"
"He is the best scout we ever had in South Africa!" Carrington
declared.
"Then why don't we get him back there?" said Roberts.
What followed is well known.
From Gibraltar a cable was sent to Skagway, offering Burnham the
position, created especially for him, of chief of scouts of the
British army in the field.
Probably never before in the history of wars has one nation paid so
pleasant a tribute to the abilities of a man of another nation.
The sequel is interesting. The cablegram reached Skagway by the
steamer _City of Seattle_. The purser left it at the post-office, and
until two hours and a half before the steamer was listed to start on
her return trip, there it lay. Then Burnham, in asking for his mail,
received it. In two hours and a half he had his family, himself, and
his belongings on board the steamer, and had started on his
half-around-the-world journey from Alaska to Cape Town.
A Skagway paper of January 5, 1900, published the day after
Burnham sailed, throws a side light on his character. After telling
of his hasty departure the day before, and of the high compliment
that had been paid to "a prominent Skagwayan," it adds: "Although
Mr. Burnham has lived in Skagway since last August, and has been
North for many months, he has said little of his past, and few have
known that he is the man famous over the world as 'the American
scout' of the Matabele wars.
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