The Tsavo Man Eaters The drive to colonize the African continent in the 19th century led European imperial powers to face difficulties they had never encountered before. One such challenge is that of 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 Africa's rather harsh environment. The story begins with the arrival of Col. John Patterson in Mombasa in March 1898 on the coast of East Africa. All Patterson knows is that he is supposed to help with the construction of the railway through Kenya to Lake Victoria and finally to Uganda. He quickly receives orders to travel to Tsavo, just over a hundred miles from Mombasa, to help build a bridge over the Tsavo River. Upon his arrival he realizes the harsh nature of Tsavo, with its dense undergrowth and rugged terrain. Immediately, Patterson is faced with a number of problems, such as a source of quality stones to help build the bridge and the lion problem. The stone problem is solved quickly, but the lion problem takes much longer. The gruesome nature of lion attacks scares many workers when they come across the bloody remains, usually just a head and a few bones. It turns out that there are two lions responsible for the death. Patterson, an expert big game hunter, begins hunting lions thinking that the "Reign of Terror" will soon end. What Patterson doesn't know is that this man-eater hunt won't end for 10 months. Initially, persecuting the lions proves very difficult as the work camps cover a stretch of railway of approximately 30 miles, thus giving the lions a large territory to hunt and avoid being persecuted by Patterson. Dismay strikes Patterson as the lions always seem to know where he will be waiting for him and decide to attack a different camp. Man-eaters manage to escape every trap set to kill them. Some railroad workers actually escape death in an encounter with lions.