CAMP FIRE YARNS
OF
THE LOST LEGION

T. F. KYNNERSLEY, ESQ., OF LEIGHTON, SALOP, D.L., J.P., AND LATE CAPTAIN AND S.O. LONSDALE’S HORSE.

CAMP FIRE YARNS
OF THE LOST LEGION

BY
Colonel G. HAMILTON-BROWNE
“MAORI BROWNE”
Late Commandant in Colonial Forces

Author of
“With the Lost Legion in New Zealand”
“A Lost Legionary in South Africa”

LONDON
T. WERNER LAURIE LTD.
CLIFFORD’S INN

THIS SKEIN OF YARNS
IS DEDICATED TO
MY OLD FRIEND AND COMRADE IN ARMS
DURING 1877-78-79
THOMAS F. KYNNERSLEY of Leighton, Co. Salop
D.L., J.P. and Late Capt. and Staff Officer
in Lonsdale’s Horse
WHOSE FONDNESS FOR A GOOD STORY IS AS
KEEN NOW AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS
OF YORE WHEN IN BIVOUAC OR
CAMP WE USED TO
SPIN THEM

PREFACE

In introducing these yarns let me state that now I am laid up on the shelf my thoughts go back to those days and nights of the veld and bush, and I frequently feel I would give all the rest of the map if I could again find myself on the open lands of the frontier with a good horse between my knees and a few score of the old boys behind me. Now I hold pen instead of carbine and revolver, but why should memories of the old days pass away? Let me fancy I sit by the camp fire again, telling yarns as we used to under the dark blue skies and blazing stars of South Africa.

Let me spin you some yarns of the Lost Legion.

CONTENTS

[PART I]
CHAPTERPAGE
I.The Maori as I knew him[1]
II.How Matene failed to convert the Lower Wanganui[53]
III.How a Scout won the New Zealand Cross[73]
IV.A Hau Hau Martyr[84]
V.A Brush with Bushrangers[92]
VI.The Scout that failed[106]
VII.Some Miraculous Escapes I have known[125]
VIII.A Tough Swim in Bad Company[137]
IX.Held up by a Bushranger[146]
X.On the Scout in New Zealand[150]
XI.The Colonel’s Fiery Tot[161]
XII.Lost in the New Zealand Bush[164]
XIII.The Trooper’s Regard for his Trust and Horse[177]
XIV.A Gruesome Flute[182]
XV.The Doctor and the Sentry[187]
XVI.How Kiwi saved his Clothes and the Governor lost his Dinner[192]
XVII.A South Sea Bubble[202]

[PART II]
I.The Début of the Lost Legion in Natal[215]
II.A Queer Card[232]
III.A Conversion that failed[257]
IV.Jack Ashore in 1871[265]
V.The Conversion of Mike O’Leary[275]
VI.Bushed[283]
VII.The Non-Com.’s Revenge[293]