Pioneering

Pioneers are men who go ahead to open a way in the jungle or elsewhere for those coming after them.

When I was on service on the West Coast of Africa, I had command of a large force of local scouts, and, like all scouts, we tried to make ourselves useful in every way to our main army, which was coming along behind us. We not only looked out for the enemy and watched his moves, but we also did what we could to improve the road for our own army, since it was merely a narrow track through thick jungle and swamps. So we became pioneers as well as scouts. In the course of our march we built nearly two hundred bridges over streams, by tying poles together.

But when I first set the scouts to do this important work I found that, out of the thousand men, a great many did not know how to use an axe to cut down trees, and, except one company of about sixty men, none knew how to make knots - not even bad knots.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

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