[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOTO I
SIB.,—Under the above heading, you gave in the Spectator of August 16th several remarkable instances of the transmission of news by means of apparently supernatural agencies. May I bring to your notice a case which occurred within my own ex- perience ? In September, 1898, when on special service duty in Sierra Leone, I was in the neighbourhood of Freetown with a detachment of native (West African) troops. I well remem- ber a native sergeant of mine rushing up to my but in a state of frantic excitement, and addressing me as follows :— "Massa, black man tell me of one plenty big fight, many many black men done gone killed. White men all alive 'cept little bit." This highly condensed description of the battle of Omdurman I naturally took to refer to an exaggerated account of one of our trifling " affairs " in the Sierra Leone " bush." But my informant soon put me right. The fight which he was describing had taken place many miles away,— " too many for true, plenty cannon," &c. It was not till the following day that the news of Kitchener's victory, tele- graphed from home, reached Freetown. Sending for my sergeant, I then tried in vain to discover how the news had reached him. But beyond a more or less compassionate regard for my previous ignorance, and an assurance that there were some things about which the black man knew more than the white, I could get little information from him.—I am, Sir,
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