver oil out of the pie dish which George held out to him. They ate ravenously and did not leave till 5 a.m. After this, we thought it likely that Gopa had deserted his brother and sister and that it was his spoor the tracker had seen heading in the direction of the old camp.
George spent the rest of the day paying out heavy compensation to the tribesmen; in the evening he waited at a place close to where he thought the cubs were lying-up. It rained all night; the cubs did not appear. Instead, they had gone to the spot where they had seen him the night before, and not finding him there had raided three bomas, killed two goats and mauled six others. In the morning the trackers who were following the spoor caught sight of two bolting cubs.