b'Scout continued from page 31and Trooper William Gooding, ordering them to try andCuba. It would be Davis who would bring the Burnham get away and bring back help. By then the small Britishstory to mass American and British audiences through his encampment was under attack from all sides, the Impibook, "Real Soldiers of Fortune."(thousands of warriors) converging down on them. The three riders managed to get away under heavy fire and wereThen once more, Burnham\'s luck ran out. Ordered by incredibly lucky to re-cross the Shangani, even though theRoberts to destroy the railroad track between Pretoria and crossing had been blocked by scores of warriors firing uponLourenco Marques in neutral, Portuguese Mozambique, them. They reached Forbes - but by then it was too late.Burnham was about to reach his target on the early Sometime in the morning of December 4th or 5th 1893,evening of June 2, 1900, when he was surprised while Wilson and 37 brave British soldiers died as Custer did atstill in the saddle by a Boer riflemen who fired, killing his the Little Big Horn, selling their lives dearly in the face ofhorse Stembok. When the dying horse fell, he rolled over over 1,500 Ndebele (Kemper, "A Splendid Savage", p.161). Burnham. In great pain and bleeding heavily, Burnhammanaged to crawl to safety, passing out several times Even as the Ndebele were eventually overwhelmed,during the night due to the intense pain and nausea Lobengula dying of disease in one of his encampments justfrom his wounds. Summoning up enough strength to one month after the Shangani massacre, recriminationsapproach the railway track, Burnham set off his charges were beginning to pile up. Burnham bitterly accused Majorand destroyed the track, then crawled back into hiding. Forbes of not coming to the aid of his fellow Britons, whileHe spent the next three days attempting without any food some of Forbes supporters and other detractors wouldor water, amid intense suffering, to reach British lines. accuse Burnham of cowardice. In Cecil Rhodes\' eyes,Finally, just as he was about to give up, he heard a nearby Burnham and fellow Scout Ingram were considered toBritish patrol and called out to them. When doctors be the only surviving heroes of Wilson\'s lost command.finally examined him, they found that a large abdominal He openly praised the survivors and offered prime landmuscle had ruptured and a blood vessel had burst in his grants and mineral rights to them. For a time Burnhamstomach. If he had eaten or drank anything he would have and his family, now including children, could rest - butbeen a dead man instead of a live American British hero not for long, as in two years later, in March 1896 there(Kemper, "A Splendid Savage", pp.268-272). was another, extremely violent Ndebele uprising. TheNdebele had accepted peace, but British encroachmentFor Burnham, the Boer War was over, and so were any and on their land, the seizure of their cattle, being forced intoall of his miraculous exploits scouting an enemy. Burnham become indentured servants of the colonists, little moremoved his family back home to America (though he never than slaves, and oppressed by the Colonial police causedregretted his African adventures and would often return to the Ndebele to rise again. Controlled by the now long- The legendary Cecil Rhodes the Dark Continent), finally settling down in a Pasadena, dead Lobengula, they did not harm the settlers they cameCalifornia home - but not settling down completely, across during the first Matabeleland War. This time theyRough Riders sailed to Cuba before he could come downas he sought mining claims and made archaeological did, massacring scores of men, women, and children.from the freezing, snow-covered north. Burnham misseddigs throughout much of the world in the following five Once again British forces, with many cannons and Maximthe Cuba War, but while he was in Alaska he had receiveddecades. He accompanied President William Howard Taft guns moved in to suppress the Ndebele in what was anan urgent message from Lord Roberts, the commander ofand Mexico\'s then-dictator Porfirio Diaz and was able to even crueler war than the first one had been. The Ndebele,British forces in South Africa. prevent their assassination in an El Paso hotel by rushing desperate, were overwhelmed and suppressed, but not and seizing a man with a "palm pistol" waiting in the before Burnham had met another remarkable man. RidingAfter an ill-advised raid by Rhodes\' longtime associatehotel lobby for a chance to shoot them down. He sought alongside British Lieutenant Colonel Robert Baden-Powell,Dr. Jameson on the Boers, a war between the British andadventure and being a soldier one last time at America\'s Burnham discovered a kindred spirit, a man of adventurethe Dutch Boers was now inevitable, and upon arrivingentry into World War I, volunteering to organize a as he was, and Baden-Powell himself was fascinated by thein South Africa Lord Roberts gave Burnham an officer\'sbattalion of Rough Riders led by his old friend Roosevelt tales of scouting and hunting Burnham told him alongsidecommission and named him his chief of scouts. Oncebut Woodrow Wilson\'s almost insane hatred of the former African campfires at night. A lifelong friendship beganmore Burnham risked life and limb for the country heRough Rider put a stop to this plan. Losing a young between the two men, and it can be easily commented thathad adopted even though he was American tried anddaughter during the 2nd Ndebele uprising to starvation at the Scouting talks and the joy of outdoor life the Americantrue. Remembering an exploit of one of his relatives whobesieged Bulawayo, and a son, Roderick, who drowned in scout told the British officer was a major, if not the mostboarded a hollow log, then sailed down the Mississippi tothe Thames River during one of Burnham\'s business trips important influence that led Baden-Powell to create thereconnoiter the Confederate fortress at Island Number 10,to London in 1904, he and Blanche would settle down to first Boy Scouts just a few years later. In fact, Baden-PowellBurnham stitched a cowhide around him as to resemblea much more mundane but a fabulously rich (Burnham actually adopted Burnham\'s Stetson and neckerchief asa dead cow, then floated near a Boer encampment tohad secured the drilling rights to the Dominguez corridor symbols for his embryonic organization (Kemper, "Aascertain the size. He spent many nights behind enemysouth of Los Angeles, the ground teeming with oil riches) Splendid Savage", p. 210). lines, fighting in an Imperial War many of his fellowlife with their surviving family. Blanche would pass on inAmericans were opposed to. 1939. Burnham would remarry, this time to his devoted Burnham had been away from America for over 3 years, Secretary, Bo Willis, before finally crossing the great and now with children that his mother had never seen,And then his luck ran out. Trying to alert a British forcedivide himself, boots off, at his Montecito mansion, aged decided to go home for a spell. By then his African exploitsopenly crossing land covered by Boer Mausers, he waved86, on September 1, 1947.had become well-known in the scouting and huntinga red neckerchief in vain, and was captured by the Boers,circles of American society, and many were fascinated bywatching with horror as the British, who never saw hisThere are many more facets to the fascinating biography the true tales of someone who had scouted and foughtfrantic waving, rode right into a trap. Choosing to fight,of a man who inspired writers, hobnobbed with outlaws both the Apache and African tribes. One such man wasthe British cavalry was decimated by the rapid-fire of theand presidents, fought Apache and African warriors, an the personable president of the New York "Boone andmausers. Taken back by the Boers, Burnham encounteredoptimist who through triumph and tragedy became a man Crockett Club," a rising young politician who had spenta Boer officer who claimed to have known him fromwealthy in both riches and spirit. But we must stop here.some time up in the Dakotas as a working Cowboy.Rhodesia. Burnham knew he had to get away, knowingThat man was the 39-year-old Theodore Roosevelt,that the Boers would exploit the capture of the chief ofSo how did this writer become fascinated by the and he invited Burnham to be his guest for lunch at hisBritish scouts. Finding an opening in the wagon thatBurnham story, not even knowing of his connections prestigious club. Once more, another prominent man waswas carrying him to a Pretoria prison, Burnham slippedwith Arizona or the fact that Mount Burnham, in the fascinated by Burnham\'s regaling of desperate scouts andbeneath the wagon, barely avoiding being kicked by oxen.San Gabriel Mountains, just five miles from downtown hunting exploits, as well as his opinion of British ColonialHe then made his escape back to British lines where heSan Dimas, California where he once worked for almost expansion, and once more another lifelong friendship waswas reunited with his old friend Lord Baden-Powell, nowa decade, had been named for the man who should have made over an exquisite luncheon. the hero of the siege of Mafeking (his other British friendbecome a much more famous name in this country? Itsand benefactor, Rhodes was at the same time also besiegedsimple. At the age of nine he "borrowed" a book from Burnham went back to Africa, secured a few more miningby Boers in his mining town Kimberly). his kind neighbors, Alma and Gene Bergeron, who rights, and then upon hearing of the Klondike Gold passed on years ago - and that book was Richard Harding Rush rushed home to America, going north to Alaska toSo once again Burnham joined the British forces as theyDavis\'s "Real Soldiers of Fortune." Throughout the book seek gold and more mining claims. While in Alaska headvanced north, finally turning the tide against the Boers.(which alas, this writer no longer has) were the tales of learned of the outbreak of the Spanish-American WarHe made yet another acquaintance who would become aAmericans who sought service in the armies and navies and immediately offered his services to his new friendgood friend, an American War correspondent by the nameof other countries, and it was the story of Burnham, Roosevelt, who was just then forming the Rough Riders.of Richard Harding Davis, then accompanying the Britishdead center in the middle of that book that caught his But Alaska was way too far from San Antonio, even moreArmy after leaving Roosevelt and the Rough Riders inattention. It is a story that had its roots in scouting along so from Tampa, and to Burnham\'s everlasting sorrow theArizonas very own Tonto Rim. 32 January 2020'