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AFKICAN HUNTING

LONDON

FEINTED

BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

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Lon.d.on , B:l cliaxa. B entley;lB.6S.

AFRICAN HUNTING

FROM NATAL TO THE ZAMBESI

INCLUDING

LAKE NGAMI, THE KALAHARI DESERT, &c.

FROM 1852 TO 1860

WILLIAM CHARLES BALDWIN. Es<*., F.K.G.S.

With Illustrations by James Wolf and J. B. Zwecker

LONDON

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET

ipublisjwr in (Drbinarg to Her Utajrstg

1863

The right of translation is reserved

£5/

. Bj*]

Scmh03

TO MY BROTHER,

THE REY. T. RIGBYE BALDWIN, M.A.

WHOSE GREAT INTEREST IN MY WANDERINGS

WAS THE SOLE INDUCEMENT THAT LED ME TO TAKE NOTES,

THESE ANECDOTES OF HUNTING ADVENTURES

ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

1852.

1* A till

EARLY LIFE — LAND IN NATAL — FIRST HUNTING EXPEDITION
TO ST. LUCIA BAY . 1

CHAPTER II.

1853.

HUNTING EXPEDITION INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY . , .29

CHAPTER III.

1854.

HUNTING EXPEDITION INTO THE AMATONGA COUNTRY 59

CHAPTER IV.

1855.

A HUNTING TRIP INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY . . . .95

CHAPTER V.

1856.

THIRD HUNTING TRIP INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY

. 112

Vlll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

1857.

PAGE

THE TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC — MERICO COUNTRY — THE MACCA-
TEESEj OR BECHUANAS — SECHELE — THE MASARAS — THE BOERS
— MOSILIKATSE . 142

CHAPTER VII.

1858.

MACHIN — I AM DESERTED — FIRST VISIT TO LAKE NGAMI —
LECHULATEBE — SECHELE’S DAUGHTER — THE BUSH ON FIRE
— MERICO . 231

CHAPTER VIII.

1859.

SICOMO’S — MASARAS — LAKE NGAMI — LOPEPE — RETURN BY VAAL
RIVER — ANECDOTES OF CROSSING THE TUGELA . . . 304

CHAPTER IX.

1860.

RESULT OF A ZEBRA HUNT — REACH MERICO — VISIT SECHELE
— ELEPHANT HUNT — THE BATOKAS — THE ZAMBESI FALLS —
MEET WITH DR. LIVINGSTONE — INTENSE HEAT — ADVENTURE
WITH A LION — AM JOINED BY ENGLISH TRAVELLERS — ACCI¬
DENT TO ENGLISHMEN — RETURN TO NATAL .... 364

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.
27.

PAGE

An Alligator disappointed .

. 10

A Boat attacked by Hippopotamus .

. 19

Asleep in a River ....

. 27

A forced Return ....

To face 39

Knocked from a Hut by a Lioness .

. 47

Shot a Hippopotamus

. 89

Tbe Waggon and Oxen race down Hill

. 97

Bead Alligator dragged into Water by Comrades

. 101

Shot Rhinoceros — Calf and Dogs fighting .

. 107

Inyala, Dogs, and Hyenas

. To face 118

Two Lionesses roaring at me

. 119

Hide-and-Seek with Buffalo

. 123

Stalking Koodoos ....

. 129

Leaped by a Buffalo

. To face 139

A cold Encampment

. 157

Giraffe Himted and Shot

. 172

Black Rhinoceros tossing Dog

. 196

Return to Camp by Moonlight

. 197

Hunting Baboons ....

. 209

Chased up and down Hill by Elephant

. 213

My Beard admired by Natives

. 218

Killing Snakes ....

. 222

Giraffe Hunt — Herd of Buffaloes chasing .

. To face 223

A Giraffe in a Tree ....

. 242

Deserted and alone by Fire .

. 251

Shot Oryx — Dogs wounded

. 256

Native chased by Buffalo Cow and Calf

. 258

X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

28. Elephant chases me .

29. Dining with Kaffir Chief

30. Travel by Moonlight

31. Forest on Fire

32. Hyena chased by Torchlight

33. Crossing the Tugela — A Ducking .

34. Zebra Hunt — Fall with Horse

35. Chase of three Elands

36. Shot a Gremsbok before Horse’s Feet

37. Horseback — Pass by savage Elephant

38. Chased by infuriated Buffalo

39. Chase of Ostrich

40. Lion Shot ....

PAGE

To face 262
„ 266
285
297
351
358
365
To face 376
„ 383

. 386
To face 404
„ 420

. 442

Ionian IticI aril Ben-fl.ey.lS62.

AFRICAN HUNTING

FROM NATAL TO THE ZAMBESI.

CHAPTER I.

1852.

EARLY LIFE - LAND IN NATAL - FIRST HUNTING EXPEDITION

TO ST. LUCIA BAY.

When the following pages taken from my journals
were written, sometimes in ink, but often in pencil,
gunpowder, tea, &c.,in Kaffir kraals or wagon bottoms,
and chiefly for a brother’s eye, I little thought that
they would ever come before the public ; and it is
only now, at the earnest solicitations of my friends —
and almost promises made to many I left behind me
in Natal, who noticed the once short trips grow
longer and longer, till, in my last, 2,000 miles of an
almost unexplored country had been traversed and
the Zambesi reached — that I am now induced, with
some diffidence, to publish them.

Conscious that in going ten years back I am neces¬
sarily travelling over ground already pre-occupied

B

2

AFRICAN HUNTING.

by other sportsmen and travellers, and that the
hospitality of my friends in England, and days with
the Quorn and Mr. Tailby’s, combined with my
natural aversion to any set task, have ill fitted me to
redeem the monotony inseparable from a journal, or
the apparent egotism in that of the lonely traveller, I
nevertheless appear before the public, with the hope
that if again I should return to the land of my adop¬
tion, beginning my travels where I have now left off,
I may hereafter produce something better worth their
perusal.

I feel that I owe a few words of explanation to
my many friends in Africa as to the reasons why
I went there at all, with a page of my earlier life
which may perhaps be omitted by the general
reader. The love of sport, dogs, and horses was
innate in me. From the age of six I had my two
days a week on my pony with the neighbouring
harriers ; until, one unfortunate day, an extra achieve¬
ment, as I considered it, brought a kindly and well-
meant caution to my father from the worthy squire,
which had the effect of sending me off to school.
There I got on, I suppose, much as others, and on
leaving it, being of a roving turn of mind, I was
placed in the large merchant’s office of an ex-M.P.,
with a view of being fitted for going abroad. No
doubt I did my best (though, to say truth, my boats
and bull-terriers, with our beagles, and meetings,
somewhat militated against the duties and discipline
of the office), till at last, upon comparing notes with

WHY I WENT.

3

the junior partner, we arrived at the same conclusion,
viz., that quill-driving was not my particular voca¬
tion, nor a three-legged stool the exact amount of
range to which I was willing to restrict myself
through the sunniest part of life. So I went into
Forfarshire to learn farming — very pleasant, but
ending in what our transatlantic friends term a
difficulty with the master. I changed my location
to a West Highland farm, where on thirteen miles
square of mountain, flood, moor, and lakes, some
two acres of arable land, and two whiskey stills,
the fond parent no doubt imagined that his hard-
worked son was being duly initiated into all the
science and mysteries of light Scotch farming. Be
that as it may, what with the game, fish, and vermin,

my dogs and the round of trysts with old L - ,

than whom a better-hearted fellow never 6 took his
morning,’ I was what might be called master of the
situation. I look upon those years as among the
happiest of my life. But time wore on, and having
no earthly prospect of the command of anything
like a moor or a stud in the old country, I cast
about me for some land of greater liberty (at least
of foot), and had engaged a fine young Scotchman
to go with me ; but while debating whether Canada
or the western prairies of America was to be my
destination, two intimate friends, the sons of a
neighbouring gentleman, who were going to Natal,
advised that colony ; and Gordon Cumming’s book,
which appeared at that moment, and as I thought

B 2

4

AFRICAN HUNTING.

in the very nick of time, settled me at once. My
preparations were soon made ; my little all con¬
sisting chiefly of guns, rifles, saddles, ‘ et id genus
omne.’ Perhaps the only expensive, and as it
proved useless, part of my outfit, was seven deer¬
hounds, purchased from a keeper of Lord Pitz-
william’s, for though Hotspur and Laddie were as
good dogs as were ever slipped, they soon grew
useless and died. The younger ones, being better
acclimatised, did me some good service for a time,
but they, too, soon succumbed to the climate, and
taught me never again to take out what the country
itself can furnish better.

I landed in Natal, December 1851, after a ninety-
two days’ passage. I was most anxious to be
introduced to 6 Elephant White,’ as he was called, a
great hunter ; but whether he earned that title
from his own elephantine proportions, six feet four
inches, or from his prowess with the animal from
which he derived his name, I have yet to learn. I
believe he had been very successful formerly when
elephants were more plentiful, but he had grown
idle, and left the hard work to younger hands.
This Mr. White was making preparations for a
start into the Zulu country, hence my anxiety for
an introduction. No such a thing, however, was
needed in the Colony as it then was, and my dogs
proved sufficient introduction to a brother sports¬
man. I made, I believe, some ridiculous offer, and
joined the party ; and such was my keenness for

LEAVE THE COLONY.

5

the sport, that I verily jumped at the proposal to
sleep under one of the wagons, both of which were
crammed full up to the very tent, and one topped
up with a boat, keel uppermost. But I would then
rather have slept in six inches of water than not
have gone at all. This trip consisted chiefly in the
slaughter of sea-cows (as the hippopotamus is
here called), which abounded in St. Lucia Bay, in
the unhealthy season, just as if that God-forgotten
land, as I have sometimes almost thought it, did
not present sufficient drawbacks in itself, or hard¬
ships enough to encounter in everyday occurrences,
without seeking out death. But so it was, and if
older heads had only been placed upon the shoulders
of the enterprising and the young, I might not
have had to tell how out of nine hunters who
went out full of vigour and hope, in all the ardour
of enterprise, Gibson and myself alone returned,
enervated and prostrate after months of insensibility
in Kaffir kraals. I would gladly forget, and must
pass by, some of the details of that trip.

Within three weeks from my landing we started —
three wagons, seven white men, and lots of Kaffirs.
The powder ordinances being very strict in those
days, every wagon searched, and none allowed to
leave town or cross the Tugela with more than
ten pounds of powder, we each of us shouldered
our weapon and carried ten pounds of powder on
our backs, done up in a sort of knapsack fashion,
till we had crossed the Tugela, the boundary of

6

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the Colony, seventy miles distant, when we pitched
all into the wagons. Near the Umvoti, forty miles
from Durban, we each hired a Kaffir to attend
upon us individually, it being strictly prohibited
to order another man’s Kaffir to do anything for
you, as they have a great objection to wait on any
but their own master, whom they generally attend
faithfully, honestly, and willingly. When they
understand your wishes, they are most obliging ;
but most of the rows between black and white
originate from their misunderstanding what you
wish them to do. Two more white men joined
us across the Tugela, Monies, a Scotchman, a capital
and experienced hunter, but rash and daring to
foolhardiness, and Price, as nice and gentlemanly
a man as ever lived, and who was, I believe, a
son of Sir Charles Price, the London banker. They
both died, poor fellows, of fever, together with
two others of the party, M‘Queen and Arbuthnot
(the latter a fellow- passenger), within two months of
our start. We got on very slowly, no one being
in any hurry apparently, and as it was the rainy
season, the rivers detained us, and the tracks were
very heavy. My occupation, and indeed that of
all, except the three wagon-drivers, was to shoot
game — bucks, ducks, peaus, or anything we could
get for the party, and I soon got into White’s good
graces by my success and perseverance. It was
the very thing of all others I had been longing for,
and in those days I worked like a horse, and the

COMFORTABLE LODGINGS.

7

older hands were very glad to be saved the trouble.
Reitbucks were very plentiful, duikers, and farther on,
steinbucks ; and I could imagine no greater enjoy¬
ment than in shooting them, till every bone in my
body ached again with sleeping on the wet ground.
We had more or less wet every day, and frequently
cold soaking rain all night. We tried to make our¬
selves more comfortable by fencing on the weather-
side and cutting a deep trench round between the
wheels, as the water came in more from underneath
than above, but on wet nights, do what we would,
we generally found ourselves in a pool of water in
the morning — a lot of Kaffirs at our feet curled up
like dormice in their blankets, and generally sleep¬
ing through everything, and a host of wet and
dirty,, muddy, shivering, dreaming dogs on the top
of us. The grass, which grew to a tremendous height,
was so saturated, that one might just as well walk
through a river, so there was no use in putting on dry
clothes in the morning. Three were snugly housed
in the wagons, and six of us had this fun to endure.
Occasionally some of us tried the boat-wagon, but
we found it like a cage I have heard of, made by
one skilled in the refinement of cruelty, in which
there was no possibility of either sitting, standing, or
lying ; and eventually, I believe, we all gave that up
as being, though dry, infinitely worse, for a con¬
tinuance, than any amount of rain.

On the 7th of January (1852) one of the party killed
a sea-cow calf — very good food, tasting something

8

AFRICAN HUNTING.

like veal ; and I lost myself out buck- shooting on
the plains of the Inyesan, but eventually found my
way back in the dark, guided by signal-guns fired
from the wagons, the plan we always adopted when
any of our party were missing after sunset.

On the 12th, while treking leisurely along early,
our whole party were put into a great flurry and
excitement by seeing a large bull elephant cross
some 400 yards ahead, quite unconscious of any
danger. W e were in so great a hurry unstrapping
our guns from the sides of the wagons, that all
of us, except White, forgot to take our bandoliers
and more bullets. Four of us went on foot after
the elephant as hard as we could run. As he
was going up wind on the open, he did not hear
us till we were within twenty yards, when White
shouted, and he immediately turned half round ;
snap went White’s gun ; Arbuthnot and myself shot
him behind the shoulder, and Ellis also, with a
little twaddling weapon fifty to the pound. White
meantime capped again, and, just as the elephant
appeared hesitating whether to charge or not, gave
him a good shot in the middle of the shoulder-blade.
With a terrific scream the elephant turned and went
off at a great pace, evidently crippled by the last
shot. Eventually Ellis, myself, and Fly brought
him to bay in some reeds three miles on, and the
former, taking advantage of a commanding rock,
on the top of which we were comparatively safe,
gave him no less than nineteen bullets out of his

ELEPHANTS AND DUCKS.

9

pea-shooter (most of which we afterwards extracted
from the elephant’s ear) ere White, whose wind was
long since exhausted, at length got up and settled
him with the fourth ball. Seeing the spoor of a
large troop gone ahead (this old chap bringing up
the rear proving that delays are dangerous), we
broiled a rasher on the spot for breakfast, hard
and tough as a halter, and away on the spoor some
nine or ten miles, sending word to the wagons to
outspan, and for a relay of powder and bullets ;
but we never came up with them, and supposed
they had taken alarm at hearing the shooting.
Got back tired, at night, to a supper of elephant’s
heart, very tender and good ; and breakfasted on
the foot baked in a large hole, very glutinous and
not unlike brawn,

1HA. — Went out duck-shooting at the mouth
of the Umlilas ; it being high tide, the wagons were
obliged to wait some hours to cross. Had capital
sport ; heaps of wildfowl of all varieties, and very
tame, and eventually bagged as many as I could
hang round my waist-belt. As the sun was going
down, and I saw the wagons ascending the opposite
hills, having crossed at the drift some miles higher
up, I endeavoured to cross opposite where I then
was, though I had previously seen many crocodiles
in the river. I got more than two thirds across, and
was on a kind of island not deeper than my knees,
and before me the stream ran deep and fast, about
thirty yards wide. I had my gun and ammunition,

10

AFRICAN HUNTING.

all the ducks, and a heavy pair of shooting-boots,
though the rest of my attire was light enough,
consisting only of shirt and gaiters. Still I thought
I could manage it, and pushed slowly off, making
very short strokes with my arms for fear of losing

my gun, as it was laid across just under my chin,
and I think I might have succeeded, had I not just
at that moment seen the head of a huge crocodile,
above stream, sailing down upon me, leaving a
wake like a steamer behind him. I need hardly
say I struck out legs and arms for my life, utterly
unmindful of my gun, and in a few vigorous strokes
made the opposite bank, breathless and frightened,

MOSQUITOES.

11

with the loss of my gun. The following morning
Arbuthnot, Monies, Ellis, and myself went to try and
recover it, and dived alternately, one firing shots
from the shore, meanwhile, to scare the crocodiles.
As the gun was a very valuable one, before relin¬
quishing the search, we made a capital drag, cut
out of the bush like a huge rake, but all to no
purpose, and I was obliged to put up with the
loss.

ISth. — The wagons separated, two going to the
King’s trading, and the other with five white men
going to St. Lucia Bay sea-cow shooting. Outspanned
at the Inseline (a small river), nearly devoured by
mosquitoes.

I was here initiated in the art of trading with the
natives, and bought an ox for four picks or hoes
which the Kaffirs use for breaking up land to sow
mealies, and which are worth in the colony Is. 6d.
each. Beached the Black Umveloose, where we left
the wagon in charge of a Kaffir chief, and sent the
oxen some twenty miles back, the country farther
ahead being very unhealthy for cattle, and indeed,
for human beings too, only we did not know it at
the time. Got out the boat, which was the inno¬
cent cause of many a miserable soaking night to
myself and others. The mosquitoes were so dread¬
ful on the river banks, that we lighted cow-dung
fires in every pot we had, and put them inside
the now empty wagon, and all turned into it, and
had the choice of two evils — to be worried by

12

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the mosquitoes, or almost stifled with heat and
smoke in the wagon. I believe we all preferred
the latter, and, as sleep was altogether out of the
question, the general wish of all the party was
for daylight, when the mosquitoes vanish. White-
leaded and varnished the boat and made a sail, and
tried a lot of iron bullets I brought out with me ;
however, they did not answer at all, and I eventually
threw them all away, as they were much too light and
flew high, though they penetrated to a great depth.

Uth. — Launched the first boat ever seen in the
Black Umveloose, and tried sleeping in a Kaffir hut,
but I believe it was out of the frying-pan into the
fire ; heat and mosquitoes intolerable, sour milk and
Kaffir beer our fare, without meat of any kind.

25 th. — Tried a bath, to refresh us; three went
in with a plunge, keeping, however, close to the
bank, whilst the two on shore shouted, threw in
big stones, and fired a shot or two to scare the
crocodiles. Though numerous, they are very timid,
and I don’t think there is much cause for fear when
the above precautions are taken ; but although the
bath refreshed us, none of us could be said to
thoroughly enjoy it.

2Qth. — Having drawn lots who was to accompany
Monies in the boat, he put the walkers across the
river, on account of its height, and then returned
and packed the boat with Gibson, to whose lot it fell
to accompany him. Arbuthnot, Price, and myself
walked across country with our Kaffirs and a guide

ELEPHANT SHOT.

13

some twenty-five miles, where we stayed for the
night, and having forgotten to bring any beads or
brass wire, I had to tear up my silk pocket hand¬
kerchief into lengths about two inches wide, with
which the Kaffirs ornament their heads by making
a sort of band across the forehead fastened behind,
to buy amas, beer, and amobella meal to make
porridge. Arrived at our destination about 2 p.m.
the following day, and Monies and Gibson turned up
about 8 the same evening, having left the boat
some twenty miles back, not being able to get on
any farther in consequence of the crocodiles having
broken the paddles and oars. In drifting fast down
the middle of the river, Monies saw an elephant
in the reeds, pulled in and shot her dead within
fifteen yards, between the ear and the eye, and
having axes, they cut out her tusks and her ear and
put them in the boat, and continued their journey.
The smell of blood most probably made the cro¬
codiles so savage, and although Monies shot five
of them, and three sea-cows, they eventually gained
the victory, leaving him nothing but the handle
of an oar to scull the boat ashore. They put all
their belongings on a sandbank and turned the boat
over them keel uppermost, and there left her, to
make for more inviting quarters.

Went to the bush, and Price, Monies, and Arbuthnot
being very handy fellows, made sculls and oars, and
started with eight Kaffirs to carry the goods. On the
29th they found all as Monies had left them, and

14

AFRICAN HUNTING.

started again on the 30th for St. Lucia Bay* They
pulled above twenty miles through a fine country ; lots
of sea-cows, and wildfowl of every description ; and
about midday were forced to go ashore, as the wind
and sea were so dead ahead that they found they
could make no way, and the boat was at times half
full of water, so they about ship and ran before the
wind, much to their delight, living on geese and
water melons (capital things on a hot day) ; spent
a very comfortable night before the fires, without
any blankets ; and reached their destination at 12
next day, having shot two sea-cows on their way up.

I had employed my time by going out with the
Kaffirs. I did not understand a word of their
language, but by their signs I came to the conclusion
that I was to remain by a small thorn tree, near a
corner of the lake full of reeds. Gibson accompanied
me. The Kaffirs all left us, and I fell asleep, to be
suddenly awaked by Gibson in a great state of alarm
bolting up the hill, and calling loudly to me to follow.
As soon as my eyes were open, I saw a huge buffalo
bull charging right down the hill towards me, pur¬
sued by all the Kaffirs. He came at a headlong
pace within twenty yards before seeing me, when he
hesitated an instant, dashed into the reeds and came
broadside past me, within twenty-five yards, at a
brisk trot, knee-deep in water, making it fly all over
him in a shower of crystal. I fired, and luckily, for
it was a bad shot, broke his spine, and down he fell
bellowing like a bull-calf ; the Kaffirs rushed in pell-

BUFFALOES AND CROCODILES.

15

mell and drove twenty assegais into him, and finished
him, complimenting me, I suppose, much on my
prowess, though little credit was due to me, as I
must confess to having felt very much alarmed at
the suddenness of the whole thing, not having known
in the least what I was placed there for.

31<s£. — Off an hour and a half before sunrise to
Monies’s sea-cows, which had been towed ashore, and
on emerging quietly through the bush, and tall, rank,
soaking grass, to an open place, I saw some nine or
ten crocodiles high and dry, gorged with sea-cow, and
fast asleep. One enormous brute, twenty feet long
at least, I wanted to shoot, but Monies would not
allow it, as he hoped to get more sea-cows, and he
feared a shot would frighten them and spoil our
chances. I was not half satisfied, and said, ‘Well,
anyhow let me have the satisfaction of giving him a
kick in the ribs ’ (I was shod with heavy English
shooting-boots) 4 by way of a memento,’ and was just
in the act of raising my foot for the purpose when
Monies suddenly drew me forcibly back, saying, 4 You
fool, he ’ll crack your legs off like pipe-stumps with
his tail ; ’ and that instant he woke up, and I had
Monies to thank for saving me a broken bone at
least, for I never saw anything like the whirl he
gave his tail as he dashed into the water some fifteen
yards ahead, and almost immediately floated like a
log on the top of the water, taking a cool survey of
his morning visitors. Shot my first sea-cow, and we
made a lot of sjamboks and whips from his hide,

16

AFRICAN HUNTING.

such as are commonly used in Africa for driving
oxen. They are very tough and supple when pro¬
perly dressed and brayed, and punish tremendously.
The sjambok is the threat which the Dutchman in¬
variably holds out to a refractory Kaffir. We saw a
most amusing chase of a broken- winged golden-goose
by three crocodiles. He fell pinioned on the water,
and these fellows immediately gave chase, going very
fast, and leaving a wake like a ship behind them.
When very hard pressed the goose dived, to be worse
off than ever, and came up 6 quack, quack,’ from
abject fear ; he managed to flap a bit along the top
of the water and get a start, but they came up with
him again, and he at last took the land. We were
in a boat watching the fun. The crocodiles did not
follow him, and the poor thing eventually allowed
me to catch him on land sooner than face his enemies
in the water again.

The sea-cow bacon would not keep, owing to the
damp weather, and we had many hardships to
endure from the incessant rain. At last, we made
what is called a hartebeest house, of very tall reeds,
stuck close together in a kind of trench dug for
them in bundles, and meeting over head, and they
kept off a great deal of bad weather ; still we were
rarely what could be called dry at nights, and spent
three-fourths of almost every day all depths in the
water, and exposed to scorching suns, towing sea-
cows ashore, as we generally provided work for the
day before we breakfasted, for the tusks had to be

DAILY WORK.

17

cut out, the best of the meat salted, and all the inside
fat rendered down. The pots for that purpose were
scarcely ever off the fire until the bottoms were burnt
out. We were infamously provided with everything,
and we used the bladders of the sea-cows to put the
lard in — necessity being the mother of invention.

It was no wonder, then, that I was taken ill on the
10th (February), with racking pains in my head, and
giddiness and faintness, and was left behind at a Kaffir
kraal, with a small bag of rice, and my Kaffir, Inyati
(Buffalo), a big six-foot fellow, to attend to me. He
was very young, and a magnificent specimen of a
savage ; he looked after me like a child, and nothing
could exceed his kindness and attention to all my
wants, and he risked his fife more than once in my
service. Monies told the captain of the kraal to give
me milk when I required it, in return for which he
would give him a blanket. The captain promised
to do so, but never brought me a drop, and Inyati
used to go into the cattle-kraal in the middle of the
night and bring me my tin cup full, holding about
a pint, and see that I drank every drop, lest they
should find him out, in which case his punishment
for stealing would most probably have been death,
the only punishment they know of. He would pass
the day in scouring the country for wild fruits.
I had a medicine-chest with me, and took lots of
emetics, ipecacuanha, Hover’s powder, calomel, &c.,
but did myself more harm than good, not knowing
the quantity, or anything about it, in fact. I passed
a week on my back on a hard cold floor, a Kaffir

c

18

AFRICAN HUNTING.

mat and a blanket being all my covering ; got better,
and joined the rest of the party, who had been
having great sport, having killed something like
twenty sea-cows each. Monies and Arbuthnot, Price
and Gibson, did not shoot, or could not hit anything.
They told me I looked as if I had been whitewashed.
I found things looking much more comfortable — a
sort of camp erected on some high land overlooking
the bay, and directly opposite where the river St. Luey
runs in, drying-houses for meat, &c., and a large
hartebeest house to sleep in, which was moderately
dry from above, but terribly wet below, after heavy
rain ; heard lions and hyenas every night.

As the Kaffirs all round the country were well
supplied with meat, they declined any longer to bring
us meal, beans, beer and milk, in exchange for flesh ;
so, after cutting what we wanted off a sea-cow, we
towed her out again into deep water and sunk her.
Monies did this on two or three occasions, and the
Kaffirs, quite shocked at such a waste of food they
are so fond of, ever afterwards brought us small
baskets of the different produce of the country as
presents.

21s*. — Had a very narrow escape of an upset.
Monies wounded a calf, and it bellowed out lustily
close to the boat ; the cow immediately rushed at the
boat, caught it about the stern, and raised it clean
up on end, half filling the boat with water. Monies
fired at it, and the shot went into its back and through
its lungs, and it shortly died. Caught some good

NARROW ESCAPE,

19

barbel, and shot a very fine bull ; towed him within
one mile of camp, and had to leave him on account
of a strong wind and sea running against us.

28th. — Had great sport at the mouth of the Inyelas.
Arbuthnot and Monies each shot two, myself four ;
saw upwards of forty altogether. We sailed down
upon them fast, keeping the boat exactly trim, that
we might shoot steadily ; suddenly lowered the sail
(a piece of blue calico) flat, and the sea-cows showed
capital heads, being very curious to know what on
earth was coming down upon them like that. We
shot well that day, and Price managed the boat to
admiration ; and not the least amusing thing was
seeing scores of Kaffirs going in to bring them out.
The water at the head of the bay being shallow, they
take hold of each other’s hands, shouting for their

20

AFRICAN HUNTING.

very lives to scare the crocodiles, not unfrequently
many of the middle ones swimming short distances,
but not loosing their hold of one another for a mo¬
ment. The crocodiles seemed afraid to attack so large
a body, though very far in the lake ; the Kaffirs
showed great courage, but they never ventured into
deep water singly or in small numbers.

On the following day, as it was too rough for sea-
cows, we crossed the lake to have a day’s shooting in
the bush opposite. After lunching on a wildebeest
we shot, I left my knife behind, and Monies kindly
returned with me to find it, foolishly leaving our guns
behind ; he walked very fast, and was fifty yards ahead
of me, when three lions walked leisurely out of a bush
not ten yards in front of him. Monies, having
drawn a huge clasp-knife, his only weapon, remained
perfectly firm and collected, and eyed the lions for
a few seconds, when they made off for the bush, 200
yards away. Waited some hours for the wind to
go down, and had hard work to get across. I thought
we must have been swamped. The sea-cows were
making up the river, and Arbuthnot stunned one with
a ball, just touching the brain. We fired alternately,
three of us putting sixteen bullets, seven to the pound,
in different parts of her head before killing her.

March 5 th. — Thunder and rain like a second
deluge all night. Got up like drowned rats. I
had my first attack of ague, and Gibson, seeing my
teeth chattering in my head, and frightful convulsions,
could stand it no longer, and bolted very wisely with

EIKST AGUE.

21

two Kaffirs back again to the Black Umveloose, where
we left the wagon and some surplus stores, and I
have no doubt in my own mind saved his life by so
doing.

9 th. — Edmonstone arrived with a message from
White, saying he wms not coming, and we must start
the Kaffirs off at once with all the sea-cows, ivory, lard,
bacon, &c., and all the spoils of the chase, amounting
to fifty-five sea-cows, and only one elephant. Started the
Kaffirs off on the 11th, heavily laden, a long string of
them, and we pulled the boat round again to the mouth.

12 th. — Broke up our camp, as usual, with a huge
bonfire, and started on foot with thirty Kaffirs carry¬
ing ; paid them on arrival with brass wire and
blue salempore, or calico. I did not arrive till
the 15th, dead knocked up, the journey quite
overpowering me in my weak state. Inyati, my
Kaffir, stalked ahead, carrying everything but my
gun, which I was forced to lug along myself ;
and many a time during the march, being quite
exhausted, I was obliged to knock under, and lay
down under a shady tree till I had recovered.
After calling and shouting in vain for me to
come on, he would leave me, and apparently go
on his journey. He could not have been carrying less
than eighty pounds weight of one thing and another,
principally a huge calabash of fat, with which they
smear their bodies all over, and value it immensely,
and therefore could not possibly render me any assist¬
ance ; but his going away was only a make-believe, to

22

AFRICAN HUNTING.

try and induce me to follow, as the faithful fellow
always returned to look me up. I at last, however,
reached the wagons completely exhausted, and very,
very ill, and shall have a wholesome recollection of
that walk as long as I live. Found Gibson and Charley
Edmonstone very ill, and joined them. Monies,
Gibson, and Price arrived the same night without the
boat, not being able to pull up against the stream, or
to get her carried by Kaffirs. I was very much worn
out from the cold and incessant rain.

On the 16th we started for Katal, and I can give
from this date but a very poor account of anything
more that occurred, as I must have had many days’
insensibility myself. What I do recollect was that
Arbuthnot and Monies joined the wagons again on the
20th, after two very hard days’ elephant-hunting on
foot, during which Arbuthnot killed one. Arbuthnot
complained of being very ill, and threw himself down
in the hut, from which he never rose, dying the fol¬
lowing day of fever and ague. We made the best of
our way to Katal to get advice for the rest of the
sick, but on reaching our destination poor Price died
also, within forty miles of the town. Monies stayed
behind to bring out another wagon, having never
had an hour’s illness, when he suddenly took despe¬
rately ill, and died next day. McQueen reached
Durban, where he died in a few days, though he
never went into the unhealthy country at all ; Purver,
Hammond, and Etty, three elephant-hunters of White’s
party, also died in the Zulu country about the same

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE.

23

time ; Gibson, Eclmonstone, Charley Edmonstone, and
myself eventually, but not for nearly twelve months,
got better again. We were all, I think, carried out of
the wagons in Durban more dead than alive, and I
shall never forget the very great kindness and atten¬
tion I received from Mr. and Mrs. Tyzack, to whose
house I first wTent on landing in the colony, and where
I was now taken. In the course of a few weeks, I
was able, by the advice of my physician, to go up
to Pieter Maritzburg for change of air, where Mr.
Collins, the post-master and a fellow-passenger of
mine, most kindly took me into his house, treated
me with the utmost attention, and forestalled my
every want. It is to Mrs. Collins’s nursing and care
— and all the little delicacies, so grateful and
refreshing to a sick man, which a woman’s fore¬
thought can alone supply — that I am indebted for
my eventual recovery, after a very long illness.
On first getting into the scales, on being able, with
assistance, to get about a little, I only weighed
five stone and eleven pounds ; but laid on weight
again, shortly after, almost as fast as I must have
lost it, and regained strength altogether, on the high
lands of the Inanda, about twenty-two miles from
Durban and nine from the sea, where I joined
White on a 9,600 acre farm of Proudfoot’s, built a
w^attle and dab-house, and existed there, almost
alone — I can hardly call it living — for two years
or more, I should think, selling cattle to Kaffirs,
which White traded in the Zulu country and brought

24

AFRICAN HUNTING.

or sent out to me. I have sometimes sold forty or
more in one day, and had upwards of 600 on the
place at one time, averaging, anywhere in those days
before the lung sickness, from 10s. to 2 l. a head, for
which the Kaffirs in Natal always paid cash.

It was a horrid weary, solitary, monotonous life ;
not often could I prevail upon anyone to come
and stay with me, certainly not unless driven to
it, as was not unfrequently the case, by having no
other home and no money - — when they would pay
me a visit till something better turned up. Cer¬
tainly I had no great inducement to offer to them to
remain : lean fowls, salt beef and rice, and heavy,
ill-baked bread, was our fare, varied occasionally by
bucks, partridges, and bustards ; tea and coffee our
only beverage. I must not, however, omit oceans
of milk, most of which the Kaffirs and dogs ran
through, and I won’t say but that it might have been
possible to have been very comfortable ; all I can
say is, that the experience I had of it gave me such
a wholesome dread of the like ever again occurring,
that I took to the wandering gypsy-life I have ever
since led. I was never without two or three horses
and a host of dogs, and, though they assisted very
materially, together with my rifle and shot guns,
to get through the days, yet the long evenings, the
everlasting roar made by my Kaffirs, frequently
continuing half the night, rats squeaking, gnaw¬
ing, and scraping in every room, and almost
everything that I brought out being long since

CHEERFUL.

25

eaten into shreds by white ants, which were fast
undermining the posts and walls of our habitation,
made me think another Zulu trip would be prefer¬
able to remaining alone any longer ; consequently,
I shut up the establishment, and went in again the
following year.

My nearest neighbours were Mr. Lindley, a mis¬
sionary from the American Mission Society, a man
most deservedly respected and esteemed by all in
the colony, his amiable wife and charming family,
at whose hospitable house I always felt myself quite
at home. I used frequently to ride over on Sundays
to Kaffir service, or whenever I could frame an
excuse for making a break in my existence, and, after
passing an evening with him and his united family,
it put me so much in mind of my own home,
that I used to feel in a better frame of mind for
weeks to come, though the contrast was very great
between his cheerful, comfortable house, and happy
family, and my own solitary, dismal-looking abode —
a deal table and a lot of velt stools and wagon chests
the only furniture, and myself the only inhabitant.

One day, at St. Lucia Bay, after partly recovering
from my first attack of fever, we went sea-cow
shooting, and I was landed on a small island among
the reeds, knee deep in water and very warm.
After waiting some time for a shot, and feeling very
weak and weary, I beat down a big bundle of reeds
and sat upon them, my legs dangling in the water, and
went fast asleep. Meantime, Arbuthnot and Monies

‘26

AFRICAN HUNTING.

were shooting and driving sea-cows, which showed
good heads past my hiding-place, and they could
not imagine why I did not shoot, but in the excite¬
ment of their own hunting forgot where they had
left me, and poor Monies said they hallooed in vain ;
but he had noticed three or four of the largest
crocodiles swimming backwards and forwards in one
place, and close into the island, and on pulling in
found me fast asleep within fifteen yards of these

pleasant companions, who, no doubt, would soon
have made a meal of me. All the sympathy my
unenviable and dangerous position excited was
being soundly rated for going asleep and not bag¬
ging a couple of sea-cows ; but I felt too grateful
for being rescued to be angry in my turn.

Whilst on the subject of crocodiles, I will relate an

NARROW ESCAPE.

27

anecdote that happened to me on the St. Luey’s
month, where it runs into St. Lucia Bay. I shot a
goose, almost full grown, though a flapper, and
he was drifting nicely to my feet, when he un¬
accountably disappeared. Not taking particular
notice at the time, I thought lie might possibly
have partly recovered and dived. Gibson was with
me at the time, and, disappointed of our intended
roast, as we had not breakfasted, I shot another, and
he likewise disappeared in the same place and manner.
There being plenty, I shot a third, and, determined
not to lose this one, went gradually into the river to
meet him, armed with a heavy lancewood loading-rod
shod with iron, and had nearly got up to my middle,
making a tremendous noise and splashing to scare
the crocodiles, when, just as I was stretching out my
arm to reach my goose, he suddenly went under
water. I had no fears in those days, and did not
know the real danger, so I made a grasp and caught
the goose by the leg, striking the water as hard as
ever I could. In an instant the goose came in halves,
the legs, back, and some of the entrails falling to my
share, Mr. Crocodile getting the better half, and two
or three violent blows on the nose into the bargain.
I need hardly say I lost not an instant in getting
ashore again, and did not think much at the time
(which is often the case) of what a foolish thing it
was to do, and what a narrow escape I had had.
It is only once in a man’s lifetime he does these dare¬
devil sort of things, and it is wonderful how lucky

*28

AFRICAN HUNTING.

he invariably comes off ; but a few more years, and a
wider experience, make him as cautious as those
whom he once thought timid. It is equally difficult
for youth and age to hit that golden mean, which is
no doubt the best way in hunting, as in other things,
to attain the main object — bagging your game.

•29

CHAPTEE II.

1853.

HUNTING EXPEDITION INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY.

July \hth.— We started on our Zulu expedition
from the Inanda with two wagons, Gibson and
myself going on horseback across country. We got
out of our way, and fell in with a hospitable Scotch¬
man and his wife. On going up a steep hill,
leading two horses, I went to touch up one that
was hanging back, when my mare took fright, and,
after several plunges, succeeded in kicking me in
the stomach and arm, though not very severely.
I was able to go in pursuit in a few minutes, and,
after more than two hours’ hard chasing, suc¬
ceeded in driving her into a Kaffir kraal. At
sunset I reached Fuller’s, where the wagons had just
arrived.

YJtli. — After sundry 4 doctors,’ concoctions of rum,
eggs, and new milk, we inspanned and got under
weigh to the Tongaart. We loaded the wagons with,
two muids (360 lbs.) of mealies, Edmonstone’s traps,
and a host of blankets, treked on some eight miles
by moonlight, and outspanned for the night.

30

AFRICAN HUNTING.

18 th. — We were delayed in starting by the oxen
having strayed. We treked to the Umslali, saddled
up and rode to Maclean’s, where we took in a
sack of potatoes, and stored our pockets with
capsicums. I killed a koran.

KM. — Again we commenced the day by losing
the oxen, which were not found till after midday.
We reached the Umvoti after dark. I made two
nose-bags for my horses, and had some good fun
trying to make my mare stand on the velt, every
attempt being a signal failure. She set my nooses
at defiance, and ended by breaking the bridle.

2(M. — To-day I engaged two Kaffirs, Jack and
Jacob ; and brought a muid of mealies for the
horses. On coming into a mud sluit, down a steep
bank, the sudden check of the wagon threw me
off the box, under the near wheel, which passed
over above my knee. I rolled out of the way of
the other wheel, and fortunately escaped without
further injury than a very severe bruise. Though
I had no bone broken, my thigh swelled very much,
and the shaking of the wagon increased the irritation
and gave me great pain. It was a wonderful escape,
as there were 3,000 pounds weight of picks in the
wagon, and nothing but the fact of the ground being
very soft where I fell could have saved a broken
thigh ; the swelling was so rapid that my trousers
had to be slit up with a knife in order to get them
off, and for the next twelve hours I had two Hot¬
tentot women, the wives of the drivers, rubbing in

CROSS THE TUGELA.

31

turpentine and oil, their infallible remedy for bruises.
Their beautifully formed, delicate, diminutive hands,
ancles, wrists, and feet, a marked feature in all
Hottentots, presented a singular contrast to their
repulsive monkey-like faces.

21 6^.— We got as far as the Umvoti, where we
joined Gassiot’s wagon, which had been waiting our
arrival for three weeks ; treked on some six miles,
with four wagons and a host of Kaffirs^ Hottentots,
men, women, and children of all sorts, colours, and
sizes, who, having got possession of a case of gin
that Gibson had in his wagon, spent the most noisy,
quarrelsome, abusive night I ever witnessed.

On the 22nd we crossed the Tugela, the boun¬
dary of the colony, half a mile wide, without
accident, the river being very low, and treked on
about four miles, where we met Mr. Clifton of
Lytham, a lieutenant in the Bifie Brigade, who was
also on a hunting trip, and had been waiting our
arrival some days. He was at a low ebb ; a friend
of his, Mr. Fletcher, having just been killed by a
cow-elephant, which they were about to shoot,
when it charged and killed Mr. Fletcher before a
shot had been fired. This was the first they had
seen; rather an unfortunate beginning. Mr. Fletcher
had only been a few days in the colony.

On the 23rd we crossed the Matakoola, and out-
spanned four miles beyond. The following morning
White, Gibson, Steele, and myself mounted at sun¬
rise, in quest of elands. We fell in with a herd of

32

AFRICAN HUNTING.

about seventeen, and gave chase at a killing pace,
very soon overhauling them. Gibson and Steele
fired without effect, White giving . a bull a shot
rather too high up in the shoulder. However, he
separated from the herd, and Steele gave him a
finisher about a mile off, where he had taken the
water and was standing at bay. After a long chase,
I brought down the largest bull in the troop, shoot¬
ing him dead off the pony Billy, being unable to
pull up and fire, in consequence of my leg being
still very painful. It was his first essay at elands
as well as my own, and he proved himself a good
one, running very stout and fast. After returning
to camp for breakfast, I rode out again with Clifton
and twenty Kaffirs to bring the meat home, some
five or six miles.

25 th. — We treked on to a high hill called the
Gun, some ten miles farther ; a very cold, raw day,
with slight showers. Maclean ran against a bank
in going into a sluit, got pitched off the box, and
nearly upset the wagon on the top of him. We saw
a fine herd of elands, but are keeping them for
to-morrow. I made my first attempt at preserving,
on the head of a cow-eland I shot yesterday, and
found it a long, tedious job. I engaged another
Kaffir, Mafuta (Grease) by name, a strong, likely-
looking fellow.

2 Qth. — This morning we found that Maclean’s after¬
ox, Basket, had been killed by a lion. We treked
on a few miles and then outspanned, with a fine herd

ELANDS.

33

of elands in full view. We saddled and went in
pursuit, the ground being very heavy and boggy.
Clifton and myself tried to head them and bring
them to the wagon, but they made exactly the
contrary way. After a very hard and long burst,
Clifton shot a calf, and about two miles farther I
put a ball through the ribs of a fine old bull, but as
Billy was dead beat, I did not bag him.

The next day we treked on to the Umlilas, where
we waited five hours for the river to go down, and
outspanned for the night on the top of the hill on
the other side. On the 23th we crossed the Um-
slatoosi, a large party : five wagons, seventy oxen,
fifty men, women, and children, twelve horses, and
eleven dogs. The following day, however, this
number was considerably reduced by the departure
of eleven of the Kaffirs to trade for different mem¬
bers of our party.

On the 30th we crossed the Impangane, a small
river, near which we had to remain for several days.
I got a good soaking in the bush, looking for guinea-
fowl without success. As I had done my leg no
good by the walk, I laid down in the wagon,
eating cheese and jam, and enjoying Sponge’s
c Sporting Tour.’ The game here was very scarce
and wild ; but we were well supplied with milk,
amas, tchualla, mealies, Kaffir corn, and all the
Kaffir produce, and we had some laughable scenes
in our bartering.

We were much amused by the bellows used by

D

34

AFRICAN HUNTING.

two Kaffir smiths, who were trying to mend one of
the wagons which had broken down. The bellows
consists of a small clay tube or pipe next the
fire, and two cows’ horns fastened on two leather
bags, which are kept alternately open and shut.
It requires some knack to work, but when
skilfully handled it makes a really good current
of air, producing a red-hot charcoal fire in a few
minutes.

August 6th. — Notwithstanding a dreadfully stormy
day, high wind and rain, and severe cold, we treked
on a few miles. In the evening a panther seized Hope¬
ful by the throat almost from under the wagon, and
within five yards of the tent where we were eating
our supper in the dark, on account of the wind. We
all sallied out just in time to save the dog, who got
off with a frightful wound in the throat, which
swelled nearly as big as his body. It was too dark,
however, to shoot the panther.

7th. — Got safely up Panda’s stony hill, the worst
I ever saw, it being all that twenty-two oxen could
manage to drag up one wagon ; but the poor things
were labouring under great disadvan tage, most of them
having the tongue and clove sickness. The next day
we came in sight of Nedwingu, Panda’s kraal, but
we were still some fifteen miles distant, owing to the
hilliness of the country. Our progress was very slow,
on account of the illness of the oxen. On the 10 th
we saw a herd of koodoos, and were told by the
Hottentots who brought us wood at night, that there

BUFFALOES.

35

was a herd of buffaloes near the river Umveloose,
and we agreed to wage war on them at sunrise.

Accordingly, we were off at peep of day with
seven guns, and after about three-quarters of an hour’s
hard walking, over frightfully stony ground, came
in sight of a herd of about forty buffaloes, but they
made off out of shot, hearing the noise we made over
the stones. After two hours’ hard chase, running and
dodging in all directions, five were brought to bag.
Steele had a narrow escape ; a young bull, with his
leg broken and his tail shot off, just hit him on the heel
as he dropped his gun and sprang into a thorn-tree.
I shot a fine fat young cow at full speed, hard pressed
by three dogs, right through the spine and lungs.
She fell bellowing after a few yards, almost on the
top of the one which had charged Steele, and which
I afterwards killed myself. The cow I shot was
claimed by Anton, who had given her the first bullet,
without the slightest injury ; but the rules of the chase
are, that the first shot lays claim to the animal, the
bullet being the proof. Edmonstone had given the
young bull the first shot, and therefore claimed him,
so I had my sport for nothing. The Zulus, hearing
the shooting, came down like so many vultures ; but
the lazy blackguards refused to lend a hand to carry
the meat back to the camp, and one fellow was caught
helping himself to some nice steaks from a leg cut off,
and ready to be taken to camp, by our own Kaffirs.
White knocked him over with a heavy stone in the
ribs, and the rest made themselves scarce for a little

36

AFRICAN HUNTING.

while. They knew, however, that they would ulti¬
mately get the lion’s share of the meat, as it was
utterly impossible that our party, though twenty
strong at least, could carry the whole of the meat of
six buffaloes, especially on such ground — a tremen¬
dously steep, stony hill, some four miles from camp —
and at night they could take all with impunity.
White, however, kept watch till the choicest parts,
the tongues, &c. were secured. We got back about
12 o’clock, and drank a great quantity of tea and
coffee, and breakfasted on buffalo kidneys — a great
luxury — a few quails, and a dikkop (thickhead), the
daintiest bird in the colony, fully equal to woodcock.
The poor dogs, too, came in for their share, and had
as much as ever they could cram into them.

On the afternoon of the 12th we crossed the
Umveloose, and outspanned within a mile of Ned-
wingu, Panda’s kraal, which we rode up to see on
the following morning. It is fully two and a half
miles round, and contains nearly 2,000 huts. We
did not see his sable majesty, but were honoured by
drinking a calabash of tchualla with his prime
minister Likwazi, through whom we sent presents
of beads and blankets to Panda.

The next few days were wet and raw, and all
hands were busy making and repairing velt shoes.
One afternoon we were coming well on a fine herd
of buffaloes sleeping, when a Kaffir hit my unfor¬
tunate dog Hopeful with a stone. The dog, who
was more dead than alive from the effects of the

BUFFALOES.

37

encounter with the panther, roared awfully. The
buffaloes started off, and, though we gave chase as
hard as we were able, we could never get within shot.

2(M. — We were early in the saddle, and took dif¬
ferent routes to endeavour to circumvent a herd of
buffaloes which were to be seen from the wagon.
Edmonstone and myself had just reached our post
when a bullet whistled most unpleasantly near us,
closely followed by nine buffaloes. I immediately
endeavoured to head them back, but the ground was
so stony and bushy that I only lamed my pony, and
tore my hands to pieces, without doing any good. I
frequently got close to them, but before I could dis¬
mount they were out of sight in the bushes. Steele’s
Kaffir broke the leg of a fat young cow. She charged
straight at one of White’s horses, and the Kaffir who
was holding him struck his assegai into her ribs.

On the 22nd, Edmonstone, myself, and three
Kaffirs set off' to ascend the highest hill in the
neighbourhood. After walking hard all day we
reached the bottom, where we bought amas,
tchualla, meal, &c., with beads : supped sumptu¬
ously on a fat peau I killed, and slept in a kraal.
The next morning we ascended the hill. It was
a long and heavy pull, but we were rewarded by a
fine view of the surrounding country, very hilly on
all sides, but not well wooded. We got back to
the wagons about noon on the following day, rather
jaded and footsore.

31 st. — We all saddled up early to pay a visit to

38

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Panda. His Majesty, however, was asleep, and liis
attendants did not dare disturb him. After re¬
maining some time we were ordered to go to the
gate and wait there, so we took huff and rode away
without seeing him, broke up our camp, made a
great bonfire of all the huts the Kaffirs had erected,
and once more proceeded on our journey. We had
not gone more than two miles when one of Panda’s
captains came up in a great fury, swearing awfully
by the bones of Dingaan, Chkka, the much-dreaded
and cruel, and other renowned warriors of the
nation, that if we did not immediately turn back,
an impi (regiment 500 strong) would be down upon
us and kill us instanter. He was in a great state of
excitement, would not hear of our outspanning or
delaying our return a moment, said the signal for
attack was crossing that watercourse (pointing to a
running stream not twenty yards ahead) ; and as
we were entirely in their power, we thought dis¬
cretion the better part of valour, and did as we were
ordered, looking very foolish in both our own and
our followers’ eyes. Panda had always opposed our
wish to go that way, and it was bearding the lion
in his den, and most foolish and misjudged on the
part of White, to go in direct opposition to his
orders. On passing his kraal gates we went through
two lines, at least 200 yards long, of magnificent men,
armed with assegais, shields, knobkerries, and knives,
in close file, waiting only the slightest intimation
from His Majesty to annihilate us instantly. It was a

PANDA STOPS THE WAY.

39

nervous moment; I did not half admire it, and all
our Kaffirs were in the utmost alarm : a dead silence
was maintained by everyone ; and poor White was
awfully annoyed and vexed about it. To do him
justice, I believe, if any of us would have stood by
him, he would have infinitely preferred shooting
half a dozen and being spitted himself, to the dis¬
grace to white men of having to obey a Kaffir ; but
it was all brought on by his own obstinacy.

Likwazi, the prime minister before mentioned,
came down to us — a fat, good-tempered, jovial fellow
— made the peace, and eventually all was settled
amicably ; but our long-meditated route was peremp¬
torily forbidden, and we were obliged to rest satis¬
fied with the shooting Panda thought fit to give us
in the Slatakula bush, where the old fellow knew
well there were rarely any elephants worth shooting.
He is a wily old savage. On Clifton wishing parti¬
cularly to see him out of curiosity, though he sent
many presents to him, the only answer he sent
was, 4 1 have nothing to say to him ; does he think
me a wild beast, that he is so anxious to see me P
I won’t see him.’ Nor did he see any of the party
but White and the interpreter.

September 1st. — Treked on our way back again.
Some Kaffir boys told us of a herd of elands.
White, Edmonstone, and myself went in pursuit,
and after a sharp burst round a big hill, White came
upon them. I also ran to get a shot, and we each
of us had two shots at not more than a hundred

40

AFEICAN HUNTING.

yards, every bullet telling into some part of them,
but none fell, and we had the mortification of seeing
them all go away and make for the hills, where we
had no chance of reaching them.

2nd.— We got safely to the bottom of Panda’s stony
hill, and parted company with Steele. The next
day we struck down into a deep valley of the White
Umveloose, in quest of large game. After some
very hard climbing, we all returned to the wagons
with only one eland bull.

5 th. — Struck off the road, and made for the Slata-
kula bush. As we were obliged to clear a way for
the wagons, we made but slow progress.

1th. — The Kaffirs told us there was a large herd
of elephants within a few miles. I went in pursuit,
accompanied by two Hottentots and two Kaffirs ;
supped on a buffalo, which some Zulu Kaffirs had
killed, and spent a tolerably comfortable night in
the open air, notwithstanding a few showers of rain.
At daylight we started again, hunted without any
encouragement, and returned to the wagons under
the impression that the Kaffirs were humbugs.

After cutting our way through the bush with
great difficulty, on the 10th we came in sight of the
Black Umveloose, when we saw three rhinoceroses,
a herd of elands, and a herd of buffaloes from the
wagons. The greater part of the night we were
kept awake by lions, tigers, and wolves. Fly,
venturing too near, was caught and severely bitten
in the throat by a tiger, but escaped with fife.

RUMOURS OF LIONS.

41

11th. — Crossed the Black Umveloose, a very bad
drift, and outspanned on some beautiful new grass,
which was quite refreshing after all the dry, withered
stuff we had been seeing so long. We saw lots of
bucks and koodoos. In the afternoon we treked
on to a Kaffir kraal, where we got oceans of milk,
amas, &c. The Kaffirs told us that the lions had
got into the kraal the evening before ; we therefore
drew up the wagons and made the best barrier we
could for the horses, and all slept with our guns at
hand. The lions, however, disappointed us.

On the 12th our party broke up, White’s two
wagons and Grassiot’s going on to trade. Maclean
and Edmonstone went on with them, while I took
up my quarters with Clifton, intending to stay a
week or so for shooting. The next day we treked
away from the kraal, the Kaffirs stunning us with
their noise, and outspanned a few miles off. Leggins
and I lost the wagon, having misunderstood where
they were to outspan, and were first initiated into
the art of making fire with two dry sticks. I saw
a buffalo bull cantering leisurely in the direction of
Leggins, and hallooed to him to look out. He had
seen the bull, and made for a tree as hard as legs
could carry him. The old bull snuffed danger in
the wind, but could not make it out, and actually
stood under the very tree within two feet of Leggins,
who was so paralysed with fear that he had not
strength to shoot. It was long before he ventured
to come down, and then he got off as quickly as he

42

AFRICAN HUNTING.

could, thinking that he, and not the buffalo, had had
a wonderful escape.

14 th. — From the top of a hill I saw two herds
of what I took for buffaloes, but just as I was going
after them I had the mortification of discovering
that they were wildebeests. However, I mounted,
and seeing two old bull buffaloes standing under
a tree, managed to get within twenty-five yards,
when five old bulls jumped up. I rolled over the
first like a rabbit, shooting him through the lungs.
I then heard Clifton firing, and rode in that direc¬
tion, when we saw a large herd of elands and one
fine old bull as blue as a slate. The ground was
bad for a horse, being bushy with long grass and
full of large stones. I went away, however, at a
hand gallop, and keeping below the wind and under
the hill, managed to come up with them. I singled
out the old bull, and, after some hard riding through
the bush, losing my hat and tearing my shirt and
hands, to pieces, I drove him from the herd, and
shortly afterwards, taking advantage of 100 yards
of open, tumbled off and gave him a ball high up
on his hind leg, but without doing him much injury.
He kept along at a swinging pace through the bush ;
I could not wait to load, for fear of losing sight of
him. The ground was frightful, and I thought I
never should have come up with him, though Billy
carried me marvellously. At the edge of a steep
kloof leading into thick bush, where I must inevita¬
bly have lost him, the bull suddenly came to bay,

PLEASURES OF HUNTING.

43

and made a stand facing me. I gave him a bullet
in the breast, and he rolled down to the bottom of
the kloof. I went down to inspect my prize, but
all my efforts were unavailing to cut his head off,
from the position in which he had fallen, and I was
obliged to leave the noble animal for the lions,
wolves, jackals, and vultures.

15 th.— Started off with a host of Kaffirs of both
sexes to see what the lions had left of my eland,
but on. my way I saw an old bull buffalo making
away for some thick bush, quickened my pace, and
he crossed me into a kloof ; I jumped off and shot
at him, as he appeared broadside out of the kloof,
and fancied I broke his fore leg. As he went away
very lame I gave chase, and came up with him
standing under a tree. I was edging off a little to
get a good broadside at him, when he charged so
suddenly and fiercely, and so fast, that Billy whipped
round like a shot, and dashed off at full speed through
the trees, sending my gun spinning yards away out
of my hand, and a strong branch, catching me across
the breast, all but unhorsed me. The enraged
brute was for 200 yards within two feet of Billy’s
tail, and continued the chase for 400 yards. After
recovering my gun I followed him into a thick bush
and gave him a shot, when he again charged, but
fearing to come out of the bush again, retreated, and
I lost sight of him. On riding round I saw him
again, and he forthwith gave chase, but being on
the open, I was all right this time. I therefore

44

AFRICAN HUNTING.

allowed him to come close up, but as he would
persist in facing me, I was reluctant to spend my
last bullet, and it was long ere I got a shot to my
liking. At last, however, he gave me a broadside,
and I gave him a settler. He was certainly the
savagest old monster I ever had the pleasure of
seeing.

I had to return to camp seven or eight miles in a
woful plight, minus my hat, and my shirt torn to
ribbons, exposed to a fearful hot sun, and my whole
body blistered and sunburnt, giving me great pain,
and my throat and tongue parched up for want of
water. I was well greased with eland fat from
head to foot, which was a great relief to me, but
for several days I coidd rest in no position from the
frightful extent of the sun-burns, than which I know
nothing more painful, as every atom of skin peels off.
I found my eland nearly eaten up, but I brought his
horns back as a trophy.

16th. — Went out on foot, as Billy had had two
hard days in succession. I saw a buffalo canter away,
and then stop in a thick bush. I followed, got a shot,
and heard the bullet tell. He was a long way off, and
going at full speed. I had another shot without effect,
followed on, and next saw him lying at full length.
I spoke to the Kaffirs, when the beast immediately
jumped up and faced us. The Kaffirs disappeared
like smoke. I gave him a shot meant for the breast,
but it struck him in the neck and he at once charged.
Fortunately, Crafty was between us, and he made a

A KAFFIR HUNT.

45

furious onset on her, which gave me time to load
again and change my position. The poor brute was
evidently severely wounded, and again lay down. I
had two more shots at him, but he was so tough that
it was not before the fifth shot that he was dead, and
then the Kaffirs reappeared.

17th.—' Clifton lent me a horse, and I rode over to
see the other party, having heard that they were at
a kraal only a few miles off. Edmonstone had been
at a great Kaffir hunt, at which all the natives far and
near turned out. They were delighted with their sport.
One Kaffir, however, got a bullet through his foot,
and as Edmonstone got the credit of it, he was obliged
to give a cotton blanket worth 3s. by way of com¬
pensation. I returned the next day in time for four
days of regular deluge, which we spent inside the
tent, killing time as best we could with books, &c.
I waded entirely through the 4 Soldier of Fortune.’

23rd. — Breakfasted on chocolate and dry bread,
having eaten all our fresh meat during the four days’
rain. As the larder was empty we sallied out and
had a hard day’s work over a great extent of country,
returning home well laden, long after sunset, having
bagged two cow-buffaloes and a bush-pig.

26th. — Fifteen Zulus came down to our camp to¬
day, and I turned out to shoot them some meat. We
travelled a long way without seeing anything, but
my perseverance was at length rewarded by the sight
of a troop of buffaloes a long way off. We executed
a very scientific stalk, and I bowled over a young,

46

AFRICAN HUNTING.

tolerably fat bull. We lighted a fire and demolished
a good part of him on the spot, the Kaffirs eating
alternately a lump of roasted flesh and an equal
quantity of the inside raw.

27 tli. — Pouring rain all day. As the wolves plagued
us much, we set a gun at night and shot an old dog-
wolf through the head.

29 th. — We were waked up suddenly by hearing
one of the oxen bellowing and the dogs barking.
It was moderately dark, and I seized Clifton’s double
rifle and rushed out, not knowing where, when I saw
the driver perched on the top of a temporary hut,
made of grass, about six feet high, roaring lustily for
a doppe (cap). I scrambled up just as the poor ox
ceased his cries, and heard the lions growling and
roaring on the top of him, not more than fourteen
yards from where we were, but it was too dark to
see them. I fired, however, in the direction of the
sound, and just above the body of the ox, which I
could distinguish tolerably well, as it was a black one.
Diza (the driver) followed my example, and as the
lions did not take the least notice, I fired my second
barrel, and was just proceeding to load my own gun,
which Jack had brought me, when I was aware for a
single instant only that the lion was coming, and the
same moment I was knocked half a dozen somer¬
saults backwards off the hut, the brute striking me
in the chest with his head. I gathered myself up in
a second and made a dash at a fence just behind me,
and scrambled through it, gun in hand, but the

VISIT OF LIONS.

47

muzzle was choked with dirt. I then made for the
wagon, and got on the box, where I found all the
Kaffirs, who could not get inside, sticking like mon¬
keys, and Diza perched on the top. How he got
there seemed to me a miracle, as he was alongside me
when the brute charged. A minute or two after¬
wards, one of them marched off a goat, one of five

that were tethered by the foot to the hut which we
had so speedily evacuated.

Diza, thinking he had a chance, fired from the top
of the wagon, and the recoil knocked him backwards
on to the tent, which broke his fall. It was a most
ludicrous sight altogether.

48

AFRICAN HUNTING.

After that we were utterly defeated, and the brutes
were allowed to eat their meal unmolested, which
they continued to do for some time, growling fiercely
all the while. The Kaffirs said there were five in all.
I fired once again, but without effect ; and we all sat
shivering with cold, without any clothes on, till near
day-break, wdien our enemies beat a retreat, and I
was not sorry to turn in again between the blankets.
I was just beginning to get warm again when I was
aroused by a double shot, and rushed out on hearing
that the driver and after-rider had shot the lion. We
went to the spot and found a fine lioness dead, with
a bullet through the ribs from the after-rider ; a good
shot, as she was at least 150 yards off. Another had
entered the neck, just behind the head, and travelled
all along the spine nearly to the root of the tail. I
claimed that shot, and forthwith proceeded to skin
her. I cut out the ball : it proved to be my shot
out of Clifton’s rifle ; this accounted for her ferocious
onslaught. The after-rider was rather chopfallen at
having to give her up to the rightful owner.

Diza got a claw in his thigh, and the gun which
he had in his hand was frightfully scratched on the
stock : rather sharp practice. A strong-nerved old
Kaffir woman lay in the hut the whole time, without
a door or anything whatever between her and the
lions, and kept as still as a mouse all the while.

30 tii. — Hearing that White was back again at
the Kaffir chief Umbop’s, Clifton and I rode off to
see the party, some twelve miles off. Clifton gave

LIONS AGAIN.

49

me a mount on Arab, and we found them well,
with the exception of Maclean. Their affairs looked
rather badly on the whole : eight oxen had died,
several more were very ill, two dogs had been
carried off by tigers, there was no game, and con¬
sequently not much to eat, and they were out of
coffee and sugar. We got six blankets, some
brass wire, and black calico, and returned to
camp.

I had the remains of the ox dragged to the best
spot for getting a shot, if the lions should pay us
another visit. They did not keep us waiting long.
In less than an hour after dark they came, and
immediately began their meal. The night was very
dark, and we had nothing but their own growls to
guide us in shooting. We three blazed away in
succession for a long time. The ox was placed just
in front of the wagon, about twenty-five yards off,
but they dragged it away considerably farther.
Crafty must have had some narrow escapes, for she
would not come in, but kept up an incessant row all
the time ; and, encouraged by the firing, came to
very close quarters with them several times. They
charged her frequently and savagely, but she showed
great pluck. I saw one lion tolerably distinctly
once, and fired, when for the first time he uttered a
fierce roar, and charged at the wagon. We had,
however, a strong fence between the wagon and
them, and when the lion lay down about seven yards
off for a long time, I felt sure he was wounded. He

50

AFRICAN HUNTING.

made off soon afterwards, and I turned in before they
all took their departure.

October 1st.- — Went up to see our last night’s
work. It was evident that one or more had been
severely wounded, but we endeavoured in vain to
trace them. I turned out with my two dogs and
one Kaffir, Jacob. I was obliged to offer him a
rewards of 5s. before he would consent to accompany
me. We gave the dogs the wind, and hunted down
the nearest kloof. I had not got 400 yards from the
wagon when I saw that Hopeful winded something,
but neither growled nor barked, in spite of all the
encouragement I gave him. He was very near the
kloof, and came away. At length I mustered courage
to go down, and, proceeding a short distance, saw an
old lion dead, at the bottom. A large bullet had
gone right through his middle, and I was in high
spirits at my success.

As I was occupied in skinning the lion, I heard
three double shots in succession, and rushed out, gun
in hand, expecting a couple of lions at least, when I
found Clifton standing over one of the oxen, just
breathing its last. The lions the night before had
driven it mad, and he had been obliged to shoot it.
We had now onlv ten oxen left, and one so ill that it
could hardly travel. However, on the evening of
the 2nd, we reached some Kaffir kraals, and the
lions again favoured us with their company. On
awaking I looked out of the tent, thinking it was a
wolf, and that I might get a shot, when I saw one

CROSS THE UMYELOOSE.

51

lion distinctly, and Hopeful and Crafty barking at
him furiously. He at length charged against the
side of the tent, unpegging two of the ropes ; so we
struck a light, and kept a candle burning till the
morning. He gave us one fine chance of shooting
him, but Clifton had given strict orders that no one
must fire, lest the lion should come into the tent.

5 th. — Outspanned within a mile and a half of
the Umveloose.

Oth. — Jack and I started before daylight, to try
and bag a wild goose or two, as there are plenty of
them about the Umveloose, but we had to return to
our quarters with two brace of quail and a blue
heron. I had several long shots at geese, but they
require a heavy dose to bring them down. We got
back to a splendid breakfast of quail, beautifully
cooked by Leggins, while the rest were inspanning.
I followed them shortly on my pony, my Kaffirs
carrying the kettle, saucepans, dishes, and condi¬
ments, and overtaking the wagon at the drift, which
we crossed in good style, though not without diffi¬
culty, as the river was four feet deep, and the
sand heavy. Seeing two wagons, we outspanned at
a kraal just before sunset, and drew up alongside.
Clifton purchased three oxen from a Zulu trader, and
we passed a jolly evening together, hearing all the
news ; among the rest, that England and France were
positively at war with Russia.

10 th. — Clifton and I laboured hard to get a
black goose, but there was no getting a shot. I was

52

AFRICAN HUNTING.

up to my waist in water half the day. One ox
knocked up, and was left behind.

1 1th. — Sent two Kaffirs for the ox, which was
unable to rise, so they had to leave him. My dog
Hopeful also was missing, probably taken by a tiger.
Jack and I hunted all round, but could find no trace
of him. There was no doubt, however, as to his
fate. I had heard Crafty barking furiously in the
night, but hearing wolves also, I thought it was they.
All hands turned out to hunt the horses, which had
strayed, but we soon recovered them.

12 th. — We reached the Missionary Station, but
found that the missionary himself had been sent for
by Umbop, a Kaffir chief, to poison lions ninety or
a hundred miles off. His good lady was at home,
but we could make nothing of her. She was a
Norwegian, and had not the slightest smattering of
any other language. Clifton, after trying English and
Kaffir in vain, returned to the charge with French,
but to no purpose, so we had to give her up.

12^A.- — Outspanned four miles beyond the Umve-
loose. I tried to get a klip-springer among the
rocks, but returned unsuccessful, having seen only
three. I saw lots of baboons. Mosquitoes for
the first time bit and plagued me a good deal in
the night. Sent a Kaffir to the bay for letters and
news.

lhth\ — Having been told of a herd of elands, we
saddled and went in pursuit, but it came on very wet,
and we made for a kraal, without seeing them. The

BEES -NESTING.

53

wagon appeared shortly after, and we outspanned a
mile from the Inyesan. I cut the head of a koran clean
off with a bullet, and found it in the long grass some
seven yards from his body.

17 th. — Turned out on Billy to look for a buffalo,
and came on a herd of about fifteen, which made off
at full speed a long way ahead of me. Billy soon
overtook them, and I singled out an old bull, and
gave him a bullet just as he dashed into the bush
near the Inyesan. The herd crossed the river, and
appeared on the other side ; and I had great diffi¬
culty in following them. Eventually I killed a toler¬
ably fat cow, and my Kaffirs told me they had seen
the old bull go away with a broken leg. I also shot
a pig, after a sharp burst, Crafty bringing him to
bay. We brought home as much as three Kaffirs and
a pony could carry.

1 %th — To-day I gave Billy a rest, and turned out
with a half-bred cur to shoot quail ; got three brace,
as well as a partridge. A honeybird met us, and
called us vigorously. We followed, and he took us
to a bees’ nest, but, owing to the incessant rains, there
was but little honey in it. There was, however, a
good deal of fun and excitement in following the
little fellow.

19 th. — Went out in quest of elands, Clifton, his after¬
rider, and myself, taking different roads. After a long
ride, just as I had ascended a very high hill, I saw a
large herd, but could not make them out till they
began to move. The wind and ground were both

54

AFRICAN HUNTING.

in my favour, and, after some hard work, I came
within about 600 yards of them. They were very
wild and shy, having been much shot at lately, and
they had taken alarm at three Kaffirs who came
along the road, and they were taking themselves off
rapidly.

Crafty dashed into the herd and brought out a
cow straight across a heavy bog. I was luckily on
the right side, so I galloped off as fast as I could,
and, after a long burst, got within fifty yards of her.
Kow or never, thought I, as she went like the wind.
I jumped off, fired and missed her. Away she went
at a swinging trot. I looked at my pony : he was
ready for another burst, and I took up the spoor of
the rest of the troop. I soon came upon them cross¬
ing a bog, and making in my direction. I managed
to get Billy over the bog with great difficulty, gave
him a minute to recover his wind, mounted, and, as
I had saved half a mile, I was on the middle of
the troop instantly. I shortly drove the old bull
from the troop, and made play. In consequence of the
heavy state of the ground and the distance I had
come, Billy was labouring hard under me, and, I
fancied, rather losing ground. I thought exhausted
nature could hold out no longer, so I pulled up within
fifty yards of my bull, but I was so shaken that I
again missed. Before I had reloaded, however,
Billy had recovered himself, and fretted so much to
be off that I had difficulty in ramming my bullet
home ; and he was again galloping at a break-neck

ELAxND BULL.

55

pace before I was fairly in the saddle. The bull
was some quarter of a mile ahead, going at a steady
trot, with Crafty at his heels.

I gradually made up the lost ground, saving and
nursing my pony to the utmost, and had been riding
a long way within fifty yards of him, utterly unable
to get an inch nearer, when I saw Clifton and his
after-rider meeting him. Clifton turned out of the
way, to let me have the whole honour to myself. The
bull rushed broadside past him within twenty yards,
a sore temptation for a man with a double-barrelled
Westley Bichards in his hand ; but he allowed the
bull to pass him unmolested. Billy, on seeing the
other horses, made a last spurt and ran right up to
the bull, horse and mail doing all that nature could.
The brute strained every nerve to reach the
river, which was within one hundred yards of
him, but it was not to be. I jumped off and
bowled him over, giving him the ball through his
tail, high up and right into his lungs, and he fell
dead in a few yards ; Billy and I ran down like a
mill-stream. I took off saddle and bridle, and the
pony was himself again in no time. My prize was
a noble brute ; his skin measured ten feet, cut off
at the neck. The Kaffirs came up in about an hour,
and we skinned him. He was in first-rate order,
and I returned to camp, after having cut him up
and taken out his fat, with the breast across my
saddle. The Kaffirs lighted a fire, and stayed there
all night feasting.

56

AFRICAN HUNTING.

21 st. — After a splendid breakfast of marrow-bones
and buffalo tongues, I went out again, my Kaffir
leading Billy. I was determined not to mount, un¬
less I saw elands or buffaloes. I took my blanket,
as I intended to stay out all night. After about
three hours’ walk, I saw a large herd of elands, and
got unperceived within 500 yards of them. I did
not mount till the last moment, when away I went
at the top of Billy’s speed. I was soon in the
middle of the troop, and singled out the largest bull.
Crafty and Billy stuck to him like leeches. He
bounded and tore away, and made every effort to
regain the troop, but in vain, so he rushed down
hill for the Matakoola river. I stopped Billy at
the edge of the river among the reeds, and, just as
my bull appeared on the opposite bank, I shot him
dead through the heart. I had just loaded, and was in
the act of capping, when two cows rushed frantically
by me and up the opposite bank. I was just in time
to stop the hindermost, shooting her through the
tail and heart ; I found her dead within 100 yards
from where I struck her. A moment after, two of
Walmsley’s Hottentots came tearing up on horseback,
just in time to be too late, and have the satisfaction
of seeing the elands a mile ahead, on the farther
side of the Matakoola. We cut off the tails of the
two I had killed as trophies, and took the fat and
some of the best of the meat, and hid it under some
stones, carrying with us the breast of one, and four
marrow-bones, and made our way towards the

COMFORTS OF AFRICA.

57

Matakoola mouth, to try for a sea-cow. It was
nearly dark before we arrived. We saw a lot of
sea-cows, but they were very shy. I struck two,
and think I killed one, but there was no sign of
him in the morning, and if he was really dead he
must have drifted some distance down the river.

It rained incessantly the whole night, and we
were miserably uncomfortable, as we had no shelter
whatever, but lay smoking and steaming, and got
up as stiff as biscuits the next morning, without a
dry rag to put on, some fourteen miles from camp,
and the grass in many places up to the waist, and of
course soaking wet. To complete the delights of
African shooting, it was so murky and foggy that
I never could have found my way back alone ; but
the Kaffirs have a wonderful instinct that way. On
reaching the camp, I got a cup of hot coffee and
dry clothes, and was soon all right, but sustained a
grievous disappointment at receiving no letters from
home ; the Kaffir we despatched having returned
from the bay bringing word that there were none
for me, though three mails at least must have
arrived.

White and the rest of the party got so far back
again all well, but they had had no sport. I rode
over to see them in the afternoon, and spent a very
pleasant couple of hours with them. I got a sack of
mealies for my unhappy pony, which greatly re¬
joiced me.

23 rd. — White and his party treked on, intending

58

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to cross the Tugela as soon as practicable, and get
into the bay, as they were nearly out of the common
necessaries of life.

21th. — Met George Shadwell and his party re¬
turning, who said they had killed no less than 150
sea-cows and 91 elephants ; a most splendid hunt,
two parties, and a whole posse of guns. We even¬
tually reached our different destinations all right,
and separated in Durban, many of us never to meet
again.

This will serve to give the reader some idea of
the sort of life led in a hunting expedition. It is
miserable enough at times, but altogether it is a
roving, careless, wandering life, that has charms
for me. We do just as we like, and wear what is
most convenient. When on foot, a blue and white
shirt and a stout pair of gaiters, with the addition of
a cap and shoes, are all that I burden my body
with.

59

CHAPTER III.

1854.

HUNTING EXPEDITION INTO THE AMATONGA COUNTRY.

April 10 tli. — Left Natal Bay, and, having only
just returned from a trip over the Drakensberg
Mountains buying horses, 1 rode round by the
Inanda to get a small outfit of shirts, &c., and found
the sole occupants of the place one solitary young
cock, which fled at my approach, and a wonderful
pig, which always keeps himself in good condition,
defends himself against all the attacks of wild
animals, and has a strong attachment to the place,
where he was brought a suckling. I met White by
appointment, and was agreeably surprised at seeing
Harris on the box of Proudfoot’s wagon. He and
Maxwell were setting out for a couple of months’
shooting. Rode on to the Nonoti, where I remained
two days, and, not knowing what to do, had a great
washing; of clothes at the river.

15 th. — Started off again on horseback, with three
Kaffirs, across the Tugela, intending to stay a few
days with Edmonstone’s party, who, I heard, were
waiting for us at the Matakoola river, about twenty-

60

AFRICAN HUNTING.

four miles ahead. I spent the night at a friend’s
encampment, and rode the next day across as
rough and bushy a country as can well be imagined.
Missing my way, I was obliged to sleep in a Kaffir
kraal. At sunrise I was again in the saddle, and
with some difficulty found the encampment, but my
friends had gone. Disappointed of my expected
meal, I had to look out for myself. I came across
the morning spoor of two buffaloes, and followed
them into the reeds, but they broke cover and got
away unseen. Uncommonly hungry, I caught sight
of three elands a long way off, and gave chase with¬
out the remotest hope of coming up with them, as
they had a long start, and my horse, Justice, was
wretchedly poor. Mile after mile, however, he just
managed to hold his ground, the elands trotting on
at their leisure. Twice I tried to make a spurt, but
Justice had but one pace. Just, however, as I had
surmounted a hill, having with some difficulty made
the horse gallop, I came on a troop of about thirty
elands. I jumped off and fired at a long distance,
and broke the hind leg of a. young bull, who
immediately separated from the herd, and lay down
on a clump of grass. I finished him with a bullet
in his breast. I slept out that night, after a heavy
feed on the eland, of which the Kaffirs reserved for
my special benefit the tongue and a marrow¬
bone.

W e came across a troop of about thirty elands the
following day, and tried to stalk them, a Kaffir

CROSS THE INYESAN.

61

leading the horse beside me. They made off, how¬
ever, a long way, and I fired without effect. I
then endeavoured to mount and give chase, but
could not, for my life, get the bridle over the head of
the horse, who was backing, plunging, and rearing
frightfully, and I had the mortification to see the
herd going far away, hotly pursued by Venture and
Fly, two dogs I bought over the Berg, who suc¬
ceeded in turning a fine cow out of the herd, and
baiting her well ; but I could do nothing with
Justice, he was the veriest brute in the world. I
pocketed my disgust as well as I could, and rode
leisurely to some kraals, to await the arrival of the
wagons, my bullets being exhausted. The Kaffirs
turned up shortly, bringing loads of meat, and
having lost Dusty, the last remaining one of the
breed of Scotch deer-hounds I brought out with
me.

On our return from an unsuccessful buffalo hunt,
on the 22nd, we found Proudfoot and Maxwell
- arrived. We had a jolly afternoon, with a little
target practice and athletic feats, and finished up
the evening with singing.

23rd. — Treked on a few miles across the country
over the Inyesan. We saw through the telescope a
troop of about one hundred elands, which we
reserved for Monday’s sport. We had a most
exciting run with the dogs after a bush pig, my dog
Venture running gallantly, turning, and, eventually,
with the help of the others, killing him. A better

62

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and richer sample of well-fed pork could not be con¬
ceived. We salted him down for future use.

24 th. — All turned out after the elands, four
horses, and the rest on foot ; but we only bagged one
young cow amongst the whole party. Two or three
more, badly wounded, fell into the hands of the
Kaffirs. On our return we found the horse 4 Sweep ’
dead, and were kept awake most of the night by the
laughing hyenas and dogs fighting over him.

25 th. — Moved our quarters a few miles. We
found a very nice fruit, called by the Kaffirs ama-
bouche, resembling a mangrove in flavour, very
luscious and good. Hunted the strand bush unsuc¬
cessfully, bathed in the sea, but had to beware of
the ground sharks. Played whist until a late hour,
finished the grog, and wound up by a soaking wet
night (from the heavens, I mean).

2 §th. — As I foresaw a continuance' of rain, I set
about making a pair of felt shoes, which were to be
unrivalled for skill and neatness of workmanship, but
the soles took so long softening, that we were unable
to finish them. The rest of the party killed time by
draughts, books, and bullet-casting, and wound up
with whist, as usual.

27 th. — After a sumptuous breakfast on cold pig,
three of us and an after-rider started in quest of
elands. On the way, Venture ran a tiger-cat to bay
in a tree. I shook and stoned him out, and the
dogs, after a short, quick burst, worried him in good
style. I dragged him to the wagon-road and rode

PURSUIT OP 4 JUSTICE.’

63

after Proudfoot and Maxwell, who had gone forward.
We soon came across two eland cows, dismounted,
and fired together at about 200 yards, hitting one
hard ; the other was a very long shot with the
second barrel of Harris’s Westley Bichards’ rifle.
The dogs went away in gallant style, and soon
brought them to bay. I was the first to come up
with them, on Justice, but could not pull up to
shoot. Proudfoot dismounted and knocked over the
last with a ball in the neck, firing past me. I gave
chase to the other, tumbled off and hit her, but she
went away, and Justice also. When I had reloaded,
I saw Proudfoot’s eland coming up, but did not like
to shoot. I threw away my chance till too late, and
then missed her. She fell dead, however, shortly
after, without another shot.

After having succeeded in catching Justice, by
driving him up to the other three horses, we saw a
troop of one hundred elands in the distance, and
watched their movements for a full hour. As the
wind was right against us, we eventually came up
with the last of the troop, going away far ahead,
having got wind of us. We gave chase: I succeeded
in overtaking them, and they turned suddenly, and
came in single file past me, within fifty yards. We
were a long way from camp, and I knew that if I
let. go of the bridle I must tramp home. I there¬
fore pulled the bridle over Justice’s head and
through my arm, and three times the brute pulled
back, and jerked the gun from my shoulder. I fired

64

AFRICAN HUNTING.

at last, and missed. Prondfoot did tlie same, and
liis horse, Blesbok; went off at score, and followed
the spoor as accurately as any dog. We got back to
the eland just before sunset, and soon stripped her
of her skin. The wagon coming up soon after, we
quartered her, stuffed her in, and returned to camp.

2 8th. — White, Harris, and I, hearing that a sea-
cow had been seen the day before in a large vley,
just below the wagons, went in pursuit, but the cow
had decamped, so we returned to the wagons, and I
finished my shoes — a first-rate pair.

The next day we went in pursuit of elands, but
were unsuccessful ; we therefore treked on a few
miles to some new grass near the Umlilas, and had
to go supperless to bed.

oOth [Sunday). — A gloomy, wet day. Pound it
hard to kill time. At noon, we succeeded in getting
the kettle to boil, and had a cup of coffee. Pound
my ink upset, though luckily without doing much
damage. Harris and I rather in a strait, our Kaffirs
having bolted.

May 1st — A repetition of yesterday. The tent
leaked like a sieve, and Harris and I were as miser¬
able as can be imagined. We cut a drain round the
tent, which greatly improved matters. To add to
our discomforts, we were short of fire-wood. Our
Kaffirs had bolted to the kraals, having been unable
to face the inclemency of the weather any longer.

2nd. — Still raining, but with a hope of improve¬
ment. Justice was nowhere to be found. Maxwell

‘ JUSTICE ’ IN DIFFICULTIES.

65

at last sighted him with a telescope some three miles
off. Steele and I went after him, and found him
as nearly as possible strangled to death with his
halter, his head and face swollen enormously, and
fearfully thin, having evidently gone without food
for two days, and perishing with cold and rain.
Yet, even when reduced to this strait, the brute
refused to be caught, and though so weak that he
fell twice, and staggered all the way like a drunken
man, he went headlong into a river ; fortunately,
however, he succeeded in making the opposite bank.
At length I drove him into a kraal, and caught him.
At sunset I came up with the wagons, which had
treked on four or five miles to better grass, wood,
and water.

4 th. — Having seen the spoor of sea-cows, White,
Proudfoot, and Harris went down, taking the tent
and some food, to try and shoot one by moonlight.
Isaac severely wounded a cow, which, however, made
her escape to the river. I did not go, having no
Kaffir to carry my blankets.

After a day employed in re-soling shoes and super¬
intending the dyeing of shirts and trowsers, we had
a long tramp on the 6 th after reed-bucks, with but
moderate success. Nothing to eat at the wagons,
except a steinbok, which did not go far amongst so
large a party.

1th. — Steele and I started early with four Kaffirs
to bring home a ram I had shot. It was a very
large one, and I had cleaned and stuffed it with

F

66

AFRICAN HUNTING.

grass and hidden it, leaving Fly to guard it from
wolves. After breakfasting sumptuously on broiled
kidneys, steaks, and mushrooms, which we luckily
found near, we loaded the Kaffirs and returned to
camp.

8th. — White and Harris left us. Proudfoot,'
Maxwell, and I, accompanied by a host of Kaffirs,
turned out in downright earnest for buffaloes or
elands, without breakfast, as there was not a morsel
of anything in camp. Proudfoot shot a cow buffalo,
and Isaac an old bull. I purchased a dozen pounds
of beads from Surtees, and joined White’s wagon
in the evening, wishing Proudfoot and party good-
bye.

Seeing four elands coming down a kloof, straight
upon us, we dismounted in all haste and crawled to
the edge of the kloof, leaving our horses below the
hill, out of sight. I ought to have known better
than to place such confidence in Justice. I spent
the most miserable day I ever recollect, chasing my
horse through the most frightful tangled grass and
brushwood, up to my armpits, and in many places
over my head, through kloofs and valleys. This was
at the base of the Umgowie Mountains. It was an
hour after sunset before I caught Justice, and when
I succeeded in reaching the wagons I was tho¬
roughly fagged. One more such day would have
driven me mad. A cup of coffee, however, and a
delicious supper of buffalo kidneys, somewhat re¬
stored my spirits and temper.

PANDA ON FEED TRADE.

67

9 th. — A day of feasting on tongues, marrow¬
bones, and all the delicacies of the two buffaloes.

10 t7i. — Harris rejoined us, and we treked on a
few miles to a small river, called by the Kaffirs Inku-
kusa, where we had a delightful bathe. We remained
here two days, hunting up the river one day, and
down the next ; but none of the party burnt powder
either day, so we treked on in the afternoon a short
distance, to the Umslatoose. We met two traders,
who were returning, in consequence of Panda having
entirely stopped the trading. He has made the
penalty for disobedience to orders certain death,
and has commenced by killing about thirty men,
and all their wives, children, and relatives. This
had so terrified the rest, that no one would come
near a trader’s wagon. All traders are ordered
out of the country, and the reason which Panda
alleges for this is that his heart is sore, owing to
the sudden death, by dysentery, of two of his chief
captains.

13th. — Turned out fully determined to bag some¬
thing, as an old tough bull-buffalo was all that we
had in camp, and he was fast diminishing, under the
united powers of half a dozen dogs and as many
Kaffirs, and four white men. No one can have an
idea of the appetite of the Kaffirs, without actual
experience. We had a hard day’s work, and never
fired a shot.

White and Harris overhauled the stores in the
wagon, and found the rice nearly musty, owing to

G8

AFKICAN HUNTING.

the wet, and the coffee and sugar almost exhausted.
It was therefore resolved that Harris should return
to the bay with the wagon, for a fresh supply of
provisions and a little lead, and to procure Kaffirs for
himself and me, as it would have been madness to go
into the country so badly provided as we were then.
White and I were in the meantime to go to the
Umgowie Mountains for shooting, and were to spend
the next three weeks under canvas. We crossed the
Umslatoose the next day, and the day after we un¬
loaded the wagon, stowed everything away in the
tent, and Harris and the driver started early for the
bay.

On the 17th, after a soaking wet night — our tent
leaking like a sieve, until the canvas swelled with the
rain — we turned out to hunt, with our usual bad
luck. On our return, we found my Kaffir, whom I
had hired a few days before, and to whom I had
given the name of Goat, had run away. I got a
pound of powder from Mr. Newton, whose wife
made us a very welcome present of a few candles
and needles. We lived for three days on a most
recommendable stew, composed of two sorts of
buck, and wild pig (cured), rice, and pumpkins,
which appeared, warmed up fresh, at every meal.
Our eatables were hung upon a sort of gallows,
erected just before the tent, out of the reach of
our five hungry dogs.

A few days after, the said dogs, taking advantage
of my being absent from the tent for a few minutes

SHORT COMMONS.

69

to superintend the baking of some bread, walked off
with a cold goose and a pot of amas — the whole of
our larder, with the exception of two pieces of salt
pig. On my return one day, after an unsuccessful
hunt, I was delighted to find that White had suc¬
ceeded in buying a goat from the Kaffirs, for four
ostrich feathers.

21 st (Sunday). — Not going out anywhere, I took
the opportunity of putting my three guns into killing
order, considering it no worse to employ myself use¬
fully than to pass the time loitering about, whistling,
&c., to kill time.

We remained in the same place a fortnight longer,
chiefly occupied in cutting out felt shoes, dyeing
clothes, and casting bullets, and making other pre¬
parations for our hunting expedition on the return of
the wagons. The weather was cold and wet, game
exceedingly scarce, and provisions in camp, conse¬
quently, very short. We were reduced at last to
water porridge, rice and pumpkins, with a few occa¬
sional ducks and pigeons.

30 th, — Killed three snakes out of a rotten
tree, all different kinds of tree-snakes. They all
came out of the same hole, while I was cutting
out two bullets.

Had some exciting sport with sea-cows in a
narrow river, with very high reeds on both banks.
To get a shot, I was obliged to climb the trees over¬
hanging the river, and had one or two good chances,
but the villainous black ants fell upon me vigorously,

70

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and in such countless multitudes, biting so severely,
that flesh and blood could not possibly hold out
another second. I was forced to descend ; and an old
sea-cow I had been dodging for two hours is indebted
to the black ants for her life.

The night before the arrival of the wagons, we
went down with our blankets, in the hope of getting
a shot at a sea-cow by moonlight ; but the moon set
before we met with them, and we had to take to our
blankets in the long wet grass, without the satisfac¬
tion of having secured one.

June 5.— The crack of a whip announced the
approach of our long-expected wagon, which had
been detained by the river being swollen. Two others
came with it, but they brought no letters from the
bay, as there had been no mail for two months.
Two more wagons joined us the next day, so we
celebrated the occasion by setting to work to pre¬
pare a first-rate dinner of three courses, for ten,
consisting of some buck and buffalo soup ; stewed
buck and sea-cow, seasoned with lots of onions, pep¬
per, &c. ; three sorts of vegetables ; and a roast of
wild ducks, pigeons, and dikkops. Barter had en¬
gaged to provide a dish of fish, but at the second
bite he lost all his tackle, and came home dis¬
comfited, with one small barbel. Dinner was fol¬
lowed by a bowl of gin punch, with lemons and
all other requisites, made in the washing-basin.
Three rubbers of whist, and lots of capital songs,
finished up the evening.

AT THE UMSIXDOOSIE.

71

1th. — All got under weigh, and in about a mile
and a half went on our separate ways, two wagons
going back to the bay, two to the King’s trading,
and our own party over the Pongola. Maxwell gave
us a good lump of cheese — a great treat in these
parts.

Sth. — On my return to the wagon, I found some
of the party gone up to a kraal to shoot a Kaffir who
had threatened to assagai one of Walmsley’s Kaffirs,
in order to obtain possession of a string of Makanda
beads which he wore round his neck. They found,
however, that the Kaffirs had decamped in great
haste.

ll^A. — Commenced by shooting my dog Venture,
who had lately taken a sulky turn, and would not
follow me a yard. Afterwards, I bagged one peau
(bustard) and four snipes, and on my return I found
White complaining of illness.

12th. — Outspanned at the river Umsindoosie, and
as White had made up his mind to return, we un¬
loaded the wagon, and each took our share of provi¬
sions, and parted company.

13th. — Francis kindly lent me his old horse, and
I and my Kaffir set out, and, after two good soakings,
took up my quarters in a kraal, where I found
Maclean. We dined together on amas, followed by
roast guinea-fowls, in a wretched hut, containing ten
Kaffirs, two of whom we employed to hold lighted
grass, that we might see to eat. As soon as one
straw was nearly consumed, they lighted another by

72

AFRICAN HUNTING.

it, so as to keep up a continual light. Each straw
burned about a minute.

On the 14th, I came on to the Umveloose. I made
up my mind to leave two-thirds of my provisions
behind, and go into the country with as little as
possible. With this view, I converted an old pair of
breeches into bags. These, and half a towel which
I spared for the purpose, contained my sugar, coffee,
tea, bullets, beads, red kalis, &c. Maclean went off
in the afternoon, and I was again left alone.

I was anxious to be off the next day, but as I did
not know the way, I was obliged to wait for a friend’s
wagon. I much feared that my Kaffir would run
away, as the Zulus, from some cause or other, had
killed all his relations, and he expected that they
wished to make an end of him also. His alarm was
not unreasonable, as his sister had been impaled only
two days before.

With a small frying-pan, which I bought for a few
beads from a Kaffir, who did not know its use, a tin
cup and plate, pocket-knife and wooden spoon, I
managed cooking and feeding pretty well. But the
nights of fourteen hours, without books, lights, or
anything whatever to do, were indescribably tedious,
and the horrid noise which the Kaffirs made, and
call singing, only made matters worse.

Ylth. — Up for once in my life before the Kaffirs,
about an hour and a half before sunrise. After a
long, tough job in removing the barricade, which is
made at the gate to keep out wild beasts, I got out

A HINT FOR DOCTORS.

73

and shot a splendid golden goose, as it was feeding
on the mealies within one hundred yards of the
kraal. As it is always very cold before the sun
rises I turned in again, but was roused by the cries
of a child evidently in pain, and was thereupon
witness to a new fashion of administering a warm
bath. A child of about ten years old was being held
down to the ground, while the doctor, with the sole
of his foot previously heated on an earthenware pot
just off the fire and turned upside down, was pressing
the body of the child all over and rubbing it up and
down the back, causing it, no doubt, very great
pain. The Kaffirs have no feeling in the soles of
their feet, the skin being like the hoof of a cow, and
fully half an inch thick.

While staying at the kraal, I killed the finest
specimen of the eagle tribe I ever saw, and regretted
much that I had no arsenical soap to preserve the
skin. I saw a great commotion among a troop of
guinea fowls across the river, and presently this fellow
rose, so gorged that he could only just rise, feathered
to the toes with beautiful black and white plumage,
and talons fearful to look upon.

The next day I left my goods and chattels in
charge of the Nkozi Kazi (the chiefs principal wife)
at the Black Umveloose, and followed the wagon-
track to the Inyelas, about fifteen miles a head, and
once again took up my quarters in a kraal.

22nd. — By dint of great persuasion and a promise
of thirty strings of Umgazi beads, I got a Zulu to

74

AFRICAN HUNTING.

come with me to the Amatonga land, to carry bullets,
powder, and other things, . as a friend of mine re¬
claimed a horse which he had lent me, one of his
Kaffirs having run away to the bay.

23rd. — As the party I had been waiting for again
delayed their starting, I determined not to be delayed
another hour ; and, although I did not know an inch
of the way, or anything else, I started with two Kaffirs
and Fly. Everyone assured me that I should lose my¬
self, but I got on very well over flat country on a good
sandy foot-path. A good half of the way I walked
bare-footed. I saw wildebeests, quaggas, koodoos, and
waterbuck. At sunset I camped out about four miles
after crossing the river St. Luey, kindled a large fire,
roasted a koran, made some tea, and turned in. It
was a bitter night, with a high wind, and I took pity
on my Kaffirs and gave them half my blanket, which
was a double one. They lay curled up like a ball of
worsted at my feet, one of them turning out from
time to time to heap fuel on the fire. During the
night I heard lions and wolves, but they did not
molest us.

2ith. — We started early, and had made about
twelve miles, when we were overtaken by six or eight
Zulus, who begged me to shoot a wildebeest for
them, as they were nearly starving. I had an early
opportunity of complying with their request, and
they lost not an instant in lighting a fire, flaying and
cutting up the animal. After a moderate feed they
went off with their prize, all staggering under very

A HINT FOR COOKS.

75

heavy loads of beef. The paunch they converted into
a bag, and scooped up the whole of the clotted blood
from the inside of the animal, which had been shot
through the lungs, filled the bag with the most nau¬
seous mess you can imagine, fastened up the mouth
with two sticks crossed rather ingeniously, and at the
first Amatonga kraals took possession of a pot, and
boiled bag and all the contents for a glorious repast.

I preferred a mess of Inyouti porridge, a new
seed to me, small and not unlike millet, to supping
with my morning’s friends, and found it very nice,
but I greatly missed the new milk so abundant in the
Zulu land. The Amatongas have no cattle, lest the
possession of them should excite the cupidity of
their warlike neighbours, who would soon exterminate
the more timid Amatongas.

After about seven hours’ sharpish walking through
a very thick scrubby country, and apparently very
poor land, we came out into a clearance and saw
cultivated grounds, the first Amatonga kraals I had
ever met with. They much resemble the Zulu huts,
but have larger door-ways ; and as the Amatongas
have no cattle, there are no fences round their kraals,
which are dotted about much more irregularly than
those of the Zulus. There was nothing but dense
bush and large timber to be seen in any direction.

I was hospitably received by the captain, who
allotted me a hut to sleep in. At supper I had the
most delicious Bashoo nuts I ever ate. They were
roasted in the embers of the fire, and taste exactly

76

AFRICAN HUNTING.

like filberts. They grow in pairs in a large husk. The
Amatongas’ cuisine is decidedly superior to that of
the Zulus, but the traveller will nowhere find in their
country the rich amas, which is to be had amongst
the Zulus.

2hth.— Hearing from the Kaffirs that there were
inyala in the bush, I sallied out, but without success,
until nearly sunset, when, as I was returning home, the
Amatongas showed me two inyalas feeding — the first
I had ever seen. I succeeded in bagging the stag, a
most beautiful dark silver grey buck, with long mane
and very long hair like a goat. He is of the bush buck
species, but on a much larger scale than the inconka
of the colony, with long spiral horns, tanned legs,
very long hair on his breast and quarters ; a
beautiful animal weighing from 250 to 300 pounds,
and very fierce when wounded. They inhabit the
coast from this to Delagoa Bay, and are numerous ;
the does are often to be seen in large herds, and are
likewise very beautiful, resembling a fallow deer, but
of a much darker red, striped and spotted with
white ; they have no horns, and are half the size of
the stag, and nowhere else in Africa have I met with
them. I had some trouble in getting him, and must
have lost him but for Fly, who brought him to bay
several times. I gave him a slanting shot through
the shoulder, and out at the neck, and tumbled him
over, but he was on his legs again in an instant, and
dashed into the bush. When I at last secured him I
thought I should never have sufficiently admired him ;

THE AMATOXGAS.

77

but the sun was setting fast, and it was all I could do
to get him skinned, and the meat hung up in a tree,
before dark. The Amatongas found their way back
through the dark in an astonishing manner ; they
carried the skin, head and horns for me, held back
the branches, warned me of stakes or stumps in the
path, or took up thorns that lay in my path, and
altogether treated me with more courtesy than I had
ever before experienced in my life.

27 th. — I made an attempt to preserve the skin of
my inyala, but, owing to the want of arsenical soap, I
failed. The skull and horns were all that I could
keep. To-day I paid off my Zulus, and engaged two
Amatongas in their place, to carry my things to the
next kraals, only a short distance, and arrived early.
Got two of the best hunting Amatongas to follow up
with me some buffalo spoor which I noticed. I came
up with the troop, stalked in upon them, and shot a
fine young bull.

2 Sth. — Hired two fresh fellows to carry, and
again got under weigh early. After a stiff walk of
about four hours, we stopped for breakfast and drank
about! inyouti (Amatonga beer), which is very good,
when not too thick. After another stretch of two
hours, we halted for the day at a kraal, where I en¬
gaged a fine Amatonga to carry my gun, &c., all the
time I was in the country. The terms of my engage¬
ment were that I should give him the inside fat of
an elephant, if I should have the luck to get one.
Another Kaffir joined my forces to-day, gratis, and

78

AFRICAN HUNTING.

I gladly enlisted him on those terms. I only wanted
a couple of companions, or some books, to make me
perfectly happy during the fearfully long nights,
when I lay stretched out on my mat, sipping coffee,
and eating roasted nuts and salt, with a fire burning
close to me on the floor. I could easily have con¬
cocted a light of some kind or other, if I had had any
use for it. Eats annoyed me considerably during
the night, owing to my having so much flesh in
the hut.

29 th. — Off at sunrise, and saw three lions sneak¬
ing off from a wildebeest. I was anxious to go after
the former, but the Amatongas would not hear of such
folly and danger, and argued the matter thus :
‘What should I do with one, in case I was for¬
tunate enough to kill it P ’ — instead of the tables
being turned, which they seemed to think the most
probable issue to the attempt ; besides, the lions
were their friends, and provided them constantly
with flesh, and they would take no part in molesting
them. Though strange, it is quite true that the na¬
tives throughout are indebted to the lions for many a
dainty repast. Crossed the Umkusi, a beautiful river,
with large trees overhanging and spreading across.
Saw wolves, waterbuck, and several troops of pallah,
and took up my quarters for the night with an Ama-
tonga chief, named Job. The Amatonga brought
all manner of things for sale. I invested in a fowl,
eggs, nuts, some good rice, beer, and a very strong,
neatly-made mat, to carry my blanket and to sleep

-J.Wolf, lith. .

MY FIRST ELEPHANT.

79

on, for a few strings of Umgazi beads, and a red kali,
a piece of curtain binding, about eighteen inches long,
which the Kaffirs are fond of wearing round their
heads. I told the Kaffir to kill and pluck the fowl.
The latter operation he accomplished very com¬
pletely, but as he had neglected the former, when I
took the fowl in my hand to take out its inside, I
was horrified by its struggling out of my hand, and
running off, as bare as a board !

30/A. — I paid off my former carriers, and engaged
two others. We toiled a long, weary way through
dense bush all the day. We passed innumerable
vleys, covered with ducks, widgeon, geese, waterrails,
cranes, and divers of all sorts, very tame ; but as I
was loaded with ball, I did not molest them. I fol¬
lowed up a herd of impalas, and got a shot at one
more than 200 yards off, and cut both his fore legs
from under him, skinned him, and breakfasted on
him on the spot, and carried away the fore quarters
and the skin with us. I slept in a capital hut, fully
ten feet high in the centre, and neatly finished off.

July Is/. — I started early for the Pongola, with
three or four Amatongas. In going through the
bush, I saw a great number of pit-falls, about nine
feet deep, and very narrow at the bottom. They
are made by the natives to entrap all sorts of game.
After walking several miles, the Kaffirs cried out
6 Nance inthovu ! ’ (see elephant), and I beheld,
about three-quarters of a mile off, a huge monster
flapping his enormous ears, just at the edge of the

80

AFEICAN HUNTING.

busli. I was in great excitement, filled my ban¬
dolier with about twenty-four bullets, re-filled two
powder-flasks, took an infinity of caps, and two guns,
which most unfortunately happened to contain but
small charges of powder (three and a half drachms),
as I had not expected elephants, and had no means
of drawing the bullets without firing, which would
have started them instantly. Oh, for a breech-loader !
In this dilemma, I determined on firing at his knee,
if I could not get a side-shot between the ear and
the eye. When all was in readiness, I looked up
again, and saw about fifteen elephants, one ap¬
parently with long white teeth, which I set my mind
on securing. I kept well below the wind, and came
within 100 yards of them, when my Amatonga guide
declined proceeding farther. It was rather nervous
work, going up alone, as I saw them breaking
off huge boughs of trees, which crashed all around.
I went up stealthily, however, within thirty yards of
a large cow, but, not liking her teeth, was proceed¬
ing with the utmost caution to inspect some of the
others, and endeavour to find the one I had seen at a
distance, with the long white tusks, when, to my
horror and mortification, I heard My barking in the
middle of the troop. In a moment they were off,
smashing everything before them, in a great state of
alarm. I ran about six miles after them, through
the bush, and came up with three of them. I gave
one a shot behind the shoulder, but they all made
off, and I saw no more of them ; and, though I

THE PONG OLA.

81

instantly rushed in, a calf and the stem of a retreat¬
ing old cow was all the chance of a shot I got. In
the excitement of the moment, I had forgotten all
about the dog, and felt much mortified at the
mischief she was the cause of ; for I was perfectly
cool and collected at these, my first elephants, and
should most undoubtedly have got a good shot,
even if I had not disabled, and eventually, perhaps,
bagged one of the best of them. I never hailed
anything with more joy than the Pongola : I was
half dead from thirst, never having touched a drop
of water all day; and the river was as cold, clear,
and beautiful as any I ever saw. It is at this point
about 100 yards wide, and its banks on both sides
are covered with the wild fig-tree, which grows to
an enormous size.

After crossing the Pongola, and sleeping at
Moputa’s, I was ready to start early on the 5th, but
had to wait some time for the return of my Kaffir,
Jack. When he arrived, I administered a little
wholesome chastisement with a rhinoceros sjambok,
and started on a long, heavy walk through deep sand,
and finally arrived at a kraal, where I was greeted
as usual by a set of noisy curs, which invariably, at
the sight of a white man, tumble head-over-heels
in all directions, upsetting everything, as frightened
as if they had seen an apparition. After the first
alarm they bait you unmercifully, and for many
minutes it is impossible to hear yourself speak. I
don’t know that I ever succeeded in making friends

G

82

AFRICAN HUNTING.

with a real Kaffir cur in my life, not even a puppy,
and I scarcely ever saw, or knew, or heard of one good
for anything ; they do indeed lead the life of a dog.
They are well-fed when quite young, but afterwards
they are expected to provide for themselves, and are,
consequently, wretchedly lean and mangy, but they
continue to exist.

After pacifying them a little, driving them to a
more respectable distance by sweeping the legs of
two from under them with a well-directed hedge-
stake, and felling a third with a stone, I ordered
food to be cooked for me, and enquired the news,
and heard there was great sickness in the country,
and that a friend of mine, John Dunn, whom I had
hoped to join, had just been carried out of the
country by the natives, almost dead. I had, fortu¬
nately, met two hunters, Jack and George, the
previous day — the latter very sick — and had got a
little jalap from him ; and having with me calomel,
tartar emetic, and laudanum, took an emetic as a
preventative, and continued doing so weekly as long
as I remained in the unhealthy country.

(PA. — Started early with a hunchbacked dwarf
for a guide. He had two of the most extraordinary
legs I ever saw — I cannot call them a pair — but
with them he managed to give me a great deal of
trouble to keep up with him. I saw to-day Guinea
fowl of a kind new to me, very like a black cock in
plumage, with buff tufts on their heads, and no tails.
We crossed the Pongola and reached some large

A SCRAMBLE.

83

vleys of water, with lots of wild fowl and large black
geese. We saw also a few sea-cows, three of which
I struck at long distances. They were very shy,
having been shot at a good deal.

The Kaffirs brought me in the evening some vile
water porridge, made of inyouti, a small seed grown
by the Kaffirs, which was quite uneatable. I bought
some twenty fresh eggs, and made a great discovery
in cooking. I fried this same inyouti porridge in
fat, broke some eight eggs over it, and so concocted
as fine a mess as anyone could wish for ; indeed,
it was so good, that I reserved the remains for the
morning.

7 th. — Off early again after the sea-cows. On
arriving, I saw only one up, which I had killed the
afternoon before, and which a Kaffir had found out,
and was going in for, but he made off on seeing me.
I soon came on a lot asleep, and, getting pretty near,
I shot the biggest of them. I soon had some eighty
or a hundred Kaffirs around me, and they hauled
up the cow. Nothing could be more courteous than
their behaviour while I took what I wanted ; but as
soon as I delivered over the carcase to them, there
ensued an indescribable scene of confusion. The
Kaffirs rushed at the beast with assegais, knives,
picks, and axes ; hallooing, bellowing, shoving, and
fighting, in a manner that no one would believe
who had not seen them. Occasionally the captain
ran in, and laid about him with a rhinoceros sjambok
in every direction. The strongest of the savages got

84

AFEICAN HUNTING.

at the beast, cut off pieces, and hurled them over
their heads to their accomplices outside, who dashed
at them and ran with them, each to a separate heap,
where he deposited his piece, and where no one
meddled with it. In a very short time the whole
cow was disposed of, and not an atom left for
about one hundred adjutants who were stalking
about in hopes of a share of the prey. The same
scene took place at the next, they both being
uncommonly fat, young, tender, and delicious meat.
A man with a thrifty housewife need not starve in
this country, for I killed to-day about five tons of
delicious meat with unlimited fat.

The sun was down before we reached the kraal
again, where I found myself suddenly a great man.
Presents of all sorts were made to me — eggs,
bread, rice, beer, pumpkins, and all the produce of
the land. The bread looks just like roasted potatoes,
but I cannot say much in its favour.

8th. — Spent a quiet day at home, making bell-
tong, and pickling the tongue, &c. of the cow. I
made the captain a handsome present of a choice
piece of the beef, and inspected the kraal. The
natives have the good taste, when making a clear¬
ance for their gardens, to spare the gum-trees. They
are very beautiful trees, with dark green leaves
sweeping the ground. Their foliage is so thick, that
no daylight penetrates to the interior. The Ama-
tongas are very industrious, both men and women
working in the gardens — a thing almost unheard-of

CHASE OP SIX ELEPHANTS.

85

among the Zulu men, who would think it degrading,
and an occupation only for the women. You seldom
meet an Amatonga without his carrying a fire-stick,
and big fires are slowly consuming all around the
clearance.

9 th. — Loth to leave such good quarters, I took a
stroll with half-a-dozen Amatongas, to another vley,
where I saw lots of sea-cows lying asleep, almost high
and dry, with large white birds sitting on their
heads, looking just like the hulls of so many vessels,
but in unapproachable places. I got a shot at one
facing me, and gave her a bullet in the forehead, and
was waiting to see if she would rise, when opposite
me, over the vley, I saw six elephants. My guide
brought me well up to them with wonderful sagacity.
A young bull stood between me and the only cow
worth shooting ; they moved on so quickly on seeing
me, that I fired at the bull, and hit him behind the
shoulders, laming him a good deal. We chased them
about a mile on the open as hard as ever we could
run ; not much, if anything, to choose between the
Amatongas and myself. I was only clad in a long
shirt and gaiters, with light felt shoes, and we ran
upon pretty even terms, and kept very near the
elephants, though never able to get near enough for
a broadside. The large cow with a young calf
turned and showed fight, whereat the Amatongas
fled. Now was my chance, as she stood with her
trunk in the air, to have shot her in the chest,
but I first aimed at the top of her trunk, then I

86

AFRICAN HUNTING.

thought I would wait till she turned, and when
she did so, I struck her too high, and I never
came up with them again. I returned to the
kraal, as the reader may imagine, not in the best of
humours.

th. — Oft again : a weary, long walk, through
heavy sand. However, I got a good bath about
half way, and lots of beer at the different kraals, and
at sundown we arrived at the residence of the chief,
Umpongal, a man of gigantic stature. He received
me well, and gave me the best hut I have ever yet
seen, all made of reeds, with the roof beautifully
worked. I was honoured by drinking beer out of
his private cup, which holds about a gallon, and by
a present of a line fat fowl.

On the 11th, I went to Mathlashlas, and the next
day I crossed the Umsutie or Mapoota, a beautiful
broad river, very deep, about ninety yards wide,
and apparently navigable, emptying itself into
Delagoa Bay — with magnificent trees upon its banks,
abounding with sea-cows, and swarming with cro¬
codiles. I counted twenty-two at one time, on a
small sand-bank in the middle of the river. The
stream runs swiftly, and though I walked along its
banks for two days, I saw no chance of crossing
anywhere without a canoe. The Amatongas lost
themselves in the bush, and it was four hours after
sunset when we made some kraals, where we put up
for the night, and fared rather badly, after a hard
day’s work, on mealies and cold water. I had no

DIFFICULTIES IN NAVIGATION.

87

blanket with me, and felt the cold considerably,
though we kept up a good fire. I shot badly, and
with worse luck, killing nothing, though I had two
good chances at buffaloes, four at sea-cows, one at
impala, one at a waterbuck ram. Most of these I
hit; but hitting and killing large game are two very
different things.

13 th. — We started early on our return, and on
the river I got into difficulties with the canoe. As
there were no natives at hand, I got into it alone,
but could not keep her head up stream. In drifting
down at a rapid pace, she shot under the overhang¬
ing bough of a tree, and swept me out. I clung to
the branch, and got my heels into the boat, and then,
with a desperate effort, my whole body ; but I lost
my long pole, which, being made of greenwood, sank
to the bottom. I had a paddle, however, and brought
her to the side, where I clung on to some branches,
and awaited assistance. As long as I held on to the
trees, there was no danger, except from crocodiles,
which were rather numerous there. An Amatonga
at last came to my assistance in another canoe, and
we fastened them together. I worked the paddle
and he the long pole, and we got across, making one
boat fast, and working the other up stream, to the
landing-place.

14 th. — Partook of my last coffee and sugar, with
deep regret and many a pang.

The captain made me a present of a small pair of
tusks, and tried hard to bargain for one of my guns,

88

AFRICAN HUNTING.

offering me five splendid tusks, worth ten times as
much as the gun.

loth. — Boasting hot day. Took a turn in a dif¬
ferent direction, when I swam to a place some twenty-
five yards wide, and laughed heartily at the faces of
many who could not swim being towed across by
their companions, and the convulsive, spasmodic
efforts they made — the most abject fear being de¬
picted on every muscle of their countenances. Some
of them were first-rate water-dogs, and brought my
guns and traps over dry, which I could not have
done myself. Oceans of good beer here yesterday :
an old woman brought a basket of sand, laid it on
the floor, made a large hole in the middle, and
placed in it an immense jar of beer, which could not
have held less than nine gallons. Another supply
followed in the evening, in a basket made of grass,
and perfectly watertight.

YJth. — We mustered a strong party of fifteen,
including the captain of the kraal, and three fellows
to carry beer. We took oar blankets with us, and
walked a long way without seeing anything. At last
an old bull buffalo jumped up close to me, and I
gave him a bullet behind the shoulder, which brought
him on his knees ; but he soon recovered himself,
and went off*. I sent a second ball after him, to no
purpose. Farther on, I saw a large sea-bull lying
asleep close inland behind some reeds, and pro¬
ceeded to crawl in on him ; and just as I showed
myself, half way to my waist in water, to my

SEA-BULL.

89

surprise, instead of endeavouring to make his escape,
he charged right at me, at great speed. He stopped
for a second about twenty yards off, and I gave
him a pill under the ear, which made him spin
round and round like a top. I fired two more
bullets into his body without effect, missed him

with a third (meant for his head), and began to
fear we were to lose him altogether, as he seemed
recovering, and was gradually getting farther and
farther away into deep water, and giving very poor
chances of a shot. The sun was shining so directly
on him, that I could not see to shoot a bit ; the foot¬
ing was slippery, and I was half way up to my middle
in mud and water, when I got a last chance, and
put the ball exactly between the ear and the eye, and

90

AFKICAN HUNTING.

killed him. The sun was fast setting ; the Kaffirs
got him nearly ashore, and we lighted three huge
fires (with a cap and powder on the heel-plate of
my gun, giving it a smart blow with a stone),
and fed on him, but he was horribly tough. The
night was awfully foggy, and the dew heavy ; and,
when morning came, I had every symptom • of
fever. Notwithstanding, I. was obliged to walk
twenty-five miles home, with scarcely any shade on
the road. Many a vow I made, during the day,
never to return to the country.

The next day I kept my bed, and my ink being
exhausted, I continued my journal with a compound
of tea and gunpowder. Being very anxious to get
back to the Pongola, where I had some faint hopes
of finding Barter and Moreton, and obtaining a
little quinine, and a fresh supply of provisions — as
I had nothing in the shape of food, and was so weak
that I could no longer eat beans, mealies, and
inyouti — I started, and reached Umpongal’s.

21st — Again got under weigh, trying to make
Utumani’s, but, after fighting on for about four hours,
I had to give in. I could not walk five yards
straight, or keep in the path at all. After about two
hours’ rest under the shade of a tree, I made some
kraals, where I took up my quarters, and took three
emetics, none having any effect. As a last resort,
thinking it was all up with me, I got a Kaffir to
tickle my throat with long grass, full of little seeds,
pushed far down. This, at last, had the desired

AGUE AGAIN.

91

effect, and in the course of a couple of hours I felt
better.

22 nd. — Eeached Utumani’s at sunset, utterly done
up. Spent a miserable night, never closing my eyes :
rats annoyed me beyond all possible endurance —
galloping and chasing one another all over my body
and face. I roused my Kaffir, struck a light, and
took a strong dose of laudanum, and towards morn¬
ing I got a good sleep.

I was now better, but the ague returned with
dreadful punctuality at four every afternoon, and
lasted about two hours.

I had managed to make a short journey almost
every day, and on the evening of the 24th I reached
Moputa’s, and was hospitably received by the cap¬
tain, who sent me heaps of eggs, &c., and I had a
good night’s rest. A long walk brought me on the
next day to the Pongola, where, instead of the
quinine which I had been looking forward to, and
the luxuries of coffee, sugar, and bread (which last I
had not tasted for seven weeks), I found simply
nothing. At last, however, I discovered a little rice,
which I had left behind me on my last visit, and
which was now really welcome. The next day, Tom,
the messenger, arrived with a supply of all comfort¬
able things, and raised my spirits considerably.

On the 28th I started early, and long before
sunset reached Tagati’s, where I stayed the following
day with Austin. He left me the next day, after
making an exchange of salt for some needles and

92

AFRICAN HUNTING.

thread. Got over this much-dreaded part of the
road, twenty miles across — a dreary sandy flat,
without a tree or a drop of water — and then live or
six miles through the bush, wonderfully, being highly
favoured with a beautiful cool cloudy day, with a
line lively breeze of wind all the way.

August 2 nd. — I offered my hunter some beads,
if he could show me another inyala. We pro¬
ceeded a long way, through very thick bush ; at last,
I saw the Kaffir’s eyes sparkle, and, on emerging
out of the bush to a water-pool, he made frantic
gestures to me to go round another way, which I did
with caution, not knowing in the least what 1 was to
see. A moment after, I beheld a noble buck inyala
walking leisurely away, having slaked his thirst,
about seventy or eighty yards off. Presently, he
turned half round, and was greeted with a ball
in the shoulder, when he made a tremendous spring
into the air, and dashed headlong into the bush.
The Amatongas ran like lightning, and with wonder¬
ful sagacity followed him through thick bush, and
brought him to bay, where my Kaffir, to whom I had
given a second gun, brought him down.

A day or two after, I bid adieu to Tagati, and, on
the 5th, I crossed the Umkusi, and engaged my
Kaffir’s two brothers to accompany me to the bay.
On the 8th, I crossed the St. Luey, and on the fol¬
lowing day got back to the wagon. As I was still
unwell, and much fatigued, having walked hard for
seven successive days from the Pongola, I deter-

OUT IN MY RECKONING.

93

mined to send on two of my men to bring me my
j>ony Billy. It was a walk of about eight days to
the bay, and my original Kaffir was in great fear of
the Zulus, and begged a shirt of me to disguise him
a little, as then, he said, they would know that he
was a white man’s Kaffir, and would not molest him.
I could ill spare it, having only two, but I could not
prevail on him to start without.

While waiting for their return, three mounted
Dutchmen rode up to me one day, and kindly
offered to sell me an old broken-down horse, worth
about 6/., for 400 dollars (about 301.). I declined
their obliging offer, whereat they all rode off again.

13 th. — Beached Makite’s kraal, where I found the
ivory of nine elephants, shot by my two hunters, buried
in the cattle-kraal, as they had told me ; but, before
giving it up, the captain, in whose charge it was left,
made my fellows point out where it was buried, to
show that we were the rightful owners, which my
fellows were luckily able to do, having been told
beforehand by the hunters who buried it.

On the 15th, I heard of poor Harris’s untimely
death. Poor fellow ! we had agreed to go together
the following year to Mosilikatse’s country.

20 th. — Started my indoda (old man) off to the
Umslatoose, to look after Billy and the Kaffir, and
bring them on here. Paid a visit to a friend trading
at Umlandillas, and, on comparing notes, found I
was two days behind-hand in my dates, and can
only account for it by supposing I must have been

94

AFRICAN HUNTING.

insensible in the Amatonga kraals, across the Pongola,
when those days slipped by. Bought sixty-seven
head of cattle and six sheep, thirteen shillings a
head all round, after several days’ bargaining ; and
had a day’s work, sorting, choosing, and branding,
out of some four hundred Steele had traded.

26th. — No signs of the pony at the appointed
place of meeting, so I again started for Durban.

29 th to 31st. — Spent three miserable soaking-
wet days, with the choice of being almost suffo¬
cated with the smoke of damp wood, or being
drenched to the skin. My food all the time con¬
sisted of bread and milk, sometimes boiled for a
change ; which would have been all very well, but
I was obliged to put myself on short commons,
as my meal was only 21bs. weight to begin upon,
and I made it hold out the three days.

September ls£. — Found my messengers, but no
horse. They had never crossed the Tugela : the
indoda fell into bad hands, got well thrashed, and
everything he had taken from him. He tried to
give me a long account of his grievances, but I did
not understand one word.

9 th. — Made Durban at last, having got the loan,
at the Umslali, forty miles off, of a fearfully fat
pack-ox (Monkey), and got a burster off him in
jumping a sluit ; my rheim broke from his nose, and
away he went home again.

95

CHAPTER IV.

1855.

A HUNTING TRIP INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY.

I had been making my head-quarters as usual at
Brindle, a farm in the Umvoti district, belonging to
Mr. Eastwood, a most intimate friend and neighbour
in England, who had been also a fellow-passenger
on the voyage out to the colony. We had a great
deal of trouble and annoyance in getting Kaffirs,
but at last I managed to start on March 31,
with only a driver and foreloper, having agreed to
give the latter a heifer to go to the Tugela — -a
most exorbitant price. Our first feat was to upset
the wagon, and scatter its contents far and wide.
This caused us a delay of a couple of days, during
which I succeeded in engaging three Kaffirs. I
therefore dismissed my foreloper, and got on as far as
Grey Town, where I was again delayed three or four
days by incessant rain.

I left Grey Town on April 7, and, after con¬
tinually sticking in the mud of the worst roads I
ever saw, I reached, on the 10th, the house of a

96

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Norwegian missionary named Lawson. The descent
which we had to make from here rather staggered us,
but Mr. Lawson advised tying up three wheels and
having rheims and Kaffirs to hold up the wagon on
the upper side, as the descent was very slanting as
well as steep. He followed up his advice practically
by the loan of an old trek tow, which I must confess
to having subsequently appropriated. With its assist¬
ance and two rheim chains we reached the bottom
in safety. In a similar position two days afterwards we
were not so fortunate. By dint of screeching, and
flogging the oxen, we had reached the top of a des¬
perate hill. The descent commenced almost imme¬
diately : the foreloper did not warn us in time to stop
the wagon, and put on the drag, and lock the wheels ;
so down we went at a frightful pace. I, not liking
the situation, threw myself on a big thorn-tree, which
we were passing at full speed, and escaped with no
further injury than the ruin of my shirt. I had just
got clear of my not too comfortable bed, when I heard
the wagon come to a sudden halt. I ran forward
and beheld ten of the oxen round a tree, and one
of the Kaffirs wringing his hands and dancing in a
frantic manner, roaring out 4 mam mo mammi, mammi
mammo,’ over the foreloper, who was on the ground
covered with blood, and looking as wild as a hawk.
What had happened to him I have never yet been
able to understand. On closer examination, I found
that the poor fellow’s skull was split on the left side,
and it appeared as if the wagon had gone over his

AN ACCIDENT.

97

right arm. I gave him some sal-volatile, and, after
washing his wounds and cutting his hair away, fixed
his head tightly between my knees. The Kaffirs
looked on in awe, but when they saw me take out

needle and thread, thimble, &c. to sew up his head,
they raised a fearful outcry, in which the wounded
man joined : I was therefore obliged to desist from
my operation, and content myself with binding up
his head as tightly as I could. I made up a nice
bed for him in the wagon, but he positively refused
to go on. The other two Kaffirs also refused, and
wanted to know how many head of cattle I intended

H

98

AFRICAN HUNTING.

paying his father for his being killed in my service.
There is no use arguing with Kaffirs; when they
take a thing into their heads, they are worse than
mules, so I was obliged most reluctantly to leave
the poor fellow behind. I was left in a pretty fix,
with no one but the driver to manage four loose
horses and as many loose oxen, as well as the wagon.
I managed for a few miles, and then had the luck
to pick up a boy to go with us to the Tngela for
half-a-crown. In the evening two Dutchmen stopped
at my wagon, who said the Kaffirs who had left me
wanted gunpowder — a very usual remedy with them
in many cases — and also told me that the Kaffirs
intended to bleed the wounded man between the
shoulders and rub in gunpowder. I fear they must
have killed him amongst them all.

On the 14th I reached the Tugela, where I was
detained a fortnight for want of a proper pass,
signed by a resident magistrate. On May 1st I got
the pass, and crossed the river, which was very high.
In the course of a few days I lost three of my horses
from the lung sickness, and on the 10th my mare
Bessie Bell sickened. I sent her off immediately to
Lewis, requesting him to bleed her, and followed
the next day with a sorry heart, to hear her fate. I
was in time to see her alive. I loosened her halter,
and she followed me about like a dog, looking most
piteously. I could not bear to see her, and thought
of shooting her, but, before I could make up my
mind to do so, her miseries were ended. She was a

SEA-COWS.

99

mare I valued beyond price for her many good
qualities, but chiefly for her attachment to me, and
her wonderful powers of endurance. She carried
me seventy-five miles in one day with the saddle
only once off her back, without showing the slightest
symptom of fatigue !

May lith. — After making various exchanges, such
as beads for canvas, powder for cooking utensils, &c.,
Lewis and myself parted company, intending to
meet again in about a month. I tried to find a
practicable road to the Umgowie Mountains, as,
since the loss of all my horses, my only chance
of game was among the mountains and bush. I
could find no road, so I followed Lewis’s track.
In the course of the day I unaccountably lost my
dog Fly: I think he must have been bitten by a
snake ; I had killed a mamba, nine feet long, the day
before.

Hearing from the Kaffirs that there were sea-cows
in the Umlilas, I outspanned, and waited till the sun
was getting low, and went in pursuit. How my heart
beat at hearing the well-known blow just round a bend
of the river, and, cautiously peering round, saw three,
making up the stream ! They were very shy, and
showed poor heads. I took a round, and got above
them unperceived, and made an excellent shot at a
very large bull ; he only just showed his eye above
the water at about fifty yards, and I put a bullet
from Burrow (my Ho. 7) in the very centre. I was
loth to fire at so poor a chance, but the river being

100

AFRICAN HUNTING.

narrow I thought I must take the first chance, or I
might see him no more.

15i ih. — I found my sea-cow on his back in the
middle of a large hole, about forty yards from land,
with half a dozen crocodiles round him. I bribed
the Zulus, and bullied my Kaffirs, to go in and fasten
cords on him to tow him ashore, but in vain ; so after
firing a couple of shots, and throwing stones to
frighten the crocodiles, I swam in, made the cords
fast to him, and made for the shore again as soon as
possible, shouting lustily to scare the crocodiles. The
ropes had been so carelessly fastened together that
they came undone as soon as they were used, and I
was obliged to swim in again. It was not a very
pleasant position to be rolling about on a sea-cow with
crocodiles all round one, and I did not at all relish it.
Through bad management I had to go in four times,
and once, while swimming from him to shore with a
slip-knot round my arm, striking out vigorously, the
rheim being too short, checked me suddenly, and sent
me a good depth under ; the Kaffirs howled again,
making sure the crocodiles had me.

At last, however, after several failures, we got him
to land. The next day I brought up the head,
which the crocodiles, adjutants, and vultures had
picked tolerably clean, and buried it near a kraal,
in charge of an old Kaffir, salted the tongue and a
tub full of meat, stretched some sjamboks and whip¬
lashes round the wagon, and in the afternoon started
in pursuit of more, but without success.

CROCODILES.

101

17 ih. — Off long before sunrisb for buffaloes, but,
owing to the want of dogs and the stupidity of my
man, we were unsuccessful. On our return to the
wagon, I shot a crocodile lying high and dry, fast
asleep. It was some time before I could make out
which was his head and which his tail, and I wTas
nearly shooting at the wrong end. When the
bullet struck him, he threw up his head and opened
his huge jaws, and I saw that I had broken his

spine. He would, however, have wriggled himself
into the river, had I not given him a bullet in the
throat and another in the chest, which settled him.
I watched him from the opposite bank for a full
hour, ready to give him another ball if he showed
any sign of life, and when I was satisfied that he was

102

AFRICAN HUNTING.

stone dead, I hastened round by the wagon to get
assistance, and a hatchet, to bring home his head as a
trophy ; but, on returning to the river, nothing was
to be seen but pools of blood : the other crocodiles had
dragged him into the water in the meantime. I was
much disappointed, as it is difficult to get one, except
in the water, where they always sink when shot.

Here is a recipe for an excellent stew : about one
pound and a half of breast of sea-cow well stewed,
cut up small, about three table-spoonfuls of inside fat
rendered down as white as snow, a few red peppers,
salt, a handful of rice, a handful of fine flour, a couple
of pickled walnuts, with a few sprigs of thyme, or
some such herb. The ingredients seem rather miscel¬
laneous ; all I can say is, that I made it by guess, and
put in anything I had ; but when it came up, I thought
nothing could improve it. The long nights were
rather dreary with nothing but ‘Blaine’s Field Sports ’
and a few old 6 Family Heralds ’ to read; but, though
I should like companions in the evening, I should
always prefer to shoot alone.

25th. — I recovered my oxen, which had been lost
for two days previously, and with some labour got
over the rise of the Umlilas.

2 Qth. — A long blank day on the tops of the
Umgowies ; — wearisome up-hill work, and saw
nothing but an eland cow, which was too wary
to let us approach, so we went supperless to bed.

28th. — By the advice of a Dutchman, Joubert by
name, I changed my route, and he accompanied

KAFFIR CHURCH.

103

me back to Nungela’s, who was very gracious, and
offered to kill a beast in return for a bottle of grog.
We stayed out nearly the whole night trying for a
sea-cow, but the wind was so capricious that we never
'Could get near them; and at last they made off,
followed at a killing pace by Joubert, two Kaffirs,
and myself. I strained every nerve, more to beat a
Kaffir, who was flying along with a blanket fastened
round his neck, streaming behind him, than with any
hope of coming up with the sea-cows, who were tear¬
ing along ahead at a fierce pace. I was first up,
but the sea-cows had gained the long grass, and we
saw no more of them.

June 3rd. — I went to church, and saw such a
medley as I should have thought mortal would never
have the chance of seeing. The side walls were
built of mud, and, with the help of wooden posts,
supported a zinc roof. To windward, the walls had
fallen in, leaving the building airy and open. From
the beams hung Kaffir ropes, the tent and sides of a
wagon, loads of mealies, old saddles, yokes, skeys,
neckstraps, and all apparatus for wagoning, old hats
and bridles, and part of a splendid tiger-skin. In
the midst of all this and ten times more, rose a
pulpit, the cushions and hangings of which bore
marks of a great deal of service ; and in the pulpit a
tall, bushy whiskered Norwegian missionary, in a
black coat buttoned to the throat and reaching to
the heels, with spectacles of course, held forth. About
thirty Kaffirs, men and women, squatted on a mat on

104

AFRICAN HUNTING

their hams, huddling close together, two under one

blanket, hunting the borders for - , and cracking

heaps of them, or taking thorns out of their feet
with wooden pins, unseen by the pastor, who held
forth for more than three hours.

A kinder, more hospitable, better-hearted man,
however, never breathed. He used to summon his
congregation to Divine Service by having a bell sus¬
pended round his horse’s neck, tinkle-tinkle all the
way he went. Though I must narrate things as I
found them in different parts of Africa, I shall always
entertain the highest opinion of Mr. Schro.eder,
and feel grateful to him for much kindness and
hospitality received at his hands on several occasions ;
and, if any man ever succeeds in converting to
Christianity the Zulus, or any part of the nation, he
is as likely a man as any I know, being uncommonly
well read, thoroughly acquainted with the language,
manners, and customs of the nation, and having great
influence with them ; and, though I doubt his making
converts, the Zulus respect and look up to him, and
would on no account injure him.

4 th. — I had two chances at buffaloes; gun missed
fire both times first barrel, and, what may probably
never occur again, I killed dead with the second on
each occasion an old cow and splendid heifer ; very
fat, delicious meat.

The days passed one so like another, that for a
month I kept no account of them. On July 4, as
we were out buffalo shooting, an old cow buffalo with

KAFFIR APPRECIATION OF WEALTH.

105

a young calf charged me ferociously in the bush, down
a steep hill. I stood my ground, as I had no time to
run away, and gave her a bullet high up in the near
fore shoulder, as she came within about ten yards of
me. I then made a spring on one side, and she crashed
past me, almost grazing my breast. With my second
barrel I rolled her head over heels, not more than
three lengths from me. She soon regained her legs,
turned and made up the hill, trying to get at my
gun-carrier, who was up a tree, just out of her reach.
I was behind another tree close to her, but she did
not see me, and I kept as still as a mouse. She then
hobbled away down the hill mortally wounded, and
I finished her off with a third ball.

July 22 nd. — We crossed the Black Umveloose, and
on the following day the Inyoni. At the kraal which
we visited, the Kaffirs were all very inquisitive to know
how I came by the wagon and oxen, as last year,
when I had spent some time there, I had not even a
Kaffir in my service, and I had increased 500 per
cent, evidently in their estimation, as they despise a
poor man as much as they respect a rich one, to whom
they are very fawning and servile.

29th. — I got three letters from home and a Natal
newspaper, and by their help and that of my driver,
who recollected the days of the week, I corrected
my reckoning, which had been two days out.

August 1st. — We were ploughing our way through
long, heavy wet grass and scrubby thorn trees, when
an old rhinoceros cow got up slowly from behind a

106

AFRICAN HUNTING.

thorn tree, and, after giving me a good stare, advanced
slowly towards me. I had only my small rifle,
my gun-carrier being about twenty yards behind
with my No. 9. I beckoned frantically to him to
come on, but he seemed very undecided. At last,
however, being a plucky little fellow, he came up,
threw the gun at me, case and all, and ran up a tree
like a monkey. I lost no time in getting the gun
out of the cover, and gave the rhinoceros a ball in
the chest. She turned round in double quick time,
panting like a porpoise. I followed, but a Kaffir cur
prevented me from getting very near, so she got away.

On climbing the top of the hill I saw two more,
and sent my Kaffir below them, thinking they were
sure to make down hill. I could not get near them,
but just as they were about to make off, I shot one
in the shoulder, but rather too low, and away they
went. The dogs turned one, and brought him back
not fifteen yards from me at full trot, his head up
and his tail curled over his back, stepping out in
splendid style, with fine high action. He looked very
much inclined to charge me, but a bullet behind his
shoulders, which dropped him on his knees, made
him alter his course. I felt convinced that I had
killed him, and followed him. At last, we saw a brute
lying down in so natural a position that I never
thought he could be dead, and shot him behind the
shoulder, but he had laid down for the last time
some hours before. It was the one I had shot first.
After cutting out his horns, some sjamboks and his

RHINOCEROS CALF.

107

tongue, and hanging them up in a tree, we went off
for water, and had not gone far when I saw another,
about twenty yards off, looking at me, uneasy, and
apparently trying to screen herself from being
seen. I waited some time till she turned, and
then shot her behind the shoulder, when she im¬
mediately came at me, but a ball in the centre of
her forehead stopped her progress, and she fell dead

not ten yards from me : a lucky shot, as I hardly knew
where to fire, and I had not an instant to lose. I
must have been impaled on her very long horn if I
had not been fortunate enough to kill her. She had
a very young calf, squealing most lustily, which
the dogs were fighting with. I got them off, and
wanted very much to take him to the wagon, and
sent off my Kaffirs forthwith for half a dozen fellows

108

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to carry him. He was like a well-bred Chinese pig,
prick-eared, very fine skinned and fat, and shone as
if he had just been polished with black lead ; but
while John and myself had gone to shoot a wilde-
beeste to make something to carry him in, slung
between two poles, the hyenas had killed him, pre¬
ferring him to the mother, though I had expressly
cut a great portion of her hide off, that they might
feed, as we were obliged to leave the calf all night to
get water.

1 oth. — Hard day’s bargaining with Mopitas, and I
was forced to pay very dear for four young oxen,
which I was obliged to buy to replace deaths.

\4:th. — Ascended a very high hill, and spent some
hours at the top in taking a survey of the surround¬
ing country, as broken, rugged, and hilly a country on
every side as can well be imagined, but the view well
repaid my labours.

lbth. — Started off again in the direction of the
Pongola, crossed the Umkusi, and pitched my tent
for the night, being unsuccessful in getting any game,
though I worked very hard. I was the more
astonished at this, as I never travelled over more
promising ground, beautiful short, new, green sweet
grass, with plenty of bush and water.

1 8th. — Returned to the wagon, killing only one
reed-buck. As I was trying to jump the St. Luey, the
bank, broke in with me, and I fell in, over head and
ears. Saw a great number of koodoos and two troops
of elands, buffaloes, and a vast quantity of game, but

PUFF ADDER.

109

did not stop to shoot, as I had lost myself, and was
afraid I should not reach the wagon that night, and
my Kaffirs had my blanket.

IffiA. — The hottest wind I ever yet felt in the
colony. I was in the water half the day, and knew
not where to put myself. These hot winds are, how¬
ever, of rare occurrence.

20 th. — Just as cold as yesterday was hot, and
raining hard ; but, fortunately, I have got the loan
of 4 Martin Chuzzlewit ’ for a few days. Turned out
in the evening, got a steinbuck, koran, and dikkop.

Sept 19 th. — Inspanned, and started on my return ;
two deaths among my oxen, the rest rather fine
drawn; have been the most of my time away from the
wagon, shooting and spending a few days with Kiley,
Forbes, &c., and some very wet weather we have
had. On the whole, very bad sport ; five old bull
buffaloes afforded good sport, and took a deal of
killing. I had many chances at black rhinoceros, but
they are not worth a shot ; lost Kettle, by a tiger I
suppose ; saw five lions at different times, but being
alone, did not venture battle, as I did not see one by
himself. Almost tumbled over three rhinoceros in the
dark, and they hunted me away, following me up a
good way, and showing every demonstration of their
displeasure, ploughing up the ground, &c. : made
a sad mull of two sea-cows, which I took for
rhinoceros, the night being very much overcast, and
did not venture as near as I might, as it was an open
plain. I was not more than twenty-five yards off, but

110

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the wind being very favourable, I might, had I
known they were sea-cows, almost have gone up and
scratched them, and made dead sure of my shot ; as
it was, owing to having no white paper on the
muzzle of my gun, I could not aim with any
certainty. Saw several large snakes about the St.
Luey, and one horrid puff adder alarmed me consi¬
derably. I was trying to despatch him with an iron
ramrod, when his head and throat swelled to an
enormous size, turning a hideous livid colour, as he
reared himself up, and, with a horrid hiss, pitched
himself at me; but I managed to dodge him, and he
disappeared. Got a couple of crocodiles, and caught
a small one, about one foot long, alive — a wicked
little monster; took from one a lot of beautiful fat,
which burns brilliantly ; have got about 350 pounds
of ivory to take down with me, and shall endeavour
to make up my load with twenty-five buffalo hides,
as I hear there is a sale for them.

2hth. — After losing the oxen for a couple of days,
and a couple of stick-fasts, got on to the missionaries
without any adventure. Mothlow shot a sea-cow,
and I went down with a whole troop of Kaffirs to
bring up half a wagon-load of speck, hearing she was
a very large cow, and so she proved, but as lean as
a crow. It was an awfully wet night, so I made a
Kaffir kraal, and stayed the night, supping on a
delicious wild duck, amas, tchualla, and coffee, and I
contrived to bake a loaf of bread between two
pieces of a broken Kaffir pot, so that I was truly in

THE END OF LANKY.

Ill

clover. My tent kept very heavy rain off sur¬
prisingly, and the soil being very sandy, soaked all
up, and I spent a most comfortable night, when I
had expected, from all appearances, just the reverse.

2 — Made the wagon again. I got over the

ground, twelve or fourteen miles, barefoot, very well,
to my intense satisfaction ; it is an accomplishment I
longed to achieve. Inspanned a young ox, which I
had christened Lanky, after several hours’ hard
fighting with him. I never saw so wild a brute ; he
roared, and bellowed, and charged all before him in
the most savage, determined manner, and butted
furiously a bull-stag he was coupled with, but a right
good buffalo rheim defied his utmost efforts, and
when everything failed, he lay down, alas ! never
more to rise. I thought dragging him a few yards
might have the desired effect, but when we stopped
the wagon, his neck was broken. I cut his throat,
skinned, and cut him up, and have converted the
most of him into bell tongue.

112

CHAPTEE V.

1856.

THIRD HUNTING TRIP INTO THE ZULU COUNTRY.

I left Mr. Eastwood’s, on Tuesday, October 7,
on a tramping tour into the Zulu country, for
the purpose of looking up my hunters, and taking
them fresh ammunition. I took six Kaffirs with me,
and while detained for four days at the Tugela, we
were nearly starved. On going out one morning in
search of a buffalo, I left one of my men under a tree,
saying he was dying, but on my return with the news
that I had shot one, he immediately revived.

I and one of my Kaffirs did not fare so badly.
Being unable to shoot anything, as game was wrild
and wary, and the bush very thick and impenetrable,
so that we could not get on without making a noise
and scaring the buffaloes, we swam the Tugela at
night, and had a good feed of boiled mealies and
milk, but were unable to bring anything across for
the rest of the party, in consequence of the breadth
of the river and the rapidity of the stream.

My old horse Mouba (Sugar) strayed away, owing
to the carelessness of the Kaffir in whose charge he

WELL HOUSED IN WET WEATHER.

113

was, knee-lialtered, with a head-stall on, and a strap
attached to it fastened to another very strong
padded one, buckled above his knee, which kept his
head within one foot of his knee. This plan is usually
adopted in the colony, to facilitate catching one’s
horse without hindering his feeding. We could not
track him a bit, owing to the stony ground, and he
remained knee-haltered for nearly three months, when
he was found by a party of Dutch Boers hunting.
I eventually recovered him, with no further injury
than a deep scar above his knee, and a ring of white
hairs round. The Boers who found him told me
that, from the tracks he left, he must have slept and
drank every day and night at the same place ; he was
still knee-haltered, and it was extraordinary that he
escaped the lions so long.

On the 20th, we reached the house of Mr. Schroe-
der, the Norwegian missionary, by whom we were hos¬
pitably entertained during several days’ bad weather.
I thought myself very fortunate to be under his roof,
as neither my little tent nor a Kaffir kraal are very
agreeable, under such circumstances.

I left Mr. Schroeder’s on the 23rd, with a supply of
medicines, which he kindly gave me. I tried walking
barefoot, but did not get on well. After sleeping
at a Kaffir kraal, we continued our journey through
a bad broken country, very slippery after the rain.
However, I was in very good condition, and stood
a long day’s unsuccessful hunt after a sea-cow with¬
out fatigue. On the 25th, we crossed the Umslatoose,

i

114

AFRICAN HUNTING.

where my biscuits had the misfortune to get a thorough
soaking, owing to the carrier getting into a quicksand.

2Qth [Sunday). — Spent the day at the Norwegian
Missionary Station, where there was a large muster
of Kaffirs at church. The Norwegians are excellent
hands at making up a good dinner out of poor mate¬
rials, and on this occasion Mrs. Aftebro fully sus¬
tained the reputation of her countrywomen.

A fat Muscovy duck, however, when young and
tender, is not a bad subject to work on ; the stuffing,
made of mealie meal and eggs, is excellent, and a sub¬
stitute for apple sauce, made of sour dock, is worth
knowing of. They have a queer custom of giving
you soup, afterwards, which I declined, but changed
my mind on hearing it was sweet, made of arrow-
root, preserves, &c.

I left the station the next morning, and had a good
bit of shooting, bagging two steinbuck, one peau —
a brilliant shot at 140 yards — and two koran. On
reaching the kraal where I had told the Kaffirs to
stop, I found them dancing and singing over two
more steinbuck which they had killed.

2 8th — The Kaffirs were very importunate that I
should shoot two reedbucks which they saw close at
hand, so I took my gun and knocked one over, and
soon afterwards a splendid crest-peau or bustard.
We already had more meat than we could carry, and
even the dogs turned up their noses at the daintiest
morsels ; but the Kaffirs, though heavily laden, could
not make up their minds to leave anything behind,

ATTACKED BY ENGLISH CHOLERA.

115

so we cleaned and plucked, and made all as light as
possible, and the Kaffirs carried off everything, not
excepting the huge crested bustard. In the course of
the day we crossed the Umsindoosie, and, after some
hard walking, reached the Umveloose at sunset.

The next morning we walked about four miles up
the river, and, having found a crossing-place, we got
safely over, though the river was high. The day was
burning hot, and we reached Johnson’s wagon in the
afternoon. An attack of English cholera laid me up
there for several days, and I did not leave till late on
November 4. I walked hard and reached the St.
Luey, which I found much flooded, at sunset. In the
course of the night we heard numbers of Hons, but
saw nothing of them.

5 th. — Went into the bush, where the thick foliage
and underwood and the long grass made the travel¬
ling bad and the shooting worse. However, I suc¬
ceeded in bagging two bush buck. Ragman, a six-
months’ old puppy, behaved remarkably well, sticking
to the second, a young doe, for fully two miles through
the bush, and finally bringing her to bay at the river.
He was dead beat when we found him, but he still
held on like a vice. He is a whelp of great promise,
bull and greyhound, with a dash of the pointer, the
best breed possible, and the best feeder I ever saw,
eating huge rashers of any animal just killed, when
the sun is at the hottest, at which time very few
dogs will feed, however hungry, saving us the trouble
of carrying food for him. The natives make their

116

AFRICAN HUNTING.

curs carry their own food, by cutting a hole in a huge
piece, slipping it over their heads round their necks ;
and I have frequently met a score of curs ornamented
with a necklace of the kind, cut from a hind leg,
which part they value least of any, and each weighing
half as much as the animal which carries it, and they
can neither get it off nor eat it.

§th. — Eain all day. I made two sheaths for
knives, and had a shot at a hyena in the evening, but
being out of breath with running, I missed him. He
was gorged to the verge of bursting.

1th. — Crossed the St. Luey, one of the best rivers
I know of for sport of all kinds, and nearest to the
colony; it rises somewhere at the foot of the Orn-
bombo Mountains, and runs through a splendid
wooded valley. Lions are very plentiful. One
night I was encamped in my small tent, weighing
only lOlbs., which I had pitched as usual at the foot
of a large tree, easy of ascending in case of need.
My old pack ox Dancer was made fast with a rheim
through a hole in his nose, and pegged down close
to the tent for safety ; and two Kaffir boys (the rest of
my party having gone back to the wagon for stores)
were at a large fire in a small belt of thorns (mimosas)
within twelve yards, just opposite the opening of my
tent, when I heard the deep low subdued murmur-
ings of a lion gradually nearing us. Old Dancer
became very fidgety. There was a lot of meat hang¬
ing in the tree — koodoo, waterbuck, &c. — out of
reach of the dogs. The lion came on very stealthily

LIONS AGAIN.

117

and quietly, the night being very dark, and actually
tried to claw the meat down from the tree close to me.
I was sitting cross-legged, with my double rifle across
my knees, expecting every moment to see his outline
between me and the fire, where my lads were, as I
thought, asleep; the brute actually stumbled over
the tent ropes at the back, which were pegged down
some six yards behind, causing a jar through the
tent. Just at this critical moment something burst
through the opening into my tent, quick as thought,
and fell at my feet, and I was within an ace of shoot¬
ing my two Kaffir boys, who had been awake all the
time, lying as still as dormice, but could stand it no
longer. I expected every moment the lion would
have sprung on old Dancer, who remained perfectly
passive, but after in vain trying to claw the meat
down again he left us. On getting up in the morn¬
ing I saw some six or seven different varieties of
game ; I hardly knew which kind to hunt, but gave
the koodoos the preference.

8th. — A long, heavy walk, through vleys and
water and foot-paths running down with wet, brought
us to the first Amatonga kraals, the most wretched
habitations imaginable. The poor fellows were all
but starving ; they had nothing to live on but wild
figs, Kaffir oranges, and other fruit of the kind.

9 tli {Sunday). — Another wet and miserable day, my
clothes, blankets, &c. all damp and unwholesome.

1(M. — To-day we had a long tramp through the
bush. I wounded an inyala doe, and had a long

118

AFRICAN HUNTING.

chase after her, but eventually lost her. They are
very wild and wary, and it requires the greatest
caution to get a shot at them. Shortly after, I broke
the leg of a buck. Eagman and Juno soon brought
this one to a stand, and it dragged them a long way
through the bush, bleating lustily. The dogs held
on splendidly, and we followed the sound through
the bush. At length I came on Eagman covered
with blood, and was greatly surprised to find he had
left the buck, but, hearing a row in the bush, I went
on, and found three hyenas tearing away, and
bolting skin and flesh at such a rate that in three
minutes more there would not have been a
particle left. Juno had fled in fear and trembling,
and did not appear again for an hour. The hyenas
retreated on my approach, and I was unable to get
a shot at them, though I followed them, growling, a
long way.

I went on afterwards to St. Lucia Bay, which I
found swarming with wild fowl. I knocked over
five geese at once, and shot a crocodile also.

12 th. — As we were going out after a sea-cow, the
Amatonga who was leading cried out, 4 There is a
dead buck,’ and I saw what I took to be an inyala
doe, and went leisurely towards it. My fellows,
however, ran, and when within about thirty yards,
up rose a fine black-maned lion, and slunk into the
bush close by. The Kaffir in advance vanished like
smoke. Eagman ran, and was barking, when out
came two lionesses brilling savagely, at which the

INYALA, DOGS, AND HYENAS.

LIONESSES.

119

Kaffirs all fled at the top of their speed. The
lionesses eyed me some time at a distance of about
thirty yards, and I was casting my eyes round for a

tree, as I expected them to come at me, but they
slunk into the bush, and I never saw them again.

I afterwards gave a sea-cow a shot which I
thought was fatal, but as he did not rise I went to
look for another, and shortly hit one just under the
root of the ear (the best shot you can give), and,
after plunging and rolling over and over, for about
ten minutes, he subsided, and we dragged him out
some 200 yards below. The poor Amatongas
were delighted, and carried all away but his head
and back bone.

13i th. — The first fine day we have had for a long

120

AFRICAN HUNTING.

time. I turned out about two hours before sunset,
and got a good chance at an inyala, but my gun
hung fire, and the second barrel snapped. In
coming back I gave one of the Amatongas a prod
behind, to call his attention to a kind of wild dog,
when he gave a most unearthly howl, and a bound
which I never saw equalled, dropping all his
assegais, whipping off his moutcha in a twinkling,
and entreating me to come away, saying that an
inyoka snake had bitten him, and that he should
die. It was some time ere I could persuade the
fellow otherwise.

lith. — To-day I started my Kaffirs in quest of
my other hunters. The rivers had detained them
until now, as they are frightened at deep water and
very few of them can swim. I mended a gun
belonging to one of them, and he went off in high
spirits.

We had a long chase after an old bull buffalo,
along the river’s edge. I put forth all my powers to
beat Mahoutcha, a fine Kaffir, who aggravated me by
passing me at railway speed. I had the advantage of
him, as he had a gun to carry and I none. We passed
and re-passed one another about six times, my gun
changing hands three times. I was utterly blown,
and just about to yield the palm to Mahoutcha,
though I was leading, when luckily for my credit the
buffalo took the water and vanished into the dense
bush on the other side,

I espied water-buck over the river, waded, and got

UNCOMFORTABLE QUARTERS.

121

a long shot at a fine doe, which we eventually bagged
after a long chase. We were kept awake in the night
by the dogs fighting wolves, and turned out once,
thinking we heard buffaloes drinking, but the sound
proved to be only running water.

lbth. — Off long before daylight down the river
after sea-cows. I scrambled into a tree to see over
the reeds, and got a shot, and though my gun hung
fire, I struck him fairly, hearing the bullet pat. While
waiting for it to rise, the rain came on furiously, and
continued all day.

Anything more miserable than our situation can
hardly be conceived. I made a kind of awning for
my Kaffirs out of my large blanket, and they were
comparatively snug. The ground was saturated with
rain, all my traps wet and unwholesome, and my
tent had begun to leak. This kind of life is suf¬
ficiently hard in fine weather, but in the drenching
rain one gets in Africa it is positively unbearable, and
enough to give the most light-hearted fellow a fit of
the blues. As I had no cooking utensils of any kind
except a kettle, all I could do was to roast my meat
on a stick.

16 th [Sunday). — I was lying in my little 91b. tent
enjoying Byron’s poems, and meaning to have a
day of rest, when the Amatongas came in a large
body and were most importunate that I should go
out to shoot them some meat, as they were very
hungry ; and there came also a lot of pretty girls to
back their entreaties, bringing me small presents of

122

AFRICAN HUNTING.

meal, rice, eggs, and beer. I at length agreed. They
shortly hit off the spoor of two old bull buffaloes
which had fed on an open plain early in the morning.
We spoored them beautifully into a dense thicket,
black as midnight, and so still and silent you might
almost hear a leaf fall at the entrance ; the Amatongas
one and all most politely made way for me to go in,
silently pointing to the spoor. For the first time I
began to take an interest in what I was about, took
my double-barreled gun from the hands of the carrier,
took off my shoes, and stept cautiously and very quietly
along the path, and had proceeded about one hundred
yards, when, just as the path turned, I found myself
face to face with an old bull fast asleep, lying down
within ten yards. I dropped on one knee, cocked
the left hand barrel, holding the trigger back to
prevent the click, and, as soon as I felt the lock catch,
took a steady pot in the centre of the forehead.
Just as I touched the trigger my gun went down and
stopped at half cock. The bull instantly opened his
eyes wide, and was half up when I cocked and fired
the second barrel and hit him. I ran through the
smoke fifteen yards back, and dropping behind a bush
to ascertain the effects of my shot, heard a crash
through the bush. It was the other breaking cover,
and my old friend on his legs, with his nose high
up, snuffing the air for me. He made a dead set,
getting my wind ; and immediately made a desperate
charge right through the middle of my bush, which I
avoided by jumping on one side. He turned im-

A BUFFALO HUNT.

123

mediately, and made another dead set at me. There
was but half a bush between us, and he stood not ten
yards off, eyeing me furiously, the blood streaming
down his face from a bullet between the eyes, but too
low to be fatal. A second tremendous charge I

avoided almost literally by the skin of my teeth. All
this time, which seemed to me almost as many hours
as it was in reality minutes, not a Kaffir or even one
of my dogs came to my aid to attract his attention,
though they must both have heard all that was going
on. A third time we stood in close proximity ; there
was nothing but the remnants of the trampled bush
between us. I never removed my eye an instant from

124

AFRICAN HUNTING.

his. He backed some four feet and lowered Ms head
as if about to charge, and we stood for two minutes
or more with some tangled brush-wood not four feet
high and very thin between us. I hardly know
myself how I avoided his last charge ; I threw out
both arms and pushed myself from his body, and
away as hard as I could, closely pursued by the bull.
His hot breath was on my neck, and in two strides
more nothing could have saved me ; but at this spot
the path turned to the right, and missing me he went
headlong through a fearfully tangled thicket and
broke into the open not twenty yards a-head and
about seven or eight on my left, carrying half a cart¬
load of rubbish on his horns. I threw myself on my
back in the thicket to prevent his seeing me, on
reaching the open. Just as he broke, and when he
was about twenty yards from me going straight away,
I recovered myself, gave him my second barrel, which
I had had no opportunity of firing before, hitting
him high up on the last rib on the off side just in
front of the hip, when he threw up his tail, made a
tremendous bound in the air, and dashed through
bush thorns so dense and close that it was perfectly
wonderful how he managed it, and fell dead in about
200 yards, with the low moaning bellow so gratifying
to a hunter’s ears. My trusty Amatongas descended
immediately from the different trees which they had
climbed as soon as the affray commenced, and were
most lavish in their compliments to me. I was
going to rate them soundly for their cowardice, but

EXPEKIMENTS ON A BUFFALO.

125

I found I had lost the use of my tongue, which I did
not fully recover for many hours, and vowed over
and over again I would hunt no more on Sunday,
knowing it to be Sunday.

I afterwards made some experiments with the
buffalo, and found his brain so very narrow that there
is every chance of missing it, in which case you do
not injure him in the least. My bullet had penetrated
between the eyes about two inches below the brain,
which it had missed altogether, although close beside
it. We cut out the ball just at the top of his head,
within an inch of the hole into his brain. In
my experiments I had all but killed my best dog,
Ragman, in trying if the bullet would penetrate by
shooting in the soft place between the horns. At
night I sallied out by torchlight, to try to get a shot
at some laughing hyenas, who had taken a water-
buck skin from the very feet of the Kaffirs, and
were laughing in fits over it, utterly heedless of the
dogs.

Ylth. — Got under weigh with some difficulty, as
we had a large quantity of meat to carry. Killed
four impalas, and then went to pitch on a place for
our camp, near sunset. After making the necessary
arrangements I strolled out to try and fire off my
gun, as I wanted to clean it. I saw a hyena prowling
along, and killed him so dead, at fully one hundred
yards, that I thought he had dropped into a hole the
moment I fired.

18£/i. — I was awakened by a white rhinoceros

126

AFRICAN HUNTING.

charging past, with three dogs at his heels, and
Mahoutcha calling out lustily to me ; but, unfor¬
tunately, I was not loaded, and Mahoutcha’s gun
snapped, so the brute got away.

We turned out afterwards to try for a rhinoceros
cow we had seen the day before. We were con¬
sulting as to the best means of getting at one, which
we saw standing at some distance under a tree, when,
a troop of impalas came charging down, with a fine
old lioness after them. We went, and saw her
lying down, but so flat to the ground, head and all,
that no man could shoot with any certainty ; and she
never for a moment took her eyes from us. When
we got up to her, she was lying down flat as a plate
to the ground ; but her head might have been on a
pivot, as her watchful eye glared on us all round,
without appearing to move her body, as we decreased
the circle, in the hopes she would stand up and give
us a fair chance of a shot behind the shoulder. I could
not place the smallest dependence on Mahoutcha,
whose face was the colour of boiled liver. As we
walked round the lioness, he described a circle full a
dozen yards larger than I did : I therefore, taking
into consideration that discretion was the better part
of valour, looked for a tree to climb up, near enough
to make tolerably sure of my shot. I was just
getting up one, when the lioness made off : not much
to my credit, certainly; but in case of a charge,
Mahoutcha would have been sure to miss, and then
nothing could have saved us.

NOISY MIDNIGHT COMPANIONS.

127

In the course of the day, I shot a fine impala,
which we hung up in a tree, intending to take him
home as we returned ; but when we came back, we
found nothing but bones left : the vultures had
pulled him down, skinned, and finished him.

19th. — I was resting under a tree, when we
sighted a white rhinoceros cow. I stalked up to
within about twenty yards of her. She was very
uneasy, perceiving danger, but not knowing from
what quarter to expect it. She made straight for
me, at a round trot, and I dropped her with a bullet
in the chest. She rose immediately, and I struck
her again, but she got away. We were long in
tracing her spoor, as the ground was hard and stony,
and we never saw her again ; but, in following her,
we came on an old black bull, which I shot dead
behind the shoulder. I pitched the tent near his
carcase, intending to have a shot at a tiger at night,
but it was too dark to see anything, and the wolves,
jackals, and hyenas made such a noise all night as I
never wish to hear again. They fought over every
mouthful, and chased one another madly, and, though
I fired occasionally at random, it had no effect. Fre¬
quently some of them tumbled over my tent-ropes,
startling me out of a broken slumber. My fellows
had strongly advised me not to sleep there, and
wisely took themselves off three or four hundred
yards ; and, could I have found them in the dark, I
should have moved my quarters. The wolves and
hyenas had made an end of the bull by the morning.

128

AFRICAN HUNTING.

20 th. - — I saw more buffaloes than I had ever
seen before in one day. They were galloping in all
directions, and at last I accounted for it by there
being an immense party of Amaswazis hunting. I
shot a fine wildebeest bull, and saw many black rhi¬
noceros, but they do not pay to shoot. We camped
in a beautiful place, under a large tree, with rivers
running on three sides, and a huge mountain at the
back, called Tegwan, which I ascended. On this
mountain, a whole tribe were massacred by Charka’s
people : they scrambled up to the summit, but were
all butchered and thrown off. The country is now
uninhabited, and the mountain swarms with baboons.

Five black rhinoceros, an old buffalo, and a
wild boar, grazed quietly within 300 yards of my
tent, but I left them unmolested, as we had more
meat than we could use, and the dogs were per¬
fectly useless from obesity. Even the Kaffirs could
only touch the morsels which they considered the
daintiest.

21^. —Had three shots at a white rhinoceros,
with remarkably fine horns. I saw a good number,
but they were in the open, and though they are
stupid things, and easy of approach, if met with
alone, they generally keep near quaggas, wildebeests,
or buffaloes, who give them the alarm.

22nd . — Beached the St. Luey, across a hilly,
rough, stony, broken country. After being roasted
in the sun, till I thought I must have had brain
fever, waiting for a cow koodoo (the sentinel of the

KOODOOS,

129

troop) to disappear over the ridge, I came so sud¬
denly, at last, upon the troop, that, though usually
most shy, wary, and difficult of approach, they
seemed now quite stupified, and I got right and left
at two magnificent old bulls, hearing the bullets tell
loudly, like the drawing of corks, both within twenty-
five yards ; but, being too anxious to get both, I

got neither. It was very mortifying, and I felt very
small in my own eyes. I had left my hat far back,
and suffered terribly in consequence — burying my
head in the grass, and twisting it over me, to endea¬
vour to keep off as much scorching sun as possible.
To crown all, I lost the finest horned rhinoceros I
ever beheld. I found him, while endeavouring to
trace the blood-spoor of one of the wounded koo¬
doos, standing half up to his middle in a mud hole,

K

130

AFRICAN HUNTING.

with his tail towards me. I endeavoured to direct
his attention to me in various ways. I was within
fifteen yards, and had been for many minutes, and
could have picked my place to fire twenty times, but,
after the last discomfiture, I thought I would make
dead sure, when, without a. warning of any kind, he
suddenly made right off, and I had only a stern shot
left me, which is of no manner of use. I had lost my
way entirely, and did not get back till three hours
after dark, guided by the shouts of the Kaffirs.

The bagging of large shy game on foot is a com¬
plete science, and requires no small skill. You
must take your bearings, study the wind to a point,
and, if seen by the animals, go in an exactly oppo¬
site direction, marking well the place, and gradually
work round, never stopping to look dead at them,
unless well concealed. It is impossible to use too
much caution. I have heard an old hunter say, that
if he got one good chance in a day, he was per¬
fectly satisfied. The first dawn of day is the best
time to commence, and a good telescope an immense
assistance.

The crocodiles are the greatest drawback to this
country. I got to a lovely hole in the St. Luey,
wearied and hot, and a plunge would have been
worth any money, but the spoor of a large croco¬
dile which had just gone in warned me, and I
was forced to content myself with a shallow place,
where the stream ran strong, and where I was safe
from them.

A HURRICANE.

131

We took six bees’ nests in this neighbourhood,
thanks to the honeybirds, but it was the wrong time
of year, and we did not find much in them.

25 th. — Made a pair of gaiters of impala skin, but
was in great straits, as I had lost my sail needle.
Shot a bush-buck, and severely wounded a koodoo
bull, but lost him, as the dogs were worse than use¬
less, owing to the excessive heat and overfeeding. The
heat was so great that the gun-barrels would blister
my hands, and the heel-plate was so hot that I could
not bear it to my shoulder, through a thick shirt.
On one occasion, on stooping down to drink, some
blue flint-stones on which I had placed my bare
knee raised a blister instantly.

I had sent Mahoutcha to buy some amobella
meal of the Kaffirs a day or two previously, and
he returned to-day with the intelligence that all
the young and fighting men were gone. Two sons
of Panda’s were quarrelling who was to succeed him,
and a civil war was imminent. I decidedly wished
myself out of the country, as the sight of blood makes
Kaffirs worse than wild beasts, and when once they
have tasted blood, they would think nothing of
knocking on the head anything that comes in
their way.

28 th. — I was awakened out of a sound sleep very
unpleasantly. It blew a hurricane, and my tent being
broadside to the wind, the pegs on the weather-side
all gave at once, and were carried to Bagdad by the
jerk, and I was left exposed to a downfall of rain,

132

AFRICAN HUNTING.

more like a waterspout than anything that could
come from the clouds. I roused the Kaffirs, made
knives, two ramrods, and assegais supply the place
of pegs, and got the tent put to rights.

When I first came to the colony I was four months
sleeping out during the rainy season, steaming and
soaking four nights out of the seven, and made fight
of it ; but at this time I had suffered too much from
ague to be able to stand such work. One morning I
sent all the Zulus to the rightabout, and made them
go back minus a morsel of beef, for not bringing me
milk, &c. This had a wonderfully good effect upon
them, for the next morning, ere I was up, they
brought me a heap of amasi, beer, and milk.

December 1st — Moved my camp for better water,
and on the 3rd reached my old quarters of last year,
where I was very warmly received, and inundated
with amasi and milk. On Sunday we were visited
by three lions, which kept my fellows awake almost
all night, singing and shouting for their lives, and
keeping up an incessant clatter with two tin dishes,
which the lions are much afraid of.

On the 4th I got back to the place where I had
left the wagon, and expected to find Johnson, and
pictured to myself a long yarn, as I had been
tongue-tied for more than a month. Bread, sugar,
and rice, also rose before the eyes of my imagination,
but, alas! only those of the imagination. There was
no vestige of anything. Johnson had left five days
ago, and nothing was to be heard of the Kaffir

WAR AMONGST THE KAFFIRS.

133

hunters, to whom I had given twenty days as their
utmost limit of time.

So I made two imaginary bets with a little Jew, of
the name of Cohen, that, upon resuming my old
Burrow, I would, with twenty bullets, bag ten head
of large game, including two koodoo cows : hi. on
each event. These were a source of fully as much
excitement to me as if I had actually made the bet.
I won both events on Tuesday night, with three
bullets to spare, and was highly delighted.

8tli. — Mahoutcha told me that the impi (army) had
killed five white men and all their Kaffirs, and there
was no use in waiting any longer for my ivory, as no
Amatonga would dream of coming into the Zulu
country. He proposed, therefore, that we should go
and hide in the reeds of the Umveloose, and come
out to a kraal at night, and hear the news.

I made up my mind to move out at once, and
forthwith packed up my traps, and took a circuitous
route, avoiding the road. I left all my goods and
chattels with an old witch-doctor, the captain of the
kraal, who strongly advised us not to remain with
him any longer, as, although willing, he was utterly
unable to protect us. I have never yet (1862) returned
to reclaim my property, but, should I ever do so, I
shall no doubt get what the rats have left, as Zulus
are scrupulously honest. Seeing lots of cattle coming
out, we went to a hut to hear the news, and were told
the most extravagant yarns, but that no white man
would be molested unless he commenced the assault.

134

AFRICAN HUNTING.

The Kaffirs who were on the victorious side told
me that the Tugela was red with blood, and that the
Inyoni, another river, about eight miles nearer, was
so foetid from the number of dead bodies, that no
man could drink the water, and that I should walk
over dead bodies all the way between the Matakoola
and the Tugela, a distance of fifteen long miles.

As there was every appearance of heavy rain, I
feared the rivers would be flooded, and that I might
be detained an indefinite time, which would have
been horrible, as my stores were all gone, and I had
only twenty bullets left. I therefore resolved to cross
the river, come what might, sorely against the will of
the Kaffirs, who were in dread of their lives, and yet
afraid of leaving me. We slept at the Umsindoosie,
and were almost eaten up by mosquitoes.

9 tli. — Started before daylight, being uncommonly
anxious to get to the Missionary Station to hear the
news. It rained heavily the greater part of the day,
but I stuck at it for fully twelve hours, and reached
the station shortly after sunset. I found from Mr.
Aftebro that the country was nearly depopulated,
thousands and thousands of men, women, and
children being stabbed or drowned in attempting to
cross the Tugela. He calculated that fully one-fourth
of the whole Zulu nation must have been destroyed,
and told me that 8,000 head of cattle had passed his
station alone. The victors lost a great number of
people also. It is most extraordinary to hear them
talk about the fight ; they appear to think no more

MAHOUTCHA.

135

of taking human life than an Englishman would of
killing a rabbit. One man said he had killed six,
another five, nine, or three ; and one great warrior
had killed twenty, and then he would count on his
fingers so many young men, so many wives, and so
many unmarried girls — Zintombis — and laugh and
chuckle over it immensely.

Panda, who was alive and well, while his two
sons were fighting which should succeed him, had
himself killed seven of his brothers !

1( M. — The thermometer usually stands at about
93° in the shade, and 135° or 140° in the sun ; some
days it has been 104° in the shade.

13 th. — A fine cool day, with slight showers.
Started at railway speed, stuck at it for sixteen
hours and a half, getting over about fifty-five miles,
the greatest walking feat I ever performed. I fell
fast asleep on the road before my blanket arrived,
being quite knocked up in ascending the Matakoola
hill to get away from the mosquitoes.

The only Kaffir who stuck to me throughout was
Mahoutcha, a splendid fellow, formerly in Elephant
White’s service, and much attached to him — whether
owing to a tremendous piece he took out of the calf
of his leg with the wagon-whip when foreloping, and
so gaining him proper respect, I cannot say. On
one occasion Mahoutcha did his master good service.
White had claimed, and outspanned on the spot, an ox
which two powerful Boers had in their wagon, so
they waylaid and suddenly attacked White at night,

136

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and lie fell over the dissel boom. Taking advantage
of his mishap they fell upon him, and while they were
all struggling together on the ground, White getting
the worst of it, Mahoutcha seized the after-sjambok,
and played into them with such terrible good-will
that they instantly jumped up, and White caught the
nearest on the under jaw, breaking it, and knocking
him backwards over a flight of spiked rails. The
other fled for his life.

The whole country was entirely depopulated,
hundreds of wagon loads of green mealies and amo-
bella all going to waste. We passed heaps of Kaiflr
traps, pillows, mats, calabashes, pots, sticks, and
baskets, strewed about, evidently dropped in a hurry.

14 th [Sunday). — The whole air was tainted with
dead bodies for the last twelve miles, which I walked
against a head wind. They were lying in every pos¬
sible attitude along the road, men, women, and
children of all possible sizes and ages ; the warriors
untouched, with their war-dresses on ; but all in a
dreadful state of decomposition. I was never so glad
of anything in my hfe as of getting the Tugela
between me and the dead ; as what with the strong
head wind, and the horrible effluvia, it was quite
overpowering, and proved eventually too much for the.
stomachs of even my Kaffirs. For a long time they
endeavoured, by taking widish circles, to avoid
treading on or coming very near the dead, being
very superstitious ; but as we neared the Tugela, the
bodies lay so thick in the road and on each side that

KITCIIWAYO.

137

it was impossible to avoid them any longer. The Kaffirs
walked very quickly, and never answered once any
remark I made, appearing frightened as well as in¬
tensely disgusted, and no bribe that could be offered
would induce a Kaffir to touch one. I saw many
instances of mothers with babies on their hacks, with
assegais through both, and children of all ages
assegaied between the shoulder-blades.

I met a portion of the victorious army returning,
carrying branches of trees over Kitchwayo, walking
very stately and slowly, teaching him to be a king, as
they said.

I was a little nervous as to my reception, but put a
bold face on the matter, grounded my gun about
forty yards off, and asked 4 Is all well P ’ when they
did the same with their assegais, said 4 All is well with
you,’ and we advanced and had a long parley, my
fellows treading on my heels. They were very civil,
and told me that as I had taken no part in the fight
I was free to go and come wherever and whenever I
liked, and all the oxen taken from the Englishmen
should be sent to a large cattle-station on the Ums-
latoose, and the owners must come in and claim them,
and that those that had been slaughtered for food
should be made good. Beer was broached, and, after
some heavy pulls, we parted on the most amicable
terms.

On arriving at the river, I saw about 150 poor
wretches on the banks waiting to come across, as the
river was full, and I had great difficulty in getting

138

AFEICAN HUNTING.

the boat to come over for me. After firing several
salutes in vain, I was obliged to strip, to show that I
was white.

\hth. — I got the loan of a horse from Mr. Fynn,
the magistrate, stationed there, and proceeded to the
Umlila, where I had a horse of my own. All the
way down I received numerous congratulations from
all my acquaintances, and from many strangers, on
having got out safely from among the savages. It
was the general opinion that all the white men in
the country would be killed ; and Johnson, whom I
left at the missionary station, and myself, constituted
the all.

I am tempted to add here a few anecdotes of
adventures in buffalo-hunting, which befel me about
this period : —

One evening in the valley of the Tugela, on return¬
ing to my encampment, after a capital day’s sport
(three hartebeests, an eland bull and buffalo bull), I
was leading a fine grey mare, packed with the harte-
beest skins, when I saw a huge beast before me so
encased in mud that I at first took it for a rhinoceros.
I let go the mare, and ran from behind unperceived
very near, as it was walking slowly. It proved to be
an enormous old bull buffalo, and the first intimation
he got of my presence was a bullet in the centre of
his big ribs. How he made the stones fly and clatter
as he rushed down the hill ! I reloaded, went back
to the mare (which remained standing just where I

BUFFALO.

139

left her, as all South African trained shooting-horses
do for half a day or more, if required), and proceeded
in the direction my old friend was making, not
much expecting, however, to see anything more of
him, and had given him up, as it was fast getting
dark, when 1 saw the outline of a large beast under
a shady thorn-tree, and had not quite made him out
when he emerged and made at me. I threw a hasty
glance around for a friendly tree, and then at the
chances of getting on the mare’s back, but that was
hopeless, as she was loaded with hides ; my arm was
through the bridle rein, the bull mending his pace,
and as I put my gun to my shoulder the mare, alarmed,
jerked back and I fired a snap shot at his breast, not
turning him in the least. The mare reared per¬
pendicularly and fell backwards ; the rein being
through my arm, I also fell between her legs, and the
brute went over us both, knocking the skin from the
mare’s eye with a kick from his hind leg, and rattled
along. I found him dead in the morning not 200
yards off, my bullet having struck him in the centre
of the chest.

I saw across the Pongola an immense herd of
buffaloes, and my fellows were most anxious that I
should shoot them a fat cow. I got on a large open
plain between them and their stronghold, the bush
we were then in, and ensconced myself behind a very
small low bush below the wind, with two double
guns, and sent my fellows a long way round, above
wind, to drive them towards me. There must have

140

AFRICAN HUNTING.

been 300, and they came directly for me, at a slow
trot, making the earth shake, and raising clouds of
dust. I lay as close as a hare in her form on the
open plain ; nothing but this little shrub, perhaps
three feet high and four feet in circumference, until
the leaders of the herd were within three lengths,
and I saw every probability of being trampled to
death. I jumped into the air as high as possible,
with a tremendous shout. The whole herd, for a
few seconds, appeared panic-stricken, and remained
stock still. I selected a sleek, glossy, dumpy cow,
and fired, and never raised such a commotion in my
existence. I was almost deafened by the rushing
noise, and blinded by the dust. I fired, however, my
other three barrels into the middle of the dust, but
could hardly hear the report ; and not until the
dust cleared away, some 300 yards, I saw the whole
herd going away, and my little pet, Smoke, at their
heels. She picked the wounded cow out of the
whole herd, stuck to her till she died, a mile ahead,
and whilst we were trying to hit off her blood-spoor,
came back to us, and trotted on ahead, and took us
to the cow, the only one bagged. I relate this to
show there is very little danger from a large troop.

A buffalo is a dangerous animal, from being so very
quick. One day I had stalked close up to some lying
down in long grass, and had cautiously, by taking
advantage of every opportunity, got to a forked tree
within twenty yards, when I whistled low to alarm
them gently, and they slowly rose. I fired at the

BUFFALO.

141

best cow full in the breast, and sprang, at the same
instant, almost into the fork, and was knocked out of
it again as quickly with the tremendous charge she
made against the trunk, almost splitting her skull,
and rolling over dead at the tree-root, shot through
the middle of the heart. Another time I and my
companion both fired together at an old bull, hitting
him hard, and I was chasing him at my best pace, for
a second shot, when I became aware of another
galloping alongside me, twenty-five yards to my
right, on the open. I pulled up immediately, aimed
forward, and fired, hitting him in front of the
shoulder-blade, and, in all my experience, I never
saw one knocked over like that. His legs flew from
under him, and he lay sprawling some lengths ahead ;
there was a low thorn-tree between us, with wide-
spreading branches almost sweeping the ground,
which I made for. He jumped up instantly and
charged, arid as I ducked under on the lower side he
came smack through, breaking off one of the main
limbs on the upper side, and away he went, and I
never set eyes on him more. We eventually bagged
our first, my companion hitting him in the eye as
he came on.

142

CHAPTEE YI.

1857.

THE TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC - MERICO COUNTRY - THE MACCATEESE OR

BECHUANAS - SECHELE - THE MASARAS — THE BOERS — MOSILIKATSE.

May 25 th. — After many unforeseen delays, and
losing our oxen for a week, we at length got away
from Ladysmith, on our excursion into the far interior,
with a heavy wagon, sixteen oxen, and seven salted
horses. This pretty little town derives its name
from Lady Smith, the wife of Sir Harry Smith, for¬
merly governor of the Cape Colony. It stands on
the Klip river, about 150 miles from Durban, with a
splendid view of Kelson’s Kop, Job’s Berg, and the
range of the Drakensberg Mountains, about eighteen
or twenty miles off, the dividing range between
Natal and the Orange river Free State and Trans¬
vaal Republic. The finest view of the colony of Natal
is from the ascent of the Drakensberg, from which
it looks beautiful, well watered and wooded, and like
a large well-kept garden when compared with the
country on the other side, to the west, which is
devoid of a stick of wood, flat, barren, and unprofit-

A HAPPY LIFE.

143

able, but, notwithstanding, has good farms for horses
and sheep. Harrysmith, just under the Table
Mountain, never gets a glimpse of sun till about three
hours’ high, and is a dreary, cold place in the winter.

As the nights are very cold, with hard frost in the
early mornings and high cutting winds; I have the
nags blanketed up to the eyes. Game is very scarce ;
a few quaggas and wildebeests, and some shy, wary
ostriches, are all we have seen yet ; the grass is as dry
as a chip, and the oxen and horses must get poor, as it
contains so little nourishment. Joubert shot a cow
wildebeest last night, and, on my return from
skinning her an hour after sunset, I thought mine
the happiest life in the world : a snug wagon, a roaring
fire of dry cow-dung, horses and oxen feeding close
round the former, waiting for their mealies, and as
tame as barn-door fowls ; three fat ducks hissing and
spitting away, just ready for supper ; two lamps
burning ; and all around my wagon-home one dreary
flat waste, with no wood for days and days. It is a
dull, uninteresting country, but the air is so bracing
and healthy that you must be in high spirits, come
what will.

Poor Eagman, a faithful and plucky young dog
of my own breeding, got a severe prod from the
wildebeest last night behind the shoulder, and could
scarcely limp home, but he will recover, and I hope
the hint will make him more cautious for the future.

June 8th. — We are now within nine hours of
Mooi Eiver Town, nothing having happened on the

144

AFRICAN HUNTING.

road worth mentioning, except that we stuck fast
once yesterday and had to unload, and that Donker,
my best ox, is dead, having got at a poisonous kind of
grass, called by the Dutch tulp, which has much the
same effect upon them as a tremendous blow-out of
clover, causing them to swell fearfully : this was the
only casualty, but it was nearly being the same with
several others. .

We have been living well on koran, guinea fowl,
wild ducks, springbuck, and blesbuck. I made an ex¬
change with old Luse, a Boer— tea, powder and lead,
for bacon and sausages ; and had two glasses of grog
with him, as it was a bitter cold day ; and lost two
oxen, Quiman and Boman, for two days : they had
taken the road home again.

I had a tremendous fall from Jack yesterday, while
hunting blesbuck, right into a new burn. I got up as
black* as a nigger, but my horse was not in fault, as
he is blind, and I was pushing him to his utmost
speed, when he set his foot in a hole and rolled for
yards — by no means an uncommon occurrence. I
have had very many such spills ; and on two occasions
found my double rifle with the muzzle facing me, and
both barrels at full cock. While going at full speed,
luck is all you have to trust to, clever though your
horse may be ; an old shooting-horse is always on the
look-out for holes, having himself a wholesome dread
of them. There is frequently such a cloud of dust
raised by the immense herds of game you are
pursuing that you can see nothing, and, though you

DELICIOUS DUCKS.

145

can often hear the bullet clap loudly, you must wait
till the dust clears away to know what it is — quagga,
wildebeest, blesbuck, or springbuck. I have fre¬
quently had herds of all these sorts in immense
numbers scouring away before me and on all sides,
amid such a cloud of stuff raised by their own
tearing away that I never knew what I was firing at,
my only endeavour being to aim low. I first saw the
effects of my two barrels on the dust clearing away ;
sometimes a couple of quaggas, and on one occasion
three blesbuck, and several times three springbuck, not
unfrequently a wildebeest ; but most commonly nothing
on the spot, though it is very usual for one or more to
fall farther on or drop to the rear, being wounded.
At these times good dogs are of immense service.

I must mention my success at ducks yesterday, as
it may never occur again. I marked six into a small
water-hole and stalked well in upon them in the long
grass, bagged four with the first barrel and dropped
another with the second the instant he rose, and had
but just time to load one barrel when the sixth flew
round again, and I dropped him, thus bagging the
whole lot in less than half a minute. They are
large, fat, and delicious, and equal in flavour to any
in England. Several hyenas have been following the
wagon and frightening the Kaffirs, but the lions have
not molested us ; they only came to the wagon once,
frightening old Graham, one of the horses, almost into
fits. He got his back to the wheel, and snorted and
blew as if he was choking. I had had them all well

L

146

AFRICAN HUNTING.

blanketed, and I think the lions could not make them
out. Besides, we had a little moonlight, which makes
the lions less daring than they are on dark nights.
They are boldest when the nights are stormy.

9 th. — Caught an armadillo alive, and made his
tail fast with a rheim, and dragged him to the wagon
through the long grass. The Kaffir had to exert all
his strength, as the armadillo held on with his claws
for his very life, and grasped the long grass con¬
vulsively, and had rolled himself as large as a
haycock. Brought a letter of introduction from
Dr. Kelly, resident magistrate of Klip river, and
a present of books to Pretorius, President of the
South African Republic. I donned my best attire to
present them, and approached him with a low bow,
as here he is all-powerful. The only remark after
reading it was : — 4 What cost is there for the trans¬
port P ’ I was quite taken aback ; and this was all that
passed between us. This was almost my first ac¬
quaintance with the Transvaal Dutchmen, and I did
not then know their manners and customs. It is
considered polite and the correct thing always to offer
payment, to give them the opportunity of declining,
you of course thanking them then for their kind¬
ness ; but I must say that very rarely, if ever, will
they accept payment for food or anything taken
in their own houses, and they are remarkably
hospitable.

I did not anticipate any difficulty from Pretorius
in getting into the interior, as peace had been declared,

A MASK TAPLEY.

147

the Kaffirs all quiet, and free trade open all over the
country. Windy, stormy, very cold weather.

13 th. — My Kaffir Umgeba gave us the slip, and
ran away on Thursday morning after getting the
wagon started, and got four hours’ start ere we missed
him; we immediately saddled up Graham and old
Bryan, and went in chase. Anticipating a long ride,
I crammed a couple of ducks and some biscuits and
salt into a haversack, and put a blanket under my
saddle ; we rode back to Mooi Kiver Dorp, a good
forty miles, never meeting a soul all the way, and
never getting the spoor of the Kaffir ; gave the horses
some forage, and slept a short time in the stable till
the moon was high, and started back, the coldest ride
I ever had in my life ; at last, was obliged to get off
and run, to keep alive at all. I was never so anxious
for sun-rise in all my life before, and it seemed as if
he delayed his rising on purpose. Never a footprint
of the wily savage ; he fairly beat us, and knocked up
our horses, and they can ill afford now to lose any
flesh. I saw a man whom I formerly knew, a
widower, with seven children, in the most abject cir¬
cumstances, and had not a scrap on earth to give
them ; his children are drafted out like hounds
among the farmers, one here and one there. He
would have me go with him to his place — merely a
poll-house, he said, a temporary residence — and I
was shocked to find nothing but the bare walls, a
miserable bedstead and dry grass to sleep on, the
lid of an old box on the floor, half a candle in

148

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the neck of a bottle, a few lucifers and a heap of
tobacco, and, amid all this wretchedness, this poor
fellow (a thorough Irishman) trying to seem happy,
and he said he often laughed to himself to think, in
case of a fire, what a small sufferer he would be.
He almost exists on tobacco, and assures me that he
often does not eat for several days together — yet

he talks of his father’s (the Hon. - ) rent-roll,

12,546/. 9s. 3 d. per annum ; but I think he is slightly
deranged. That is the second instance only of abject
poverty that I have met with in this colony.

Treked on to a Dutchman of the name of Yessell
Bartness last night, through a beautiful country of
dense thornwood, quite a relief to the eye after the
endless plains we have come through. This is truly
a sweet spot, a lovely stream meandering through
thorn covered with water-cresses, a magnificent
orchard, and the oranges and lemon trees covered
now, in the middle of winter, with delicious fruit,
but I thought to-day I had come nearly to the end
of civilisation when I was offered half a farm, 3,000
acres, in exchange for a plough. Joubert shot two
springbucks yesterday with one bullet.

14:th [Sunday). — One of the finest days I ever
beheld. This is certainly the finest climate in the
world, at this season of the year. We have now had
six or seven weeks of uninterrupted lovely weather,
and every prospect of a long continuance; I took a
stroll to-day, and had a beautiful view, and thought
of home and friends, and the chances of my ever

AT JOUBERT’S.

149

returning to England. I was much amused last night
at my Kaffirs trading with the Maccateese for ostrich
feathers ; they could not understand one word of each
other’s language, and my fellows were trying to make
them believe buttons were money, and would buy of
the white man cows, horse, or gun, and eventually
succeeded in buying a lot of black feathers for ten
buttons. I lost my supper in waiting to see the re¬
sult. The Maccateese brought heaps of mealie kops
to make a big light lest they should be cheated, and
went through the most frightful gesticulations.

15 th. — Bought some meal, oranges, potatoes and
dry peaches, the latter very cheap, 2s. a stable bucket-
full ; left Younkman behind dead lame in the hip ;
outspanned for the night at a Boer’s.

1.6 f A. — Of course my oxen had been on the land,
my dogs had eaten the frau’s soup, and I must
pay damages. I gave some lead, coffee and sugar,
as they were decent people, barring stealing my curb-
chain, which is a great nuisance, as I cannot replace
it. Arrived about mid-day at Joubert’s, to whom I
lent four oxen in Natal when he was on his last legs ;
received a most hearty welcome, but he has only a
hartebeest house made of reeds, and the good wife
was sorry she had nothing in the world to give
us but flesh, and set us down to a large dish full
of broiled wildebeest — rather poor fare for a weary
traveller, but I had still some biscuits left, and we
made out pretty well. The repast was hardly ac¬
cording to English notions ; but I am well used now

150

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to life in a colony, and I received a most hearty
welcome, which is more than half the battle. There
are lots of game . here, and a nice thorny country.
I like the place much, and shall probably stay ten
days or more, as the oxen are fairly used up.

Ylth. — Had a long ramble to-day ; shot a fall raebuck
and springbuck, and saw plenty of guinea fowls.
The horses got frightened by a hyena last night and
took themselves off. I heard them galloping, but it was
too dark to follow. I have only recovered four as yet,
but two Jouberts and a Kaffir are now out looking for
the rest. I think they must have taken the road back,
as I have been up to the highest hills and can see
nothing of them. There is a severe frost every night,
and we have a baking-pot full of fire in the house,
and huddle around it in the evenings just as we do
at home — something new for Africa.

When I arrived, my host and his family, who are
capital hunters, were almost out of ammunition. Franz
had killed, mirabile dictu , with the same bullet, three
or four hartebeest bulls, the shyest and most difficult
of approach of all the antelope tribe, and very tough
also. He was off at daylight, sparing neither time
nor trouble in stalking till he made sure of his shot,
putting just sufficient powder to drive the bullet
through to the skin on the other side, then cutting it
out and reloading. Each skin was worth to him
about twelve to fifteen shillings when tanned. Poor
fellow ! he met with a sad accident shortly after. The
lions killed his horse in the middle of the day, a very

FEROCITY OF LIONS.

151

unusual occurrence. He vowed vengeance for the
future, and some days afterwards he and his brother
John saw three, and they immediately gave chase on
foot. Franz overtook and cut off the last, and stood
in the path ready to receive her, and as she came on
covered her steadily and pulled, when his weapon, a
flint, missed fire ; the gun missed fire a second time,
when the lioness sprang on him, clawing and biting
him frightfully, crippling and disabling him for life.
She was grinding away at his thigh when John got
up and pluckily shot her dead on his body. I have
heard him tell the story in the coolest manner
possible, saying he must have shot her through and
through if the old gun had not missed, and regretting
he had not had a doppi-roer (percussion gun). Another
similar instance happened to a Boer at Scoon Spruit,
not far distant. The lions frightened the oxen
treking in a wagon one very dark night. The Boer
jumped off to try and stop them, but the pace being
too fast he jumped up on the trap behind while the
oxen were going at full gallop. The lion sprang on
him, pulled him off, killed and ate him on the road,
and his brother, on searching for him in the morning,
found the lion still there. He coolly dismounted, and
shot him dead on the remains of his brother’s body.

27 th. — Had a shocking bad cold and headache,
a kind of influenza, the last ten days, and have con¬
sequently not been doing much. Found the horses
two days after losing them, on the road back. Killed
yesterday, after a great amount of toil, a bird strange

152

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to me, called here the Mamaqua partridge — a dirty-
brown, yellow neck, long tail, forked wings, and
feathered to the toes like a grouse ; his head somewhat
resembles a partridge, and he has half a horse-shoe
across his breast ; he is plump and fat, but only half
the size of an English bird ; his flights are very long
and quick, and he makes a whistling noise not unlike
a golden plover ; he is speckled over the back and
wings with a blueish, greyish, yellowish brown, if
the reader can form any idea what a mixture of those
colours would look like.

I shot yesterday a large crested bustard, the fattest
and largest I have ever seen ; not being able to weigh
him, we can only guess, but the lowest estimate is
fifty pounds Dutch, fifty-four English. The only
utensil we could hit upon that was big enough to
cook him in was a soap-boiler, which he just fitted,
and in which he was admirably baked and served
at table every day for a week ; we rendered down
more than a bottle full of oil from his inside fat,
which is the very best thing you can use for guns.

I made up my mind to-day I could go no farther ; the
oxen and horses are too poor, and the winter is very
severe. I must put off for another year, as my oxen
could not possibly trek my wagon through the
heavy sands in their present condition, and the grass
is so dry and so scarce that I fear they will have
enough to do to get through the winter without work.
I feed the horses nightly on Kaffir corn, which I trade
from the natives for beads, knives, copper wire, &c.,

KAFFIR PITFALLS.

153

but it is very dear here. I must try and sell my
wagon for oxen, stores, &c., and go back to Natal,
leaving my horses and oxen here in charge of Joubert
until the end of next April, when I must try again.
There is plenty of game here, but none of any value,
except ostriches, which are now in splendid plumage,
but shy and wary to a degree. I have never been able
yet to get a shot at them, though I watched twelve
yesterday for several hours. Wildebeest, quagga,
hartebeest,blesbuck,and springbuck, with a sprinkling
of duikers, and steinbuck, roy and fall raebuck, we see
every day we go out, but they are the only kinds here,
and of little or no value, and are dry eating. Koran,
plenty of guinea-fowl and peaus, with a few partridges,
are all the winged game ; but I have hardly any shot,
and no dogs worth a rap, for small-winged game,
though first-rate for bucks of all sorts. The Boers
have not civilised the natives much, for I saw them
every day getting water in an old ox-horn ; nothing
could well be more primitive, and they dress entirely
in skins, killing numbers of bucks in pit-falls. These
pit-falls resemble a honeycomb, and the Kaffirs muster
in great force and drive the game helter-skelter over
the holes, and they knock one another in ; the holes
are of all shapes, round, oval, oblong, square, and
there are generally about fifty in one pass, and fifteen
or twenty passes in a space of two miles of country.
A strong fence on each side confines the game, which
have thus no opportunity of escape.

July 5 th (Sunday).— Had a visit yesterday from

154

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Masau, a Coranna chief, and seven of his followers,
all well mounted. He agreed to buy my wagon for
twenty-five fat oxen, which I expect to be here to¬
morrow for inspection ; they drank any amount of
coffee, and put in sugar ad libitum . I then gave
them some oranges, and they carefully preserved the
pips — old Masau claims one of my horses, which he
says he lent a Dutchman to ride home to his farm
four years ago, after buying his wagon ; all his people
swear to the horse and to the cropping of his ears, so
I fear I must give him up, as I have no doubt he is
their horse, for no white man would cut a horse’s
ears off to bleed him ; but I don’t see who is to re¬
compense me for my loss, for I bought and paid for
him.

The reader will perhaps excuse my giving here an
account of a night I once passed on the open veldt
on the Feight Kop road between the Yaal river and
Harrysmith, on returning to Natal from Mooi Eiver
Dorp.

The wagons had been quietly treking along over an
immense open country without wood for nine days,
when one beautiful afternoon I mounted Adrian to
shoot a wildebeest, Hopeful, a splendid stag-hound,
accompanying me. As far as the eye could reach,
the road apparently ran straight, and I took to the
right, knowing I must come back to hit the road
again, when we could see at once by the spoor
whether or not our wagons had passed, and follow
on or go back accordingly.

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN.

155

Game took me farther than I intended, and the
wagons must have diverged to the left, for I could
never cross the track again, and as the sun went down
I began to get very uneasy and very chilly, a shirt
and trousers being all my attire. Just after sunset
jackals first began to make their appearance, and a
flac fare (veldt pig) came out of a hole near me ;
this I shot for supper, and then found I had forgotten
my knife, and could not get through his skin. As
darkness fast set in, I knee-haltered my horse to feed,
and began to try and collect dung for a fire, but could
find little or none, and was forced to give up the
attempt, and, before it was quite dark, I caught
Adrian, drove my iron ramrod deep into the ground
with the heel of my boot, and made him fast to that
with the rheim, which is invariably round all our
horses’ necks. I curled myself up for warmth — a
saddle-cloth less than two feet square being my only
covering. There was a bitter cold white frost, and a
dense mist, and, like an idiot, I had got into a valley
by a vley of water, the very coldest spot I could have
chosen, and the long grass soon began to get reeking
wet. I tried every dodge and device to make Adrian
lie down, hitting him below the knees with my gun-
barrels, making the poor old horse lift one leg up
after another, as if he was standing on hot cinders.
I next stood and leant against him on the lee side,
and then tried lying down again, and tore up a
regular hole in the ground with my teeth, and was
half choked with soil. A concert was going on

156

AFRICAN HUNTING.

round me of lions, hyenas, and jackals, mingled with
the snorting and stamping of wildebeests, barking of
quaggas, and the occasional rushing away of spring¬
buck or blesbuck into the darkness, as they came
noiselessly towards the water, and first got our wind.
Expecting lions every moment, I put my handker¬
chief round the lock of my gun, to keep it as dry as
possible, and prevent its missing fire, as everything
was reeking wet, and sat cross-legged, almost be¬
tween Adrian’s fore legs, as I made sure they would
attack him, being proverbially fond of horse-flesh.
After being in this frightful state of suspense an hour
at least, with their low subdued growls on all sides,
as they kept moving round, they left me, Hopeful
now and then giving vent to a low savage growl ; but
I kept him near me, as there was a sense of protec¬
tion in even an animal ; and his time and attention
were devoted and fully occupied in licking carefully
two holes in his chest, just previously made by a
wild boar, who carried him bodily away on the
points of his tusks, full fourteen yards. I shot it in
the breast, and it fell on its knees. Hopeful rushed
in at it, when it jumped up, prodded him, and carried
him away this distance, when it fell over dead, most
probably shot through the heart.

I suffered dreadfully from cold, and was getting
worse. I at last hit upon the following device : I
made loose my stirrup-leathers, put one round Hope¬
ful’s loins, and buckled it loosely above my knees ;
then put the other behind his shoulder, between

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN.

157

his fore legs, bringing it back over his neck ; buckled
it loosely, and slipped my head and my left arm and
shoulder through. Being a shy brute, as most

of the greyhound breed are, on finding himself fast
he got alarmed, and began to struggle tremendously,
handling and snapping like a baited fox. I threw
myself down (he on the top of me), held his black
muzzle fast with my left hand, turned half over,
and, having my right hand free, hammered into
his ribs with my fist till I knocked every particle
of breath out of his body, and half suffocated him
at the same time by keeping his mouth shut. His
struggles for some time were fearful : he foamed at

158

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the mouth as if he were rabid. I was hardly sure if
I had not killed him, but as I relaxed my grasp on
his muzzle, he gradually came to, when I tightened
the leathers and gave him a repetition of the above,
when inclined to be refractory. At last, my voice
had the desired effect, and he lay on the top of
me all night; and I firmly believe the warmth of
his body was the means of saving my life, as I
was so cold I could do nothing till the sun was
high. It must have been an unusually cold night,
as I saw wildebeests get up so stiff they could
hardly stir for many minutes. When I eventually
got the use of my limbs, I took very violent exer¬
cise, to set the blood in circulation ; went to the
highest visible ground, and fired my first shot into
an ant-heap, that I might recover my bullet, and
then, having plenty of powder, fired some tremen¬
dous heavy charges with six inches of grass, tightly
hammered down, to make a terrific report, but no
answer ; and knowing I must, by going due east,
come to the sea at last, I took that course, and about
eleven o’clock saw a faint smoke ; made for it at
once, and found the remains of a large fire, which
my party had left burning as a guide for me. They
had passed the night there, and gone on ; and after
off-saddling a bit, I followed the spoor, and overtook
them about 4 p.m.

Proudfoot and Schikkerling, my companions, had
been all the morning in quest of me, firing innumer¬
able shots, and the former quite sure I should even-

WILD BOARS- — JACKALLS.

159

tually turn up, though I was quite given up by the
rest, as the veldt was known to be full of lions.

I was truly thankful to reach the wagons, which
was all a matter of chance, as I knew no more where
the wagon-track was than Hopeful did ; and I am
convinced, even if I could have got food and fire, I
should hardly have weathered two more such nights,
and I might have gone seven or eight before coming
across any habitation.

Wild boars are dangerous things. A friend of
mine, once, on chasing a very large one to ground,
made a large fire and smoked him out. He rushed
through smoke and flames, and vented his rage on
the horse, goring him terribly. He eventually re¬
covered, after a deal of time and trouble. They
afford excellent sport, however, with good dogs, with
or without a rifle. Proudfoot and myself, one morn¬
ing, stuck five before breakfast with large clasp
knives. We had excellent dogs, well up to the sport,
holding on like vices, each by an ear. Frequently,
when they make for holes, down which they invari¬
ably go tail first, give them a little time, and jump a
few times heavily above them, three or four together,
and they bolt like rabbits.

I have chased a jackall into a porcupine’s hole,
and the inmates have at once driven him out, choos¬
ing rather to trust his life once more to his heels
than have his whole body stuck full of quills —
almost as bad a predicament as a fellow-traveller (a
wagon-driver) assured me happened to him once.

160

AFRICAN HUNTING.

After outspanning on the same road, during the
time the oxen were grazing he strolled out to try to
kill a buck. He wounded a steinbuck very badly,
and was almost catching him, when he got into a hole.
He had a dog with him, but it was chasing spring¬
buck, so he went head first into the hole himself, and
succeeded in reaching the buck, but, in his endea¬
vours, had got so far that he could not make an
effort to get back ; his arms were right before
him, and his back wedged fast. He struggled so
hard that he became insensible, and must have been
all but suffocated, when his dog (bull and pointer — I
have often seen it) saved his life by going back to the
wagon, and attracting the notice of his Kaffirs, who
followed the dog to his master’s assistance, and dug
him out more dead than alive, having been about
five hours in this situation.

August 1 Qth [Sunday). — I have sadly neglected
my log for six weeks past, and must now hark
back again. Having sold my wagon to a Coranna
for thirty oxen, and all my goods and chattels
also for oxen, I went to Hartebeest Fontein to buy
a cart, to go at once to Graham’s Town. I there fell
in with Mr.Vermaas, who was just starting into Merico
country, and I changed my plans, and agreed to go
with him — myself finding powder, lead, coffee, and
sugar — and, as we meant shooting giraffes, I laid
in a stock of forage for my nags, and bought a
new one for four oxen, and started next day for
Merico, to meet his son, who had been elephant-

START FOR MERICO.

161

hunting, and bring out the ivory. We were seven
days in getting to our destination, having gone far
out of the way. Swartz and young Vermaas had
got back, having had a glorious hunt. They had
shot twenty large bulls, besides what they traded
from the Kaffirs, and the sight of so much fine ivory
determined me at once to lose no time in trying
to get among the mighty bulls ; and, Swartz going
in again shortly, I agreed to go with him, and to
find a span of oxen — he to bring out all the
ivory I got so far; and I at once started back
again for my oxen, horses, guns, &c. I dis¬
posed of Graham for seven oxen, and also my
double gun, for 141 lbs. of ivory, two very fine
teeth, which had, however, only cost Swartz eight
pounds of beads and two bullets.

I made the best of my way back to Harte-
beest Fontein, and, taking the right road, and tra¬
velling day and night, I got there in four days ;
bought a cart for 15/., and two dogs also — a
bull and greyhound, a perfect model, Torey by
name, and a well-bred pointer bitch, which I christ¬
ened Donna, and got back to Joubert’s the following
day, having been away three weeks. Found all
well ; one ox dead or lost. John had sold 4 The
Saxon ’ for six oxen, which I was very sorry for,
as he had had the sickness, and was a quiet shooting
pony ; but it was my fault.

I left fifty-four oxen in charge of Joubert, and
John and myself started, two days after, back again

M

162

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to Merico, with nine oxen and five horses, and
five guns, four dogs, &c., and arrived at Swartz’s
in five days. We had the company of an Eng¬
lishman on the road, Metcalf by name, whom I
met in the Merico country, and I offered to give
him my beads, blankets, knives, &c., to trade
for me on halves ; and, thinking this no doubt too
good an offer to be overlooked, he forthwith hired
a wagon, and turned up at Joubert’s the day be¬
fore we started to come here, so we made fast
the cart behind the wagon, and all came toge¬
ther. I was not sorry to have a wagon to tie
the horses and oxen to at night in the Lion veldt,
instead of my cart ; for, in the event of their
paying us a visit, the beasts would most undoubtedly
have smashed my cart all to pieces ; however, we
had a fine moon, and they did not come near us,
though I saw ten in the day-time.

The Merico country is a beautiful land, and most
fertile and productive ; the crops splendid, and
fruit ad libitum . It is warm, and well wooded,
but a little short of water. There are no rivers,
only one or two small streams, and plenty of foun¬
tains ; but it is a charming country to live in —
hilly, rather too stony, but with large fertile val¬
leys intervening. The only drawback is the great
scarcity of game, and yet a more likely country
I never saw, and I cannot account for it. My dogs
are looking poor, and, were it not for some lung-
sick oxen, which die very opportunely, I don’t

THE MEEICO COUNTRY.

163

know what they would do. I wrought hard for
them all day yesterday on Darby, whom I left
behind here, a bag of bones, and he carried me
as fresh as a lark over a vast extent of land, but
I never burnt powder. This is the last house in
the Merico country ; the Boers have not penetrated
farther, though I consider them first-rate pioneers
in a new land. We are only four days from
Sechele, a very powerful Maccateese chief. Swartz
is now not going to start until the 31st August,
so I have a fortnight to kick my heels about here,
with nothing to do ; but I am not sorry for it
on the horses’ and oxen’s account, for we have
had two days’ rain, and the new grass is springing
up fast and green, and there will soon be a marked
improvement in the appearance of the animals.
They have had a hard winter — cold, frosty, and
windy — to contend with, and very little grass.

We were treated most hospitably and kindly by
one and all the Boers in the neighbourhood, and
Swartz kept a capital table, and an almost open
house, there being lots of visitors every day, and
a soupii, or a glass of Cape brandy, for every
one. The flasks were never off the table, and the
day invariably wound up by target-shooting, at
which the Dutch are great adepts. A yokeskey
at 100 yards, or a bottle, was frequently the mark,
and sometimes the crack shots called for Eau de
Cologne flasks, short, squab little things, no higher
than a wine glass, and looking uncommonly small at

164

AFKICAN HUNTING.

100 yards, which were, notwithstanding, frequently
smashed. Horse-racing was another amusement,
which consisted in letting the bridle loose on the
horse’s neck, and going at it hammer and tongs,
legs and arms, and flogging all the way : 1,000
yards the distance. The Boers are also great musi¬
cians, and very fond of dancing, and appear to
live exceedingly happily. Many of the Dutch
noes, or young maidens, are very pretty ; and
they are a very moral set of people. They have
a singular custom of first becoming acquainted. If
you admire any one in particular, you take the
first opportunity that presents itself of asking her
to upsit. Should this be accorded, when the old
people and all the rest of the household have
retired, a curtain frequently being all the partition
between the sitting and bed-rooms, the chosen one
again appears, with a candle, short or long, accord¬
ing as she fancies you or otherwise, and remains
as long as that burns, all conversation being car¬
ried on in whispers, and the fair one being obliged to
sit very close and talk very low, for fear of disturb¬
ing the inmates on the other side of the curtain.
These upsits frequently last far on into the morn¬
ing, and the happy swain is at great pains to
trim the candle — not let it flicker or flare, or
get into a draft, and so keep it burning as long
as possible, for it is imperative to retire when that
is out.

I have been present, stretched on the floor, on

UPSITTING.

165

a blanket (asleep, apparently, no doubt), when two
upsittings have been going on, at opposite corners of
a large room, all still as the grave, but the subdued
whisperings of the happy pairs.

There is something very charming about the whole
proceeding ; at all events, it had the effect of banish¬
ing all inclination to sleep, and I came to the conclu¬
sion that taking an active part for the future would
be far more preferable than again being merely a
passive spectator.

They are a primitive, hospitable, good-hearted
set ; marry very young ; live to a good old age
generally ; and very frequently have large fami¬
lies, and most of them are very comfortably off,
and take things very easy. Some of the poorer,
however, both live and work very hard ; but their
wants are few, as they are brought up to do every¬
thing for themselves. Groceries, prints, and mole¬
skin are all the poorer classes buy, except powder
and lead ; almost all other requirements they make
for themselves. And the upsitting business I con¬
sider about the best of their old customs. All
matches are then and there clenched, provided you
are both of one mind, and brought to a speedy
conclusion : no very long engagements, for no pur¬
pose whatever. The dower of the bride generally
consists in some cows, sheep, and goats ; a span of
oxen (twelve), and a quiet riding horse — if the
bridegroom can furnish about the same, with a
wagon. They start life very comfortably, and with

166

AFRICAN HUNTING.

every prospect before them of eventually becoming
rich in stock, which is money ; for they have a good
custom likewise, when a child is born, of making
over a cow, a ewe, and a goat ewe, which are never
parted with, and, by the time he or she is married,
they have the increase of this lot to start life with
for themselves. They have, however, previously
sold more or less to provide themselves with luxu¬
ries, a good rifle, riding horse, and wagon for the
men — dress, bonnets, and knicknacks for the
women ; and they buy all the most expensive things
that can be procured from the Cape or elsewhere.
And a 4 kop-spuiling ’ horse, a brute that is always
tossing his head, being sharply bitted and curbed for
the purpose, is indispensable for a dandy young Boer
in his courting days, and eagerly enquired for.

September 1st. — I have been doing all sorts of
things the last fortnight, endeavouring to expedite
our departure — tent and sail-maker, painter, shoe¬
maker, doctor, &c., by turns ; and we have still
a good week’s work before us, partly owing to the
sickness of a baby, which I have been expecting
to die every day.

The wild dogs got amongst my oxen the other
night, biting three (one severely), and killing one.
It was a pitch dark, cold, rainy night ; and last
night the wolves killed one of Swartz’s, and bit two
more.

I sold Jack for six yellow inoculated oxen, as he
was too blind to do any good in the bush, though in

READY FOR A START.

167

all other respects unexceptionable. I have now only
four horses left.

Breakfasted on a buttered ostrich egg this morn¬
ing : it was excellent, but five of us could not quite
manage it. Traded half a dozen large leather
sacks from the Maccateese for beads, very cheap ;
they will hold two muids apiece, and are beau¬
tifully braided and sewn. I am very anxious to
be off ; I have shot next to nothing here, for the
best of all reasons — there is nothing, except a
small troop of impala, very shy. I got one — a
200 yards shot at least. One wagon we have been
painting up to sell to Mosilikatse, and have taken
extra pains. It comprises nearly all the gaudy
colours of the rainbow : whether Dutch taste, or
in order to take the eye of the savage, I know not.

I wrote a long letter home a week ago, which
will not go, however, for probably two months, if it
ever reaches its destination. There is no post, and
no opportunity of sending to any post town. They
are at least a century behind the rest of the civilised
world here, but appear to live very happily and
contented.

lOtfA. — Still here, but we have got all ready for
a start on Monday, the 14th. The baby is dead
and buried. Jack nearly frightened his purchaser
to death, and he returned him, which I am not
sorry for. Swartz bought eleven goats and sheep
from the Maccateese, and, having no one to herd
them, they made back ; and yesterday the Kaffirs

168

AFRICAN HUNTING.

brought two wretched lean skeletons, half eaten,
being all that the wolves and wild dogs had left out
of the flock. They were out only one night.

My Kaffir, Matakit, upset the kettle of boiling
water over his bare foot the other day, and took
about as much notice of it as I should have done
with a strong shooting-boot on. They have regular
hides, not skin at all.

I was amused at seeing four Dutch women — two
old and two young — sharpening their knives on the
door-step, preparatory to cutting the throat of a huge
goat, which they did, and then skinned and cut him
up in a masterly style, without showing the slightest
feeling whatever, though they had a good fight ere
they could throw him : altogether, too manly an ex¬
hibition to heighten my opinion of them. A German
missionary has outspanned here on his way to Natal,
just giving me time to write a line home.

15 tli. — -At last, made a start with three wagons,
nine horses, and forty-two oxen. Lots of salutes
firing on both sides. Got only to Moiloi’s, and laid
in a store of Kaffir corn.

1 6 th. — Passed through a beautiful country, along
a well-wooded valley. Came to Mr. Edwards’s old
station, which is well situated, and has a fine garden,
but the buildings, which are very large and substan¬
tial, are all going to ruins. A great deal of pains have
been taken here ; the chapel is now converted into
a dwelling-house for Kaffirs, curs, &c. I saw half-
a-dozen of the latter stretched before the remains of

TSESSEBES.

169

a huge log-fire in the middle of the floor. Kleinboy,
Gordon Cumming’s old after-rider, joined us this
morning. He is an amusing little dog.

YHJi. - — On getting up in the morning, found all
the neck-straps from three wagons, and the trenches,
eaten by the starved curs before mentioned, which
gave occasion for a scrimmage between Swartz and
their owner, a Hottentot. We sent for a skin to
mend damages, and the Tottie was impudent ; words
soon came to blows, and the Tottie covered his re¬
treat manfully, keeping his head well up, and ward¬
ing off the blows like a master hand, and putting one
in occasionally, straight from the shoulder. It was
all made up over a bottle of grog, ten minutes after¬
wards, and, when all repairs were completed, we
treked again.

Saw tsessebes for the first time, and had a long
burst after them on horseback, but did not get a
shot. .Jack sprained his fetlock badly, but I reduced
the inflammation by cold water bandages and opening
the place.

1 8th. — Had a long ride in quest of giraffes ; saw
spoor only. Bacon lagged behind, very sick. John
bled him in the mouth, and left a Kaffir behind to
bring him slowly on. I overtook him on the road,
and found him nearly bled to death, and had great
difficulty in taking up the vein ; he fell several times
from exhaustion. I eventually succeeded with horse¬
hair, twisted with a small stick, and made fast
on his upper jaw, under his upper lip, but not

170

AFRICAN HUNTING.

until I had broken off two needles in the roof of his
mouth. He had been ailing long, and I bled him
copiously ten days ago, all to no purpose, for he died
soon after we went to bed. He was a cream colour,
with black points. The horse-sickness is very bad in
this country.

19/A. — Hot a bit of meat at the wagons. John
and Swartz started early on horseback for a koodoo,
tsessebe, or giraffe. I went on with the wagons,
and they came up where we outspanned, having
killed nothing.

I took a cup of coffee and a biscuit, and again
saddled up for a giraffe. I rode old Bryan, a tall,
narrow-built, ewe-necked, remarkably long blue-
skimmel horse, resembling very much in appearance
the animal we went to hunt, but with a great depth
of shoulder and breadth of chest, and good girth, and
some capital points about him, though an ungainly,
ugly brute, and very heavy in hand, with no mouth
whatever. We shortly met six Kaffirs, who told us
they had seen fresh spoor of a troop of giraffes, and
turned back to show us. We followed the spoor
some four miles, through thorns, and very stony and
bad travelling, ascending the different heights to try
to see them, but always following the spoor as fast
as the Kaffirs could keep up. I saw them first, full
500 yards off, seven or eight of them, and, on
whistling for Swartz, they immediately took right
away, with a tremendous start. We made good
play, at a swinging gallop, right through bush and

GIRAFFES.

171

stones, and, after a long burst, I came within twenty
yards of them, when Bryan stopped in fear and
trembling of the huge unwieldy brutes. I plied
him sharply with the spurs, and got him once more
under weigh, keeping above the wind, as the giraffes
have a strong effluvium, which frightens horses unused
to them. We came out on the open, Swartz forty or
fifty yards in advance of me, and as far behind the
giraffes. The sight of the other horse gave Bryan
confidence, and he bounded away in good style, and
was alongside instantly, when they again dashed into
thick bush ; here Swartz turned out a cow, the very
one I had set my mind on, and I at once took after
a large bull. Now he bounded away with his tail
screwed round like a corkscrew, and going in one
bound as far as I went in three. Bryan crashed
through everything, and I tore my hands, arms, and
shirt to pieces.

At length I got nearly alongside him, and fired,
hitting him high in the neck, and taking no effect
whatever on him. Here I got a pull on Bryan and
managed to re-load, still going on at a smart gallop,
and once more got alongside, and, in trying to pull
up to dismount, he went bang into a bush, which
brought him up short, and he had to back out, the
giraffe meanwhile getting 100 yards in advance. I
soon made up the lost ground, and headed him,
endeavouring to turn him, but he slewed round
like a vessel in full sail, bearing down almost on
the top of me, with his huge fore legs as high in

172

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the air as the horse’s back. I had lots of chances
to dismount, but had no command of my nag, his
mouth was dead ; but there was not a sign of flagging
about him. I steered him close alongside on the
near side, held out my gun in one hand, within . two

yards of the giraffe’s shoulder, and fired. The gun
shot over my head, and nearly broke my middle
finger, and down came the giraffe, with a tremendous
crash, with his shoulder smashed to atoms. I must
have had a desperately heavy charge of powder in,
as I loaded at random.

Bryan was as still as a post instantly, and I lost not
a moment in off-saddling him, ere I inspected my first

MY FIRST GIRAFFE.

173

giraffe, and then put the saddle-cloth over my bare
head, as the sun was intensely hot.

I must have had nearly five miles through hack-
thorns and stones of all sizes, as straight as the crow
flies. I followed him about twenty yards in the
rear for a mile at least, the stones rattling past my
head occasionally. Whenever the ground favoured,
and I made a spurt, he did the same, appearing to
have no end of bottom, and Bryan, though he has
a long swinging gallop and strained every nerve,
could not come up with him for a long time.

Swartz killed his cow about a mile back, with one
shot in the stern, about one hundred yards off. John
had nothing at all to say to it, being badly mounted,
and the giraffes going straight away. Cut off his mane
and tail as a trophy, and the tongue and marrow¬
bone for immediate use ; and Swartz and John
coming up, we went to his giraffe, which was the
fattest for meat. The Kaffirs were there, and I
offered them some beads to find my hat.

20 th [Sunday). — We don’t travel to-clay. I de¬
spatched all the Kaffirs and dogs for meat early this
morning, as it was late when we got back last night.
The Kaffirs have just brought my hat, having fol¬
lowed the spoor from the dead giraffe. Supped on
his heart and marrowbone : the meat is really tender
and good.

21 st. — Treked to Kolobeng, and saw the remains
of Dr. Livingstone’s house, which the Boers pillaged

174

AFRICAN HUNTING.

when they sent a command out against Sechele. On
saddling Darby, I perceived a swelling above the
eyes — a sure sign of the horse-sickness. Bled him
copiously, and rode Croppy instead. Shot two roy-
bucks, and outspanned for the night, without reach¬
ing water.

22nd. — Saddled up Bryan early, and we all went
to try for a giraffe : soon lost one another, in chase
of tsessebes. On reaching the road, I saw fresh
wagon-spoor, and rode on to Sechele’s, and was
well treated by two German missionaries, who have
lately come. Mr. Schroeder was one, whom I
slightly knew in Natal. Lost Bagman and Smouse :
the latter found the wagons ; the former, I fear, I
shall see no more.

23 rd. — The wagons arrived, and we soon had a
visit from Sechele, a fine, intelligent-looking Kaffir,
and well dressed, but having too good an opinion of
himself. He said I must go back again, he would
not have strangers coming into his country to hunt ;
and, besides, I had not treated him with proper re¬
spect, in not first going to see him. I managed to
explain to him, at last, satisfactorily, the reasons
why and wherefore I had not done so, which were,
that on riding up to some women working in a
garden to ask the way, they fled precipitately,
throwing everything down, and shrieking for aid.
Then I must make him a present, to show I was
well-disposed towards him ; and, when this was done,
he shook hands, and we were friends.

KAPONG.

175

Darby very bad : I bled and blistered him severely,
but all to no purpose ; he died in the night, putting
me sadly about, as I depended solely on him. He
was as good a bit of stuff as ever was put together.
The Kaffirs bring all sorts of things to the wagons to
trade, but charge very high, and principally want
powder, and lead, and caps. They reckon the Kaffirs
here to amount to 20,000 ; and Sechele himself lives
on the top of a huge berg, with kraals all around in
every direction. They are an independent lot of
Kaffirs, and have no end of guns. Some fellows from
Phillipolis have been here the last week, putting
them in order for his people.

Old Keffler, a Hottentot driver, took himself home
again this morning, without giving any reason, or
even saying he was going.

2 ith. — Spent a lazy day at the wagons, .the
weather being very hot. Some fine karosses came,
but all wanted guns or powder in exchange, and took
them away again. Tried to buy a horse from the
Bastards for a gun, but they were going in to hunt,
and could not miss one. Lots of ostrich feathers
and eggs — the former very dear, and most of the
latter bad.

25 th. — Left Sechele and had a long trek, leaving
the main road in order to obtain water, through
gardens most of the way, the Kaffir women having
done an immensity of work.

26^. — Came on to a place called Kapong, where
we await the arrival of Sechele, who is going with

176

AFEICAN HUNTING.

us on Monday afternoon. This is the last water we
shall see for three days. The poor oxen and horses I
pity sadly, as the former must trek three wagons
day and night, and a great part of the road lies
through heavy sand. The country here is very flat,
through bush all the way, but sandy and heavy, and
the sun very hot and game scarce. I have not fired
a shot the last two days, but we are going to have a
little target-shooting, to keep our hands in. I was
amused at Sechele the other night coming to the
wagon with his body-guard, carrying a drawn sword.

21th [Sunday). — Had a glorious thunderstorm,
worth worlds to us, as we shall now probably get
water on the road. We were all busy converting
ostrich eggs and bullocks’ horns and bladders into
water utensils.

28 th. — Sechele came on horseback with sixty
followers, bringing all sorts of things to the wagon
on pack bulls and oxen. He had changed his mind
and would go no farther ; he and Swartz were bar¬
gaining all the afternoon for the wagon we had been
taking such extra pains with for Mosilikatse. Sechele
ultimately bought it for 800 lbs. ivory, about 250/., as
they must all be large bull teeth. Had some target¬
shooting in the afternoon, and Sechele said his heart
was sore at being beaten ; he had a beautiful double-
barreled rifle. I bought Luister (Listen) from Swartz,
— a vicious horse, sore backed, thick fetlock joints, lots
of splints, and a determined kicker — for two magnifi¬
cent teeth weighing 154 lbs., and worth 50/. at least ;

I PART PROM SECHELE.

177

the animal in any other part of the colony would be
dear at 12/., but here he is worth the money, as
he. is thoroughly salted and won’t die, and a most
enduring brute. He is used to being under saddle
every day, and an unexceptionable horse at elephants.
I think I shall lose no more now by sickness, as they
show no signs as yet, and have all had the sickness
below ; but Jack and Croppy are worth nothing, the
former nearly blind and a bolter, the other purblind,
deadly stupid, lame and stiff as a post. Sechele very
anxious to sell me a horse for a gun, but he is a
shuffling little weed and the risk is too great to run,
as, if it came to the hearing of the Boers, they would
probably confiscate some of my property, or inflict a
heavy penalty.

29 th. — Parted company with Sechele, he going
back again. Sent Medcalfe two oxen, which almost
got him into difficulties ; treked far on into the
night, and made the oxen fast.

3(M. — Inspanned very early, and made good play
— highly favoured by the cool and cloudy weather —
through this rightly-named thirst land. Got a little
water for the horses in the afternoon, in a deep cleft
in the rocks — a most unlikely place to look for it.
The Kaffirs had previously been making holes, and
drinking stuff as thick as mud. Every kind of
utensil was put in use, and I thought bladders the
very best, being so light to carry and holding a good
quantity. The road uncommonly heavy deep sand,
bushy country all the way, camel thorns principally,

178

AFRICAN HUNTING.

with large open patches. I got a long shot at an
ostrich, but he was going like the wind. Treked
far on into the night, and made the oxen fast, as
their throats were too parched up to eat.

October 1st— Got to some wells, called Batlanarmi,
where we found a good supply of water in a deep
hole. I enjoyed a good wash immensely this morning,
as a damp cloth is all we have had for two days.
Drew out the water in buckets for the horses, and
then made a circular hole and poured away, having
lots of hands, and passing the bucket from one to the
other quickly, till we had about nine inches deep, and
then brought the oxen six a time to drink, Kleinboy
sitting on his hams with a sjambok to prevent them
from trampling it all into mud ; by this means they
all got a tolerable supply. The ladder by which we
descended to the well was a tall camel thorn-tree
with the branches lopped off, leaving about two feet
to stand on. The Masaras stood on it, and we passed
the zinc bucket from hand to hand.

When the sun had gone down a little, inspanned
again ; Swartz, John, Kleinboy, and myself, going on
horseback for a giraffe. We soon saw seven going
away leisurely, and cantered after them, trying to
bring them near the wagons. I kept in the rear,
with old Bryan pulling hard, when, unfortunately, the
curb broke and he shot ahead, and I was alongside a
large cow in 300 yards. My gun missed fire, and I
had great difficulty in putting on another cap, having
very little command of my nag. As I. was again

GIRAFFE.

179

nearing the giraffe, he took me at full speed into the
middle of a dense hack-thorn tree, which tore me
to pieces and sent my gun hying over my head back¬
wards, and it was all that I could do to keep my seat.
Bryan swerved and got through, and I soon turned
him, dismounted, and rode back for my gun, picked
it up, and kept on at a good round gallop in the direc¬
tion I saw my giraffe last, and was not long in catching
sight of her. I had a very long gallop through thick
thorns all the way, waiting in vain for an opening
to put on the steam. I at length pushed Bryan close
up, bring from the saddle, and giving the giraffe the
ball in the stern, about three inches too low. The
blood streamed in a torrent, but she kept on at a
good pace, I contenting myself with just keeping her
in sight, and she was going the right road while I re¬
loaded. I then galloped alongside, jumped -off a little
ahead, and as she came broadside past me, shot her
through the heart, and she fell dead in ten yards.
I off-saddled and knee-haltered Bryan, and Kaffirs
and dogs were up in five minutes, Bryan serving me
a pretty trick by running away to the wagons. Tired
and half dead from thirst as I was, I had to follow
him on foot, and then lead him back a good two
miles for the saddle and bridle ; not in the best of
humours with him, as I was very badly scratched.
On returning, or rather following the wagon-spoor,
which was ahead, I met a Kaffir, who told me that
John had broken his arm, and on reaching the
wagons found the news, alas ! too true. The account

180

AFRICAN HUNTING.

he gives of the accident is as follows : — On pulling
up Luister short to jump off to shoot his giraffe, as
his body was bent to dismount, Luister reared straight
up in the air and then plunged and kicked violently,
finishing by taking a bound to the left. John came
off and heard the bone of his left fore arm crack like
a cap. Luckily Swartz and Kleinboy were close at
hand, and immediately pulled up and set his arm,
and when I returned he was properly splintered and
bandaged up, with his arm in a sling, and drinking a
cup of coffee. Medcalfe made the splints with the
back of a book and part of the lid of a tea-chest.

2nd. — Inspanned early and treked far to a vley,
the horses and dogs winding the water full a mile
and a half off, and setting off briskly with their heads
up in the air. Kvelt fell with Swartz, unfortunately
breaking the stock of the double-barrel he bought
from me. I had the Kaffirs at work at each
of my legs to-day, and extracted forty-two thorns.
I need hardly say I suffer great pain, as my
hands festered, and ached, and throbbed to such
a degree that I got no sleep, and I did not lessen the
pain to-day by applying blue stone. The hack-
thorns, or vaac um bechi — a most appropriate name
given them by the Boers, signifying 4 wait a little,’ —
are the most fearful things to get through I ever
came across. They have low square tops, strong
and very dense, with short stubby sharp thorns, set
on both ways, and no garment of any quality can
stand against them, and the more desperate your

BLACK EHINOCEKOS.

181

struggles the faster you get ; neither horse, dog, ox,
Kaffir, nor Christian will knowingly face them a second
time, except by using great care and caution. They
are most virulent and poisonous in their nature.
My right knee and elbow are perfectly still.

A lot of Maccalacas Kaffirs came for water ; they
are poor wretches, called dogs by the Maccateese, and
are not allowed to eat anything they kill but just
the intestines ; they must take all the meat to Sechele.
They had nothing to carry water in but ostrich eggs
and the intestines of large animals tied fast at
one end, and they scooped up the water in tortoise¬
shells ; they had the eggs slung to their backs in a
skin or a kind of network, and each of them carried
from twelve to eighteen. This place is called Lopepes
vley. Ko spoor of any game coming to drink, and
seeing ducks which took right away, I judge there
must be another vley near at hand.

3 rd. — About eight o’clock the Kaffirs that were
herding the oxen came to say there were three
black rhinoceros. We up-saddled and went in pur¬
suit, following the spoor not far, however, when we
saw them, and they at once went straight off. I was
about twenty yards in the rear, Swartz going at
a smart gallop, Bryan star-gazing, and pulling hard,
when down he came, a tremendous bang, right on
the flint-stones, or rather rocks, breaking both knees
and grazing his shoulder badly. Luckily, or rather
unluckily, my gun entirely broke the force of my
fall, and I was not hurt in the least, but the gun got

182

AFKICAN HUNTING.

an ugly bend, and a crack you might put a sixpence
in half round the barrel, and about nine inches below
the muzzle, and split the stock down the middle, and
I was entirely thrown out.

Swartz chased them far; jumped off and killed
the cow and a large calf right and left, and they lay
within 150 yards of one another.

Inspanned in the afternoon, and I stopped behind
to have a swim. Just before sunset I saw giraffes
from the wagon, and Swartz and Kleinboy were
soon in the saddle, and the former killed a fat cow,
after a very long stern chase. It was full moon, and
it was about an hour and a half high, when we saw
a fire some three hundred yards from the road, and
found Swartz and giraffes there. Outspanned for a
few hours, and the Kaffirs put nearly the whole of
the giraffes in the wagons, as we shall not get game
again for three or four days, being now near
Sicomo’s.

4 th. — Inspanned about three o’clock, and got to
a large vley of good water, called Sangarni, about
eleven a.m. ; scorching hot ; the wagons very, very
heavy. I had to outspan one of my oxen, which
had nearly pulled his eyes out.

To give an idea of the stomachs of the Dutch wo¬
men, one proposed they should have a marrow-bone
between them ; the other objected, saying she could
eat a whole one ! The proposer thought she could
too, and forthwith they had the two largest broiled
— nearly a yard long each, without exaggeration —

SICOMO’S.

183

and that without salt, or condiments of any kind
whatever, and in the middle of a regular roasting
hot day. The cow was very fat, and the bones full
of marrow.

The Kaffirs are happy dogs. One bushman Kaffir,
after working two years for two heifers, took gladly
our escort to his kraal. He left his heifers in charge
of another Kaffir, while he went to a giraffe I had shot
for meat, and, on returning, his heifers were gone.
He followed the spoor far, and early next morning
he saw lion-spoor also, on the track of his heifers.
His hopes were faint, and a little farther he found
their remains, and rejoined us the following day,
and, laughing from mouth to ear, said, ‘ The lion had
eaten them up ; ’ and they do not appear to have
cost him a second thought.

I bent my gun straight again, made her fast to a
tree, and fired her with a long string. I then put in
nine drachms of fine powder, and fired her again in
like manner : to my joy and surprise, I could see no
enlargement whatever of the crack, and think I shall
continue shooting with her, as she is my favourite
gun. It is more than a crack : I could put a three¬
penny piece right through into the barrel, and cannot
make up my mind whether it is dangerous or not
to shoot with now. I fired four bullets from the
shoulder at a target, and she appeared to shoot as
well as ever.

5 th. — Got early to Sicomo’s, a wild, queer place.
The Kaffirs all live on the top of a high berg, having

184

AFRICAN HUNTING.

no access but up a gorge, between two stony moun¬
tains ; a dry watercourse, which, in any other coun¬
try, would be a roaring torrent. Sicomo was hunting,
and we did not see him. Though there are several
thousand Kaffirs living on the berg, a stranger
passing through the country would think it unin¬
habited, but in the evenings and early mornings, on
going to and from their work in the gardens, the
whole pass is one continued line of people, and con¬
stant hum of voices. Traded a lot of feathers, two
karosses, and about forty pounds of ivory ; the
Kaffirs much more civil than I expected to find
them.

Mi. — Parted company with Medcalfe, and treked
away, he remaining behind. Though our course lies
directly forward, it will take us about two days to
round the precipitous rocky mountain. Outspanned
at sunset, and got water in a dry watercourse, after
scraping about three feet deep : cool and delicious,
as we have had two burning days, with hot winds,
which completely prostrated me. We had, however,
lots of Kaffir beer, which is a little acid, and very
refreshing. Stayed behind the wagons, to try and ex¬
change Jack for another horse, and, though I risked
my neck in galloping him among the stones, as he is
almost blind, I could not swap.

8th. — Although I walked ahead of the wagons all
day I saw nothing. Swartz wounded a quagga, and
a few minutes after the shot I heard the dogs had
something at bay, and on running a few hundred

LIONS.

185

yards in .the direction, saw the Kaffirs squatting on
their hams behind the trees. I thought it was a
wounded buffalo, but I saw, to my surprise, an un¬
wounded cow giraffe. I gave Swartz a ball, and
we fired together a running shot, both hitting her
too high, but she stood again 200 yards ahead, and
I being first loaded and first up, shot her through
the heart, dead.

9 th — Yesterday our direction lay right through a
large mountain, and the path was horribly stony, and
we had to cut our way with axes through a great
part, but the weather was luckily cold, and I could
not keep warm, walking hard, with two coats on.
Saddled up early for a giraffe or eland, but it was so
cold we had to off-saddle and light a fire, which I
did with a cap, two stones, a bit of rag, and powder.
We waited for the wagons, breakfasted, and again
started, when we soon saw three lions ; gave chase to
the lioness, and she ran hard through the bush a good
distance, when she lay down. Donna, who is always
in the way, went up and started her again, and, as she
was nearing the thick bush, Swartz, fearful of losing
her, jumped off, fired and missed her. I galloped on,
and she came to bay, lying under a bush facing me
twenty-five yards off. Swartz came up, and when
reloaded, I fired from Bryan’s back, my arms aching
so with holding my horse that I missed also. With
a fierce growl she changed her position to a big bush,
some twelve yards off. When I was reloaded, Swartz
fired from his horse with better success, hitting her

186

AFRICAN HUNTING.

on the point of the shoulder and disabling her. She
champed the branches of the tree in impotent rage
and fury, and I went up and finished her off. She
was a fine old lioness, very large and fat. We
skinned her, and Swartz took the skin to the wagon.
I took the skull, though, but for my infamous bad
shot, I should have had the honour of killing her.
I saw yesterday, for the first time, a harrisbuck,
or potoquaine, but he was far off, and on the
side of a most precipitous mountain. Hearing
our wagons thundering down the dry stony ravine,
he was taking himself majestically off, out of harm’s
way. He appeared to me to be of a glossy jet
black, and I ran hard to get a better look at him,
but he had disappeared, or rather I got deeper and
deeper into the kloof, and the bushes, trees, and
rubbish intercepted my view.

1(M. — Had an easy victory over an immense old
giraffe bull. Hot having a measure, I am afraid to
say what height he stood ; but from his fetlock to
his knee, and from his knee to the point of the
shoulder, were both over four feet. His tongue,
which I slung to my belt above my hips, hung below
my ankle. I saw him standing alone, and, knowing
he would take up wind, kept 150 yards below ; and,
after an easy gallop of about a mile, he came directly
across me, within 15 yards, at a tearing pace. Bryan,
being on his best behaviour, pulled up short ; and I
gave him a bullet in the stern, about 100 yards off,
which soon caused him to slacken his pace ; and the

I LOSE MY SADDLE.

187

ground being good, after in vain trying to drive him
towards the wagons, I finished him with another
shot behind the shoulder. I have had my gun cut
down by the Bastards. She is now ridiculously
short— barely 18 inches- — but uncommonly handy on
horseback, and she appears to shoot as well as before.
I bagged 11 pigeons and 4 ducks with her in two
discharges.

11/A [Sunday). — Kleinboy last night carelessly
left out my saddle, which I had lent to Swartz.
Though it was not two yards from the wagons, and
there were lots of dogs and Kaffirs sleeping out, the
wolves took it bodily away ; and though we turned
out the last man in search, as yet we have only found
the girths, stirrups, and one buckle of a stirrup-
leather, which we found a good half-mile from the
wagons. This is most unfortunate, as no amount of
money can replace the loss here. If I could only
recover the old saddle-tree, I could patch it up
somehow or other to answer the desired purpose ;
but a good saddle in this country is quite indis¬
pensable, as the horses’ backs are very liable to get
sore, notwithstanding all the care that can be taken.

13/A. — ■ Bound the cork out of the bottle, and the
last drop of ink spilled, and had to continue my
journal with a mixture of gunpowder and water.

15/A. — No elephants yet. I saw this morning
three beautiful harrisbucks, as I was strolling on in
front of the wagons, unfortunately without my
gun.

188

AFEICAN HUNTING.

The days are cruelly hot. It is quite impossible
to travel in the middle of the day ; both man and
beast are quite prostrate. I shall hunt no more in
the summer, as the exposure to the fierce heat, the
burning sands, and the hot sultry winds, dries you
up like an old mummy, takes all the sap out of your
body, and adds about ten years to your appearance.
We are eaten up with flies ; and the wagon affords
but slight protection from the sun, which is so
powerful, that a side of bacon, by no means fat, and
protected by two thick canvas sails, melts away.
My hands are still very sore from the hack-thorns,
and I cannot get them well. Eode my new pur¬
chase, Luister, to-day, for the first time, but found
nothing. John’s arm still pains him a good deal.
He had a Kaffir doctoring him yesterday, cutting
numerous small niches all over the arm, and rubbing
in some preparation of leaves and roots ; but I place
no faith whatever in his skill, and should be sorry to
undergo the pain.

18 th (Sunday). — Three giraffes, three white rhi¬
noceros, one black ditto, and one eland bull, must be
added to the list of slaughter - — three rhinoceros and
one giraffe being my share of the spoil. I killed the
black rhinoceros and the eland also ; but, not giving
them the first ball, they do not count to me. We
had a glorious hunt after a large troop of giraffes,
Swartz, Kleinboy, and myself each singling out one,
and each bringing to bay in a masterly manner. I
rolled my cow over dead with one bullet ; Kleinboy

PARTRIDGES.

189

did the same about two miles ahead. Swartz could
not go the pace, and fired 200 yards off, giving his
giraffe a good shot, however, and making her what
he calls 4 swack.’ It is a good plan, if you are sure
of your shot ; but at such a distance I cannot make
good work.

Yesterday Swartz and myself, being badly mounted,
had a long chase after two white rhinoceros cows.
I eventually finished them both, though they cost
us nine bullets. On jumping off to fire, Jack ran
away, and I had a long chase on foot ere I recovered
him. Swartz’s nag, old Croppy, is dead lame on one
foot, but a sjambok vigorously applied had a wonder¬
ful effect on him. Eode Luister in the afternoon, and
shot a very large bull, with a fine horn, breaking his
shoulder the second shot, as he came swinging broad¬
side past me, not more than 20 yards off. I shot
well yesterday, hitting nine running shots with ball,
from 50 to 70 yards off, all good shots. Killed
some Namaqua partridges and two different kinds of
bush partridge, totally different from any I ever before
saw, the plumage underneath resembling a grouse,
with very handsome bills. I regret much my ina¬
bility to skin them properly.

Our course lies nearly north, verging east and
west for water ; and we have Masaras, who go ahead
of the wagons, to point out the way from one vley
to another. This is, without exception, the driest,
flattest, most desolate-looking country I ever saw ;
and the Masaras have burned the last blade of grass.

190

AFRICAN HUNTING.

There is so much sameness in the country, that I
dare not leave the wagons in the bush, for fear of
losing myself. We find one another by firing guns
and lighting immense fires. It is anything but a
comfortable feeling when you are lost, as you have
not an idea where you are likely to get water, and
the ground is so dry and baked with the sun that
the wagons hardly leave any visible spoor. We all
agreed that we would not willingly set foot in this
land again. We are twenty in all at the wagons,
black and white, including two women and their
children. Bryan is sick, and two oxen also. Jack
was lost last night, and we were debating whether
the lions had taken him or not, when, to my great
joy, the Tottie discovered him. The Kaffirs found
ten ostrich eggs yesterday, which were very good.
I breakfasted this morning on rhinoceros hump,
baked in a hole in the ground, in the skin — tender,
jiucy, fat, glutinous, and good.

Wherever there is a little muddy spring, which
takes half a day to fill a small hole, you will find
some poor wretches of starving Masaras close in the
neighbourhood ; how they support life at all is a
mystery to me, in this barren, worthless desert. The
Masaras have no cattle or gardens ; indeed, I don’t
suppose anything would grow. Half a dozen stunted
goats, and a few curs that can hardly hold together
from famine, constitute their all.

22nd. — No elephants yet, and the Kaffirs will not
tell us where they are ; I think they are afraid of

LARGE TROOP OP BUFFALOES.

191

Mosilikatse. Swartz and myself have killed four
buffaloes, two rhinoceros, and one eland, wishing to
lay in a good stock of dry meat before we come to
elephants. We must shoot no more then, for fear
of frightening them, as there is no knowing, when
once alarmed, when they will stop again. There is
no waste in the great quantity of meat we have killed,
as the poor Masaras light great fires by each animal,
and eat and dry the last morsel. A whole batch of
them moved their quarters to the three rhinoceros I
shot, which all lay pretty near together. The rest
of the party are asleep as I sit scribbling. We out-
span to let the oxen and horses feed and drink, before
we go to bed, which we always do as soon as it is
dark, for we must be up by the morning star, and
have a cup of coffee and a biscuit before we trek.
The Kaffirs make a kraal for the oxen every night,
as we are afraid of lions.

Yesterday morning we saw a large troop of nearly
200 buffaloes. We lost no time in saddling up
Luister and Ludovick, each bent upon shooting a fat
cow. Old Wolf got them wind ; and being the most
disobedient cur in the world, there was nothing for
it but to go after him, and we had a grand hunt,
the buffaloes tearing along through and over every¬
thing, causing stones and branches to fly in every
direction, their heavy gallop making the very earth
shake. I was above the wind, and got no dust ;
Swartz being below, was half blinded. One old
bull chased Swartz away from the troop. I rode to

192

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the head of them, and could not make up my mind
which to fire at, as they were so intermixed. At
length I saw a round shining dumpy short cow,
apparently very fat, and was determined to have,
her, and pushed Luister close alongside. She could
not get into the herd, they were so wedged together.
I fired from the saddle within two yards of her, giving
Luister at the same time a chuck on the off rein, and
a savage dig with the near persuader, to prevent his
being run over by those behind. She kept on with
the herd ; and I, not being able to load at the gallop,
the bush being too thick, unpardonably lost sight of
her. I heard Smouse and Wolf barking at one, and
on galloping in the direction, saw they had succeeded
in turning out an old cow, and were baiting her in
good style. I galloped to their assistance, and after
a short chase, getting close to her stern, jumped off
just as she went into the bed of a dry river — the
Sassy — and shot her dead right through the heart,
and out just behind the shoulder on the other side,
as she was ascending the opposite bank. On return¬
ing in the direction where I last heard the firing,
I found Swartz and the Kaffirs exulting over a cow
and young heifer, which they had murdered among
them in about twelve shots, as all hands at the wagon
had a round at them. I said I had lost a fine cow,
which I was sure could not go far, and must go and
look for her, and, singularly, I found her lying dead
not 100 yards from the other two, shot right through
the heart. We loaded up an immense quantity of

A DRY COUNTRY.

193

beef, as she was, as I thought, in prime order. The
Kaffirs take the paunch, and after being well scraped,
cleaned, and greased of course, they wear it as a
handkerchief round their heads.

23 rd. — Ascended a high mountain this morning,
and had a capital view of the surrounding country —
one immense wooded flat as far as the eye can dis¬
cern in every direction, with mountains thinly inter¬
spersed all over, just like so many artificial grottoes
on a gentleman’s pleasure-ground. They are round
stony hills for the most part, wooded to the summit,
and of every conceivable shape and size, decidedly
pretty ; but there is no water, and the country bears
such a parched appearance the very sight makes your
tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth. We had
been looking forward for several days to the delight¬
ful baths we should have on reaching the Sassy, but
we found it completely dried up, and had to get
spades to work to dig a large hole in the sand in the
middle of the bed of the river, when (as is always
the case) cool water immediately rose, but only in
small quantities, barely enough for oxen and horses.
We are now only, I am told, two days from Mosi-
likatse’s kraals ; and I hear from the Kaffirs that
the Rev. Robert Moffat, from Kuruman, is there — a
clever, intelligent man, and better acquainted with
the Kaffirs than any man in Africa. The sun here
is most oppressive, and there is frequently no air
stirring at night ; but we have no mosquitoes.

The Maccateese have almost frightened my two

o

194

AFRICAN HUNTING,

Kaffirs to death, by telling them Mosilikatse will
most certainly kill them both, as they are Zulus, and
spies of Panda’s ; and I cannot convince them to the
contrary.

As near as I can judge of our whereabouts, we are
about twelve days from the coast — say 250 miles,
more or less — and in about the same degree of lati¬
tude as Inhambane, a Portuguese settlement between
Helagoa Bay and Sofala. This is what I glean from
the Kaffirs ; but I may be considerably out of my
reckoning. The Bushmen Kaffirs say there are no
elephants at all in this locality ; they have just
returned from a two days’ search, and saw no fresh
spoors at all ; but they cannot be believed — that is
one comfort.

I will never again come with Boers ; they are
hardly one remove from the Kaffirs, have no inform¬
ation whatever on any subject but wagons and oxen,
never read a book of any sort or description in their
lives, are perfectly ignorant of what every child
in England knows, and ask the most ridiculous ques¬
tions, — spending their spare time in drinking coffee
and smoking. How they get through life is a mys¬
tery. You can learn nothing whatever from them.
Long yarns of their hunting exploits, repeated till
you know them by heart, are all you get from them.
They are very superstitious, too ; nearly as much so
as Hottentots. There is one of the latter now by
the wagon — a dirty little brute, who, when I ex¬
postulated with him on never washing, said he would

PERSECUTED BY MOSILIKATSE.

3 95

wait till lie got back to the house, where he knew the
water had no snakes, blind worms, or crocodiles.
The Boers are nearly as bad ; they excused them¬
selves for not swimming in the river by saying that
a man had once been killed by a crocodile.

2hth [Sunday). — We are outspanned at length by
some beautiful water, and are awaiting the arrival of
some of Mosilikatse’s people, as messengers were sent
three days ago, saying we were here. We left a
Maccateese kraal yesterday, very much against the
wish of the captain, who would send no one with us
to show the road, and endeavoured to deter us by
saying we should find no water, no elephants, and
the Blood Kaffirs, or Carl (naked) Kaffirs, Mosilikatse’s
people, would certainly turn us back. They told us
all manner of lies, and contradicted themselves over
and over again, by which means we found them out.
The Maccateese are called likewise Bechuanas, Bequi-
nas, and Basutos.

I may mention at once that we were kept two
months by this river, as Mosilikatse got it into his
sagacious head that we were spies ; and a large
commando was following us, and detained us to see if
such was the case, while he sent scouring parties all
round his dominions. One party came across some
Saltpansberg Boers hunters north of Limpopo, in
Mosilikatse’s country, without his permission, who,
immediately on perceiving the Matabele, altered their
course south-west again, though previously they were
coming north-east. On this being reported at head-

196

AFRICAN HUNTING.

quarters, we had messages, and a letter from Mr.
Moffat, enquiring if we knew them. This made
Mosilikatse still more suspicious ; as white men were
coming into his country from two different sides, he
thought it was a plot, and quite expected to be
attacked, in which case he comforted himself with
the assurance that lie would make sure of us in the
first place, and we should pay the penalty of spies
and traitors.

As we were enjoying a swim yesterday near
sunset, we heard a double shot from the wagon, and
immediately a black rhinoceros cow came tearing
past us, baited by all the dogs, who soon brought
her to bay, when nine shots were fired by six men,
who all. according to their own statement, hit her
behind the shoulder ; but when she yielded up the

MY FIRST TSESSEBE AND HARRISBUCR.

197

ghost, only four bullets were to be found in her, and
one of those behind, in the stern. She gave old
Smouse a tremendous toss. He cannot weigh less
than lOOlbs., and I thought every bone in his body
must be broken ; but he is no worse. He looked
uncommonly sheepish, however, after his fall, and
was only a spectator, declining to renew the combat.

29th. — I shot my first tsessebe on Tuesday, and
last night had the extreme satisfaction of killing my

first harrisbuck. He is a truly noble animal. I have
preserved the head and skin to the best of my power,
having nothing but salt to cure it with, and the long-
looked-for rain coming on ere it was properly dry.
It was sundown when I shot him, and far from the
wagons ; but I was determined to skin him, and
J ohn lent a good hand. So we soon had him well

198

AFRICAN HUNTING.

packed on Croppy, and rode back for the wagons,
luckily having a little moon and the dry bed of a
river to guide us by. John first saw them — four
bulls, in company with a lot of quaggas. He beck¬
oned to me, and we gave chase. I rode hard, and
wide of them, John directly in their wake ; and as
they stopped to look back at him, I jumped off. He
fired and missed ; and as they bounded from his shot
I hit the last through the hind quarters, and dropped
him, to my intense joy. We had a capital lunch
from some wild fruit, about three times the size of
an orange, called a clapper. It has a hard shell out¬
side, which you must batter against a tree to crack
or break.

I find that we are considerably farther north
than I thought — somewhere about the same latitude
as Sofala, I think — but can gain no information
from the Kaffirs, who won’t say how far it is from
the sea or the Portuguese settlement, or give us
any information at all, either through fear or ig¬
norance. We are all in good health, only a little
impatient to see elephants.

Nov. 1st [Sunday). — I have just ‘boned’ part of an
old quill I saw in a Kaffir’s ear for ornament. I am
writing my journal with vinegar and gunpowder, but
it is poor stuff.

We are anxiously waiting the return of the mes¬
sengers sent to Mosilikatse, and are at present kept
in a kind of quarantine. A son of Impugan (fly),
Mosilikatse’s chief captain, with some twenty follow-

ROAN ANTELOPE.

199

ers, is at the wagons, and we may go no farther till
we get leave from head-quarters. We have had
some thunder storms, which have been of vast benefit
to the country. Game very scarce. On Friday I
shot a tsessebe, and yesterday mounted on Luister,
who has had no work for a long time, and is fat and
fresh. I again fell in with a single roan antelope,
and cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving a full
account of the chase from first to last, as it will long
live in my remembrance.

I saw him first coming along at a swinging gallop,
evidently startled by something, and endeavoured to
cut him off, galloping hard and keeping a tree
between us. I got within 100 yards, jumped off, and
missed him like a man going broadside past me ;
swallowed my disgust as well as I could, reloaded,
and gave chase. A stern chase is always a long
one, and at the end of about three miles I could not
perceive I had gained a yard on him. The bush
getting thicker, I rode 100 yards wide of him, hoping
I might gain ground on him unperceived, and as he
burst once more into the open I had bettered my
position fully 100 yards, which he perceived and
put on the steam once more, and I was just pulling
up in despair when I saw his mouth open and heard
his breath coming thick and fast on the wind. He
was evidently much blown, but my good nag had
likewise nearly all the puff taken out of him. The
ground being frightfully stony, he had to change his
legs, alter his stride, and hop about like peas on a

200

AFRICAN HUNTING.

platter ; still I had faint hopes, if I was favoured by
the ground, I might get a long shot at him. I nursed
my nag to the best of my judgment, rowelling him
well, but holding him fast by the head, and endea¬
vouring still to keep a spurt in him whenever the
ground favoured ; and in this manner I maintained
my distance, about 200 yards behind the antelope,
which I now perceived to be shortening his stroke as
he was nearing the steep bank of a dry river. Now
or never ! I lifted and shook Luister for my life,
and he put on a capital spurt, and, as he is an ad¬
mirably-trained shooting horse, I could rely on his
pulling up in ten yards, and I never checked him till
within twenty yards of the bank. The magnificent
old buck seemed to know, by instinct, that this was
the crisis of his fate, and tore away on the opposite
bank harder than ever, making the stones clatter and
fiy behind him. In the twinkling of an eye I stood
alongside my nag, steadied myself, gave one deep-
drawn breath, planted my left foot firmly in front,
raised my gun, and fired the moment I got the ivory
sight to bear upon him, making an admirable shot
right through the top of his tail, breaking his
spine and piercing the lungs, killing him dead 120
yards off. I skinned him with care, bringing the
skin to the wagon, head and all complete, which I
hope some day to see at Ley land Vicarage. I never
suffered more than I did in skinning him with a
dull knife, in a burning sun, amidst thousands of
black ants ; and his skin was tough as shoe leather.

CHASE AFTER BRYAN.

201

I have now only two or three more varieties to kill,
to have shot every buck I know in Africa.

5 th. — Had a glorious day on Jack. He carried me
well up to a troop of roan antelopes, when my gun,
unfortunately, missed fire. Saw a splendid old bull
harrisbuck, but lost sight of him in trying to get
below the wind, and never saw him again. Eode
far, climbing to the top of the hills ; at length, saw
about twenty-two harrisbucks ; got below the wind
and within 300 yards, when they took the alarm.
I had a very long chase of five miles, at least. The
ground being so bad, and my horse blind, I could
only go steadily ; at length, got them at advantage,
and put Jack’s powers to the test. He galloped strong
and well, and as they were thundering down a pass
between two mountains, through a dry ravine, I got
within three lengths of the hindmost buck. The
pace was tremendous. One magnificent old bull I
had set my heart on, and was close to him. Jack
drew up short just on the brink of the ravine, and,
in my hurry to jump off, I got my foot fast in the
stirrup. I had my back to the bucks, and when I
had extricated my foot I had lost my bull. I fired
at a large black-and-tan cow, and either missed her
altogether or gave her a bad shot. In the middle
of the chase I almost jumped into an ostrich nest,
but I could not think about eggs then. On return¬
ing to the wagons, I heard Bryan was very sick ; he
had treked away from the wagons, and we lost him,
though I followed the spoor till dark. I luckily

‘202

AFRICAN HUNTING.

heard from two Kaffirs that they had seen a horse’s
spoor, on the path going back, at the first break of
day. Inyous and myself started in the direction the
Kaffirs told us, and, thinking it not improbable we
might be away three or four days, I put a cap, box
of salt, and a dry eland’s tongue in my pocket, and
Inyous carried two pounds of beads. On finding
the spoor eighteen hours gone, I pressed two Kaffirs
from a kraal near by into the service. It was fine
work, at times, tracking him out. We had many
checks, and ail spread out and made our casts in a
most systematic style, your humble servant hitting
off the spoor three times, but Inyous and one Bush¬
man Kaffir did the most of the hunting. Once, I
had all but given him up, on flinty, rocky ground ;
we cast around in every direction for an hour and
a-half to no purpose, and we followed the spoor for
more than 300 yards on our hands and knees, the
faintest imaginable track being all we had to guide
us — a small stone displaced, or a blade of grass cut
off; so we kept on till we again got to sandy
ground, when we took up the running four miles an
hour, and about mid-day we found him. I need not
say how rejoiced I was to see him again.

I must say that to-day’s work beat anything I ever
saw with Kaffirs. Bloodhounds could not have
done better. We followed the trail for six hours
through old grass a yard high, and through the midst
of lots of quagga spoor. I once called the Kaffirs to
a quagga spoor, but they recognised it immediately,

MOSILIKATSE FEIENDLY. 203

and made me ashamed of myself. They took
quantities of snuff, as being good for the eyes and
clearing the intellects. I tried it, and verily beheve
I benefited by it. We had messengers to-day from
Impugan, bringing capital beer, and all wearing
white feathers in their hair, a sign that they are
friendly to us and bring us good news. We expect
positively messengers from Mosilikatse to-morrow.
We sent him many presents, mine consisting of a
large, handsome, double, very bright scarlet blanket,
beads of different varieties, and an immense German
boar-hound, very handsome, shaggy and rough,
called Smouse, who, however, bit the Kaffirs, got
away, and was never more heard of, unfortunately, as
I think Mosilikatse would have accepted and appre¬
ciated him. All the rest of the presents, however,
he sent back with the message, 4 What was he to do
with them P — they were not things he could eat, he
was not a woman to adorn himself with ornaments,
and he would not allow any of his tribe to wear a
blanket ; they were of no manner of use to defend
himself and his people against their enemies, and we
must take them back and send him a horse, guns,
and ammunition.’

We were kept all the time, however, well supplied
with beer, and had several presents of sheep, goats,
and oxen for slaughter ; and at last all our doubts
were set at rest by a present of a snow-white
heifer, which was meant to show that his heart was
white towards us and we had nothing to fear. Had

204

AFRICAN HUNTING.

it been a red one, John told me, who thoroughly
understands the language and customs of the Ma-
tabele, all our Kaffirs would have fled, as that colour
is symbolical of blood.

6th. — Poor Jack is dead. I don’t know when I
was so sorry for anything ; he knew my voice and
used to obey me like a dog, and would come to me
when I called him. He was only sick about twelve
hours, so quick in its effects is the fatal horse sickness.

1th. — Moved our quarters to a cooler place under
a huge rock, with some shady trees about ; hunted all
day, found a herd of blue wildebeests, and rushed
down upon them savagely, having had no flesh for
three days. We gave them four bullets instantly,
every one telling, and, when the dust cleared away,
one was down and two others wounded, which John
and Swartz finished. I rode hard after the troop
and made a good shot at the last, breaking his back
200 yards off, thus bagging four in less than as
many minutes. I killed a tsessebe, also going at
his utmost speed, 216 measured yards off, and made
an execrable shot at a roan antelope. I saw a re¬
markable goose on my way back to the wagons ; had a
cup of tea, fired off the bullet, put in a charge of shot,
and went in pursuit of my goose, which I bagged.

We had to send messengers again to Mosilikatse,
and shall be detained another six or seven days. I
sadly feel the want of books, as I have nothing in the
world to do, and the days are by far too hot and
enervating to do work of any kind.

CHEERING INTELLIGENCE.

205

8 th [Sunday) .--Vet and John fishing ; they take
admirably, but we have only crooked pins for hooks,
and cannot catch many. What we do manage are
sweet and good, and a treat to us.

Collins’s arrival from Mosilikatse gave new life
to us all, and at length I have been able to get at
something approaching the truth relative to Mosili-
katse’s whereabouts. Collins thinks it about 140
miles from this, ENE., nearly the same latitude as
Sofala, about twelve days on foot from the coast,
and about five days from the Zambesi, a large river,
navigable for nearly 200 miles. Its mouth is near
Quillemaine. Mosilikatse had treated Collins well
in every respect, and he was in high spirits, and
talked largely of what he would do.

Swartz, always alive to his own interests, offered
him the use of Kleinboy to shoot on halves. I prof¬
fered John or myself, but he wanted no assistance to
fill his wagon in a fortnight with the finest ivory the
country could produce ; eventually, he took John
Joubert, who was a capital interpreter. He had
talked over Mosilikatse by some means or other,
and eventually got for himself the much-desired leave
to hunt. He was attended by twenty Kaffirs, and in
the sole charge of one of his principal chief’s sons,
invested with full authority to procure for him what¬
ever he required in the shape of meat or drink, food
and corn for his horses, &c., which were carried with
him wherever he went, and, for the time, he was all
powerful, and left us poor fellows envying him

206

AFRICAN HUNTING.

bitterly. No man ever took the field under more
inviting auspices.

The whole sport of this mighty hunter was one
bull, the hind leg of which he broke by a fluke in
about ten shots, fired from behind, about 150 yards
off, and eventually brought to bay. The Kaffirs’ ac¬
counts, which are always to be most implicitly relied
on, were most humorous. The first elephant showed
fight, trumpeted, charged, screamed, and chased him out
of the bush, and gave him altogether a caution and a
lesson to have more respect for the patriarchs of the
forest. He set down his discomfiture entirely to his
horse’s bad behaviour, and next day tried his other,
which was equally bad; at all events, the same result
ensued, and the following day he was fain to take him¬
self out of the hunting-ground altogether, thus verify¬
ing Mosilikatse’s prophecy, that he would show him a
veldt that he would guarantee he would be quite as
anxious to get out of as he was now to go in.

I have heard from the natives that on the Guia
(Tobacco) river, north of Mosilikatse and near the
Zambesi, it is not safe to cross the veldt day or
night, from the number of elephants, many of which
are very savage, and keep the country all to them¬
selves.

9 th. — Shot a large eland bull on Luister, and lost
myself at night, an ostrich having taken me out of
my line of country. I suffered very much from
thirst, not being able to obtain one drop of water for
more than eighteen hours, though I scraped my finger

JADED STEEDS.

207

nails off in making large holes in the dry spruits,
but not one drop came. I had little or no sleep, and
my tongue was so dry and swollen that I positively
could not speak.

10th. — At the first dawn of day I went again in
search of water, and soon found some muddy, putrid
stuff, which, however, was nectar to me ; saddled up
and rode back in the direction I came last night,
climbing all the hills until, at last, I recognised one,
when I off-saddled my weary jade, and got back to
the wagons about mid-day. They had fired innu¬
merable shots and lighted large fires on the tops of
the bergs, but I had gone very far astray.

Bought a horse (Veicliman), a dark chestnut, for
six oxen, but he is at present a mere apology of a
nag, being skin and bone, sore backed, and his hoofs
worn completely through. As all our horses are
unshod, I made him shoes of eland hide of a novel
fashion, being laced tightly round his fetlocks with
raw hide to keep them on ; they saved his poor hoofs
immensely on the stony ground, and had the desired
effect, for he soon got well again. I need hardly
say, however, that I never ventured to hunt him
with his mufflers on. His former owner ought deci¬
dedly to have been tried under Martin’s Act; but
Collins said there was not a blade of grass for six
days, consequently he was obliged to press on.
Bryan has been almost dead for three days, and is’ a
perfect shadow. These are the two animals on which
I must face a savage old wounded bull elephant.

*208

AFRICAN HUNTING.

11th. — Collins left us this morning, and John got
leave from old Impugan to go with him just at the
last moment. His preparations were soon made, and
he took Croppy and Luister ; both animals in pretty
fair order. I promised him those two nags long
since, when I was comparatively rich in horse-flesh,
and would not break my word, though it put me to
great straits to part with them. I get one half of all
he kills.

Sent away four 4 Blackwood’s Magazines,’ which I
almost knew by heart, and begged something in the
shape of print in exchange from two Englishmen at
Collins’s wagon. I am wearied to death ; I have no
horse to ride, and game is not come-at-able on foot,
even if one could muster sufficient resolution to un¬
dergo the burning heat of the sun. When the sun
is nearly set, I bend my steps to a hole about half-a-
mile off, and splash about and make the best of three
feet water, but there are so many fish, crabs, and
leeches, one cannot keep still a minute.

12th. — Had a long, hot, weary walk; saw literally
nothing. We shall be compelled to kill an ox to¬
night, but it is the first since we left the house, two
months ago. I am doing all I can to get a little
flesh on my two bare-boned nags, and stuffing them
with Kaffir corn, as the grass is so dry and so
scarce they cannot get half enough, although, at this
season of the year, it is knee deep in Natal. I have
travelled far and wide in every direction into the old
colony, up the coast to Belagoa Bay, through the

BABOONS.

•209

Free State and the Transvaal Republic, but Natal is
the garden of South Africa, Merico country a good
second.

Whilst living alone at the Inanda, to kill time, I
used to hunt baboons with some powerful deerhounds.
Great numbers of these baboons lived on an over¬
hanging crantz, and came some distance from their
stronghold early in the morning to the Kaffir mealie
gardens. Often I have seen a young one run into
by Hopeful or Crafty, when the old males have

instantly come to the rescue, beaten off the dogs and
carried the young one off in safety, barking savagely.
One day a tremendous fellow marched past the house.
I immediately looed the dogs on, and had a good chase
for a couple of miles ; being hard pressed, he endea¬
voured to climb a tree, when the dogs hauled him

p

210

AFRICAN HUNTING.

down ; he got his back to the tree, fought manfully,
keeping all at bay until I got up, when they rushed
in and worried him, some of them getting tremen¬
dous bites in the encounter.

One day, when hartebeest-hunting at Bushman’s
Kiver on horseback, I came on a panther in a valley,
and he immediately crouched. I sent my companion
for P., an old experienced hunter, whilst I kept
watch, as we were both quite green at this kind of
game. On going towards him with all the dogs, he
jumped up in full view of the pack, with 150 yards
start, over a bare country, and we had a splendid
run at a great pace. On the dogs almost reaching
him he turned the tables on them with a vengeance,
charging them with such right good will as to scatter
them to the winds. They returned, however, to the
pursuit, and eventually brought him to bay among
some rocks half way up, where he got his back
against an overhanging one, and kept all the pack at
a respectable distance.

The pace had been too good for P., or the swamps,
bogs, and holes not to his liking, as he was some time
in coming up. He did so, however, at last, and, after
giving me some good advice as to what I must do
in case of a charge, we dismounted and advanced to¬
gether to the foot, when, dropping on one knee, P.
fired, striking him in the centre of the chest and kill¬
ing him on the spot. The dogs rushed in manfully
then, and we skinned him very carefully, I thinking
all the time what care he was taking of it for me,

A MARVELLOUS STORY.

211

and being so much obliged. After reaching the
wagon, he cured and preserved it beautifully, and
my gratitude knew no bounds ; but eventually, when
he left it in the charge of a friend of his to take parti¬
cular care of for him , I began to feel a little uncom¬
fortable and uneasy as to its future destination, and
said, ‘Do you consider that skin yours P ’ ‘Why,
what can you possibly have to do with it P You did
not even shoot' I need hardly say that this happened
on my first introduction to the colony, before I had
got initiated ; for, according to all the rules of the
chase, I ought to have had the first shot, when, if I
had missed, he then might have laid claim to him.

Hottentots are fond of dealing in the marvellous.
Kleinboy and Baffeta told me that they were once
near the Great Lake, but fully half-a-mile from the
water, and found a crocodile, twelve feet long, wedged
fast into the fork of a tree, not quite dead, some
nine feet from the ground. They accounted for it
by saying the elephant had carried him and put him
there, that they were constantly in the practice of
plaguing and biting the legs and trunks of the ele¬
phants — when drinking and bathing, they go a long
way into the lake for that purpose — and this was the
way the sagacious animal had served him out. If
the story is true (which I don’t myself doubt), I can
see no other way of accounting for it.

I was once witness to the effectual though cruel
plan the Dutch have of teaching their dogs to face
hyenas. They catch the hyenas alive in traps built

212

AFRICAN HUNTING.

of logs, having two entrances, with sliding trap doors,
supported by a peg stuck loosely into the ground
through a piece of meat in the middle of the floor of
the house. A young kid is generally the attraction,
railed off, so that the brute cannot get at him.

On the occasion I speak of, two wTere taken in one
house together. On finding themselves imprisoned
they made the most appalling row, and fought sa¬
vagely all night. One was shot ; the other, after some
dodging through the logs, was caught by the tail,
his legs slit just above the hocks, and a strong iron
chain passed through and hooked. He broke almost
every tooth short off upon this chain, in his furious
efforts to bite it through ; and when he had done
this, the trap door was opened, and out he flew
among some eight or ten powerful boar-hounds ready
to receive him. A tremendous row and scuffle en¬
sued, and the poor brute, owing to his teeth being
broken by his previous efforts to gnaw the chain,
eventually succumbed.

Hunting on foot once in the'Entumeni Bush, I
had a very narrow escape from an old bull elephant
which I had wounded. He gave chase, and I took
up the hill ; the ground was very wet and slippery —
heaps of dead leaves, no heels to my veldt shoes,
which were made of blesbuck skin, and, from being
thoroughly saturated with wet, had stretched to
nearly double the original size; consequently I went,
as they say, two steps backwards to one forwards, was
constantly down, and quite exhausted in the strenuous

A NARROW ESCAPE.

213

efforts I made to get on. Seeing no disposition, on
my pursuer’s part, to give up the chase, I changed
my tactics, got above a tree, on which I leaned a
couple of seconds to recover my wind partly — a
very critical moment, as the brute was not more
than four of his own lengths from me — -jumped then
some ten yards at right angles, and turned down the

hill at full speed, the monster screaming and trum¬
peting in full career after me at a tremendous pace.
He must have been over me in a few strides more,
when I sprang to the right, and down he went in his
mad career, crashing and carrying all before him,
utterly unable to stop if he had wished, as the hill

214

AFRICAN HUNTING.

was very steep, and lie was under full sail : a tre¬
mendous relief to my mind, as it was my last resort.
I did not hazard another encounter, but mentally
resolved, for the future, to try another country, where
I could have the all-powerful assistance of a good
horse in emergencies of the like kind, and have carried
out the resolution then and there made ever since.

23rd. — I have been doing nothing the last ten
days but wait impatiently the report from Mosili-
katse, which has come at last, and we are just where
we were, as far as hunting is concerned.

Swartz has gone himself to see this imperious
potentate ; but, as he did not send for him, I don’t
think Mosilikatse will see him. Bryan is dead, and
two more oxen. We got leave from old Impugan
to move a few miles nearer the game ; but he is
nearly as imperious as his master. Mosilikatse sent
orders, that if he got guns and ammunition from us,
then they were to bring me up to head-quarters ;
and Swartz, thinking I was going, made me a very
kind offer to this effect, that if I got hunting for
him, then I should have Kvelt (strength), an old
used-up brute, with a hammer head and Boman nose,
for 200 lbs. ivory, 60/., as he was sorry for me, and
wanted to help me. In case we had got leave from
Mosilikatse, the horse would have been worth double
the money, as he ought, in good hands, to have paid
for himself in a couple of days, and I could have
done nothing without him.

I went out on Saturday, early before breakfast,

LOST IN THE BUSH.

215

with one of my Kaffirs and Donna. A tremendous
thunderstorm came on, with torrents of cold drench¬
ing rain. I had on nothing but a very light pair of
canvas 6 ducks ’ and a wretched thin shirt. I took no
notice of the way we came, as I relied solely on my
Kaffir ; but when I told him to make haste back to
the wagons, he was lost. We wandered about back¬
wards and forwards as hard as we could go, to
keep the blood in circulation, till sunset, when, in
trying to find an overhanging rock to sleep under,
to give us some little protection, I luckily came on
an old shed, which we at once set to work to
thatch and make water-tight. After great difficulty,
as everything was soaking wet, we succeeded in
lighting a fire, and passed the night not so badly.
The morning was dull and misty, and we could see
no distance, and had no idea of our whereabouts.
We walked hard and silently from one hill to an¬
other, climbing the tallest trees ; and the Kaffir puzzled
me to death by being sure the sun rose in the west.
Of course he knew nothing about east or west, but
he pointed in the latter direction. It is a dreadful
country to be lost in, consisting chiefly of thick
bush. After descending a mountain, you can see
nothing ; and, unless you take great care, you cannot
walk in the direction you intend, as you must twist
and twine about to get through the bush. Then,
if your thoughts wander for an instant, you will
assuredly go wrong. At mid-day I lay under a rock
to rest, when, in spite of myself, most unpleasant

216

AFRICAN HUNTING.

thoughts came crowding thick and fast upon me, as
there are many instances of white men being totally
lost in this endless, almost uninhabited land. If
you stray into the thirst land, as there is great
danger of doing, you will assuredly die of thirst, if
not of famine. Though I had fasted full forty
hours, I did not feel the slightest hunger. I tight¬
ened my belt, and drank lots of water. I could
have shot game, but was chary of my bullets,
keeping them most religiously, in case things came
to the worst.

My poor Kaffir’s fortitude quite gave way with the
numerous disappointments. I never spoke a harsh
word to him, though he took me in an exactly con¬
trary direction to what I believed to be right. He was
very positive for a long time, and then his confidence
entirely forsook him, and he sobbed as if his heart
would break. At length we got on a Kaffir j ath,
and very old tracks of cattle, and determined to con¬
tinue that as our only chance. To our intense joy
we saw, before long, the fresh footprints of a Kaffir,
and resolved to follow that to the world’s end, in
faint hope that it might lead us to his kraal. My
disappointment was great indeed, when we at length,
about two hours before sunset, came to a large kraal,
but found it uninhabited. We followed on, and next
came to a pitfall, where there were evident signs of
game lately being captured. I shall never forget the
start of joy that Matakit gave when I said I saw
cattle, and pointed to some black things in the dis-

A MACCATEESE KRAAL.

217

tance. He thought they were goats ; but when we
came up they were only burnt stumps. Our coun¬
tenances fell ; still we kept on rapidly and silently for
about an hour, when suddenly Matakit said, 4 There’s
a dog ! ’ but, alas ! it was only a creature of his
imagination. Still we had the footprints to go by,
traceable enough after the heavy rain. At last his
quick ear caught the sound of a voice, and this
time he was not mistaken, and we soon came to a
large Maccateese kraal, but so hidden among the
rocks that you might easily pass without seeing a
human being ; and the glimpse I got of a little
child gave me, I don’t scruple to say, the greatest
delight I ever in my life experienced, as I had not
heard the Kaffir’s call, and thought it only existed
in poor Matakit’s brain. Matakit testified the most
unfeigned delight, talking so fast and thick that the
Kaffirs could not understand a word. We found
that we were about four hours’ hard walking on
foot from the wagons.

It is, verily, the queerest place I ever saw in my
life, just as Walter Scott describes Ben Venue ; and
every overhanging klip or fissure in a rock gave
shelter to a lot of goats. I was kindly treated by
the Kaffirs, who gave me a hut, and brought me lots
of green leaves to lie on, and gave me some boiled
corn ; and we got back to the wagons about mid¬
day. Impugan was exceedingly angry, and said
I must always come to him in future, and he would
send men with me. I got a good fright, and never

218

AFRICAN HUNTING.

felt hunger, though without anything but a little
boiled corn for sixty-six hours !

No one living in crowded England can realise the
almost endless extent of country ; all bush, without
rivers, or anything to guide your eye but the
sun.

Of course we did not find the wagons without a
guide. I was the first white man most of these
Kaffirs had ever seen, and they all came to gaze at

me, and my beard of six months’ growth astonished
them marvellously. They would not believe it was
really growing there until they had pulled at it.

I envied Donna; she kept on ranging, head up
and tail going all the time, utterly unconscious

TEA ITS OF KAFFIR CHARACTER.

•219

of the fix we were in, and made her points, and
appeared to enjoy herself marvellously, poor thing !

2 6 th, — Swartz returned this morning. Just as I
foretold, Mosilikatse would not see him, and sent
messengers in great wrath to turn him back, take
his horse and guns from him, and see him back to
the wagons. This was some distance from his
kraals. He., takes him for a spy from the Boers,
coming in under false pretences, merely to see his
country and strength. I am afraid Swartz has now
lost the chance we might have had of obtaining
hunting. We shall hear to-morrow, and I expect it
will be a peremptory order to leave the country. I
am regaling myself on most excellent Kaffir beer ;
it is really a treat.

I got a note from John some nine days ago,
saying he had lost all his bullets on the path, and
wishing me to send him more. This morning the
bullets were brought here by a Kaffir, who had
picked them up two days from here. Their high
sense of honesty is wonderful ; for there is nothing,
perhaps, that they more desire than powder and
lead, and this find was a godsend ; yet the Kaffir
brought them back. There are some excellent
traits in their character ; but, as they are perfect
heathens, it is as much through fear as any better
feeling.

I have made a pair of shoes, mended others, and
done my best to kill time, and have received four
books in exchange for mine, but am very chary of

220

AFRICAN HUNTING.

them, reading only a little at a time, and then doiim
something else to spin them out to the uttermost.
Fresh elephant spoor was seen this morning. I
went at once to see if Yeichman was fresh enough
to follow, but his feet are quite worn through.

December 1st. — I never was so tired in my life.
Swartz has sold the wagons to Mosilikatse for twenty
teeth ; and we may wait here another ten days
before they arrive. After that, he says he will give
us permission to hunt, but it comes too late to be
of any service to me, as my last horse is dead ; and
I hear to-day that John has gone back to the house
with Viljoen, taking my two horses with him. If
this is true, it will be the greatest 6 sell ’ that ever
happened to any poor mortal in this world. I
wrote and despatched a long yarn to Moffat three
days ago, and I wished to send a messenger to John
to-day ; but, though I bribed Impugan with a very
handsome sheep-skin kaross, he would not give me
a Kaffir to show mine the way.

3rd. — A great quantity of rain has fallen the
last week, and I am quite tired of it. Heard to¬
day, positively, that John has gone back ten days
ago. Never was poor mortal so miserably duped as
I am. After coming seven months’ journey to
hunt, now, when we at last get leave, I have no
horse, though I gave 50/. for a brute not worth 15/.,
and this country is so open that it is almost impos¬
sible to kill elephants on foot ; and so flat, too, and the
trees so small, that a wounded elephant must catch you.

A WILY OLD FOX.

221

7 th. — Tired as a dog of doing nothing ; no word
of the Kaffirs yet. I expect the heavy rains have
swollen the river, and they are not able to cross. Were
it not for a small volume of Byron’s poems, which I
now know most of by heart, I could not kill the time.

8th. — Played quoits with the washers of the wheels,
and got through the time with the putting-stone, &c.
The messengers and ivory for the wagon returned
this afternoon, and, after no end of bargaining, the
sale was concluded for twenty bull teeth, and seven
more for seven oxen, about 1,300 lbs. altogether —
a good sale. We must send another report to
Mosilikatse, and then he will say positively if he
will give us leave to hunt or not. I suppose he
thinks we are all Jobs ; after detaining us two
months he has completely humbugged us, and got all
he wanted from us, as now the season is too late, the
weather too hot, and the bush by far too thick to do
any good. The wily old fox completely got the best
of us ; his next message, if we had waited, would
most probably have been that, now the corn was sown,
no rain would fall as long as elephant-hunters were
in his country — consequently, no harvest — and we
must therefore go home ; and possibly inviting us to
come again the following year (only about three
months’ journey), to receive the same treatment.

9th. — Inspanned and left, to my great joy, having
six Kaffirs in attendance to see us clear out of
Mosilikatse’s country. Swartz killed a snake in
the wagon over nine feet long — a mamba, the most

222

AFRICAN HUNTING.

venomous of all — and yesterday, walking with only
a shirt and gaiters, I very nearly trod on one about
twelve feet long ; he escaped knobkerries and
assegais, and beat four of us, and eventually gained
a hole, into which he disappeared like magic. We

hit him several times, but he was so flat to the ground
we could not hurt him, but only made him savage.
The wagon stuck fast, and we had to off-load. The
dissel-boom was sprung, and the hind axle also,
almost leaving us in a fix. We hope it will hold
together till we get to the game, as here there is
nothing, and we have nothing to eat ; and the Kaffirs
will not sell buck or sheep, as they want us to leave
the country.

18th. — We have been making good play towards
home the last few days, having given up all hope of

GIRAFFE HUNT.

WAGON BREAKS DOWN.

223

obtaining elephants. Yesterday the wagon broke
down, and we are hard at work putting in a new
axle ; the wagon is so heavy that we must all walk,
and it is downright hard work, from the first dawn
of day till sunset, outspanning twice to let the oxen
drink, and swallowing hastily some refreshment for
the inner man. We saw a quantity of game yester¬
day, and killed four rhinoceros and two giraffes, and
altogether had the finest sport since leaving the
house. An immense herd of buffaloes, 100 at least,
took away right in front of the giraffe I had driven
out of the herd, and we soon passed them, as the
pace was killing ; the giraffe then turned to the left,
and the whole troop were not more than fifty yards
behind me, coming along at a tearing pace. I did
not much like my position, as, in case of a fall, I
should have been pounded to mince-meat by the
dense mass ; however, the speed at which we went
soon left the buffaloes far behind, and I got my giraffe.
Swartz, coming up on Luclovick, gave her a finisher,
for my bullet was rather far back. I rolled over a
large cow rhinoceros, going at her best speed in fine
style, with one shot, breaking her back — a thing one
can seldom accomplish.

21 st. — We found a flaw in the wood, not, however,
until the first axle was nearly complete, and had to
seek another, and all our work to do over again.
We had lots of rain, and I took a wrinkle out of
Galton’s ‘Art of Travel,’ and made myself a tent,
gipsey fashion, two blankets fastened together with

224

AFRICAN HUNTING.

wooden pegs thrown over. I cut drains all round,
and slept warm and dry as a toast, though the rain
was very heavy and of long continuance. Swartz
shot three buffaloes out of one troop, though the
ground was very heavy, and the buffaloes had a tre¬
mendous start. My horse Veichman has been for¬
tunate enough to get through the sickness, by plen¬
tiful bleeding, just in the nick of time, and careful
treatment, having a stable made for him every wet
night. However, he could not go the pace, and I
did not like to push him in his present feeble condi¬
tion, so I had nothing to say to them. We have been
varying our diet with guinea fowl, ostrich eggs, and
sucking pigs — a pleasant change, this hot weather,
from continual flesh meat. Our meal has run very
short,* and we have bread only once in two or three
days, as a treat. The roof of my mouth is quite
sore with masticating so much tough flesh.

Yesterday a troop of about seventy giraffes came
swinging past the wragons; the Kaffirs and dogs yelled
loud, and there was a general rush for guns. They
all turned short to the left and put on the steam. I
was the only one that got my gun in time, but, ere I
could get her out of the case, they were at least 400
yards off. I fired at the head of the nearest cow,
and we all heard the bullet clap loudly, but as we
could see no alteration in her gait, we took no fur¬
ther notice, and the whole herd were lost in the
bushes. About two hours before sunset, Hendrick,
Sechele’s son-in-law, sang out, 6 Sur, sur, sur — surs a

A HOTTENTOT MAID.

225

camel is dode.’ The Kaffir who was herding the
oxen had found her about a mile off. We started
immediately ; she was a fine old cow, and very fat.
I had shot her right through the jugular vein, and
she had bled to death. The giraffes galloped right
through the oxen, alarming the latter very much,
and they all took away in different directions. We
turned out in quest of them, and it was many hours
ere we recovered them all. The ground being soft
with the rain, we were able to follow the spoor. I
cannot easily imagine a greater fix than to lose the
oxen in this country.

I expect the axle will be finished to-day. I am
afraid to go out to hunt, for fear of losing myself.
We have nothing whatever to guide the eye by —
no hill, rock, stream, or mountain — all is one dense,
wooded flat ; the wagon-spoor is the only thing, and
having twice lost myself, I have no wish to run a
third risk.

I will give the reader a description of old la, our
Hottentot maid : — She is one of Pharaoh’s lean kine,
unusually tall, straight as a kitchen poker ; long,
lean, scraggy neck ; the smallest little pig eyes in the
world ; no nose, but two huge nostrils ; high cheek
bones, sunken cheeks, wide mouth, very thick lips,
just the colour of the mulberry juice, low fore¬
head, and small head. I believe she has about the
eighth of an inch long of wool on the latter, but, as
it is always swathed in a handkerchief, I am not cer¬
tain. She is, I believe, somewhere between fifty and

Q

226

AFKICAN HUNTING.

sixty, and you seldom see her without a short, black
pipe in her mouth. She wears ear-rings, necklace,
and armlets, and the gaudiest-coloured shawl and
handkerchief. She is of a yellowish copper colour ;
her breast as flat as a deal board, and, altogether,
about as plain, not to say downright ugly, as nature
could possibly make her ; but, with all these perfec¬
tions, she has, in common with all her race, the most
perfect, delicately-formed, and smallest hands and feet
in the world. This description is not one whit over¬
drawn ; in fact, I have not done half justice to her
eyes. I believe she can see as far as anyone, though
I will defy anyone to tell what she sees with, as her
eyes are only just discernible — not a sign of a brow or
lash near them, — slightly bloodshot and watery from
exposure to the fierce sun. She would quite charm
the heart of a lady friend of mine at first sight, and
she need not be under the least alarm of taking any
number of such into her service. Though she had
twice the number of growing lads, I would willingly
go bail for the morality of all.

24 th. — What we have gone through the last two
days entirely beggars all description. On Tuesday
night we found the vley, where we fully expected
water, dried up, and not one drop to cool our parched
mouths, though we had walked all day under a broil¬
ing sun. The Kaffirs had all their bladders and cala¬
bashes full of fat, which they prize greatly, and will
drag along with them through every difficulty. In-
spanned two hours before sunrise, not expecting

NICE DRY WEATHER.

227

to get water till afternoon. I took only a bit of dry
toast, and had nothing on but a shirt and gaiters,
a silk handkerchief inside my hat, a splendid
pair of thick-ribbed woollen Highland socks, made
by Haney herself, which I prize greatly — nothing
could be finer for the burning sands — and a pair
of shoes of my own make. I would guarantee
three such days would convert the greatest lump of
obesity into a genteel figure, if it did not kill him.
The poor dogs I pitied most sincerely; one old
stager, Wolf, never showed his nose from under¬
neath the wagon ; the others showed their sagacity
by galloping along some distance ahead, and throw¬
ing themselves down under a shady tree till we were
far ahead, and then making play again. I did the
same. About three o’clock in the afternoon Klein-
boy could stand it no longer, and caught a horse, to
go in search of water ; Swartz, myself, and Sechele’s
son-in-law doing the same. After riding three hours,
at last we found the vley we were in search of,
owing to the sagacity of Swartz, who showed great
perseverance in following a rhinoceros spoor. There
was not one drop of water in the vley, nothing but
baked clay. On riding round I came on the fresh
spoor of a Kaffir, and we followed it some 200 yards,
when it brought us to a deep hole in the ground
where he had drunk. There were about two inches
of water in it ; we drank, and then, with the spade we
brought, enlarged and deepened the hole and fired
signal-guns for the wagons, and, by the time the

228

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Kaffirs came straggling up, we had a sufficiency for
their wants. Their eyes were starting out of their
heads, and their look so wild as almost to frighten
us, but there was not one drop for the poor oxen
and horses ; it required all we could do to keep them
from trampling the hole in ; their throats were so dry
that the oxen could not low nor the horses neigh,
the loose oxen went half mad and joined a troop of
wildebeests, and I lost one of mine altogether. On
Thursday, luckily a cool day, we inspanned long
before day-dawn, and got to a fountain about mid¬
day, when the poor things all got their fill.

I was revolving in my mind on Monday what
little reminder I could send 6 the General ,’ a nick¬
name for a brother of mine, when the thought
struck me that his ingenuity might turn a couple
of rhinoceros horns to good account, as they can
be straightened by steam and turned in a lathe,
and they take a brilliant polish ; snuff-boxes, knob-
kerries, riding-canes, gun-stocks, &c., are made here
from them. I soon put my thoughts into execution
by ordering Veichman and a couple of slaves to
attend me. The former is a nervous, timid, skittish
chestnut, and has by no means the making of a good
shooting horse, but it was Hobson’s choice with me.
I found a young bull, a bad short-horn, and let him
go, and shortly after two cows, the best of which I
bagged in four shots. Veichman was in fear and
trembling of the unwieldy brutes, but the spurs,
vigorously applied, had the desired effect. The horns

CHRISTMAS IN AFRICA.

229

were not so good as I could wish, but the best that
chance afforded me.

Christmas Day. — What a contrast to the many
merry ones spent in dear old England amongst my
own family and friends ! The comparison makes me
melancholy. Here I am in the deserts of South
Africa, having been toiling from the first dawn of
day under a broiling sun until sunset, and I am pretty
considerably fagged. A bit of rhinoceros, cold, and
so fat as to make the strongest stomach bilious, and
a small portion of half-baked dough, have been our
fare — not exactly our English notions of a Christmas
feast ; but these are among the hardships of a hunter’s
life, and we have, at times, pleasures that abundantly
compensate ; and, to look upon it in the light of a
philosopher, it is all for the best, for, had we the
4 heavy wet’ and 4 feeds’ of England, we should be in
but poor trim and wind for the toil of the chase. I
must own, however, I should like to drink my
friends’ health and 4 a happy Christmas’ in a good
tankard of home-brewed, followed by a bottle of old
port. Don’t mention a mince pie ; I have entirely
forgotten the taste since I left home to wander
amongst the denizens of the forest. I will, however,
drink to the health of absent friends in a cup of
coffee, the strongest beverage the wagon affords.

We made all possible despatch from this place,
travelling day and night, as the moon was at the
full, and the sun did not quite bake us alive, snatch¬
ing two or three hours’ sleep when and wherever

230

AFRICAN HUNTING.

opportunity offered. Kleinboy lost himself once for
half a night, and, on his return, made me roar with an
account of his mishaps. Two jackals baited him all
the time, endeavouring by their horrid cries to bring
the lion to him, and he did nothing but run all the
time at his best pace. He fell into holes and bushes
over and over again, and he was so bruised and stiff
as to be hardly able to walk. We got back to
Swartz’s, without further mishap, about January 6,
1858. After remaining there three or four days, I
started for Maquazi with a cart and four oxen, and
from thence I went to Bloemfontein, one of the
principal towns of the Orange Biver Free State, with
a troop of fifty-five oxen, all of which, with one
exception, arrived there safely.

BLOEMFONTEIN.

231

CHAPTEE VII.

1858.

MACHIN - I AM DESERTED - FIRST VISIT TO LAKE NGAMI

. — • LECHULATEBE SECHELE’S DAUGHTER THE BUSH ON

FIRE - MERICO.

I sold all my oxen well in Bloemfontein (flower
fountain), and invested the proceeds in a wagon,
stores, horses, and dogs, and, with great difficulty,
powder, lead, tin, caps, and flints, having found two
friends to stand security for me that I would not
barter any part of these latter articles to Kaffirs. I
eventually got a permit from the President, BoshofF,
to convey it from the Government stores into the
interior, and this had the effect of satisfying field-cor¬
nets and other officers until I crossed the Yaal Eiver,
the boundary between Orange Eiver Free State and
the Transvaal Eepublic. These states were, unfor¬
tunately, at war with each other. I had not left the
boundary far behind me when I was asked by a
field-cornet what I had in my wagon, and where my
permit was. I showed him Boshoff’s with the most
perfect confidence and innocence in the world, but it
availed me little, for, as soon as the field-cornet had
made it out, he spat upon it, trampled it under foot,

232

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and treated it with every indignity. I was then told
I was a prisoner, and must be taken to Mooi River
to Mynheer Pretorius the following morning ; and I
set off accordingly, on horseback, accompanied by
three Roers ; my wagon, oxen, horses, and servants
remaining behind. We arrived the day following,
about three o’clock, when I was taken to the cantour,
and this charge of smuggling was brought against
me. On my way I met a Natal friend of mine, and
asked him to go with me to act as my interpreter,
but the Sandrost (magistrate) ordered him out without
hearing a word, and expended a great amount of
breath in reading the laws to me in high Dutch, not
one word of which I could comprehend.

He gave me to understand that the charge was
most serious ; that there was no doubt I was in
BoshofPs service, employed to smuggle this powder to
the Kaffirs beyond, in order that they might make
war on the Transvaal country from the other side ;
that it was the greatest crime I could be guilty of,
and that hanging was too good for me.

Through the intercession of many friends I was at
last released, and my wagon was sent for and brought
up before the door of the cantour and thoroughly
overhauled, and it ended in all my ammunition
being confiscated to the Government, but I was
allowed 20 lbs. of powder out of 150 lbs., and 100
lbs. of lead out of 500 lbs., with caps and flints to
match, with which I was forced to content myself
and go on my journey. My three or four guns I

ANNOYING DETENTION.

233

was allowed to keep, a memorandum being taken
of them.

My old friend Franz Joubert, meaning to do me
a friendly action, came out of Maquazi, two days’
distance on horseback, to tell the Sandrost he was
quite certain I was the last man in the world to sell
powder to the Kaffirs, and that when I had been
staying with him previously I had refused posi¬
tively to let the Kaffirs have a grain at any price ;
but I let him have two sacks at cost price ; and on
producing witnesses to prove this, which ought to
have gone far towards re-establishing my blemished
character, the Sandrost immediately brought another
charge against me of selling powder without a
license, for which there was a heavy penalty. How¬
ever, after a couple of days, this charge was even¬
tually quashed, and I was allowed to proceed on my
journey, after being detained about ten days, and
taken a long way out of my road.

I joined Swartz in Merico, and went with him to
Letloche, about fourteen days’ trek, wdiere our
routes separated, he trying Mosilikatse again, and I
taking the route to the Great Lakes.

Letloche. — April 17th. — I am now left entirely to my
own devices in the deserts of South Africa, with three
Kaffirs, two Hottentots, a driver and after rider, a
wagon, eighteen oxen, a cow and calf, five horses and
seven dogs, with guns, powder and lead, beads,
wire, and supplies of tea, coffee, meal, &c., for a

234

AFEICAN HUNTING.

twelvemonth, at least ; add to these a dozen of
brandy and a cask of good Cape Madeira. I have
not much to wish for that I know of, as there is a
goodly supply of eland and giraffe bell-tong hang¬
ing up to dry. I am now twenty-one days from
Swartz’s house, in Merico, and have thus far had
far more company than was desirable ; eleven wagons,
including two of Sechele’s, which we parted company
with three days ago, he going to Machin, a new
Kaffir chief, who has succeeded Sicomo. The latter
has had to retire, as he was not the rightful chief.

It is a great change to find myself entirely alone
after the row and racket of inspanning eleven wagons
daily, but it is my own doing, and from my own
choice. I hear to-day that Swartz must turn back
immediately to Machin, or take the consequences ; in
case of refusal, he, his wife and children, are all to be
killed then and there. This is the beginning of the
new chief s reign ; he is talking very largely, and has
succeeded in frightening my Hottentots pretty consi¬
derably, and they come to me with long faces to
know what I will do. My answer is, c Inspan at
once, and get through his country as quick as pos¬
sible.’ A full complement of elands and giraffes have
fallen to our rifles, and a lion killed one of Sechele’s
oxen one pitch dark night, and escaped unhurt. I
saw a small troop of five elands from the wagon,
and, I grieve to say, we killed them all ; but, as some
excuse for such wholesale butchery, I may say that
with our own and Sechele’s retinue there were about

SCARCITY OF ELEPHANTS.

235

150 Kaffirs to provide for, and not a particle was
wasted.

19^A. — I bought yesterday for beads about 600 lbs.
of Kaffir corn, and the wagon is very heavy. The
poor oxen are much to be pitied, having to drag it
through deep, heavy sand, under a broiling sun, with¬
out one drop of water to cool their throats for two
days. We must trek most of the night, too, as in
the heat of the day they cannot move. A drop of
cold, clear, sparkling water would be the greatest
luxury that could be set before me just now ; what
we do get is stagnant, muddy stuff from pits made by
the Kaffirs, which they carefully fence round with
hack thorns to keep the game from drinking them
dry. Two stately giraffes walked yesterday parallel
with the wagon, not more than 400 yards off, for
nearly half an hour, and we did not molest them,
as we had a superabundance of flesh for men and
dogs.

Elephants are, indeed, hard to come at now. I
am very much farther to the north and west than
Gordon Gumming ever went, and have only seen one
spoor, and expect that I shall not be fairly amongst
them for another three weeks. This has been almost
the driest season ever known, and travelling in this
thirst land is no easy matter ; you must undergo
great hardships, and much anxiety for your poor live
stock. If possible, I wish this year to get to Sebi-
tuane’s, on the Chobe Kiver, NW. from Mosilikatse’s,
. and far north by east from Lake Ngami, if I can

236

AFRICAN HUNTING.

penetrate so far, but I have sad misgivings about my
wagon, which is twenty-seven years old and very
shaky and rickety, but perhaps, with the aid of green
hides and rhinoceros skin, she may hold together.
There are hardships enough in travelling in the thirst
land, without the anxiety of fearing lest your old
wagon should leave you in the desert far from any
human assistance. I believe I have almost every
other requisite for exploring the continent — health,
strength, a constitution well inured to the climate,
a constant supply of good spirits, a knack of gaining
the good will of the Kaffirs, natives, and Hottentots,
who will go anywhere and do anything for me, as I
always lend a hand at anything, and study their com¬
forts as well as my own. I have no ties of kindred
or friends here to make me wish myself amongst
them. I never weary with vain regrets, but always
make myself happy, and endeavour to make the best
of everything, and interest myself in the journey
throughout. I have now got a two -grooved rifle,
made by Witton, the most perfect weapon I ever
handled. It shoots perfectly true with any charge
of powder, and with a conical ball and six drachms
of fine powder I have never seen its force equalled ;
but the recoil will, I fear, twist me out of the saddle.
If I live for another year I trust to be able to
start with not less than three well-appointed wagons,
oxen, horses, guns, ammunition, and stores to match,
and then, if health is permitted me, I can go wher¬
ever my restless fancy and my love of excitement

A LONG CHASE.

237

and adventure may lead me, and if the Kaffirs don’t
turn me back, or, worse still, make an end of me,
it will be a hard matter if I don’t make a good
hunt. I entertain no fears whatever of the Kaffirs,
who are the means of keeping nearly all the Boers
from penetrating so far. I never listen to their
threats, or the most likely exaggerated stories I hear
from my own people of them. Now for a cup of
tea.

23rd. — I have been resting the last three days, to
recruit my oxen, at a place called Nkowani, but have
not been idle myself. We got the first water at
Mahaccan, where there are pits six or seven feet
deep in the limestone rock. The water is not very
bad to the taste, but smells abominably, and I make
it a rule to drink as little as possible except in the
shape of tea or coffee, or else with a small dash of
brandy, and so avoid dysentery. I had a very long
chase after a giraffe yesterday. I was very badly
mounted on Manelle, a short, punchy cob, without
any speed about him, but I eventually tired out
the giraffe, and bagged at the fifth shot. I had been
firing in despair at about 500 yards, and at length
succeeded in hitting her through the buttock. I am
ashamed to say my spurs were so clogged with
old Manelle’s hair as to be of no further service in
the chase. My after-rider, mounted on Final, brought
the giraffe round to me, when Manelle declined to
budge another step, and I gave the giraffe the bullet
in the right place. On off-saddling Manelle, I found,

238

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to my disgust, that he was not the least blown, and
lie ate and rolled instantly, nothing in the world being
amiss with him.

To-day I mounted Broon, a big, powerful, sixteen
hands’ horse, of a different stamp altogether, and
bagged a fine cow giraffe, the first shot, after a chase
of about 1,000 yards, the pace being tremendous.
John, an excellent rider, and by no means badly
mounted, could not live the pace, and was thrown
very far out. Giraffe hunting is very fine sport,
but they are shy and wild here, and it is seldom
you can come within 500 or 600 yards of them
before they are away, but they do not put on the
steam until you get within about sixty, when they
screw their tails and tear away at a tremendous pace.
They are all neck and legs, having very short backs,
but a fat cow is really delicious eating.

I struck yesterday, twice in succession, with a
single ball, a yokeskey, a bit of wood 12 inches long
by If inches broad, which I had stuck into the
ground 120 yards off. My Hottentots were in ecsta-
cies, applauding me most highly, and prognosticating
all manner of success to me. I was obliged to bring
out the brandy, and they managed to get rather more
than was good for them, but a Tottie, half-seas over,
is the most amusing fellow in the world ; they are all
first-rate mimics, and John, who was formerly in the
Cape Corps, and servant to Sir Harry Smith, made me
cry with laughing at his anecdotes of the Governor.

The weather at this season of the year, and a little

A WORTHLESS COUNTRY.

239

later on, is one series of uninterrupted blue skies.
The air is so clear that the moon is visible the whole
day, and the nights are delicious, just cold enough to
hug your blanket close and sleep sound as a top ;
while the horses, oxen, dogs, cow and calf lie in a
circle around the wagon, where they come of their
own accord from custom and for safety.

2 8th. — I have had weary work of it the last four
days. The weather has been awfully hot, and the
clouds of sand raised by the tramping of fourteen
oxen, and driven against me by a head wind, all but
smothered me alive in the wagon, and has made me
as black as a chimney-sweep. I don’t think I shall
get the grit out of my mouth for a week, as every
particle of food is full of sand. There is no game
or water. The country is utterly worthless, and will,
I have no doubt, remain in peaceable possession of
Kaffirs as long as the world lasts. It is an almost
endless flat, with rank grass, thorns, brambles and
worthless scrub-brush, and it reminds me of being
on the line in a calm day. I must own yesterday I
was quite down-hearted. After riding for several
hours in front with the horses, in search of water, with
a damp handkerchief around my mouth to prevent
thirst, we at length came to a pit with about three
inches of mud and water, but it was such stuff that
the very oxen, after being eighteen hours in the
yoke, would not taste it ; and, in spite of our utmost
efforts, trampled the little there was into mud. The
Kaffirs throw in the most virulent 6 wait- a- while’

240

AFRICAN HUNTING.

thorn branches into these pits, to prevent the oxen
from trampling. Two black clogs stayed behind,
not being able to hold out any longer, but they
came on during the night. The fawn and light-
coloured dogs do not appear to suffer so much from
the sun. I thought this fierce heat portended some¬
thing, and last night, to my intense joy, we had a
desperate thunder-storm, which has given us water
and freshened up everything marvellously. I bought
a fat goat and recovered my usual good spirits, but
the horses and oxen have fallen off very much. Our
difficulties are now partly over. I hope in five days
more to reach the Eiver Beauclekky, which runs out
of Lake Ngami, NE. I have not seen a drop of
running water for twenty-eight days, although trek¬
ing north-west full twenty days out of the twenty-
eight, and averaging, one day with another, nights
inclusive, ten hours per diem, at a rate of at least two
miles an hour, as when we trek at night the oxen
move merrily along, and a man must step merrily
along on foot to keep up.

I am much disappointed both in the country and
the game. There is no variety whatever here ; only
eland, giraffe, and blue wildebeest, with a sprinkling
of duikers, steinbuck and springbuck, the kinds
that are the least dependent on water, and even
these are few and far between. The country will
not bear a moment’s comparison with Mosilikatse’s,
and it is my first and last visit in this direction. I
have been uncommonly lucky, so far, with my live

IMMENSE QUANTITY OF FISII.

241

stock ; as yet, I have only lost one horse, of course
my best, but I have no reason to complain.

May 8th.— We got to the river Chapeau, or Beau-
clekky, five clays ago ; at first sight, it appeared an im¬
mense bay in every direction as far as the eye could
discern, covered with flamingoes and pelicans. I rode
in on horseback to endeavour to shoot one of the
former, which have most beautiful plumage, but the
bottom was muddy and the horse all but stuck fast,
and the birds stalked and swam out of rifle range. The
Kaffirs told us there were two lions, with young ones,
in the reeds, and we must make all the oxen, &c., fast,
and keep a good watch, as they were very savage ;
we .took all due precautions, but neither heard nor
saw anything of them. Treked on to Chapeau, a
Masara Captain’s, but he was very sick, and we got
nothing from him, and heard that all the elephants
had treked away from the river since the last rains.
The Kaffirs had a weir across the river, and about
fifty funnel-shaped baskets, set about a yard apart,
facing down stream, in which they caught an im¬
mense quantity of fish, barbel and bream, in beautiful
condition, and very good eating. I bought a lot of
picked ones for a mere song, and salted them down,
and enjoyed them not a little. I have shot six
camelopards the last few days, having been very
successful in finding them; and my two horses — -
Broon and Luister — carrying me uncommonly well.
I had a hard stern chase after one, right away from
the wagon, up the wind. After the first shot I

R

242

AFRICAN HUNTING.

headed her, and by keeping wide away from her,
and shouting lustily, I succeeded in driving her right
to the wagon, and I rolled her over within 150 yards,
in the midst of all the seven dogs. It was a grand
sight, and she was in fine condition. We out-
spanned at once, and finding water near at hand, in
a vley, made a night of it, and laid in a good stock
of flesh. We were all in high spirits, had an
enormous fire, and huge marrowbones roasting all
round it. It always surprises me that the Kaffirs
do not get sick, the quantity of marrow, fat, and

grease they consume is marvellous ; they have
stomachs like a hyena, nothing comes amiss to them

GUN MENDING.

24:3

or disagrees with them. I had more or less sport
with the rest of the camelopards ; one, shot through
the heart, went headlong at a tearing pace into a
mapane tree with three forks, about twelve feet from
the ground, where it remained wedged fast and died
standing.

A Kaffir brought an old musket to be mended,
and, in botching away at the lock, I succeeded in
breaking it in two places beyond my skill to mend.
Although I tried to explain to him that it was acci¬
dental, and that I was doing all I could to assist him
without any compensation, and had worked unre¬
mittingly at it for near two days, and that it was
useless to him when he brought it, and consequently
it was no worse now, he would listen to nothing : I
had broken his gun, and I must give him another, and
being a great man, brother to Chapeau, the Captain,
and having a strong force at command, I was forced
to submit, take his old useless musket and give him
one three times the value. There is no arguing
with a Kaffir ; he said that Wilson, a white man,
did the same, that is, broke his gun in endeavouring
to mend it, and instantly went to the wagon and
gave him a new one. I do not doubt that he did
so, as he had a lot of muskets. In the Kaffirs’ eyes
a gun is a gun ; they will give no more for a fifty
guinea one than a new musket worth about 15s. I
luckily happened to have one I had given 3/. for,
otherwise I must have given him one worth 25/.

A party of Bamangwatos followed the wagon

R 2

•244

AFRICAN HUNTING.

yesterday, well armed with assegais, axes, bows and
arrows, and two guns, saying that I must not hunt in
their country until I first paid them for leave to do
so ; and that if I did not do so, and persisted in
hunting, they would bring a command against me
and kill us all. My fellows talked very big, es¬
pecially Auguste — a large powerful Kaffir, a Bequina,
or Bechuana, one of Sechele’s — saying that if they
wanted to fight they must come on ; we were quite
ready for them at any moment, having plenty of
guns and powder. I said nothing, but let things
take their course, and merely ordered the wagon to
go on, and left the Bamangwatos to do whatever they
thought best. At night, I served out plenty of
powder and bullets, a watch was kept, and every
man had his gun handy. My fellows talk largely,
but what they would do in case of an actual skirmish
I don’t know. I don’t place much confidence in one
of them, nor do I fear the Kaffirs, unless they can
catch me unprepared — and I and my gun are con¬
stant companions.

This river appears of immense breadth, nor do I
see any possible way of crossing it, as I do not know
where the stream runs to, and, as far as the eye can
reach, there is nothing to be seen but reeds so tall
and thick that it is impossible to force your way
through them. There is safe harbour here for all
the game and wild animals in South Africa. I never
saw anything like it, and my Hottentots say it is the
same all tire way to Lake Ngami, about thirteen days

ON THE ALERT FOR ELEPHANTS. 24 5

from here in a wagon. It is not far, but the sand is
so heavy that the oxen can only take slow and short
stages. We have plenty of good water now, but the
frightful annoyance from mosquitoes at night counter¬
balances this advantage. I know of no country in
the world that can compare with Africa for brilliant
sport, but it must be confessed that this part of it is
a sandy desert, only fit to keep a few miserable goats
in existence. There is not a bite of grass now ex¬
cept along the edge of the reeds, but, then, it is
winter. Although the sun is overpowering in the
day, it is very cold in the early mornings and at
nights ; and it requires a considerable amount of
courage to get from under the blankets before sun-

o

rise.

I found yesterday the fresh spoor of a troop of
elephants, some very large bulls and cows, inter¬
mixed, and tracked them to the water. Last night,
all the dogs were made fast, and small fires only
allowed, as we were by far too near the spoor with
the wagon ; but, luckily, the wind was right, and
John and I went this morning, as soon as it was light
enough to see, to find out whether the elephants
had drunk last night, but they had not been. I wait
quiet to-day in hopes they may come to-night ; if
not, I shall take the old spoor and go in quest of
them to-morrow, for if they don’t come to-night they
must find water somewhere else, as they must drink
every second night at the longest. There is plenty
of buffalo, giraffe, and rhinoceros spoor, but this is

246

AFRICAN HUNTING.

not what I want. The elephants are wary, and very
hard indeed to come at, as they are now so much
sought for, and every savage knows the value of the
ivory. I have tried fishing to-day, as I dare not fire
a shot for fear of frightening the elephants, who
cannot be far away, but the water was too clear and
the sun too bright to do any good.

18 th. — No success as yet with the elephants,
partly owing to the laziness of the Kaffirs, but partly,
also, if the truth must be told, to my own impatience,
obstinacy, and self-will. I hunted them five days
successively, the Kaffirs, in the first instance, taking
me to a brack or salt vley, two days out of my
road, where there was not a sign of an elephant
having been for the last six months. They did this,
I have no doubt, under the orders of the Banians-
watos. I was in a desperate way, and on getting
back to the wagon I found that the elephants had
drunk again at the river. This time I did not wait
for the Kaffirs, but took the spoor myself, and
eventually lost them in the densest hack- thorns I
ever saw. It would have been impossible to have
clone much good with them, even had I found them
there ; the poor horses scarcely had the saddles off
their backs for the five days.

I shot a fine specimen of the gemsbok or oryx,
a cow, one of the kinds I had not yet got, and
was well pleased ; and I also drove a fine old eland
bull to the wagon, not without great difficulty, as the
mapani trees were so uncommonly thick that I could

LECHES.

247

not see more than twenty yards before me. We
lost him once, and kept galloping on like two fools,
each thinking the other saw him, for 500 or 600
yards at least, when John called out, 4 Varloup he
sur.’ We instantly turned, and took up the spoor,
following it a good hour and a half, silently and
surely. I heard a clatter among the stones, and
almost flew to the spot, when I caught a glimpse of
my old friend going like the wind. After a mad
burst through the mapanis, I came up with him and
gave him another pill in the stern, and after that we
had no trouble with him.

24^/i. — I saw on the 17th leches, for the first time,
and I was so anxious to get one that I worked hard all
day, mostly on my hands and knees, but without suc¬
cess. My driver told me (not without reason) that he
was a man who could shoot a leche ram. Singularly
enough, the does are comparatively tame ; and I had
several chances at them, but would not hre. I was at it
again early the next morning ; and, to my immense
gratification, I rolled over a fine ram the first shot, at
full 300 yards, skinned him with care, and preserved
his head and horns in my best style, and was highly
elated. Since then, however, I have shot three more
fine old rams, and the novelty and excitement of killing
a new specimen have worn away.

On the same day that I bagged my first leche I
bought, for the identical old musket before men¬
tioned, that I was forced to take in exchange, and
which I had managed to patch up with an old nail

248

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and the sinews of a buck, to act, a little Masara boy —
a waddling infant, certainly not more than two years
old, but with an intelligent countenance, and not yet
starved — whom I named Leche ; and he is a fine
quick little fellow. I am now quite fond of him. A
gang of Bamangwatos returning to Sicomo’s, from
hunting jackals, lynxes, wild cats, and skins of all
kinds, had picked up this poor little urchin. They
remained all night by my wagon, and the one who
called, himself owner brought him to me. My inter¬
preter told me that if I did not take him they were
just as likely to leave him as not, if they got tired of
carrying him across the desert ; and knowing the
fate in store for him, even if they got him home —
the slave of a Bamangwato, who live from hand to
mouth themselves — I took compassion on him, and
rescued him from their hands.

Yesterday, Whitsunday, will long live in my me¬
mory, as one of the most miserable of my life. On
getting up, later than usual, as it was Sunday, and I
did not intend to trek, I was struck by an ominous
silence in my followers, which boded no good ; and
as I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, Baffler,
the driver, acting as spokesman for the party, told
me he intended seeking a path to the house, and I
then saw they had all ready for a move. Never for
a moment thinking he was in earnest, I said, 4 Very
well — he could do as he liked ; ’ when five instantly
rose, and gave me back, with great parade, pow¬
der, bullets, and caps, and made many apologies -

A MISERABLE WHITSUNDAY. 249

for the loss of one or two of the latter ; then the
driver gave me over rheims, straps, and whip, and
asked for their wages. I told them I should not
pay them a halfpenny more than they had already
got, and I was only vexed that I had let them have
anything before it was due, at which they appeared
quite satisfied. They then wished good-bye to
Matakit and Inyous, and started off. The two latter
remained with me, speechless, and all but crying,
telling me that wre should inevitably be lost the first
day, and the Masaras and Makubas would assuredly
kill us. Finding the fix I was in — just two months
from the house, in the middle of a bush, of which I
was perfectly ignorant, and having the vivid remem¬
brance of that desperate thirst-land, which must be
still worse now (this and a little later on being the
driest season) — I resolved, after a stubborn conflict
with my pride, to follow the runaways, to enquire
the cause of their grievances, and offer any redress
in my power. Acting on this good impulse, I told
Matakit, who started with a heavy heart to do my
bidding, to bring the horses. They were nowhere
to be found. It instantly rushed to my mind that
the blackguards, five in number, had taken them,
and I told Inyous to go with me at once to try and
find the spoor ; and knowing the cunning of the
wretches, and that they would drive them a long
way wide of the path, we dispersed ourselves (as an
Irishman would say), and at last Inyous hit off the
spoor of both men and horses. We followed a long

250

AFRICAN HUNTING.

way, till we found they had caught and mounted the
horses, all of which were perfectly quiet and gentle.
It then struck me that two men on foot going in
pursuit of five mounted men was only a fool’s errand,
and we were never likely to come up with them. I
stopped and indulged in a reverie for a few minutes,
when it struck me nobody was at the wagon, and we
should lose twenty oxen as well. I called to Inyous
to turn back to the wagon. No answer. I then
roared and yelled again, till the woods resounded
with his name. No response. I then fired off at an
old stump an elephant shot, that made me reel again.
Not a, breath in reply. I then at once saw that it
was a made-up plot among them all, and that I was
entirely deserted.

I made my way back to the wagon as fast as I
could travel, when I found only poor little Leche,
who had cried himself to sleep under a tree ; the
oxen had strayed away. After comforting the little
fellow as well as I could, I had to start on the oxen’s
spoor ; and by the time I had recovered them, made
the kraal fast, brought wood and water for the night,
washed out the greasy pots and dishes (everything
the Kaffirs had left being in the same state of greasy
filth), I found I had no sinecure. I discovered that
there is a very great difference between ordering a
thing and doing it oneself. I boiled a kettle of tea,
and a saucepan of sago for Leche and myself, and was
all this time too busy to give way or have time for
thought ; but when I had put the little fellow to

ALONE IN THE. DESERT. 251

bed, and sat all alone before the lire, I realised my
situation — all alone in the desert, with a wagon and
twenty oxen, not a soul that I knew of within reach,
and I Avas wholly ignorant of the Maccateese language.
I cursed my own pride and folly over and over again,

m not acceding to anything my Kaffirs wished, rather
than be left in this frightful predicament, for I was
utterly helpless. The night I passed was horrible —
fourteen hours of darkness, for the days were now at
the shortest ; I do not wish my worst enemy to spend
such a one. I hoped against hope that Matakit and
Inyous might return, though I could not blame the
poor lads, as I knew' that scoundrel, Kaffler, had
frightened them out of their senses, by saying that
we were sure to be killed. When I got a few
minutes’ restless, uneasy sleep, it was only to wake

252

AFRICAN HUNTING.

again to a sense of my utter loneliness and desolation
— that I must leave all I had in the desert, run all
risks, and endeavour to reach Lake Ngami on foot.

The only chance of doing so, that I knew, was by
following the course of the river, which would have
been a difficult and arduous task ; and then I could
not bear the thought of leaving Leche to die of
hunger and thirst in the desert. If you could only
have seen the little waddling brat come, armed with
a stick twice as long as himself, to help me kraal the
oxen, and the way he toddled along to make the calf
fast, without my ever telling him ! it brought the
tears into my eyes in spite of myself. He slept at
my feet, and, poor little fellow ! he also felt a sense
of loneliness, and knew something was wrong, as he
kept starting up and feeling for my feet, touching
them with the greatest gentleness, and then lying
down again. Thus we passed the night. Two or
three times I wras alarmed at hearing footsteps, and
started up with my gun ; but it wras only the dogs
walking among the dead leaves. I was up half a
dozen times to mend the fire. At break of day I
went to fetch wood and water, and comfort myself
with a cup of coffee, and give Leche his breakfast,
and make the oxen loose. Hearing Kaffirs’ voices
over the river, I went to hail them, and fired, as the
surest way of bringing them, for they can scent blood
as far off as a hyena, and are always on the qui vive
when they hear a shot. It was not long ere I heard
a canoe cracking through the reeds, and three Kaffirs

A PARTY OP BAMANGWATOS. 253

in it ; but, alas ! I had only four words in my voca¬
bulary — 4 beads,’ 4 go,’ 4 good morning,’ and 4 wagon.’
The two former and latter had the desired effect, and
they came to the wagon, but left again as wise as
they came, as wTe could not understand one another,
even by signs. When I tried to explain to them
that I wanted to go to Lechulatebe, the captain
living on Lake Ngami, a very decided shake of the
head, and their villanous 4 ngaw,’ like a spoiled child,
was all I got. I left them in utter despair.

Things never come to the worst but they mend ;
and in hunting my oxen, which had wandered very
far up the river, I came across a party of Bamang¬
watos — men, women, girls, boys, dogs, and pack-
oxen — exulting over the carcase of a roybuck. I
shook hands with the greatest delight with these fel¬
lows, who understood a slight smattering of Dutch,
and who asked me for meat. Not five minutes after
I left them, having made a promise that they would
come to the wagon, the dogs bayed an old eland bull
in the thick bush, and I shot him dead ere he knew
danger was at hand, to the inexpressible joy of these
Bamangwatos.

Though all hopes of shooting elephants were at an
end, I positively jumped for joy when they told me
they were going direct to Mangwato’s, and would
gladly assist me to the utmost of their power, if I
would give them a little powder and lead, and a
heifer to the foreloper and cattle vachter. My
mind was at. ease again, and I gave them the whole

254

AFRICAN HUNTING.

eland. My intention was to have gone on foot to
Lake Ngami, to try and get assistance from Wilson,
an Englishman living there, and then to kill time till
I got some opportunity of going to Walvish Bay.

I was planning all this in my mind, making myself
happy with buffalo tongue, when who should come
up to the wagon, jaded, wearied, and foot-sore, but
Inyous. I sprang up, and could have hugged him.
He and Matakit had followed the spoor far on into
the night ; and by a sort of instinct where to find
the runaways (for they could not see), they came up
with them, and induced them to return ; and they
have just arrived with the horses, looking like grey¬
hounds. I at first took a high line, and told them
that bringing the horses back was the best day’s
work they ever did in their lives, as I would have
hunted them far and wide, and they should have
spent a good part of their days working on the
roads in chains. But they coolly told me they were
under Sechele’s government, and did not care a fig
for the Boers and their laws ; and I at once saw the
truth of it, and that I should most likely have had
no redress. If I had come up with them on the
horses, I should certainly have shot one or more of
them, and should, in my turn, have been shot like¬
wise, as they were armed. I was soon obliged to
lower my tone, and come down a peg. They said
all they wanted was their wages for two months, and
that, as I had not the means to pay, they had helped
themselves ; and, on their threatening to leave me

A TRYING POSITION.

255

again, I said that, if they returned to their duty
peacefully and orderly, I would never say anything
about the horse-stealing business. They said that
the cause of their deserting was my hastiness, and
not following their advice, and speaking to them in
English, which they could not understand, and they
thought I was swearing at them ; but I think it is
the fault of the old wagon, which was, when we
outspanned, almost tumbling to pieces from the
drought. The iron pins that fastened on the tires to
the Alleys had dropped out of one wheel, and I
replaced them by wooden pegs, and ordered them
to put the wheels into the river for twenty-four
hours, to swell and tighten. The last of the grog
was broached, and both master and servants pro¬
mised to try and get on better together for the
future.

I had a visit in the course of the morning from
live villains, who made me feel anything but com¬
fortable. As soon as I saw them, I put the guns,
copper, and beads, and things that would excite
their cupidity, out of their sight, and made some
pretext of carrying a gun with me wherever I went.
There was whispering and moving round me that I
did not like ; and they seemed at one time to make
a kind of general movement to cut me off from my
guns in front of the wagon ; but I had taken the
precaution of removing the caps, though the guns
were loaded, so that they were useless in their
hands. I jumped in at the back of the wagon, and

AFRICAN HUNTING.

256

carelessly took down one, played with the lock, and
put on a cap, and they wished me good morning.
I did not like their movements or appearance ; but
perhaps I do them injustice, and their evil thoughts
only existed in my excited imagination.

21th. — We were unfortunate enough to run over
Lou, about the most promising young dog I ever
had ; he was killed on the spot ; and yesterday,
two more. Bull and Falk, got severe prods from an
old oryx bull, which I ran down on Broon by fair

speed across an immense hat, distancing all the dogs,
though they had a good start of me, and were fresh
and hungry, and the day was cool ; but old Broon

A REFRESHING BATH.

257

proved himself, yesterday, to be an honest, stout,
fast horse, with great endurance. The old oryx had
fully 1,000 yards start, took straight away up the
wind, galloping low to the ground, fast and strong,
and in beautiful form. When I neared him he
turned, dodged, and twisted from side to side, with
amazing quickness, but Broon was with him at every
move. Broon ran like a first-rate greyhound ; I shot
the oryx from the horse’s back ; and, being myself
very much distressed, neglected to finish him ; and
when the dogs came up, he gored poor Bull, and
caught Falk just above the eye, prostrating them
both.

I had a swim in the river, in spite of the croco¬
diles, which are very numerous : it is nervous work,
however, and I was too much afraid to enjoy it, but
felt much refreshed. We have been making our
way all the morning through heavy sand and hack-
thorns, which the oxen are with difficulty made to
face. I am now going to Lake ISTgami direct ; I
wish much I had a pocket compass and a good
telescope ; the Jatter I left behind on my way. I
see the river Beauclekky runs south-east from the
Great Lake, and not north, as I had before imagined.

Auguste wounded a cow buffalo yesterday, which
charged him, together with a big calf or heifer ; he
scrambled up a low tree, tearing his legs badly; and
while the heifer and cow were below, licking his
feet, he reloaded and shot them both. Luckily, he
had managed to throw his gun up before him, or he

s

258

AFRICAN HUNTING.

might have been kept there for a couple of days or
more ; he is quite proud of his feat.

29th. — Yesterday afternoon we outspanned close
to the river, within a few hundred yards of where
elephants had drunk the previous, night, and we
made all ready for a hunt this morning ; and I was
awakened at dawn by hearing loud cries from the
Masaras, over the river, that the elephants had
drunk there in the night. We swam the horses
over with the aid of a canoe. The river is about
300 yards across, but the bottom is good, and the
stream is not strong. The water is deliciously cold
and clear — a great treat in this desert land.

ELEPHANTS.

259

We took up the spoor on the opposite side of
three bulls, not, however, until the bones had been
cast, and the witch doctor or prophet had foretold
that we should find them, and that I should shoot a
fat bull, with one long and one short tusk. I fol¬
lowed silently in the rear of the spoorers, through a
thick thorny bush. I had a presentiment that we
were near them, and took my gun from the Kaffir’s
hands ; and not three minutes after I saw, from the
gesticulations of the Masaras, they had seen them.
The dogs were slipped, and all was quiet for some
time, when I heard Turk give mouth, followed im¬
mediately by the trumpeting of a bull. I made the
best of my way in the direction, when I was turned
by Raffler’s voice shouting, 6 Come here, Katoo,’
and made for him. I heard a shot behind me,
turned at once, and caught sight of the retreating
monster. The bush being uncommonly dense, I
was fearful of losing him, and fired, striking him in
the thick of the thigh, and he took up a position in
a thicket, trumpeting and charging the dogs in all
directions, making a loud crashing. Unfortunately,
the cap was driven into the nipple at the first shot,
and I lost some time in trying to get it out, and
broke the point of my knife, but I eventually suc¬
ceeded with a strong needle, which I had in my hat.
There were five men with guns, but no one had
ventured into the bush to give him a shot ; and the
Kaffirs, no doubt, thought me afraid likewise ; but
when I was sure of my gun I rode in on Broon,

260

AFRICAN HUNTING.

taking care to have a clear passage for a speedy
exit. When within about twenty-five yards, he
threw up his trunk and came direct towards me.
The horse stood steady as old Time, and I gave him
a conical ball, five to the pound, backed by six
drachms of fine powder, on the point of the shoulder-
blade. Mesh and blood could not stand before such
a driver ; and, staggering and stumbling forwards a
few yards, he pitched right on his head within
fifteen yards of me ; then my brave followers imme¬
diately rushed in and gave him a volley as he lay
on his broadside, and it was all over with him. I
was surprised to see that poor Bull, whom we had
left behind on the sick list, had followed us. He
had had to swim the river, and was now tearing
away manfully at the elephant.

Though the other elephants could not have been
far off, all hunting was over for that day, as the
sight of so much fat meat was irresistible to the
half-starved Masaras ; and nothing I could offer
would induce them to take up the spoor of the
other bulls, so they will live to fight another day.

The scoundrels, when they ran away, rode Luister,
my second-best horse, two whole days without a
saddle, and have given him a sore back, so that he
will be utterly useless for the next month, and even
then it is doubtful if he will be able to carry a
saddle. What with sun, sand, and flies, it is very
hard to heal a back when it is once sore.

June 6 th [Sunday). — I have not much to log up.

LARGE HERD OF ELEPHANTS.

261

Last week was a hard and unprofitable time. On
Monday we crossed the river at dawn of day ; not,
however, until I had paid a bag of powder and a
bar of lead for the use of two old canoes, which,
however, were indispensable to us. We took up the
spoor of a large herd of elephants, and followed it
unremittingly till within two hours of sunset, straight
away from the river, to a thick grove of mapani
trees, the leaves of which very much resemble the
beech, and are even now, in the depth of winter,
green and luxuriant. Here we found a large herd of
fifty or sixty, all cows and calves. They were feed¬
ing, but on seeing us they disappeared like magic ;
and, when the dogs got among them, they spread in
all directions. I looked in vain for a bull, and then
chased and shot a cow, within fifteen yards, behind
the shoulder. I stopped to load, however, and lost
her in the mapani trees ; and, night coming on, we
gave her up. I shot, also, an old bull buffalo, and
we made our encampment for the night by his car¬
case ; and the Masaras and Makubas, though well
wearied, made a night of it, that is, did not stop
eating until morning ; consequently, only two that
we sent for water were able to work the next day.

On the Tuesday morning we found a troop of
eleven or twelve bull elephants in a thick hack-
thorn bush on the banks of the river. As they
crashed away, I rode hard in their rear, shouting
lustily, and singled out the largest bull. I rode
close under his stern, and he cleared a path for me.

262

AFRICAN HUNTING.

He turned to see who had the audacity to ride so
near, for the horse’s nose touched him, when I gave
him a bullet behind the shoulder, and cleared out of
his path. In reloading I lost him, and, cantering on
his spoor, he very nearly caught me, as he had
stopped and turned round just where the path
turned suddenly and sharply to the right, and I was
almost under his very trunk ere I saw him. He was
lying in wait, and made a terrific charge, trumpeting
furiously ; the horse was round like a top, and away
I went, with both rowels deep in his flanks, as I
threw myself on his neck. It was a very near
shave ; his trunk was over the horse’s hind quarters.
I went through bush that, in cool blood, I should
have pronounced impenetrable, but did not come off
scathless ; my poor hands are shockingly torn, and
my trousers, from the knee, literally in shreds, though
made of goatskin. After giving the elephant two
more bullets I lost him. The dogs were frightened
to death, and would not leave the horse’s heels.

I shortly came across another troop of bulls,
which took against the wind, leaving such a dust
behind them, that I was half smothered. I rode, at
last, a little wide of them, on the weather side, and
was able to get a view of their teeth, and I rode out
one with beautiful long teeth. He very soon lessened
his speed, turned, and, before I was aware, charged
me. I could not turn in time, and, therefore, fired
right between his eyes. The shot struck him about
an inch above the left eye, and brought him on one

CHASED BY AH ELEPHANT.

sechele’s daughter.

263

knee, and I was able to get out of his way. He
then took up a position in the bush, and I loaded
and gave him two more bullets in the head, one in
the centre of his forehead. He kept backing farther
and farther into the bush, with his two enormous
ears erected like fans, and, as I was thinking the last
shot must tell on him, he made the longest and most
furious charge I ever saw ; he fairly hunted me,
while I was half loaded, clear away. I rode in a
circle to endeavour to dodge him, and at length suc¬
ceeded. He stopped at fault, and I began to reload.
I had none but conical balls, and the gun was foul.
I could not get one down. That dastardly cur,
John, never came near me all this time. I sought
in vain for a stone, and at length, in despair, took up
a thick branch, and what with hammering the ram¬
rod, and driving it against the trunk of a tree, I at
length got the bullet home ; but my elephant had
made good use of his time and got clear away, and
I returned to the wagons in rags, with the loss of a
spur, and not a little discomfited, but it was madness
to attack them in their stronghold. I also lost a
fine old bull in a most foolish manner. After
following his spoor several hours from the river,
where he had been to drink, I saw him about 600
yards off, and in riding to get at him from below the
wind I lost sight of him. He had taken the alarm
by the horse snorting or treading on a dead bough,
and I never saw him more. Sechele’s daughter, the
wife of a trader named Wilson, met us to-day, on

264

AFRICAN HUNTING.

her way back to her father’s, with one whity-brown
little boy. He has deserted her, or she him ; the
latter I believe to be the truth. She is a very good-
looking girl. I gave her some tea, meal, and salt,
as I was sorry for the poor thing. She is going in a
canoe as far as the river goes, but how she will get
across the desert I cannot conceive. She has a strong
party of Sechele’s men ivith her, and plenty of cows,
oxen, sheep, and goats. It is a bad business ; it will
be the means of giving Englishmen a bad name, and
Sechele will probably stop our coming in future.

Hottentots are necessary evils, as they know the
language of the natives and the line of country ;
but they are lazy, useless dogs, receiving high wages
and doing nothing, wanting to be masters, and
making the trek very unpleasant ; but I am entirely
dependent on them at present, and they know it.
John left me on the veldt to-day, to find my own
way to the wagon. I had, luckily, taken particular
notice of the course we had come, SW. ; therefore,
of course, I must ride HE. to return. I made a good
deal too much to the east, as I had only the sun to
guide me, but managed to come across the wagon-
spoor, where I found my gentleman coolly drinking
coffee and smoking, declaring that he never heard me
fire or shout, and thought I had ridden back. He has
a bad countenance, is a shocking thief, and the biggest
cur and loudest talker I ever came across.

Lechulatebe’s State , Lake N garni. — 15^A. — We
arrived here on Friday, the 11th, not until I had

LAKE NGAMI.

265

received several messages from the Captain to make
haste and be the first wagon at his State ; since which
time we have been haggling and wrangling about
the price of two horses, till my interpreter and I
were utterly exhausted, the former drinking half
my cask of sherry to keep his throat moist, till to¬
day I gave in and let the Captain have them for
thirteen teeth of ivory, and a saddle and bridle into
the bargain. I only gave 9 /. for one nag, and the
ivory I got for him is worth at least 60/., so that it
was worth a little patience.

I have just returned from seeing the Great Lake,
the nearest point of which is about two hours and a
half on horseback from here. The country all around
appears to be a perfect flat, very unhealthy and unin¬
teresting, with a lot of rubbishy reeds at this end, but
it is wooded to the banks on the- other side, and most
of the way round. I gather from the natives that it
is a three days’ ride round the lake, but that the tsetse
render it impossible for horses. The natives are afraid
to cross in their frail canoes, as when a wind rises the
water is very rough. Three canoes were swamped
not long since, and their crews drowned. Not far
from the southern point, the road the wagons take
to Walvish Bay, there is a high ridge of rocks,
Lechulatebe’s stronghold, in case of an attack from
Sebituane. These Kaffirs are always at war, cattle
being the prime object. I could only get a very bad
view of one end of the lake, but I must confess that
I was disappointed in it. The chief went with me,

266

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and, by the aid of an interpreter, gave me all the in¬
formation he could, and was very kind and obliging.
He is not a bad fellow at heart, I think, but a dread¬
ful beggar and very covetous. He appears to have
no idea of being refused anything he fancies, gives
you nothing in return, wants your things on his own
terms, and asks outrageous prices for his. He
is young, active, an elephant-hunter himself, a good
shot, and possesses guns made by Wilkinson, Hock,
and Manton. On our return I swam the river, which
is here about 300 yards wide, and he invited me to
dinner. We dined in the open air, and were attended
by the prettiest girls in the kraal, who knelt before
us and held the dishes from which we ate. They
wear no clothing but a skin round their loins ; their
legs, arms, necks, and waists are ornamented with
beads of every variety; and ivory, brass, and copper
bracelets. Finer made girls than some of the well-
fed Kaffirs, I suppose, are not to be found. They have
small hands and feet, beautifully-rounded arms,
delicate wrists and ankles ; their eyes and teeth are
unsurpassable, and they are lithe and supple as a
willow wand.

They say perfect happiness does not exist in this
world, but I should say a Kaffir chief comes nearer
to it than any other mortal ; his slightest wish
is law, he knows no contradiction, has the power of
life and death in his hands at any moment, can take
any quantity of wives and put them away at any
moment, he is waited upon like an infant, and every

DINING WITH A KAFFIR CHIEF.

A GOOD DINNER.

267

wish, whim, and caprice is indulged to the fullest ex¬
tent ; and he has ivory, feathers, and karosses brought
to him from all quarters, which he can barter with the
traders for every article of luxury. Our dinner con¬
sisted of roasted giraffe, swimming in fat and grease.
The intestines are the daintiest morsels, and, put¬
ting prejudice on one side, I assure you the English
never make use of the really best part of the animal.
I always do in Eome as Borne does, eat (if I can)
whatever is set before me, and shut my eyes if I feel
qualmish. Nothing approaches the parts most re¬
lished by the natives in richness of flavour, and racy,
gamey taste. The Kaffirs know well the best parts of
every animal, and laugh at our throwing them away.
But enough ; I enjoyed my dinner. We washed all
down with a bumper of sherry, and then adjourned
to the wagon to drink tea. Perhaps a person with a
delicate stomach might have found fault with the
means used to fasten on the lids of the different
dishes ; but the native plan is an excellent one, as
everything is kept warm, and nothing can boil over
or escape. Everything was scrupulously clean ; and
jackals’ tails waved in abundance by the many slaves
in attendance kept away the flies.

I afterwards exchanged my hat with the Captain
for a pair of leather crackers, but had to give beads,
knife, fork, and spoon into the bargain. The rascal
had no conscience, and after plaguing me till I pro¬
mised to give him some tea for the second time — for
I had sent him about a pound on my arrival, — -he

268

AFRICAN HUNTING.

immediately despatched a messenger for an immense
earthenware jar, which would hold at least two chests,
and was highly indignant at th e pigmy appearance of
the tea I put in it. He then plagued me for meal,
and when I offered to exchange with him for corn,
provided he gave me two measures for one, he de¬
clared there was none in the State ; he lies like a
trooper, and only laughs when you find him out.
He appears to be very good-tempered, however ; but
all Kaffirs have great self-command, and they rarely,
if ever, come to blows.

I discharged John for refusing to obey me, and
the day after Lechulatebe gave him a wife ; he will
give me one, also, if I like to remain here, but I
must not take her away. Powder and lead he has
in abundance.

18 th. — Inspanned and started home, earlier than
I had intended, in consequence of one of my oxen
being sick. Lechulatebe, fearing lung sickness,
would not allow them to remain. I was disap¬
pointed in an elephant hunt, owing to a man dying
most inopportunely in the State. Lechulatebe would
not let me go, unless I took one of my own people
with me ; he said that in case any accident happened
he should get the credit of having ordered his people
to kill me. To-day I measured two trees called
mowane ; one was twenty-seven and the other twenty-
eight yards round the bole. At about six feet from
the ground they spread into four immense stems, all
bending outwards, and leaving in the middle a spa-

KAFFIR CRUELTY.

269

cions apartment, exactly one foot between each stem,
where they branched from the main bole, widening
upwards, and at eighteen or twenty feet from the
ground the circumference of the tree must have
been forty yards at least. I should live in one of these
if I stayed in this part. I took another youngster,
a Masara, out of pity. He was almost at death’s
door from starvation, beating, and shameful usage.
Mutla (Thorn) is his name. He is a shocking object,
and makes me shudder ; he is almost a living
skeleton, hollow-eyed and hollow-jawed.

20 ih (Sunday). — We have had a long-continued
run of the loveliest weather that ever poor mortal
was blessed with, and I am very well. I wish I could
say the same of poor Mutla ; from the barbarous
treatment he has received it is a great chance if he
pulls through. His head is half battered in and his
whole body is one mass of scars and wounds, and
his skin, from starvation, and eating roots and reeds
and anything he could find to support life, is in a bad
state. We smear him with grease and gunpowder
in lieu of sulphur, and, to eradicate the disease, 1
added a little mercurial ointment, and would have
added a few drops of turpentine, if I had had any ;
however, he is young, and with care I hope he will
get round. Before he came into my possession he
had had the charge of a flock of goats and some
kids, which he had to look after all day and bring
home at night, and one of the latter was missing one
day ; it was eventually proved that the poor starving

270

AFRICAN HUNTING.

wretch had killed and eaten it, and the enraged
owner flogged and maltreated the boy within an ace
of taking his life, as Lechulatebe had done to another
boy a little while before. The other little fellow,
Leche, is as fat as a porpoise, oily and shining, and
very like a young sea-cow calf. I never saw a pig
lay on fat so quick ; but he does nothing but eat,
drink, and sleep, and can hardly waddle. If you lay
him on his back, he is like a cast sheep, and cannot
help himself. He would have drowned yesterday in
a foot and a half of water if we had not rescued him.
To-day is the third day we have been without flesh
meat of any kind or sort ; the game is entirely ex¬
terminated, guns, pit-falls, and poisoned arrows have
done their work, and last year’s drought and famine
had left the natives nothing to live on but the spoils
of the chase. The pit-falls which they make are
about eight feet deep with a bank in the middle, so
that whatever game falls into one of them falls
across the bank, and cannot touch the ground on
either side.

The river is very full, and still rising rapidly, over¬
spreading its banks far and wide, and driving us
back to cut a path through the bush, which is so
thick that our tent is smashed, and two strong canvas
sails are torn into shreds. The lynch-pins, from con¬
stant contact with trees and stumps, are knocked into
all shapes, and it is a work of time and smiting with
axe and hammer to take the wheels off to smear.
And yet not a drop of rain has fallen for months,

A PIT-FALL.

271

and the river is the only water ; every vley in the
country is dried up. I cannot in any way account
for it — it is one of Nature’s freaks.

I am of Barnum’s opinion, that it is not so hard to
make money, even here, where it is so scarce, as
to keep it when made. The old wagon still holds
together miraculously, by the aid of false lears,
rheims, and greenhide, and I verily believe will see
Natal yet with a few repairs, as the wood is well
seasoned. Four days ahead lie the remains of an
old wagon tumbled to pieces, with one good wheel,
which I shall exchange wiih my worst, and other¬
wise fit her out as well as my tools will allow me. I
think I have some 700 lbs. of ivory on the wagon,
and she is loaded up to the roof with skins and
rubbish of the Kaffirs, which must be thrown away,
if I can only get ivory. Dubabe is the name of the
Makuba chief living at the head of the Great Lake.
This place offers no great inducement to come here
again, unless from Walvish Bay, as the Kaffirs have
got plenty of all they require.

22 ncl. — This morning I came across a swarm of
Kaffirs in great glee, having caught a bidl elephant
in a pit-fall. They make these very well, and cover
them over neatly with reeds, then a layer of grass,
and then sprinkle them with sand and earth, so that
they are very difficult to detect, and the elephant,
sagacious as he is, falls a victim. This country is
done for the sportsman ; there are too many Kaffirs,
Bushmen, and Masaras, all hunters, and the pit-falls

272

AFRICAN HUNTING.

clo very great execution ; tliey are well supplied
with guns, powder, and lead from Walvish Bay, and
they watch the different drinking-places of the ani¬
mals every moonlight night, and buffalos, rhinoceros,
&c., must succumb. It is only with great toil, daily
labour, and by traversing immense ranges, that, in my
legitimate mode of sporting, I can keep my people
going in flesh, and we have been hard set since we
have left the Great Lake, and have made great
inroads into the meal. My coffee-mill is smashed to
atoms, and we have to crush or pound the best way
we can. We manage with a stamp block, like a
pestle and mortar, as there are no stones in this land.
The sugar has been long since finished — nine fellows,
who all took a sly taste when opportunity offered,
soon made an end of it ; it is impossible to keep it,
and we must drink coffee and tea, ‘carle’ (as the Dutch
say), naked ; the former is rather insipid, the latter
I manage well enough. Three of my people who
are married are most anxious to get home, talk about
nothing else, and would drive the oxen to a stand¬
still if I did not interfere. This is a great annoyance
to me, and I don’t know how to remedy the evil.
Sechele’s people receive so much for the journey,
long or short, time makes no difference to them ; it
is a bad plan, and I will make different arrange¬
ments another time. Everyone but myself has some¬
thing to look forward to at the end of the trek —
wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, or
relatives.

KAFFIR SELFISHNESS.

273

The Hottentots and Kaffirs, being used to go with
Dutchmen, who are all married before they are out
of their teens, and ride like the wind to get back to
their fraus and kinders, cannot understand that, as I
have no home to return to, all places are alike to
me, and that I have nothing to gain by pushing on.
As they have nothing to gain by remaining, of course
we don’t hit it off well, and it riles me to hear them
everlastingly talking of getting home.

The only thing I see for me to do, as I cannot get
people with the same feelings, or rather in the same
situation as I am, is to go to Mosilikatse and live
there altogether for one or two years. I shall be
well treated, and have the best hunting South Africa
can produce. I shall only be following out Albert
Smith’s theory, who says that the colonies are only
refuges for destitute social suicides.

The Kaffirs, though they always get plenty, are
too selfish to give me a morsel, when I run short of
game, even if the trees all around were perfectly
red with meat. They don’t refuse point blank, but
make excuses, saying, ‘ The master of the elephant
is not there,’ ‘it is not theirs,’ &c., and put you
off as well as they can. The best of them are an
ungrateful race of heathens. As they sit on their
hams with a huge piece of meat in one hand, and a
six-feet long assegai in the other, cutting and slicing
away, they are in perfect happiness and contentment,
envying no man living, as long as the flesh lasts.
They have nothing, and, consequently, have no cares,

T

274

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and when they have plenty of food are supremely
happy.

2 §tli. — I have got on very slowly the last four
days. Broon, my favourite horse, was taken sick on
Wednesday and died on Thursday, in spite of all the
remedies I knew of — profuse bleeding, blistering,
and powerful emetics. This is the first instance in
my experience of the horse sickness in the middle of
winter ; it is a sad loss to me, and nothing can replace
him here. I had been nursing him up for the ele¬
phants on my return. He died hard indeed, poor
fellow ! and at his final death-struggle I could not
repress a tear ; he was my best friend, and I never
had the same affection for any animal. I could not
but admire the symmetry of his form after the breath
had left his body. He was a powerful horse with
great endurance ; he played with the swiftest giraffe,
and was more than a match for any game I ever
chased. At his swiftest speed I could guide and
check him with a pack-thread ; he was a noble
animal, all that a man could desire in a horse : docile
and gentle, at the same time full of fire and courage,
and would face fire or water, or the most virulent
hack- thorns, and turn his head from nothing his
rider had the courage to put him at when in pursuit
of game. I killed with him twenty-seven head of
large game, and never had a fall through all the
holes, pit-falls, and fallen timber with which the bush
abounds. I have now lost all heart for the hunt, and
care not how soon the trek comes to an end. My

6 SALTED ’ HOESES.

275

other nag, Fleur, is a regular brute, very timid,
swerves at everything, will not face thorns at all, and,
as he always carries his head as high as his short
neck will allow him, he stumbles over every stump
and into every hole he comes across, keeps changing
his legs continually^when pressed into a gallop, and
always appears to be going very much against his
will ; and it is very hard work to keep your seat on
him at all, as he makes a succession of buck-jumps
over or into every scrubby bush, consequently makes
no way ; and his only redeeming point is that he is
a very fast walker and an excellent roadster, being
uncommonly easy in his paces when on a beaten
path. Manelle, my other nag, is an incorrigible
slug, and, if you ply the sjambok severely, bolts into a
thicket, there stops and kicks as long as you thrash.
The reader will ask why I buy such brutes P My
answer is — They are salted, have come through the
sickness, and are guaranteed by their former owners
not to die ; a good salted horse is worth from 40/. to
75/., and is not always to be had, even at that price.

I worked hard at the old wagon for a whole day
with great success, and, with taking the best parts
of the other old one and the one good wheel, I
have patched up mine into a very respectable, ser¬
viceable-looking vehicle, and she cannot now be
drawing under 2,000 lbs. weight. We, however,
stuck fast all last night in a mud-hole, had to unload
to the last thing, and trek her out backwards, which
we succeeded in doing to-day, after great breakage

276

AFRICAN HUNTING.

of skeys and two yokes, rheims and straps. We
must remain where we are over to-morrow, to repair
damages for a fresh start. In the pursuit of a
giraffe, yesterday, I lost all my bullets and caps, and
after giving her one bullet in the stern, and making
sure of her, much to my mortification I had to
let her go. The weight of the bullets and hack-
thorns, together, had burst the pocket open.

July lltli (Sunday). — I have neglected the log for
some time, having been very ill indeed for about ten
clays from my old enemy — bilious fever and ague. I
am better now, thank God, but very weak, and unfit
for any work. Thanks to my medicine-chest, I had
calomel, colocynth, emetics, quinine, &c., all at
hand, and, by judicious use of one and all,
having had plenty of experience how to deal with
the complaint, I pulled through for the fourth time.
My people had given me up entirely, not being used
to see a man, with his teeth chattering in his head
like a magpie, sitting swathed in blankets before a
roaring fire in a broiling sun, and being icy cold.
This stage is followed by violent perspirations,
attended with excruciating headaches and pains all
over the body. I suffered much more this time than
ever I did in any former attack. I had no rest at
nights, until I took twenty-five drops of laudanum.
The coarseness of the fare set before me quite turned
my stomach, I could not face it, and nothing what¬
ever passed my lips but weak tea for seven days ; then
I swallowed a little pheasant broth, and so gradually

BILIOUS FEVER AND AGUE.

277

came to. How I longed for soda water, or black
currant tea, and all the little delicacies a man
fancies when he is ill ! I tried to make gruel, meal
being all I had ; the rice is finished, and everything
else except bread arid meat, varied, as they say in
Australia, by meat and bread ; the latter, however,
is only coarse meal and water, as I have no sieve to
sift the bran, and though all goes down with a relish
when I am in good order, I found it a very different
thing when ill. One of my Kaffirs, Inyous, was mos^
attentive to me the whole time, sitting up half the
night chafing my feet and hands, and I frequently,
when in some of my worst fits of ague, saw him in
tears. He evidently thought it was all up with me.
The Kaffirs, one and all, accused Kaffier — a Hottentot
— of having given me poison in my coffee, and there
was a great row, Auguste swearing if I died he
would shoot Kaffier, and the latter saying he would
leave the wagon forthwith. I had great difficulty in
procuring order once more amongst them, and now
the matter is to come before Sechele. The day pre¬
vious to my being taken ill they had refused to go
out with me elephant-hunting, in consequence of the
badness of my horse, saying I should assuredly be
killed, and then Sechele would blame them for it.
Kaffier and Auguste have also been ill, the latter
really ; the former always thinks himself so, and is
bled, cupped, cut, and doctored at every Kaffir state.
He has the most depraved stomach I ever saw; he
always bothers me for medicine, and smacks his lips

278

AFRICAN HUNTING.

over castor oil, and evidently enjoys it, as well as
rhubarb and ipecacuanha. In fact, I have tried him
with all the most nauseous drugs mixed up in any
manner to make them still more disgusting to the
taste, and to get rid of him I once gave him a large
spoonful of mustard in a pint of warm water, which
he sipped off like coffee ! I then told him to follow
it up by plenty of warm water, and I believe it had
no effect whatever on him ; he will drink a cupful of
strong vinegar at a time if he can get it, and nothing
disagrees with him.

I was so much better as to be able to take the
field again two days ago, and shot a buffalo, two
quaggas, springbok, &c., and once again replenished
the larder. The river is still very full, and the face
of the country entirely altered. We have to take a
fresh course, our old track being under water in most
places. This, I fancy, must be a very unhealthy part
of the world in the summer months. As the present
is the most healthy season, there is generally little
fear of fever and ague ; but my constitution is much
shattered, one fit after another has told upon me, and
an attack, instead of leaving one free for a time, only
makes one more liable to another. I am afraid I
must give up this life and remain altogether in Natal,
in the Upper Division, where it is perfectly healthy,
and I shall be entirely removed from any fear of
more attacks. I have heard Dr. Livingstone has had
something of the same kind ten different times.

17th. — I have been better and worse this week — on

TAKE THE FIELD AGAIN.

279

the whole, very unwell ; in a great measure, through
my own fault. I was excited in the chase of a
broken-legged leche ram, which I struck at an incre¬
dible distance ; he instantly took the water, and I
swam five rivers in pursuit, having on a pair of goat¬
skin trousers, which struck me icy cold after the old
ram was bagged, and I rode all day in them looking
for the wagon, which I eventually found in a pit-fall,
having fallen into one when going through some
water ; they had to offload everything, but eventually
righted without any mischance. The Cape wagons
are wonderfully suited to the country, and will bear
any amount of knocking about, and the oxen’s gear
is so simple that we can, at any time or place, repair
all damages.

I suffered very severely for my rashness. I just got
to the wagon and beneath the blankets in time to
lessen the severity of the attack, but I felt certain
that if I had not found the wagon and had had to
bivouac in the open, I could not possibly have got
through the night, but must have died, there being
no wood to make a fire, and a cold, cutting, windy
night. I bought a goat, but it goes no way among
ten hungry Kaffirs. I have, however, paid off two,
as I found my establishment too expensive, and the
more rascals I have the less work I get out of them.
Yesterday I succeeded in killing two fine, very fat
cow giraffes, each with a single bullet, after a very
long, hard chase, in which, for three-fourths of the
way, I had only dust to guide me through thick

280

AFRICAN HUNTING.

mapani trees, the whole chase, without one solitary
open place. I and my horse were both beaten to a
stand-still, and I hardly know which of us took the
longest time to recover. We went blundering,
stumbling on the last 1,000 yards, all but down half-
a-dozen times, as I could not afford him the slightest
assistance, until, when I saw the trees were becoming
thinner and the leaves almost all gone, I scrambled
off instinctively, utterly exhausted, gave the gun
a little elevation, and rolled over the fattest cow
in the troop, with her long neck broken in two
places. I had previously jumped off and shot at a
large, well-grown heifer. I heard the cool 4 clap,’
but, as she bounded away at a tremendous pace, I
was not aware I had killed her. The Kaffirs, who
followed the horses’ spoor, saw the blood spoor, and
found her, not 200 yards off, shot dead through the
body, a little too far back. I lay on the broad of my
back fully two hours, I think, before my after-rider
ferreted me out, and his eyes sparkled when he saw
more than an inch deep of fat in a slit I had made
along her loins. We at once proceeded to skin and
cut her up, and we took the direction of the wagons
with both nags well loaded with delicious meat, and
three niggers staggering after us with as much as ever
they could totter under. I despatched four more
immediately on arriving at the wagon, as there were
still some three hours’ sun, for we had gone out early
to hunt, and I grudged leaving the meat on the velt.
I gave the other giraffe entire to the poor, half-

THE RIVER BEAUCLEKKY.

281

starved Masaras. Bad news awaited my return.
Leche’s former owners were at the wagon, in a strong
force, bringing back the old musket, broken, as I felt
sure would be the case after a few shots, and insisting
upon another gun, or his being returned. After a
long talk, in vain, I was obliged to give him up — most
reluctantly, however, as I had become quite fond of
him, and I knew the poor little urchin’s fate. There
is nothing but starvation and ill treatment staring
him in the face, but I can do nothing alone amidst
hordes of savages ; besides, I must allow that they
are this time decidedly in the right, and brought
back the last thing I gave in exchange most punc¬
tiliously. They offered to take another gun, but I
have only two left, both valuable weapons.

We bade a long good-bye to-day to the beautiful
river Beauclekky. I shall, most probably, never
again see it, as I am greatly disappointed in the
country altogether, from the great scarcity and wild¬
ness of the game, and the varieties, which constitute,
in my estimation, the greatest charm in shooting,
being few. Since leaving Natal this time, however,
I have shot six varieties new to me, which is in
itself worth the whole time, expense, and distance,
in my opinion. I am always on the look-out for a
new kind of buck, and make every possible enquiry
from the natives, and examine every kaross they draw.
Every man has his hobby, and this is mine, and I
have no one here to please but myself ; and, barring
the coast sickness, which is a little hard to bear, I

282

AFRICAN HUNTING.

could not pass my time more to my own liking.
Certain kinds of bucks are only to be found in cer¬
tain localities : thus the inyala is only to be met
with in the strand bush along the coast, where
it is very unhealthy ; then in the deserts other
varieties, independent of water, are to be got.
The harrisbuck and roan antelope are not to
be found on the Great Lake route, where,
again, it is the only place the leche is to be found.
At the end of this book the reader will find a list of
the names, in English and Kaffir, of all the different
bucks I have myself seen and shot ; and the nakong
is the only one of whose existence I am aware that
I have not shot. He is only to be met with among
the reeds close to the water’s edge, I believe, but
have never seen him. There are other varieties, no
doubt, spread over the continent, but I have never
heard of them, even indirectly.

Poor Leche was borne away this morning, poor
little animal, making the most determined resistance
in his power, as far as shrieks and kicks went. I
have grown very fond of children— black ones, for
choice, I do think— as one never hears them cry, and
they are as patient as Job, never ask for any food,
and are very quick in learning ; and, where a white
one would not leave his mother’s apron, the black
youngsters fetch wood and water, make a fire, and
cook their own food, run about, show no fear, and
lend a hand at everything, and sleep on the ground,
rolled up like a ball, in a sheepskin, before the fire :

FAREWELL TO LECHE.

283

I am speaking of brats between two and three years
old. It was a sore sight for me to see my little
manikin borne away ; I could not have been fonder
of one of my own. His large black diamond eyes,
with their long lashes, used to twinkle like stars ; and
his little teeth, white and even as snow-flakes, were
exposed in a double row as he saw me coming to the
wagon well loaded with meat behind the horse, and
he used to clap his little hands with delight, and
scream and dance again. He was a sad little ogre,
and I am afraid it was more for love of the meat
than of me, as, when I returned empty-handed, there
were none of these demonstrations of joy.

19th. — We are now once again fairly in this
much-dreaded thirst land, where the villainous salt
water has the same effect as Epsom salts. If we
are fortunate, we hope, with the aid of spades, to
obtain a sufficiency of this stuff to keep man and
beast in life, every second day, until we come to the
Bamangwatos, when I am going to take a different
course to the Merico, by a river called Hotowani,
■which runs into the Limpopo one day below the
point where we join it. The grass is very scarce and
dry, and all my oxen and horses are in very low
condition, two or three of the former almost
knocked up.

I must not omit to mention the ant-heaps in this
land, which are very extraordinary. They average,
one with another, from ten to fifteen, or even, twenty
feet in height. They are conical, very broad at the

284

AFRICAN HUNTING.

base, and tapering off beautifully. There is an
eternal sameness across this vast desert, and hardly a
head of game ; but, luckily, we have a goodly supply
of giraffe, and I am driving two fat goats along for
slaughter, whenever the former comes to an end.
Eight Kaffirs make fearful inroads into it, boiling, and
broiling, and baking on every possible opportunity ;
that is, whenever we have a fire. I am decidedly
better, but very weak, always feeling a great incli¬
nation to lie down, and the ]east exertion entirely
prostrates me. I sit in the wagon propped up with
pillows and skins, but my appetite is fast returning.
I have engaged two Maccalacas Kaffirs, smart, able
fellows, to go down to Natal with me, and am well
provided with good Kaffirs, which is a great thing
in treking.

31s£. — Caballa. — We are now within three days
of Machin, the chief of the Bamangwatos, but our
difficulties are not yet over, as I hear to-day we shall
find no water along the whole road. This is the
worst season of the year to cross the Kalahari desert,
for not a drop of rain has fallen for many months.
I have not, however, been treking all the time. I
have, somehow, lost two days during my illness, as I
know by comparing the age of the moon with an
almanack which I have with me. We have found
water five times since Saturday the 17th, and I
remained a day each time to refresh the oxen. Once
the water was only sufficient for two horses and
eleven oxen. Pioneers, with spades, went out a day

MORE DIFFICULTIES.

285

in front, to open the dry bed of a sand river, and
old pits that sometimes had water, but though they
dug down to solid rock they never got anything more
than a muddy puddle, half an inch deep. The
weather has been cool, with a nice wind, and we
made great way in the moonlight nights, treking all

night. I had the satisfaction of once finding water
myself. We were in great need of it, and I was
riding due east across the desert to water the horses,
if possible, for, even if they are not at work, horses
suffer much from want of water. I saw two black
objects in the far distance, which I took to be
ostriches, but, cantering sharply in the direction, I
found they were two Masara women, who, having a
heap of egg-shells in a net-work slung on their
backs, I saw at once were going for water. I made

286

AFRICAN HUNTING.

them show me the way, and I found a small pit in
the solid rock, about eight yards in circumference,
and about nine inches of tolerably good water. I
immediately sent my after-rider to the wagon, to tell
my people to bring the oxen and water-vats. Twelve
oxen drank it as dry as a board, and eight poor
beasts had to go without. It was a long way from
the wagon, and though I started at sunrise it was
sunset before the oxen got back ; we inspanned those
that had drunk and treked all night, the next day
and next night, and half the following day, when we
arrived at Nkowani, where we found abundance.
Three days after leaving the river Beauclekky, I
came across the Bechuanas — Wilson’s wife, Sechele’s
daughter. Wearied and foot-sore, unused to walking,
she was dead-beat and unable to proceed. I acted
the part of the good Samaritan, and gave her and her
brat a seat in the wagon all the way to Sechele’s.
The child annoys me greatly ; he is about twelve
months old, a sickly, pale yellow, having powerful
lungs, and an everlasting squaller. I don’t much like
such baggage, and she is attended with a retinue of
Sechele’s people, who, though they have bucks,
sheep, and oxen, will kill none, but live on me.
However, I can’t help it, and have meal enough to
see me to Merico. Some hard-hearted brutes, Mang-
watos, one night left behind them a little Masara boy,
who was entirely knocked up, to die of hunger in
the desert, or, more likely, become food for the
wolves and jackals. I heard of it the next morning,

RETURN OF FEVER AND AGUE.

•287

and, after rating them soundly for their cruelty and
want of feeling in leaving him — -at which they only
laughed, saying he was only a Masara (a dog) and of
no consequence whatever — I volunteered to go back
and look for him, provided that, if I found him, I was
to have him. To this they would not listen, and so I
bought him for ten rings of copper, provided I found
him, and rode back on the spoor to where we came
from. I searched lots of bushes and holloaed lustily,
and all but knocked up my poor horse to no purpose,
for we could not gain the slightest trace of him.

Over-exertion in search of food and water, and
anxiety of mind, brought on a return of fever and
ague, and I have been three days very sick, having
had no sleep, as it was necessary to trek at nights,
and the rolling, jolting, and straining of the old
wagon rendered sleep impossible. Yesterday we
remained here, and to-day I took the field, though
weak as a cat, and shot the finest bull eland out of
a large troop, heavier than the fattest ox, and we
brought to the wagon a goodly supply of meat —
enough to last me to Natal — but I expect these
hungry blacks will see the end of it in a week, at
farthest. All this time we have had sufficient water
for ourselves, being well supplied with utensils- — an
auker which holds nine gallons, a large water-vat,
an immense ox-horn, three or four calabashes, and
half a dozen giraffe bladders ; besides which the
Kaffirs carry the paunch of a goat, buck, or sheep,
and cook and eat the bag when the water is done.

288

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Pet Jacobs, an old elephant hunter, and a good fellow
in every way, was here where I am now standing a
fortnight ago, when the lions killed two of his horses,
and the other two, in their fright, galloped away. I
do not know whether he has found them again. This
is a heavy loss to him, as they were all salted horses,
and worth at least 200/., and the poor fellow lias
been obliged to turn back.

August 2nd. — I think this is the right date, but I
have quite lost my reckoning, and it may or may not
be so.

We left Caballa yesterday, my. twenty head of
cattle having drunk all dry, and not got enough,
poor things ; and we treked on to Letloche, where,
three months ago, I enjoyed a swim in at least nine
feet of water, but now it is only one deep mud-hole,
with a little drop of water trickling through. We
made a drain from the spring through the mud to
the only practicable place for the oxen to drink, and,
seeing lots of quagga-spoor, I stuck a white flag on a
staff into the mud to scare them away, if they came.
It had not, however, the desired effect, as the brutes
came and drank more than half the water that had
run into our reservoir. I was vexed with myself
that I did not sleep among the rocks and shoot them,
but I am too unwell to risk sleeping out in the open
air, and I was dead knocked up with a two hours’
chase after a troop of giraffes. I broke the leg of
a fine heifer at the second shot, but wishing to lay
in a good stock of meat, as I knew it was my last

UTTERLY EXHAUSTED.

289

chance, I did not stop, but re-loaded at the gallop,
thinking that my after-rider was sure to find her.
After a long, stern chase, I again came up with the
troop, and shot a cow above the tail, and never in all
my experience did I see anything go like her. At
the occasional glimpses I got of her through the
trees I saw she was bathed in blood, but she kept on,
and I could not gain an inch on her. At last, horse
and man being utterly exhausted, I tumbled off,
gave her a long shot in a clear, open place, and
missed her. She had led me directly from the wagon
into the mountains, among the klips, boulders, and
stones — ground that giraffes, when hard pressed,
always make for, as they have great advantage over
a horse on such ground. Leading my horse round,
I turned to take a last look at her, when, to my
astonishment, she was standing ; I re-mounted, mus¬
tered a canter, by dint of great persuasion, and, on
nearing her, she again went away at her long,
awkward, swinging gallop ; but this was her last
effort, she could only hold on about 100 yards, and
then stood, and I saw she was mine — so I rode along¬
side, letting her walk along to a shady tree, where I
dropped her dead with a bullet through the heart.
My after-rider was thrown out entirely, and never
saw anything of my first broken-legged oile, and,
there being no water, we could not stop to go on
the spoor, and I lost her.

I am now outspanned in a valley, my people dig¬
ging at a sand-hole in hopes that water will rise

u

290

AFKICAN HUNTING.

by morning. The little there was in the hole we
transferred most carefully to the anker. I hope to
get to the Bamangwato State to-morrow. I hear
Sechele is there, having just returned from Mosil-
ikatse ; the latter gave him, I am told, forty oxen,
forty sheep, forty goats, and lots of ivory.

6£/z. — I found Sechele, as I expected, at the
Bamangwato State ; and, instead of receiving thanks
from him for the safe convoy of his daughter, he
merely pointed to her and said, 6 That is my child,
whom an Englishman, your countryman, has thrown
away. I thought the English were my friends ; but
now I see they are just the same as the Boers, and
wish to make me dead ; and as they have treated
me so will I treat them.’ He told me that I must pay
his man, whom I had engaged for two heifers, there
and then ; and that, as I had no heifers, I must
give him two bags of powder and two bars of
lead, and do it at once, as he was going to inspan
and trek to his State. I did so ; and then he
ordered his people to drive, my horse Fleur to his
horses, and he should take him also, and let me see the
way the Bechuanas acted when they were wronged.
I could do nothing but submit, which I did, with a
very bad grace. My driver and his driver told me
that the moment Sechele was gone the Mangwatos
would unload my wagon and take everything, as I
had gone through Machin’s country without first
asking his leave ; and they begged me to inspan
and go with Sechele. The road I had intended to

f

DISTURBANCES AMONGST TIIE KAFFIR TRIBES. 291

go was stopped, in consequence of the Saltpansberg
Boers having taken the guns from four of Se-
chele’s hunters, and beaten them about the head.
Sechele told me I must not go that road, or his
people would assuredly kill me, taking me for a
Boer, as they do not venture to the wagon in the
daytime, but murder you in your sleep. In this
pleasant state of things, therefore, with the certainty
of being robbed of everything if I stopped, and
murdered if I went Kotowani’s road, I was obliged
to take advantage of Sechele’s escort. I found that
all these rows are owing to the war going on between
Moshesh and the Free State Boers. Mahura — a
powerful chief near Kuruman, on this side the Yaal
Biver — the Bastards, Griquas, Corannas, Bakatlas,
and a number of other tribes, have, I hear, all joined
Moshesh’s standard ; and the latter sent messengers
to Secliele and the Bamangwatos for their assistance
in driving out the Boers, of whom they have already
killed eighty. Sechele tells me he has sworn solemnly
before God that he will fight no more unless he is
first attacked, and therefore refuses help. I hear
that Scoonman’s men (Boers), in the Saltpansberg
district, surrounded a Kaffir State on the top of a
mountain, inaccessible, or thought by the natives to
be so, from all but one side, which was strongly
barricaded and guarded, and scaled it at night by
the help of rheims. The Kaffirs in the morning
were panic-stricken, on seeing the Boers on the top
of the berg, and great numbers threw themselves

292

AFRICAN HUNTING.

off. The Boers then slaughtered 1,000 men, 30
women, and 10 children, without meeting any re¬
sistance.

But to return to myself and Sechele. For two
days I took no notice of him, outspanning far off,
and avoiding him on every occasion. The third
day he came to the wagon. I did not salute him in
any way, or offer him a seat, or take any notice, but
maintained a dignified silence ; and he asked me
what my thoughts were. I told him I had thought
he was my friend, and for friendships sake I had
brought his daughter out of the desert, and treated
her in every respect as I would my sister ; and,
instead of receiving his thanks, he had taken my
horse, and left me and my people to die of hunger
in the desert ; that one of my people had already left
me on that account ; and I asked him whether this
was acting a friendly part. After a long rigmarole
about his reasons for taking the horse, he said that,
as I took it so much to heart, if I gave him a gun
instead, he would return the horse.

His ground for claiming the horse was this : When
I asked him on the road for two people to go with me,
he asked a horse in payment ; but I would not listen to
such an exorbitant demand, and told him so, and then
he said he hoped God would take care of me, as I
was determined to go without people. Our roads
separated ; and the following day a Bech uana came
to my wagon, and I engaged him for two heifers.
However, though Sechele’s claim was unjust, I was

MYSELF AND SECIIELE.

293

in his power ; so, after wrangling, and arguing the
point, till the interpreter left us to fight our own
battle, ultimately I had to give him old Burrow
(worth 10/.) instead of my nag (worth 30/.). I con¬
gratulated myself on getting off on these terms, as, I
must confess, I did not expect ever to cross Fleur
again. The Bamangwatos followed my wagon a
long way, saying I must not go away — Machin was
coming to trade with me, and wanted also to see
me ; and at last they said, if I did not stop, I should
never more come in the country again ; the path
was stopped for me, and they would trade nothing,
but take what I had from me. I was more than
half inclined to stop ; but my driver, who knows
the Kaffirs well, was very anxious to push on and
join Sechele’s wagons, which were a little ahead ;
and I had received such ominous warnings from
Puller and other Bechuanas, who lent a hand to
inspan, and were evidently most anxious to get me
away, that I let Kaffler have his own way, and get
away from the State as fast as I could. Sechele
told me he was my friend, and the friend of all the
English ; and if the Mangwatos had taken all my
goods and chattels, he would have turned back and
demanded restoration ; and if they had refused, he
would have gone to war ; but I did not know how
much of this to believe. From the fact of his men¬
tioning the thing at all, I am led to think that the
Mangwatos had some such intention, which I should
not have believed, had he said nothing about it.

294

AFEICAN HUNTING.

Puller told me that he overheard them saying what
they would do when Sechele had gone ; but I am
always slow to believe such stories, as I have been
among the Kaffirs of every tribe and nation for the
last seven years, and have never been actually mo¬
lested by them.

Lopepes Vley. — Last night the lions paid us a
visit, frightening Sechele’s oxen out of the kraal,
and killing two within ten yards of one another, but
a good way off from the wagons. I and twenty
Bechuanas, all with guns, had a long unsuccessful
hunt after them this morning, following the spoor to
within forty yards of some very dense reeds ; and I
feel sure they are safely housed there now. Sechele
and his men fired two volleys among the reeds ; but
I told him it was only powder and lead thrown
away. I bought about 100 lbs. of ivory from Se¬
chele, on pretty good terms, as I can make about
200 per cent, profit on it. This will help to pay my
losses, or his exorbitant demands. We intend to
remain here three days, to refresh the oxen, as the
road from here is very heavy, and we shall find no
water for three days.

8tli [Sunday). — I am now all anxiety to get to
Sechele’s State, hearing that the German mission¬
aries, who went down for their wives, and by whom I
sent two letters, have returned, and I am longing to
receive a batch of home news. It is now eighteen
months since I heard a word, even indirectly, from
my friends. As soon as I reach Kapong, four hard,

A BREAK-DOWN.

295

heavy days ahead, I shall leave the wagon, and ride
on, as I can no longer control my impatience.

Sechele makes a great show of being very reli¬
gious, saying a long grace before and after meat on
every occasion ; and he has been holding forth to
his people and singing half the day. He will not
allow a shot to be fired or any work to be done,
and certainly sets a most praiseworthy example him¬
self. He is most anxious to get home, but will not
travel on Sunday on any account. I cannot tell
whether he is sincere, or only does so through fear
of Moffat, a Scotch missionary, who has all the
Kaffirs under his finger and thumb, and can do just
what he likes with them. He has been living very
long amongst them, educates the different chiefs’
children, and has thoroughly gained their confi¬
dence.

Wth. — On the 9th, the hind axle of Sechele’s
wagon broke, but luckily not till we got to Batla-
narmi, where there was a little water at the bottom
of two deep holes, which we got at by means of a
ladder formed of a tree with several branches. We
lowered in the tree, on every branch of which was
a Masara, who handed up the water in a large iron
can, and we cut- a drain running into a sort of dam,
and by this means most of our oxen got a small
portion ; we brought them two at a time, and my
poor oxen had to go without till the following
morning, as it was owing to Sechele’s forethought
that there was any water at all. He had despatched

296

AFRICAN HUNTING.

messengers to the Masaras three days previously, to
open and clean out the pits. He came to me, saying
he was as ignorant as a stone what to do about the
wagon, that I must repair it for him, and prove if I
was really his friend. It was no use my telling him
I could not, for the Kaffirs believe all white men can
do anything. I therefore made the best of it, cut
down a branch of a camel thorn-tree ; and having
a saw, axe, adze, and augurs, put a bold face on the
matter, and put in a false axle, which will run to the
State at all events. A man never knows what he
can do till he is tried. When I left England, if a
man had brought me a broken-down wagon to put
a new axletree in, I should as soon have thought of
flying as making the attempt. Sechele looked on
the whole time, and proposed the most ridiculous
plans of making the axle secure. Amongst others,
he hit upon what he and his people were unanimous
in considering an excellent one, and they were highly
displeased I would not act upon their suggestion :
this was, to screw the augur through the false
axle deep into the old one, and there let it remain.

We have just had a very narrow escape of being
burnt up ; our road lay through thick mapani
trees, with tall white grass, thick and dry as a deal
board, on each side. Some one had set the grass on
fire in fifty places behind us and below the wind.
A stiff breeze was bringing it to us at a tremendous
pace, and we were enveloped in dense smoke. I
saw at length, some distance away, the red flames

THE BUSH OX EIEE.

297

breaking through, ancl soon heard the roaring and
crashing of the fire. There was an opening in
the bush 200 yards ahead, and I slipped a box of
matches in my pocket, and ran for my life there,
setting fire to the grass in a dozen places under the

wind, which instantly roared and tore away magni¬
ficently ; and the wagons, whipping on through the
smoke, had only just reached my friendly burn,
when the fierce flames came tearing up, crossed the
road instantly and burnt themselves out at the tail
of the wagons, for want of fuel. The ground, how¬
ever, was so hot that I burnt the soles of my shoes
badly, and the poor oxen in the yoke kept shifting
their feet incessantly. Meantime, we were all work¬
ing like demons, throwing sand on the hot embers

298

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to enable the poor oxen to stand. It was a critical
moment, and I don’t know when I have felt so ner¬
vous as I did then ; for, in case anything had taken
fire, we had hardly a drop of water to extinguish it.

The road is frightfully heavy, and this is the third
day that most of my oxen have not tasted water ;
only eight got any at Batlanarmi ; and though we
treked most of last night, in spite of the darkness,
I do not expect to reach any until to-morrow, and
we must ride all night to-night. Mutla has gone
mad, from sun and thirst together, and run away
into the bush. Matakit brought him back, strug-
gling frantically, and I have been obliged to make
him fast. I hope it is only a sun stroke, and he will
come round, his poor head being half battered in in a
dozen places by savage, barbarous treatment. I sup¬
pose his brains have only a slight covering of skull,
and Kaffirs wear no hats or covering for their heads.
I have been obliged to load up, for the second time,
Sechele’s daughter, child, goods and chattels, and half
an eland bull killed yesterday. We left Sechele’s
other wagon behind last night, a perfect wreck ;
every spoke is out of one wheel, and past my skill
to repair. He never asked me to try, his good
sense telling him that it was all but an impossibility.

lith.— Sechele’s State. — We arrived here yester¬
day ; found a large arrival of German missionaries
from Natal, no less than six ; they are active, ener¬
getic fellows, all tradesmen and good workmen, and
have in the space of six weeks, with wretched mate-

BAD NEWS FROM MERICO.

299

rials to work on, built themselves not only a good
substantial house with five large rooms, but really a
tasteful, elegant building, with a wide verandah on
three sides. They are clever, learned, well-informed
men also, and pass every spare moment in hard study,
in acquiring the Bechuana language, which is no easy
task, as they have only the New Testament, translated
by Moffat, to assist them. They are happy, hos¬
pitable fellows, and make most excellent colonists,
being able to turn their hands to anything in the
world. I found two letters awaiting me from Natal,
but none from England, so that I must curb my
impatience a little longer.

Bad news from Merico ; two more of my horses
are dead, which I thought were salted, and had
sold with a guarantee for 22 1. 10s. each, which
I must now refund. I have not heard the fate of
two more I left behind, also sold guaranteed. The
Kaffirs tell me that the war with Moshesh is over,
the Boers having made peace. According to their
version, Moshesh had by far the best of it ; and I
hear Mahura and Pretorius had a little target
practice at one another for a few hours, when the
Boers retired worsted, but they will tell a very dif¬
ferent tale.

18 th. — Hasfowl Kojo , or Vulture Head.- — Left
Sechele’s on Monday, the 15th, he presenting me
with three panther skins, a mean present after all
his promises and all that I had given him ; but it
is the character of the Kaffirs to get as much as

300

AFRICAN HUNTING.

possible from you, and give as little as they can in
return. My new false axle ran well to the State,
over a frightfully stony road, with a heavy freight.
I have shot nothing ; two hard unsuccessful days,
and my people are very hungry. To-day, by
wray of change, I came across a hole in the bed of
a river, with only about two and a half feet deep
of mud and water in it ; but it was crowded with
barbel. My fellows went in and speared fifteen
in five minutes, averaging each from 2 lbs. to 3 lbs.
weight, and some 4 lbs. or 5 lbs. ; but they were not
in good condition, and their flesh was soft. How¬
ever, we ate them with great gusto ; if so minded,
we could have killed at least a hundred.

A honey-bird took my Masara to-day almost into
a lion’s mouth ; he was within five yards ere he saw
him crouched down ready to spring. According
to his own statement, he showed good presence of
mind, shouting at once to the lion to 4 look there —
look there ! ’ pointing in an opposite direction, upon
which the lion stood up and did as he was com¬
manded, when the Masara made an expeditious re¬
treat. Living the life the Kaffirs do, entirely in the
open air from their infancy, and never having a hut
of any sort or description, such occasional encounters,
I fancy, are not unfrequent. I have been but very
poorly the last three or four days. I am totally
prostrated in strength, unfit for anything, the least
exertion bringing on profuse perspiration, and I am
suffering much from indigestion. I fear I shall not

ALMOST A FAMINE.

301

shake off the effects of this last attack till I can
enjoy a few swims in the lovely bay of Natal.

23 rd. — Merico Country. — I arrived here on
Friday night, and found all the Boers in Laagaar,
with all their beasts, sheep, goats, horses, dogs,
ducks, geese, fowls, pigeons, monkeys, cats, calves,
and children without number. There is hardly a
blade of grass to be seen in any direction — a pretty
state of things for my jaded hungry oxen. I there¬
fore lost no time in seeking a better neighbourhood,
and Dederick Knitse allowed my oxen to run on his
farm, which is about an hour on horseback from the
Laagaar ; and here I now am, and intend to remain
for eight or ten days to recruit my oxen a little,
and repair the old wagon, which has held together
so far marvellously. More bad news : my other
two horses were also dead, and I must refund 150
dollars (11/. 55.), which is not easily done. I find
everything uncommonly scarce and dear, almost a
famine in the land ; meal, mealies, slaughter oxen
or cows, and milch cows, are not to be had for
money ; consequently, my Kaffirs have a hard time
of it ; game there is none ; and I spent yesterday
(Sunday) in the Laagaar. The men are wuaried to
death from ennui, and pass their time in round
loping, drinking brandy and coffee to a frightful
amount, swearing and quarreling. One day amongst
men of my own colour, although I had been five
months without seeing a white man, was quite
enough for me ; but little real good feeling exists

302

AFRICAN HUNTING.

between an Englishman and the Transvaal Boers,
and still less their fraus, who are very bitter
against the English. However, there are some good
fellows ; and 1 must say that one and all have
shown me the greatest hospitality, notwithstanding
the scarcity of the times. An Irishman has just
been informed against by one of his own country¬
men for selling powder, guns, and lead to the
Kaffirs, which is the greatest crime a man can be
guilty of, in a Dutchman’s eyes. It seems the two
Patlanders, to keep their hands in, I suppose, had
had a scrimmage on the path, and the worsted one
had taken this mean revenge of informing against
the other.

I brought over the field-cornet this morning to
inspect my wagon, and see that the number of guns
tallied with what I took in. After asking many inqui¬
sitive questions, and rigorously cross-examining my
Kaffirs and Hottentots, he is satisfied, and has given
me a pass to Pretorius, certifying that all is correct.

3Ps£. — I am now on my way to Mooi Eiver Dorp,
where I intend again to rest my oxen for a few days,
ere setting out for Natal ; but I have managed, by
swopping and buying, to get nine fresh ones, which
will wonderfully assist my worn-out span.

Two bucks’ heads that I prized very highly
(harrisbuck and roan antelope), which I shot last
year in Mosilikatse’s country, and left in charge of
a Boer, have disappeared. He tells me the wolves
went into the house and took them away, and his

MOOI RIVER DORP.

303

story is corroborated by another Boer ; but I have
strong suspicions it was two-legged wolves.

The scarcity here is so great that there are hun¬
dreds of Kaffirs who must die of hunger ere this
year’s corn is lit for harvest. The poor creatures
would only be too glad to work for their food, but
they cannot obtain it, as every Boer has on his place
as many as he can possibly provide for.

304

AFRICAN HUNTING.

CHAPTEB VIII.

1859.

SICOMO’s - MASARAS - LAKE NGAMI - LOPEPE - RETURN BY

VAAL RIVER - ANECDOTES OF CROSSING THE TUGELA.

May 15 th, 1859. — I pass over the last eight months
of my life, during which I have been clown to Natal,
and completely fitted myself out for another hunt in
the far interior. I am now outspanned near Sechele’s
— three wagons, forty-seven oxen, five cows, five
calves, eight horses, six dogs, thirteen servants (Hot¬
tentots, Kaffirs, and Bastards), and two companions.
I am now ten weeks from Natal, and, so far, every¬
thing has gone favourably, and looks well and
healthy. Two oxen have been lost through the
Kaffirs’ carelessness, and six good horses have fallen
victims to the South African scourge, inflammation
in the lungs ; a few dogs have been run over and
killed, the wagons upset a couple of times or so,
and a few minor casualties, the natural concomi¬
tants of wagon- travelling, have happened, which I
pass over without more comment. The game has
been scarce, and unusually wild and shy on the
trek ; and the gunpowder not very straight ; and

VALUE OF HOUSES.

305

the natural consequence is, that very little has, as
yet, fallen to our rifles. We have always thus far,
however, had a sufficiency of animal food to supply
our own wants, and those of our four-footed com¬
panions. The grass is good, and yet, with but little
work, the nags are in very low condition.

I left sixteen oxen behind yesterday, in charge of
Cos Lindsey, Sechele’s brother. I was well treated
by that chief, and he not only threw no obstacle in
my way, but he offered me any assistance in his
power. I brought him up from Natal a large iron
bedstead, with mattress and pillows, as a present ;
and all looks favourable for a good hunt. The
Boers treated me well also, but tried to deter me
from going in by false representations, rumours of
war with Mosilikatse, Machin, &c., and saying it
was unsafe to think of venturing in ; but the mis¬
sionaries at Sechele’s say I have nothing to fear, and
that it was only a ruse of the Boers, to endeavour to
dissuade me from penetrating farther. My outfit has
been a very expensive one, but this year all my ap¬
pointments are good, and worth any day what I gave
for them. The outlay altogether is very heavy, owing
to the distance of the elephants, the size of our
party (sixteen, all of whom I have to feed), and the
presents I have to make on the road. But I fully
expect to make a good return on my outlay, if the
horses will only be so obliging as to live for a few
months. A friend of mine has lost both his horses,
and no amount of money can replace them here. I

306

AFRICAN HUNTING.

have sold an old screw to Sechele for nine very large
powerful trek-oxen, worth 50Z. We have charming
weather, good food, plenty of exercise and employ¬
ment, lots of change of scene, and are all in rude
health. We had a delightful rain two days ago, which
freshened up everything ; and although to-morrow
night we must bid adieu to water for two whole
days and nights, travelling three parts of the time,
still I do not anticipate any great hardship for the
oxen, as the country is good, the weather cool, and
the wagons not very heavy. To-morrow (Monday) I
hope to get a giraffe or an eland, and lay in a good
stock of flesh before reaching the thirst-land, as we
cannot work the horses there, on account of the
want of water.

The wagons are, to all appearance, as good as the
day they left Natal, and I have put a new buik-plank
and lear-booms on my old one, and freighted her
with meal and mealies for the horses and Kaffirs, and
she will, I think, hold for another journey. The far-
famed Kleinboy, of Gordon Cumming renown, forms
one of my retinue. He is a most amusing dog,
though incorrigibly lazy ; of no use, except as an
after-rider, though he talks largely of his hunting
exploits, and wants me to pay him so much for
an elephant’s head, instead of by the month, which I
have agreed to do. I have another old Bastard —
Kaffeta — a really good elephant-hunter, I believe.
My old Kaffirs, Matakitakit and Inyous, and Fanga
also, are still with me, and I value them highly, and

SICOMO PLEASED.

307

can trust them entirely. Ingunya, alias Mickey, a
sad lazy, independent dog ; Sconyan, a refugee, a
worthless, quarrelsome hound ; and Incomo, a really
good, useful, handy fellow, who followed my fortunes
from the Lake last year, compose my lot of Kaffirs.
Old Tebe, a horse-tenter, a willing, trustworthy old
slave, joined forces yesterday ; and Dirk Baffler, an
excellent driver, but otherwise utterly useless. Aling-
ton and Woodcock each have a slave : these, with a
couple of hangers-on, who do nothing, compose our
troop of attendants.

27 th. — Sicomo' s State. — Nothing particular to
record, with the exception of the death of three
horses — Mowba, Klinkfoot, and Little Fanny. I
grieved much for the last ; she was never beaten
in Natal at any pace, and her last exploit, the day
before her death, was being in at the death of a
fine cow gemsbok, or oryx, the fastest antelope in
the country. We have bagged three giraffes, two
gemsbok, three elands, and a fair lot of roybuck,
since leaving Sechele’s, where the lung-sickness broke
out amongst my oxen. I immediately shot the first
one which fell sick, and inoculated all the rest, and
we have had no more deaths at present.

I have made Sicomo some presents, and expect
him down at the wagons immediately. He throws
no difficulty whatever in my path, is much pleased
that I came to see him, and says he will be my
friend, and render me every assistance. I had hoped
to get a horse from him, but am disappointed in this

308

AFRICAN HUNTING.

respect. The Bamangwatos are great beggars, and
ask for everything for nothing, and have as yet
brought nothing down to trade, which does not suit
my book at all.

We got through the thirst-land admirably, the
weather being pleasantly cool. We made good
play at nights. I never felt the want of water so
little. The Masaras took us a good deal out of our
way, and excited our hopes by saying that a large
troop of elephants drank every night at a fountain
not far distant. We bent our way there, and
saw only old spoor; they had left with the last
rains.

My stud is now reduced to three — a woful
falling off. I left Natal with seven, and purchased,
at tremendous prices, four in Mooi Biver Dorp, three
of which I still have, and the fourth I have sold.
All my Natal nags are dead ; one ox is dead, and
two are lost. These are at present the extent of my
losses, with the exception of two sheep ; but I have
shot or traded nothing, so far, that will help to com¬
pensate me for them.

We are all still in good health, but very anxious
to get among the elephants, as the season is getting
on fast. I have preserved the gemsbok heads, and
they are now drying in the sun on the top of the
wagon. They are good specimens of a rare and
handsome antelope, fleet as the wind, enduring as the
giraffe, and shy as the ostrich.

It is intensely hot to-day, and my writing-desk is a

EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.

309

cask of wine, standing on its end. It is harvest-time
here, and the gorge is alive with women going and
returning with heavy baskets of corn, millet, pump¬
kins, and water-melons.

June 2nd. — -Letloclie. — We stayed at the Bamang-
wato State four days and a half. Traded a little
ivory, twelve karosses, fourteen sheep and goats,
and a few ostrich feathers. Heard that Mosilikatse’s
commando was on its way to assist Machin against
Sicomo, and that they were coming in two bodies.
Sicomo advised us to trek away as fast as possible ;
that he was quite ready to receive them, and had his
spies out in every direction, and a regular patrol
kept. I exchanged three cows and a calf for four
oxen ; one was very wild and savage, and detained
us a whole day, running away, and charging furiously
at everyone who attempted to turn it. I was mounted
on old President (so named from having been bought
from Pretorius, the President of the Transvaal and
Free-State Republics), who had the heels of the brute,
and avoided nimbly and well several savage charges.
We ultimately got the ox tied up to the wagon- wheel,
and all thrashed him, and inspanned him next morn¬
ing, and he treks well.

Last night, while I was absent enjoying a delicious
bathe in the fountain, the Kaffirs, in extracting some
tobacco from under my cartel, managed to discharge
my rifle in the wagon. The bullet went through
four double-blankets, a kaross, the cartel, a double
chest of tea, glanced along a pick, through a barrel

310

AFRICAN HUNTING.

of wine, and finally lodged in the upper lear-boom of
the wagon. The kaross is badly burned with the
powder. The wonder to me is that the rifle did not
burst, as it was lying on the bed, and the muzzle
must have been blocked up with blankets.

To-day we had a difference of opinion as to the
road to take ; my Hottentots all wanted to go
towards the Lake, but the Kaffirs were frightened to
death at the thoughts of going to Mosilikatse.
Incomo has gone back again, and has given me
his heifer for some beads and copper ; he has been a
real good Kaffir to me, and I paid him well.

I took the middle line bearing towards Sebituane’s,
or rather Sekeletu’s ; the Hottentots sulked consider¬
ably, but made no decided objection. I hear another
commando of Mosilikatse’s is coming in in the direc¬
tion I am now going. I would rather not meet them,
though I do not think they would molest me, but all
my people would bolt. The horses that are left are
fresh and well ; game is very scarce ; lots of rain has
fallen, there is plenty of water, and the grass still
green, plentiful, and nutritious. The oxen are in
good working order, pull together admirably, and
stick at nothing.

12 th [Sunday). — The poor oxen have had a very
hard time of it the last ten days, through heavy
sand and bush, without any running water ; the
little water we have been able to get for them has
been ladled out of wells and poured into limestone
basins ; and on one occasion we had to draw every

CHOICE OF ROUTES.

311

drop of water from an extraordinary natural well,
some thirty-five feet down to the water. Since leaving
Letloclie, we have got water at Nkowani and Mahac-
can, a Maccalacas post, under Sicomo, Kasir chief, and
at Ramaqua — green, slimy stuff. There was, however,
delicious water at Massouey, a fountain pure as crystal,
where we first saw the Great Salt-pan, and a magni¬
ficent piece of scenery exactly resembling the sea
coast ; it was difficult to imagine oneself so far in the
interior. We measured a tree called Cream of Tartar,
sixty-one feet round the bole ; but there are many
very much larger.

A troop of half-starved Maccalacas followed us,
and we shot three giraffes for them. Six of them
volunteered to go on to show us the waters, but
they lost themselves yesterday, and took us in a
regular circle ; we at length got to some brackish salt
stuff, near the Great Salt-pan. We left the Great
Lake road some days ago, and have carved out a
route for ourselves. The country is very dry here ;
scrubby mapani trees, and a great scarcity of game,
which I attribute to the want of water, and dryness
of the grass. We came to some new burns the other
day, where the grass was green and sweet, and found
a great variety of game, but, after missing some
gemsbok, we contented ourselves with bringing two
elands to the wagons. No sign as yet of elephants ;
they are a weary way off, to be sure, but I hope this
week to make the acquaintance of one or two. I
am sorry to say the people about Mangwatos were

312

AFRICAN HUNTING.

great thieves. We miss now many things that
cannot be replaced, amongst others my bullet-ladle,
the loss of which puts me out a good deal. I have
converted an old iron spoon into a sort of ladle, and
it serves for a makeshift. The tumbler of one of my
guns is also broken, and my large nipple-screw and
small hand-vice are stolen. I hear the sickness is this
year very severe ; in fact, at the Lake they think it
is going to sweep them all off the face of the earth.
I was in sad tribulation about Gyp and Juno the
other day. They lost themselves in the thirst-land,
as they remained by a wildebeest I had shot, but
they made their way by wonderful instinct back to
the wagon during the night.

I have twenty-five or twenty-six mouths to feed
every day, and the wagons get most perceptibly
lighter; the stores vanish like wild-fire. I never see my
imp of a cook but something is 4 cadan ’ (no more) ; it
is fearful work, and I get but little out of the ruffians
to compensate for it. We have so far had more
than a sufficiency of everything, but, owing to the
extravagance of the Hottentots, who have no thought
for the future, I foresee hard times coming, and must
take my share in the scarcity. Coffee and tea with¬
out milk or sugar, meat, mutton and game of all sorts
without bread or bread-stuff, not even rice, mealies,
or Kaffir corn, is the fare I have to look forward to,
and I cannot prevent it ; but we shall not starve
altogether as long as powder and lead hold out, and
one nag is capable of exertion. I have no thought

HOW WE FIND WATER.

313

of returning till I have got a goodly lot of teeth
together.

I am sorry now that I was induced to change my
route, as Kleinboy told me Swartz lost twenty-four ,
oxen last year, after crossing the river Guia, by a
small poisonous bush, with which all the country
is covered, and which the oxen eat voraciously ;
but whether the rascal lies or not I cannot say. We
have been bearing too much to the west the last few
days to please me, but, immediately on crossing this
vast pan, which I hope to do in two days, I shall hold
north towards the country of Sekeletu.

29 th. — Since writing up the journal last, we have
been coming NW. and lately NE. We were at one
time all but done for want of water. We had pressed
into the service a Masara woman, to show us the
water, necessity having no law ; and, though she
stepped out in good style before the wagons for
hours and hours without intermission, she at last, at
the end of the third day, acknowledged she was lost.
She said she only recollected to have been at the
fountain once before, and that was when she was a
child. She was delighted with a present of beads
and a handkerchief, and last not least in her estima¬
tion, as much dried meat as she could stagger
under. In this emergency I saddled up to try and
capture another. We are obliged to go about it very
cautiously ; no shots fired, no whip cracking, for fear
of alarming any chance straggler. When first
sighted the men generally run, and the women hide

314

AFKICAN HUNTING.

until they fancy you have seen them, when they
leave everything they may have and run as game as
a fox, doubling, turning, and twisting until our
admirably-trained horses’ noses are alongside their
ears over their shoulders, when they first give in and
supplicate for their lives ; but on finding they are not
going to be hurt they generally follow readily through
fear, which, however, soon wears off on better ac¬
quaintance. On arriving at camp they are set down
to lots of flesh, and they soon make themselves at
home, and rarely attempt running away again. We
succeeded in getting another Masara to supply the
woman’s place ; he brought us somewhere near a
fountain, but having only been there once before, he
also got astray in his reckoning, and on the afternoon
of the fourth day said he was totally at a loss where
the fountain lay. Boy and Baffeta saddled up to go in
quest : I had had a severe kick on the calf of the leg
in the morning from an ox, which disabled me from
riding or walking. To our great joy, Boy found the
fountain very cleverly several miles farther off, and
after refreshing himself and his steed he brought us
the joyful tidings, and though it was quite dark before
we arrived, his instinct took us straight to the place.
It was impossible that the oxen could have held out
much longer ; a few were quite exhausted. It proved
to be delicious water, and more than enough of it
for all; here we stayed three days, to refresh the oxen,
and look up Masaras or Bushmen to show us the way
to more water, being determined not to leave our

A DAY WITH THE ELEPHANTS.

315

lovely fountain till we had some idea of the direction
in which we were likely to find more. One morning,
just before daylight, we heard a lion coming slowly
to the water with his low, subdued kind of mur¬
muring, and, ere I could get ready, Kleinboy and
January, the foremost at every game, good and bad,
had sneaked down with their guns to wish him good
morning. They found him drinking, and missed him
with three barrels, and I was just in time to see him
scouring across the open. We had a long ride the
following day in quest of Masaras, and at length Boy’s
sharp eyes spied a kraal a long way off, and we
galloped our utmost to surround and cut off the
retreat of the inmates, and nearly frightened to
death an old man and a parcel of children ; the
able-bodied men were hunting. We shot them
three springbuck and two quaggas, and we found
plenty of splendid water, and returned to the wagon
pleased with our success, as we could not have moved
without guides, and the Masaras fly like chaff before
the wind from the sound of a gun, the crack of a
whip, or any appearance of a white man.

I am now going to give you a short description of
a day’s sport amongst the elephants, which we came
to at last, going hungry and very cold for two days
and nights, as a sort of preliminary.

We started early to a vley to see if the elephants
had drunk, and took up the spoor of the day
previous. As they had not been that night, the
Bushmen, eight in number, followed it beautifully

316

AFRICAN HUNTING.

until about 1 A.M., when they got on spoor only a few
hours old ; the scent freshened wonderfully, and the
Bushmen hunted to perfection, their captain taking
the lead throughout, and being infinitely the best
man I ever saw. At last, the pace increased to a run,
and we took our guns from the hands of the carriers,
the spoor leading us out of the bush to the open veldt.
Here we had a short check. At length, the captain
took up the running again at a killing pace, stopped
suddenly, and pointed the elephants out to us. They
almost immediately took the alarm, five cows and two
calves, and crashed away. We rode between them
and the bush to keep them in the open, and my horse
and boys being much alarmed ; we came alongside
and fired, Boy first, from a long way behind, at the
largest cow, which he missed. I waited long for a
favourable opportunity, and at about forty yards off, as
they stopped and turned, wanting to make the bush,
I bagged a brace of cows right and left, both falling
to the shot like rabbits. One fell stone dead ; the
other, with her shoulder smashed, got up, went about
fifty yards, and died. Seeing she was mine, I left her,
and dropped a third dead with the first bullet.
Alington shot one dead also between the ear and eye,
and they lay touching one another ; the last, a small
worthless cow, took half a dozen bullets to give her
her quietus. Seeing spoor of much larger elephants,
Boy and Baffeta followed it, and I soon heard firing
in their direction. I galloped off, heard a crack in
the mapani trees, and saw two cows and a large bull,

ANXIOUS TO BE OFF.

317

and a great cow without teeth, keeping always
outside, carrying her head high, and as wicked and
' savage as she could well be. The bush was very
good, a moderate breeze of wind, which I kept always
below, but I had great difficulty in getting the bull out
from the company of the 6 carl kop ’ (naked head).
At last I went right at him, shouting lustily, and he
bore away by himself, and I shot him dead in two
bullets, both in the right place, at very short dis¬
tances. I heard Baffeta close at hand hallooing for
help ; he had a large cow at bay, and his bullet was
fast. I disabled her the first shot, breaking her
shoulder-blade. Boy still kept firing, and at length
he made his appearance with a bull’s tail in his belt.
Thus we bagged eight in about half an hour. A few
clumps of giraffe, a troop of tsessebe or buffalo,
or a white rhinoceros occasionally crossing our path,
with a small lot of gemsbok and a few quaggas, we
did not deem worthy of notice. After losing our¬
selves, and a very unpleasant ride in the hack-thorns
in the dark, tearing ourselves considerably, we got
back to the wagons again after midnight. Alington
unfortunately burst his gun, lost his hat, pocket-
handkerchief, and ramrod ; Baffeta also lost his hat,
but it was very exciting work.

I hear that Swartz is only two days from here,
and that there are a lot of Mosilikatse’s Kaffirs with
him, to prevent his hunting in Mosilikatse’s country.
Perhaps he will serve me the same. I am anxious
to be off, and am only waiting for the teeth, which

318

AFRICAN HUNTING.

I expect to-night, having despatched yesterday
about two dozen Kaffirs with axes to cut them out.
Elephants are very scarce this year, and bad to find,
or else I doubt not but we should give a pretty
good account of them ; my oxen are still fresh and
well, only poor old Freeman must be left behind to
die, as he is utterly exhausted from age and poor
condition. All the party are in good health and
spirits, and looking forward to having good sport
about the Guia river.

July 3rd. — We have heard so many contradictory
reports lately that I have been quite at a loss what
to do. The Masaras say that Swartz’s wagons, and
two others just arrived, are in charge of Mosilikatse’s
people, who will not give them leave to hunt at
any price ; and he is only waiting for the first rains
to send them back to Merico. What foundation
there is for these reports I cannot say, but it is
certain that there are very few elephants here this
year, and I have resolved to go in search of them
elsewhere, and began to retrace my spoor yesterday,
after having ridden to every vley and ascertained
that the elephants had changed their quarters. The
want of water presents an insuperable barrier to our
further progress due north. The bush is also very
thick, and the sand-hills very heavy. I am now
going due west for two or three days, where the
Masaras tell me that we shall fall in with more salt
pans and large vleys of water where elephants drink,
and there is a chance of getting, at all events, one
battue at them.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL.

319

I have been rewarded for the great precautions I
took to get well-seasoned wood for my wagons in
Natal, for they hold together admirably. The wagons
built at Natal are not usually considered good, as the
climate there is so moist that wood never becomes
thoroughly seasoned, and in the dry air of the interior
they are very apt to fall to pieces ; even an old sea¬
soned gun-stock will shrink, and the fittings become
too large. A whole troop of Maccalacas, and who are
now loaded to the ground with meat, intend taking
themselves back to-morrow, and have been endea¬
vouring to persuade the Masaras not to show us any
more water. The latter are starving with hunger, and
are only too glad of the chance of going with us, so
that good comes out of evil. I watched by the fountain
last night to try and shoot a rhinoceros for them, but
it was so intensely cold I could not endure it.
Several hyenas came very close, and looked in at
me within six or seven yards. I was sorely tempted
to shoot, and should have done so, but my gun was
in the holster. A lot of quaggas and zebras came
from below wind and galloped off, much alarmed ;
the old patriarch, however, was not so easily fright¬
ened, and came to make himself sure of the danger,
when I put a bullet through him at about sixty
yards, killing him on the spot. I then made for the
wagons as fast as legs could carry me, fairly starved
out. The Masaras went down to keep off the wolves,
jackals, and hyenas, taking plenty of fire with them.
This morning I had the mortification to hear that two
white rhinoceros came immediately after I had left.

320

AFRICAN HUNTING.

JSTot being able to take the latitude and longitude,
I do not know where we are, but, judging from the
inquiries I have made as to the distance from other
places, I should say we were about 19° S. and 25° E.

9 th. — No elephants yet. The Masaras will not tell
us where to find them, or show us the water, or any¬
thing, having been threatened by Sicomo, their master,
with death if they give the least assistance to any
hunters. We are now outspanned by a stone foun¬
tain, and have had a regular morning’s quarrying with
picks and heavy stones, hurled with all our might to
break up the rocks under which the spring is, and
we have succeeded so well that I think most of the
oxen will be able to get a little, which will be of in¬
estimable service to them, as the country is very
heavy, and the grass dry ; we have a long day’s trek
without a drop before us, and the weather in the
day-time is intensely hot.

Denny, a remarkably fine mare, has fallen into a
hopo or pit-fall of the Kaffirs, and got staked. We
got her out immediately, extracted the stake, and I
sewed up the wound, made and buckled a circingle
very tightly round the body, and kept up a constant
fomentation to reduce the inflammation, all to no
purpose ; she died in great agony a few hours after¬
wards ; her groans, poor thing, were heartrending. I
gave 45 guineas for her two months ago ; but, luckily
thinking her too big, exchanged her with Alington
for the hunt, so that, though the loss ultimately falls
on me, it has not inconvenienced me much, for the

FEAE OF THE TSETSE.

321

present. The country is almost devoid of game of
any value, zebras and blue wildebeests being the only
varieties. I shot an old bull giraffe three days ago,
about the last of his race in these parts.

Kleinboy and old Tebe each found a tooth yester¬
day near an old Kaffir State, where we outspanned ;
one in a tree, the other buried. The former is a very
fine one, about 7 0 lbs. or more, and in excellent pre¬
servation, having only been killed very lately. We
have come to some Masaras to-day, who, though old
in years, never saw sheep before, and expressed great
wonder at their tameness ; one old woman followed
them about for more than an hour. There is not one
of my party, unfortunately, who can understand them,
so that we can glean no intelligence or information of
them. We have two Masaras who have undertaken
to show us elephants for a consideration, which is to
be forthcoming when their part of the agreement is
fulfilled, and we are now on our way to the vley at
which they say they drink, and were never yet
hunted ; but now I am in fear and tribulation of
falling in with the tsetse, which will kill all our horses
and oxen, and leave us in a pretty fix.

Yltli. — It may be the 24th for what I know, but
it is Sunday ; our timekeeper, Woodcock, is asleep,
having been watching by the fountain all night with
the utmost patience, but nothing came except wolves,
and quaggas, and Masaras. All is as usual, but we
have been fortunate enough to find elephants once
more, and, considering the fearful hack-thorn bush

Y

322

AFRICAN HUNTING.

in which we found them, and a mistake in not
having the dogs fast, we gave a pretty fair account of
them — three bulls, mine a very large one, with teeth
at least 70 lbs. each. We treked three days to the
fountain at which they were said to drink, out-
spanned below the wind, at least 1,000 yards off,
and kept all quiet, and to our joy they came, and we
heard them screaming and drinking for a long time.

We had a hasty cup of coffee at daybreak, and
took the spoor from the water and followed it for
about three hours through dense hack-thorns. The
ground was very hard, and the spoorers were often
thrown out. At last, I heard old Gyp far ahead,
fighting with one. We took our guns from the
Masaras and made the best of our way thither. Gyp
brought him right back to the men on foot, and they
gave him four barrels as he went broadside past ; I
then got alongside and gave him two good shots,
both vital, when he stood at bay and we finished him
with a volley. I then heard another shot ahead, and
made what speed I could in that direction, when
I shortly came on a fine old bull, with ]ong heavy
teeth, coming from the shot. I struck him just
behind the shoulder, when he immediately charged
at a tremendous pace. I had to ride hard always
below wind, and seek the best path I could,
and very small time was allowed me for con¬
sideration. He kept up the chase fully 500 yards.
I rode in a half circle, and at length he stopped
suddenly, greatly to my satisfaction, and immediately

ELEPHANTS.

323

crashed through the thickest of the bush in an op¬
posite direction. Fearful of losing him, I dashed
after him, though I had no time to reload. When
he found this was the case, he turned, elevating his
enormous fanlike ears, and I expected every moment
another desperate charge, as I was not more than
thirty-live yards from him. My horse behaved well,
and I reloaded, when he again made off. I followed,
and gave him two more good shots ; I would not lire
till he gave me a good chance, and I saw he was
mine, as the blood flowed from his trunk, and all
charging was taken out of him ; still it took me some
nine more bullets to finish him. Alington came up
shortly and helped me. Baffeta killed a young bull
in six shots. Boy never saw one at all, and was in a
great taking about the dogs not having been made
fast, as he said, 4 Who knows what beautiful teeth they
drove away P ’ I shot a line cow roan antelope the
other night, watching a fountain — a most agreeable
surprise, as in the uncertain light I took it to be a
blue wildebeest. We are within a few hours of the
river Tamalakarni, which runs from Sebituane’s into
the Zouga, two days east of the Great Lake, and I
think we are at about an equal distance from the Lake
and from Sebituane’s, somewhere about Mababe. I
hear that farther on, at Tamalakarni, we shall find
leches and nakong, the only buck in Africa I have not
shot, and whose acquaintance I long to make.

19 ih. — Our poor horses had the saddles on their
backs the whole of yesterday, from before sunrise

324

AFRICAN HUNTING.

till sunset. We rode a weary way, and I had given
up all hopes of elephants, when January hit off
the fresh spoor of two old bulls in the middle of
very dense bush, followed it up fast and well, and
in ten minutes he gave signs that he saw them. I
made all speed towards him, when I saw a large bull
standing under a tree with ears erected ; just then a
Kaffir gave him a shot, grazing his trunk, and, as he
turned to make off, I was ready, and gave him an ex¬
cellent shot through the lungs. He bore away very
fast, and the bush was so thick that it was as much
as I could do to keep him in sight ; he had gone
about 400 yards, when he stood, just as I was about
to fire again. I perceived him staggering, and my
second bullet took him in the very act of falling.
His teeth were very good, 7 0 lbs. each. The rest of
the party rode hard, but never saw his companion,
though we found his spoor shortly after, but he got
away free. I wanted to reach the river, but the Masa-
ras said it was too far, and they should die of thirst
before they came there, and so, very unwillingly, we
rode back to the wagons, as we had our blankets,
salt, and all prepared for our bivouacking.

22 nd. — I am all alone at the wagon, the rest of
the party being dispersed in every direction, some
trying to get and hold the spoor of my horse, Beads¬
man, which has strayed away with a brute of
Sicomo’s, and has not since been heard of ; some
seeking elephant spoor ; three are gone to draw
water some ten miles in a sledge which I made

ALONE AT THE WAGON.

325

yesterday, as the elephants stand so far off
from the water that it is impossible to get back
the same day, and the want of water plays more
mischief with the horses than several days under the
saddle. I have therefore come on with one wagon
ten miles nearer to their standing-place, and left the
other two, and all the oxen, at the old place near the
stone fountain. It is now the depth of winter, and
the grass is as dry as old tinder, without .the slightest
nourishment in it. As a natural consequence, the oxen
are as lean as rakes, and, worst of all, the mealies
and Kaffir corn are finished, and no more is to be
had at any price, so that we cannot long hold out
under these circumstances. I grieve much for the
poor willing horses, thirteen or fourteen hours under
the saddle, at foot’s pace, in a broiling sun three-
fourths of the time, then tied up to the wagon without
food, and stinted in their allowance of water, which
we have to draw ten miles, at least, half the way
through hack-thorns over a stony ground. These
are amongst the hardships we must undergo to get
elephants ; they are dearly paid for, and we cannot
even indulge in the luxury of a good wash, after a
fearful day’s toil and dust.

We set off, a strong muster, two days ago, to hunt
part of the forest in which the elephants stand, and
had not gone 300 yards from the wagon when
January hit off the fresh spoor of an old bull,
followed it ten times better than the best blood¬
hound over all kinds of country, hard and soft, lots of

326

AFRICAN HUNTING.

open plains, and dense 6 vac nm bechis,’ at a rattling
pace, without an instant’s check, hour after hour, ex¬
pecting every minute to come on him, and cantering
on to the rises, hoping to see him in the open before
us. At length, January picked up another bull, and
they joined company, still holding right away. At
last we saw them far ahead, two old bulls ; they
almost immediately got our wind and took right
away. We should never have seen them, only, luckily,
the bush was thin. It was a headlong race who
should get them, and Raffeta and myself had the
honour, my horse having the heels of all, very closely
followed by old President, who is the gamest old
horse I ever possessed. We each took one, and
Alington and I slew mine quickly, and then we went
to the assistance of Raffeta and Boy, who had done
little towards giving theirs his quietus. The horses
would not stand, and the elephant ran so hard
that we were some time in settling him. The top of
my powder-flask came off, and the powder was all
loose in my pocket, and I loaded haphazard by
the handful of fine powder. I gave him the final
shot, with, I should say, about twelve drachms of
powder, and down came the elephant with a des¬
perate crash, his near shoulder-blade smashed to
atoms. The excitement was so great that I did not
feel the gun recoil in the least, though afterwards
I found my fore finger half broken and my right
cheek covered with blood. My bull charged con¬
stantly, and I kept galloping round in small circles,

KAFFIR INSTINCT.

327

letting him come very near when he looked inclined
to give up the chase; thus, with faint hopes of eventu¬
ally catching me, he exhausted himself, and fell an
easy prey. This cannot always be done, however,
but the bush in which we got them was very light,
and well adapted for the fun. Both elephants had
very fine teeth, 250 lbs., at least, in all. Kow came
the tug of war, getting back again. I lent Woodcock
my horse, and, feeling in high spirits and good con¬
dition, took to walking for eight or ten miles, when
Alington gave him a lift ; the footmen were dead beat,
Baffler knocked up, and fell down dizzy and done.
Woodcock struggled on manfully to within 1,000
yards of the wagon, when Alington again lent him his
horse. January, one of Pharaoh’s lean kine, was out
and out the freshest man of the party. We straggled
back by ones and twos soon after dark, but should
never have found the wagons had it not been for the
wonderful instinct of January, who is the finest hand
at a spoor I ever heard or even read of. On reach¬
ing the wagons we fired signal-shots to bring up the
stragglers.

Yesterday, when I walked to the wagons and made
the sledge, I heard seven bulls had drunk the evening
we left. We saw a troop of giraffes and a few ostriches
and elands, but there is no other game in these forests.
I saw four rhinoceros drinking at the fountain the
other night, but, fearful of disturbing any elephants,
would not shoot. We have lived on elephants’ hearts
lately, which are really good, but I begin to long once

328

AFRICAN HUNTING.

more for a fat giraffe, or some more curried guinea-
fowls — a little lighter food, this warm weather, than
the mighty monarchs of the forest.

ols£ [Sunday). — Nothing but disappointment to
log up. First and foremost, we entirely mistook
our whereabouts : after a hard day’s trek through
dense bush, at length the long wished-for river
dawned on our sight ; it certainly was most refresh¬
ing and beautiful, but it proved to be the wrong
one — my old friend the Zouga once more, which
I foreswore last year for ever, on account of the
great scarcity of game, the quantity of hunters,
Kaffirs, and last, not least, the sickness. It was a sore
disappointment to me, and here we have been a week.
We have not been idle, however, as I have painted
two wagons, which had suffered much from the
drought, and Baffler has put two new axletrees into
the old one, and we have had a busy time of it.

I never saw anything like the number of pheasants
here ; thirty brace would be a bad day’s sport for one
gun, but our shot will not allow of more than
enough for our daily wants. The wolves and tigers
have been annoying us, the former eating up neck-
straps and the oxen’s gear. Last night, hearing tigers,
I set a gun for them within fifty yards of the fire, and
had only just supped when bang it went. I ordered
the dogs to be loosed, and we had a most exciting chase
in the dark, the Kaffirs carrying lighted sticks, and
setting fire to the grass as we went on. Gyp, my old
favourite, soon brought the brute to bay, and we

AN UNPROFITABLE JOURNEY.

329

hastened to her assistance, thinking it was certainly a
tiger, but it turned out to be a hyena, and, with the
help of torches to see by, we shot him ; his face was
shattered with shot about the upper jaw, nose, and
eyes. I am going to send one wagon to the Lake,
as it is so near, and shall hunt along the Tama-
lakarni as far as Mababe, if there is any sign of
elephants, and my present intention is, as soon as
the rains come so as to make the road practicable,
to trek across to Mosilikatse and try to obtain leave
from him to hunt next year. I am now convinced
his is the only country worth a man’s while to
come in so far.

August hth [Friday). — On Tuesday we followed
the fresh spoor of a large herd of elephants for
nine good hours, and at length most reluctantly, on
my part, gave them up. We had only two hours’
sun left, and they still going away into thirst-land ; the
sun was burning, and we had not a drop of water
except what the Kaffirs carried, which they drank
out themselves, the last of them being dead knocked
up. We had a fearful ride back again on jaded,
hungry, and thirsty horses, in a bitter cold night,
and we made the wagon about 10 p.m. Kleinboy
brought us back straight as an arrow, and we had
a little moon to help us. Since then I have been
completely bewildered with the most contradictory
reports ever heard, one man asserting most positively
that tsetse abounded a day a-head, that it was certain
death to horse, dog, and ox, to go even for a single

330

AFRICAN HUNTING.

night, and that, farther on, the Tamalarke, or rather
Tamalakarni, was pure tsetse: he had come far out
of his way to warn us for the last time, and now
the fault must rest on our own heads. In this
dilemma I had almost decided to trek back at once,
as the man spoke so fairly and so freely that I be¬
lieved very word.

He had hardly gone, when two Masaras came,
proving conclusively that there were elephants a-head,
saying that both bulls and cows had drunk that night
about four hours higher up the river, that it was quite
untrue about the fly, that they knew their standing-
place, and that we should certainly find them not later
than 1 or 2 p.m. if we started at daylight. I lost no
time, inspanned one wagon, and reached the Masara
State a little after dusk, and yesterday we took the
spoor from the water. We were off at daylight, found
them, bagged four, and one white rhinoceros, and
got back to the wagons, horses all dead beat. I shot
the rhinoceros through and through, a thing that I
have once heard of, but never saw done before.

The same day, I fell in with another large cow with¬
out teeth, which charged me most desperately and kept
up the chase for an incredible distance in the open, at
a pace that on myjacled nag was anything but pleasant.
I then made for the bush, but could not throw her
out, or get rid of her in any way. At last, I lost
all patience and gave her a bullet, which made her
scream again, and turn and blow in every direction ;
at last, she took herself off. I was never so glad to see

LECHULATEBE.

331

the back of anything in my life, as it was very danger¬
ous work on account of the number of holes, and the
exhausted state of poor Beadsman. Kleinboy and
I shortly after came across three more, and got very
near before they were aware, but a cow stood
between us and the only one worth shooting, and we
had a long chase ere we got a shot. My second
barrel staggered him, and in fifty yards he fell, rising
again, however, directly ; but thinking Boy would
now not have much trouble with him, and Beadsman
being quite done, I left him to finish him. I heard
so many shots, that I thought he must have found
another troop, but on comparing notes at night over
our camp fire, I learned they were all at this same one,
which got away after all. So ended a fairish day’s sport.

Lechulatebe sent messengers desiring me to
come up, or send him tea, coffee, sugar, powder,
lead, and a horse, saying there had been no
wagons there for a long time, and his State had
been burned down and all his stores destroyed.
I shall send to-morrow in boats what he asks for,
except the powder, and my people have instructions
to get as much out of him as possible ; but he is a
niggardly dog, and is accustomed to buy things cheap
that come from Walvish Bay.

9 th. — I am left all alone at the wagons, the
rest of the party having gone, some in boats and
some on foot, to Lechulatebe’s, at Lake Ngami. I
have made a last effort to buy corn from him for
our poor exhausted nags, and am afraid that I shall

332

AFKICAN HUNTING.

have but a dull time of it during their absence, as
there is no game whatever here of any sort. I
was obliged to kill an ox last week ; and were it not
for my little pet Juno, I should often come short of
both breakfast and dinner — the only two meals we
ever indulge in. I have just returned from a long
ramble amongst the thorns after the smaller bustard,
which we call here bush koran. They are most deli¬
cious birds, from three to five pounds weight, and real
game in their habits. The grass is quite white, and
so dry that it crumbles into dust in your hand, and the
ground is all cracked with the intense heat of the sun,
so that you would say there could not be a particle
of scent ; still Juno footed up three bustards to ad¬
miration to-day. They are very difficult birds to put
up ; they run like landrails, but, Juno once on the
spoor, no dodge or device whatever avails them, turn
and twist as they like ; she never requires either
checking or encouraging, but is as near perfection as
possible. I bagged all. These bustards will often run
more than half a mile. I have shot large ones
weighing over fifty-four pounds ; and a medium size
also, from fifteen to thirty pounds ; geese, ducks, and
every description of water-fowl, guinea-fowls, par¬
tridges, pheasants, snipe, and clikkop— a bird about
the size and plumage of a curlew, with a short bill,
also excellent eating. We can always get one sort or
another, so that our bill of fare presents a tolerable
variety, and anything much better than guinea-fowl,
roast or curried, and buffalo tongue, it would not be

BULL BUFFALOES. 353

easy to imagine. The word 4 sar ’ sets Juno off like
a greyhound, and she rushes headlong into the
middle of them, while I run and fire at any dis¬
tance to break them. When this is accomplished, Juno
returns and stands them one after another as steady
as old Time, and I can go on killing till a Kaffir can
carry no more.

10 th. — I saw a troop of old bull buffaloes in thin
hack-thorns, where there was no shelter in case of a
charge. I took a circle, however, and came at them
from below the wind, two only standing, and eight
lying ; they were very bare ; I got within eighty yards,
and one bull stood well and I took a steady pot,
hearing the bullet clap beautifully, but it was
Alington’s rifle, and, to judge from the report and
recoil, must have had only half a charge in. They
all tore away, and I should have given him up, had
not Juno taken the blood-spoor, and I heard her
baying him 300 or 400 yards a.-head, and when I
got up he was just expiring, the bullet in the exact
place and right direction. This will save one nag a
hard day’s work, as otherwise I must have gone to
shoot an eland or giraffe, for I have to support daily
eighteen hungry men. I could, had I been so
disposed, have killed four or five brace of pheasants,
thus making rather a good morning’s work of it. I
have nothing to amuse myself with but a pile of
Illustrated News , the latest bearing date 1856, but
most of them 1854.

13 th. — I never saw such a country as this is for

334

AFRICAN HUNTING.

losses ; you cannot reckon on anything, and live stock
is most precarious property. I lost two valuable
oxen yesterday in pit-falls, both breaking their necks
as they were going to the river to drink ; if it had
happened to a Boer, he would have taken two Masara
children in their stead, as we had told the Masaras to
open all their pit-falls and traps during our stay, and
they had neglected to do so. Old Tebe has been
fortunate enough to buy nearly two sacks of Kaffir
corn, so that in case of more elephants we shall still
get a little more work out of our used-up nags.

I went out this morning to solve a riddle which
has been puzzling me all night. Two Makubas
punted me several miles up the river last night by
moonlight, to lie in wait for a rhinoceros as he came to
drink, and, while doing so, we heard game splashing
and drinking below us ; the Makubas said it was
elephants, and we punted noiselessly and swiftly down
to them. Just as the boat glided by a fallen tree lying
in the water, I was ready, and had a snap shot at two
things as they dashed madly out. I could distinctly
see something very white about their heads, which I
took for teeth, but in point of size, speed, and all
other respects, they were much more like buffaloes.
The bush was very dense to the water’s edge, and as
it was bitterly cold I took a paddle and we went
right merrily back, assisted by a strong stream. This
morning, however, I could find no signs of any blood-
spoor from last night’s shot, so I took up the spoor
of buffaloes from the water some three or four miles,

A RIDDLE SOLVED.

335

and at last I saw an old bull buffalo 200 yards ahead,
and crept in on him, when I saw three more, and
Gyp, who had got their wind, going right on to them.
I saw not an instant was to be lost, and ran towards
them, when away they went a good 100 yards a-head
of me. I drew up, took the outsider, and saw him
instantly give to the bullet and fall into the rear, and
Gyp brought him to bay in 500 yards in a nasty very
open place. Now I knew I must kill him, or he would
do the same good office for me ; and whilst his atten¬
tion was taken up with Gyp, I commenced a cautious
stalk, but he saved me a good deal of unnecessary
trouble by falling dead before I had gone fifty yards,
the ball just below his hip, and driven right forwards
through the lungs. This fellow solved the riddle : it
was an old bull, without a hair on any part of his
head or face, consequently, he was a blueish-white
colour, as lean as an old crow, and about as good
eating, I should say. I got back to a first-rate
curried bustard, and feel happy and content with
myself and all mankind.

Sept. 24. — Great Namesa. — Since logging up last,
great changes have taken place in the establishment.
I have been up to the Great Lake, sold one wagon,
beads, copper, tea, sugar, coffee, soap, and clothes, and
with the proceeds have nearly loaded up a second
wagon with some splendid teeth. Two more deaths
have occurred amongst the stock ; the rest, notwith¬
standing the drought, have improved considerably in
condition.

336

AFRICAN HUNTING.

All my Kaffirs that I brought from Natal have bolted,
together with two others of Alington’s and Wood¬
cock’s. The merits of the case are as follows : the
road was frightfully heavy, and wagons were loaded
up to the roof with Kaffir traps, utterly valueless
rubbish, which it is almost impossible to get rid of,
as one or other Kaffir is sure to pick it up, and stow
it away somewhere snug. To remedy this, I gave
them the use of a pack-ox and saddle to carry all their
traps. The third day, unknown to me, the unfeeling
ruffians let the poor brute graze about for half a day
in a broiling sun without unloading him. I was very
angry, and told one, Mick, who had nothing in the
world to do (for I had too many hands), that he must
carry his own things himself. The next day I found
all their traps, old tents, and sacks that I had thrown
away long before, stowed in the wagon, so I resolved
to make a general clearance, and, being close to the
river, hurled buck and sheepskins, tents, sacks,
rubbish, and two of their blankets, into the river.
They immediately came to me in a body and said
they were going to leave me, and off they started ;
and their two companions followed them after dusk,
the immaculate Umlenzi, Woodcock’s servant, who
was supposed to be unable to do wrong, walking off
with his master’s double-barrelled gun. The five
Totties and old Tebe stuck to me, and I am put to
very little inconvenience so far : in fact, at present, it
is rather a relief than otherwise to be rid of them.
The weather has threatened rain, and some must have

CHRISTIAN CHARITY - NOT SLAVERY.

337

fallen in front, I think, as there is not a sign of an
elephant left along the river ; and I fear we shall
find no more now. Nothing but food has been
shot since I last wrote — some score or more, I think.
My share has been five buffaloes, an eland, two
steinbuck, and a quagga.

My two little Masara boys, well matched in every
way, sharp, handy little fellows, I have christened
Ngami and Meercat, and, so far from having at
all the character of slavery, it is an act of positive
Christian charity to barter one when brought to the
wagon, as they are poor little emaciated things, just
getting enough roots, reeds, and unwholesome food,
to keep skin and bone together. They are conse¬
quently all head and stomach, lantern-jawed, hollow-
eyed, gaunt and famished, and all look prematurely
old ; but the clear water of the Zouga, and whole¬
some diet, though it is flesh, without a change for
months and months, work a miracle in their appear¬
ance. Their appetite is tremendous, and I have
had to check the young dogs on two or three occa¬
sions from eating pieces of old shoe leather, worn-out
rheims, and giraffe hide.

Ngami, so called after the Lake, was a present to
me from Lechulatebe, the chief. I asked him what
present he was going to make me in return for the
many he had received. He told me he had nothing.
I said in joke, 6 Won’t you give me a Masara P ’ to
which he replied, 6 Oh yes, I will send you one down,
if that is all you want.’ Shortly after, Ngami made

z

338

AFRICAN HUNTING.

his appearance ; he was starved and wretched, and
understood none of us, but appeared vastly pleased
with his change of quarters, and made himself quite
at home directly. An uncle of the chief’s told
me he had just such another, that I might have for
some beads, so I sent for him also, as a companion
for Ngami. A regular Bushman this was, and I
christened him Meercat, from his resemblance to
the animal, a kind of ocelot. He was as fine a little
fellow as ever I saw when I last saw him at the
house of a German missionary in Merico, Mr. Zim¬
merman, in whose care I left them both.

In my ramblings over the deserts I have been
witness to frightful scenes of misery among the
Masaras, or wandering Bushmen. Once, I remember,
I came across a very old emaciated woman, leading
two little boys by the hand, about, I should guess,
four and five years of age, subsisting on roots,
berries, land tortoises, bitter melons, and anything
they could find, without a vestige of clothing or ha¬
bitation of any sort. I told my fellows to bring them
to the wagon, but she would not come, and I never
saw or heard more of them. There is little doubt as
to their fate : nothing but starvation awaited them.

Sept 30. — My Kaffirs have all returned to their
duty, and expressed great contrition for their conduct.
Baffeta’s* three girls have run away, and no more has

* Raffeta was a Bastard, a head man in his own tribe, an
experienced elephant-hunter in these parts, who accompanied
me to hunt and shoot on halves. He had lots of friends, as

A LITTLE ALARMED.

339

been heard of them. My two urchins, mere brats of
five and six years old, came home by themselves,
some fifteen miles, at least. I had quite given them
up, as they were with the three girls, and congratu¬
lated myself on my good fortune, which I attribute
to the good treatment the youngsters have always
received from me, as I have become very fond of
them, and they have acquitted themselves admirably
lately in retrieving ducks.

I have had a return of my old complaint, fever
and ague, and been quite prostrated for the last six
days with racking headaches, pains in the back and
limbs, loss of appetite, great nausea, profuse perspira¬
tions, and all the usual concomitants, but having the
most approved remedies at hand, I am now already
very much better, and hope to take the field again
in a few days.

We continue to keep up amongst us a constant
supply of flesh meat, springbuck, buffalo, quagga,
and leche, not forgetting to mention two fine
cock ostriches. I pottered round with Juno and
killed a heap of ducks and a few guinea-fowls, and
the Kaffirs kill a fair share of pheasants with their
knobkerries. The weather constantly threatens
rain, and is very hot. An old bull buffalo caused me
a little alarm to-day. I was sauntering along the

he was a good gunsmith, and very handy at doing odd jobs,
and they made him presents of all kinds of things, and amongst
others the three Masara girls above mentioned. I mention
this circumstance, as, on my return to the colony, I was accused
by one of the local newspapers of slave dealing.

340

AFRICAN HUNTING.

bank of the river, when I suddenly saw him lying
asleep in a thicket close before me. Gyp and Juno,
who were at my heels, immediately got his wind,
and rushed into him. He sprang up, stood at bay
for some time, then made a charge at the dogs,
passed me, and went back to his own thicket. I had
nothing but a small shot-gun, and shouted lustily to
scare him ; the dogs fought him manfully, but he
would not budge. I had no shelter of any kind, and
at length, after two minutes’ consideration, much to
my relief, he trotted off with the dogs in attendance,
looking back at me, poor things, as if to ask my
reason for not shooting him.

Oct. 3 rd. — Kerea. — We are now within a few
hours of Chapeau ; the weather is hot beyond all
endurance, and the flies torment us sadly, succeeded
at sunset by innumerable mosquitoes. Last night, I
could not bear a rag over me, and the mosquitoes
drove me raving mad, and will do the same to-night.
The weather threatens rain, but it won’t come, which
makes it so fearfully close and sultry. I have lost
England, one of my after-oxen, in a pit-fall, and shall,
I fear, feel the want of him very much. One wagon
has stuck fast in soft places twice the last two days,
and it was all that twenty oxen could do to drag her
out.

5^._The monotony of our journey was most
agreeably broken yesterday by meeting a party
of English, amongst whom were Mr. Palgrave and
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, who had come up from

THE LAST OF THE MOSQUITOES.

341

the Cape on a wedding- tour ; but as the wagons were
going different ways, and drivers wbll not keep the
oxen standing in the yoke and in the sun longer than
can be avoided, very little time was allowed for ex¬
changing news. Alington, however, got a handsome
supply of tobacco from Mr. Thompson, which was
almost worth its weight in gold to him. They were
on their way to the Great Lake, and from thence to
Walvish Bay. I had unfortunately gone out hunting
early, and the only one of the party whom I saw was
Dr. Holden, a Lancashire man, from Burnley.

What his object is I do not know ; he has two
wffiite servant-men, and travels with every comfort.
It is his intention to reach the Zambesi, if possible,
and then trek down and join Moffat in Mosilikatse’s
country. He will find his journey a difficult one ; he
appears to be but little of a sportsman, and a know¬
ledge of horseflesh and oxflesh, especially the latter, is
indispensable to success in an arduous undertaking
such as the one he proposes. We spent a very
pleasant evening together yesterday, and look for¬
ward to doing the same this evening. At daylight
to-morrow I must again inspan, and say good-bye,
never to meet again, in all probability.

12th. — Bachukuru. — We are well over a good
120 miles of our journey, having been highly
favoured by moonlight nights, and, since leaving the
river, cool evenings and mornings, and we cannot be
too thankful for having seen the last of the mos¬
quitoes. We reached the first water at Nekohotsa,

342

AFRICAN HUNTING.

brackish, and in very small quantity ; then, two
hard days and nights on to Lotlokarni, where we
found a sufficiency, and also enjoyed the society of
two English missionaries, Mr. Helmore and his family,
and Mr. and Mrs. Price, who are proceeding to Seke-
letu’s, on the Chobe, and from thence, probably, to the
Zambesi. Here we had a hard day’s work at the old
wagon, which sadly needed repair.

I killed one giraffe, just after leaving the river,
Hr. Holden accompanying me, and two giraffe cows
on Saturday. Mr. Helmore sent his wagon to bring one
back that I gave him. I found him a very nice man,
and I reluctantly accepted some preserved vegetables
from him — the treat, after bread and beef alone for
eight months, was too great to resist. This morning
we made Matchevi, a small fountain in the desert,
where we had delicious rain, but unfortunately it did
not last long. We are now at Bachukuru, where
we have at last succeeded in giving all the oxen
water, every drop having to be drawn in a bucket,
and poured into a stone basin, and two oxen brought
at a time ; it just held out, and not a drop to spare.

I missed having an excellent right-and-left shot at
wild dogs this morning, owing to my after-rider being
a long way behindhand with my gun. They were
great big fellows, and trotted away as coolly as
possible. Another ox, Charlie, has died of lung sick¬
ness, and three more that I left at Sechele’s, making
thirteen lost in all.

Another week will, T expect, see us at Sicomo’s,

HALF MAD FROM THIRST.

343

when our difficulties will be in a great measure over ;
a week more to Sechele’s, where the fresh oxen I left
behind - — thirteen of which, I hear, are still there all
right — will be of immense assistance to us in getting
to Mooi Eiver Dorp. The roads here are frightfully
heavy ; fourteen good oxen, pulling all together ad¬
mirably, can only just move on at the rate of barely
two miles an hour.

16th. — Cahalla. — Weary work : forty-eight hours
without one drop of water, and the heaviest sand it
is possible to conceive. The oxen fell in the yoke
from sheer exhaustion, but all contrived eventually to
get here, with the exception of two ; one is dead, and
the other has just now made his appearance. The
oxen were half mad from thirst, and there is not a
drop of water here. I had to outspan them and
send them on to Letloche, a fountain twelve or fifteen
miles ahead, and, after drinking their fill, they must
come back again to trek the wagons. I never saw
such a sight as this place ; there are twelve or fifteen
holes here, and by every one sit several Maccalacas
Kaffirs, watching and ladling out with tortoise-shells
the last drop of sand and water, as soon as ever it
rises half an inch. I reached here with the horses
late last night, and they got abundance of water ; the
worst part of our journey is now over, and I think,
by resting a few days at Letloche, we may reach
Sechele’s, without help. We overtook, at Nkowani,
four wagons belonging to Boers, the far-famed old
hunters, John Viljoen and Pet Jacobs ; they had had

344

AFRICAN HUNTING.

a glorious hunt, had killed ninety-three elephants,
and had ridden forward to Merico. They are
hunters of great experience, and know where ele¬
phants are to be found. They came across them in
great numbers, and got some splendid bulls, con¬
siderably north of my farthest point, where I was
prevented from going by the positive assurance of all
the Kaffirs, that I should not find a drop of water.
The most mortifying part of it is that I was in
the right direction, had surmounted almost all
difficulties, and was within three or four days,
at most, from their stronghold. They tell me
that it is a splendid open country, with plenty of
stone fountains, and that the elephants have never
before been fired at, and are perfectly tame and in
great numbers. I have no cause to complain, how¬
ever ; I must have nearly 5,000 lbs. of ivory in the
two wagons, and some splendid teeth. I killed two
eland cows yesterday, close to the wagon-road, after
a long, very fast chevy; they both fell from exhaus¬
tion, without a shot, when I gave them a pill to pre¬
vent their rising.

I am myself better and worse, sometimes able to
take field, and at others sick, weak, and helpless ;
altogether in a poor way. Some of us are obliged
to be out constantly, as we have such an immense
party to feed ; we have been treking all night, the
last three or four nights, and have done wonders. I
have been too generous with my stores. The Boers
had left all their drivers without coffee, tea, sugar, or

TERRIBLY HUNGRY.

345

meal, and I told them they might come and take a
share with my fellows as long as the stores held out,
and a few days have made an alarming diminution in
their amount.

19 th. — Letloche. — We had hard work to get here,
but we have found abundance of water, and I in¬
tend remaining three days to refresh the worn-out
oxen. One poor thing, Spearman, was unable to
reach the water, and we were forced to leave him ; he
came on in the night of his own accord, when a lion
waylaid him and made a meal of him. He got off
scathless, as I was still at Caballa, waiting the return
of the oxen sent forward to drink. My horses, too,
are completely knocked up, so we can shoot nothing,
and I was never so badly off for food before in my
life. My two favourite goats, that have followed like
dogs for 1,500 miles at least, were condemned two
nights ago, and one was butchered on the spot ; the
other has run away, but I expect to see him brought
back every minute, to share the same fate.

25 th. — Massouey. — I left Sicomo’s on the 22nd,
where I could obtain nothing whatever in the shape
of food from him or his people, though we were all
terribly hungry. A German missionary, lately settled
there, sent me a sheep and about half a bucketfull
of meal ; but there was nothing in the State, all were
crying out on account of hunger. The corn is not
yet in the ground. Everything is parched up from
drought ; there is no grass, and I never saw so little
water in fountains where I have always before found

346

AFRICAN HUNTING.

abundance. I do not believe a drop of rain has fallen
for the last ten months, but, from the threatening
state of the weather, we expect it every day now.
My favourite cow, Nelly, a splendid milker, died
yesterday of lung sickness. Not being able to shoot
or buy anything, I was forced to kill an ox on Sunday,
as my Masara boys were positively crying for hunger.
The day after, I killed two giraffes, and Kleinboy one ;
and we might, had the roads and wagons not been
so frightfully heavy, have laid in a stock of dried
meat that would take us to Sechele’s. I hope to
arrive there in about eight days, and do not care how
soon, as we are entirely out of all the necessaries of
life.

Nov. 1st. — Lopepe. — We have at length had four
successive days of glorious rain, putting our minds
quite at ease as far as water is concerned ; but the
cure is nearly as bad as the disease, as the bitter cold,
always the case when rain falls, has killed two oxen
outright, and the survivors are a spectacle. I have
been here a week, and in bed four days of it, the
change of weather bringing on a violent return of
fever and ague. I tried to trek to-day, but found the
roads in such a dreadful state that I was obliged to
give it up. Stores have long since been at an end,
and we are entirely dependent on our guns for our
daily sustenance. I killed three giraffes out of a
troop. It was very hard work, and I will never attempt
it again ; my horse fell heavily with me once, which
gave him, poor fellow, a good two or three miles

MISSIONARY BENEVOLENCE.

347

additional gallop. Alington and Woodcock have
brought three impalas or roybucks to the wagon, so
that, so far, our larder has never been empty.

I sent on two Kaffirs a week ago to Sechele’s,
to bring the oxen I left in his brother’s charge, and
expect their return in a couple of days.

My Hottentots, without giving me a moment’s
warning of their intention, all left me at night, at
Massouey, for no reason, that I know of, but that food
was at an end. It is a little harder work for us
now, but I do not in the least despair of driving the
wagons to Merico. I have purchased two oxen
in place of the dead and done up, and, though
unbroken, they now trek admirably. This rain will
be of inestimable benefit to the whole country, and a
plentiful harvest will, I hope and think, be the result.
In case of a dry season, the Kaffirs have no resource
but to seek a precarious existence in the bush, and
many hundreds die of positive starvation.

When food was so dreadfully scarce, Mr. Schroeder,
one of the missionaries at Sechele’s, brought meal
from Merico and made bread, giving each of the
baptized Kaffirs a small loaf on Monday morning ;
they then went into the bush, and contrived with
roots, berries, wild fruits, land tortoises, frogs, &c.,
nothing earthly coming amiss, to eke out a precarious
existence, with the aid of the loaf, till the following
Monday, when, if they contrived to exist, they got
another. There is one poor woman following my
wagons now from Mosilikatse’s country, saying it is

348

AFKICAN HUNTING.

her only chance of getting food, and she cares
nothing as to where she goes, and tries, poor thing,
to make herself useful in a small way, by lighting
fires and bringing wood.

I have had twenty Kaffirs from Sicomo’s, but eight
of them have to-day turned back, as I could not
attempt, when out of the hunting-ground, any longer
to feed so many. . There is, of necessity, great waste
in the food ; the large game is killed so far from the
wagons that it is impossible to bring half the meat,
and the vultures pounce down on it immediately
it is left ; and then the wagons are so heavy, and the
oxen so utterly worn out, that I will not load them
with more than sufficient for the day, letting each
day take care of itself. The Kaffirs eat like ogres,
but at a pinch they can easily go three days without
food.

I once saw a clever mischievous Kaffir lad, named
April, hide inside an elephant we had shot that day.
He caught two vultures by the legs, as they were
tearing away at the carcase, pulled the first inside,
tied his legs, and shoved him forward into the vacant
place where the Masaras had taken out the elephant’s
heart, and then proceeded to capture his mate.

The Kaffirs are very fond of all sorts of small birds
to eat, and, when they succeed in capturing young
ones just fledged, they generally pitch them on the
fire alive. I was once outspanned near some dense
reeds, on the Zouga, into which thousands of small
reed birds came and went, in the evenings -and morn-

TURNING DAY INTO NIGIIT.

349

ings, in great numbers. The first flight or two was
the signal for everyone to turn out armed with sticks
and kerries, in throwing which the Kaffirs are very
expert, and I have seen five or six cut down with
one stick, and some good bags made. There is also
a kind of social crosbeak which build large commu¬
nities of overhanging nests, like purses, on tall trees.
On outspanning for the night near these, my fellows,
soon after sunset, tied a fire- stick to the end of the
very long whip-stick ; the nests being dry as tinder
caught fire at once, and the poor inmates fell down
in numbers, half roasted. A couple of minutes’ more
fire was all they required, and they were considered
a dainty, being very fat.

5 th [Sunday). — I am now within one hard
day of Sechele’s, having got on by slow and easy
stages so far, though we were disappointed in finding
the water we expected. I met the oxen I sent for
yesterday, but there are only nine instead of eighteen,
and they are all as thin as whipping-posts ; most of
the remainder are dead from starvation.

I do not know what my Kaffirs would do, were it
not for the opportune deaths of divers oxen, which,
though so lean that they can scarcely hold together,
still manage to support life in the bipeds.

The days are so insufferably hot, we can do
nothing but turn day into night, and do all our
treking at night. A man that leads this life richly
deserves every penny he makes, though the lazy,
well-fed Boers, 'who never leave home, are jealous

350

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and envious of our heavy loads of teeth, and the lots
of money they bring us in the market.

17^/l — I rested the oxen six days at Sechele’s,
where grass and water were plentiful and good, and
even so short a space of time has improved them
much, and I am now at Lobatse, well on my way to
Merico, where I expect to arrive to-morrow night.
The old wagon has plagued me sadly ; she comes on
creaking and groaning like a ship in a storm. I
bought a muid of meal (180 lbs.) from a Boer whom
I found trading oxen at Sechele’s, which lasted my
ravenous retinue just eight days, and they are now
crying out again from hunger : this is without taking
into account three sheep, as well as fifteen or twenty
gallons of amasi (thick sour milk), a very useful
article, as it will make either cheese or butter.

The German missionaries treated us most hospi¬
tably. We lived at their table the whole time we
stayed at Sechele’s, and we thoroughly enjoyed the
treat of a few French beans and potatoes, and ex¬
cellent bread. Sechele has had great losses amongst
his cattle, and I got nothing out of him but two
young oxen that he never used. He complained
much of his poverty, and I believe he has but very
little, and most of his people hungry.

A hyena came last night, and took a fine heavy
fat goat, which was tied by the leg to the wheel of
the wagon I was sleeping in. Five Kaffirs were
sleeping under the wagon, and two horses were tied
to the hind wheel. There was instantly a regular

A HYENA.

351

hue and cry after him with assegais, fire-sticks, knob-
kerries, and a most unearthly yelling of dogs and
Kaffirs. They were guided by the cries of the poor
goat for some time, but no sooner did they get
there than 4 bar-baar, baar-bar,’ somewhere else,
and the strong ravenous brute at length got clear

away with his prey. At length, the sounds ceased,
the dogs were all afraid, the night was very dark,
the Kaffirs had no longer anything to guide them,
and the chase had to be abandoned. I grudged the
brute his dainty fare, for he had taken by far the
best of the three. I should hardly have believed it

352

AFRICAN HUNTING.

possible he was able to carry away at such a pace so
large and heavy an animal ; 7 0 lbs. live weight, I
should say.

Three of my Kaffirs are prostrated with ague, and
there was a great row two nights ago, some of them
accusing another of witchcraft, or poisoning the food.
The next day, however, the accused was taken ill, so
I have heard no more.

30th. — I am well away now from Merico ; come so
far, scathless, through the Boers. I have been de¬
tained longer than I expected, partly by heavy rains,
and partly from violent fever.

The Merico Boers are most hospitable, and one
and all treated me well, but I was too busy to go
and visit any but those that lay on my path. My
poor old wagon has come to an end at last. The
roads were so fearfully stony that she broke down.
After a couple of days spent in attempts at mending
her, I met a trader with a wagon nearly empty,
having disposed of most of his goods, and, after a
great deal of hard bargaining, agreed to give him
50/. in exchange for his, and we each off-loaded there
and then. Alington and Woodcock have bought
horses and have ridden forward to Mooi Biver, being
long ago heartily tired of the wagons.

I have had my rifle carefully loaded and am going
to risk treking through the Lion Yelt by moonlight
to-night for four or five hours, which is what the
Boers never do.

Dec. 11 th. — I am now outspanned before the

A SAFE GUN.

353

Yaal River, four days on my road to Natal from
Mooi River Dorp. I found there ivory at a very low
price, in consequence of the rumoured war, or some
other reason ; but I was obliged to sell part of my
stock there. I got 5 s. Qd. per lb. for 1,000 lbs., and
only 3 s. 6d. for 500 lbs. more ; but what with feathers,
at 11. 10<s. per lb., and a few karosses and rhino¬
ceros horns, I sold to the tune of about 430/., a
trifle more or less, and have still a wagon-load of the
finest ivory left, which I am taking to Natal, and all
the best of the karosses. I have become a trans¬
port-rider, and am taking in one wagon 3,000 lbs.
of wool and ivory down to Natal, for which I am to
receive, however, only 9,9. per 100 lbs.

The first of my difficulties is the Yaal River, whicli
is now full and may detain me here a week or more,
and we have lots of rain every day, and I hear all
the rivers ahead are also full, and I may be six weeks
on the road.

I picked up two German tradesmen, a mason and
a blacksmith, who begged to be allowed to go with
my wagons to Natal ; the latter carried a gun, and,
not liking the look of it, I said he must fire it off
before putting it into the wagon ; he did so, and it
burst all to pieces, tearing three great holes through
his hat, one in the middle of his temple, and burning
and blackening both his eyes, of course prostrating
him and deluging him in blood, and it was some
time ere we could pursuade him that he was not
killed outright. We washed him well, and doctored

A A

354

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and bandaged him up the best way we could, and
he is now not much the worse. I have, in all, now
sixty oxen, worth a good sum of money, as I could
make four or five spans of as good and well-matched
oxen as ever stepped before a tail, and I am now
becoming a little o«£-proud, and take great interest in
them.

I had myself two narrow escapes at different times
in crossing the Tugela. I was just recovering from
fever, when some of the party proposed a swim, and
we went down ; just before going in, I felt as if I was
about to have an attack of ague, but I foolishly
persisted. I had reached within twenty-five yards of
the opposite bank, when I got into some back water
and a strong stream, and could not make any more
headway, and was getting very weak and exhausted.
My companion, who had landed, called to me to go
back, but I was much too exhausted to make the
attempt. I was gradually getting farther off the
bank, the back water and stream running round a
bend, and should certainly not have made a landing,
when a powerful Kaffir, who had previously
challenged me to a race across the river, the head
man of a blacksmith, came up, put his hand under
my shoulder-blade, and forced me through the
stream with the greatest apparent ease. He did not
know that I was in such a fix as I really was, and a
couple of pounds of tobacco delighted him im¬
mensely.

I was crossing once, on horseback, when the river

NARROW ESCAPES FROM DROWNING.

355

was very low, about up to the girths. I was leaning
back rifle in hand, my feet foolishly in the stirrups,
on each side of his neck, when the horse fell over
some big stones. The stream immediately turned
him over on his back, and, on regaining his
legs, my left foot had got fast in the stirrup, my
head and shoulders were under water, and I could
just scrape the bottom with my hands as the sluggish
Kaffir horse continued quietly walking on, and I was
fast drowning, when I succeeded in grasping him
firmly above the knee with my right hand, raising
myself with my utmost strength, throwing my left
arm up trying to grasp something. Most fortunately,
the horse had a very long mane, and I succeeded in
catching hold of it : I thus contrived to keep my
head just above water, until, deliberately walking on
at the same pace, he landed. I had imbibed a great
quantity of water, and was very sick and ill with a
horrid dizziness in my head, and singing in my ears
for some time after. I lost my rifle, but after a long
search succeeded, with my companion’s assistance, in
recovering it.

I have never crossed a river since then with my
feet in the stirrups, nor ever will. My foot had
turned round in the stirrup, and my instep was a
good deal hurt. My horse was, fortunately, very
quiet, as almost all Kaffir animals are.

The Tugela is one of the most serious obstacles
to travellers, and I have had many adventures on
different drifts. I was once returning from Overberg

356

AFRICAN HUNTING.

with a covered spring cart (which I had made long
enough to sleep in) drawn by four, six, or eight oxen,
with a small troop of horses I had been buying. I
had fastened eight of the quietest to the wheels, four
on each side, as it was a very dark stormy night,
with a heavy rain, and I feared they might trek
back again. The rest were grazing near, when
those attached to the cart got frightened and pulled
back, the cart began to move, and this alarmed them
more, and with a sudden jerk they pulled it over on
the top of themselves broadside, when a frightful
scene ensued, all pulling different ways, and
struggling madly in the dark ; it was a hazardous
thing to go near them. At last, we contrived to
cut them all adrift, and they galloped off into the
darkness. We righted the wagon again, but it
was broken to pieces. At daylight we started in
pursuit of the horses, and being a wet, cold, very
misty morning, we were more than half a day in
hunting them up ; eventually, we found them under
the lee side of a large overhanging rock. We
inspanned and reached the Tugela, to find it flooded.
Fearful of losing my horses altogether if we had
another night of it, as there are many Bushmen (all
horse-stealers) in the neighbourhood, I determined
on getting them on the right side of the Tugela, and
succeeded in swimming them over among the loose
oxen in safety. The cart was a still more serious busi¬
ness. I had selected eight of my best water-oxen, and
after a long argument with my three lads, and hearing

CROSSING THE TUGELA.

357

what they had to say for and against the attempt, the
convincing argument at last being, if we did not get
over, we should have no supper, they agreed to make
trial. Acting on their good impulse, I inspanned
at once, every spare rheim being knotted together
to make as long a fore-tow as possible ; and the cart
being very light, for fear the force of the stream
should upset it, I put in some very large, heavy
stones for ballast, and Matakitakit on his hams
inside to keep them in their places. I fastened the
remnant of the sail down fore and aft, having
previously lashed all fast to the axle-tree to prevent
everything from going asunder, and having taken the
precaution to strip, and fasten money, promissory notes,
&c., round my neck in a small bag, I mounted the
box, whip in hand. Mick and Inyous took the tow,
and got some twenty yards ahead of the oxen, which
were standing in the water, as deep as they could
get without swimming. It was pretty good ground
going in, when I shouted 6 Trek !’ and away we went.
The stream carried the leaders down very fast, and
the oxen were gaining on the lads, the cart float¬
ing beautifully, and I thought all would go well,
and was chuckling with inward satisfaction. When
the front oxen had reached the boys, I shouted,
‘ Let go the tow, and get out of the road ; ’ they got
confused, stuck fast, and pulled the oxen round in
the middle of the stream, and just as the leading
oxen’s heads were within two feet of my knees,
sailing down with the full force of the current,

358

AFRICAN HUNTING.

seeing an upset inevitable, I took a header down
stream as far as ever I could go, out of harm’s way,
and turned on my back to see the result. The cart
had disappeared ; Mick and Inyous, seated on the
backs of two middle oxen, were going round in a
frightful state of confusion, and there was not a

vestige of Matakitakit, who was fastened inside the
cart, and I feared that, the cart being turned bottom
upwards, all the heavy stones must be on his head.
I tried to make up to render assistance, but the
stream was too strong, when, to my intense delight,
up came Matakitakit about twenty yards behind. He
gave himself a shake and a blow or two, and, though

CROSSING THE TUGELA

359

lie had previously declared he could not swim a
yard, he struck out, Kaffir fashion, as well as any of
us. The oxen got partly right, and we all got over
eventually, one ox only being drowned. I lost
everything that was in the cart, except my two guns,
which I had lashed very securely to the sides.

There is great difficulty, at first, in getting these
Overberg horses to face water, as they have never seen
a river, and I was once nearly all day fighting with
them at the V olga, and should never have succeeded had
it not been for some Dutchmen with a large troop of
oxen. I got the horses amongst them and got them
down to the bank, when about five fine powerful
fellows wielded their tremendous whips, with handles
eighteen or twenty feet long, and lashes in propor¬
tion, with such a deafening crack, that the hair flew
in a cloud from the back of any unfortunate animal
they chanced to light on, with such terrible good will,
force, and effect, that it seemed a scramble which
could be in first, and so out of harm’s way. They all
landed safely, and did not stop galloping till they got
through Harry smith.

I found the best way of driving was to have a
big bagful of stones round my waist and pelt them,
as many a loiterer will not let you get quite near
enough to thong him, and, if you press them too
hard, they run clear off It was very hard work
for one man, and I knocked up three riding -horses.

Another time, Claas, my after-rider, half Bushman
half Griqua, the very smartest fellow and most

360

AFRICAN HUNTING.

unmitigated scoundrel and best mimic I ever knew,
volunteered to take two liorses across. He was dressed
in leather, and mounted without divesting himself of
anything ; the mare he was riding swam very fast and
outpaced the other ; in pulling him along, Claas
checked the mare in the middle of the river, and she
fell backwards over him, and he sank. The spectators
on both sides were very much alarmed, and began
to make all sorts of surmises at his not appearing
again, amongst others, that he must have received
a severe kick on his head ; when at length, full
forty yards below in the middle of the river, that imp
of darkness just showed his black head like a dog-
otter, took off a kind of skull cap and waved it a time
or two as a signal of distress, and then went down
again, and kept on this game, coming to the surface
sometimes with a struggle and a gurgle, and throw¬
ing his arms wildly about as if he was drowning, as
far as the bend of the river, full 400 yards below
where he first landed. I never saw so finished an
actor in my life, or such a water-dog, and he was
equally good at everything else.

He and his mate David were a pretty pair. I was
once going to the Hantani district, to buy horses,
and took them to help me drive them home. On
reaching Bloemfontein, David commenced by getting
married ; I did not see his bride, and he did not
leave me owing to this, as he said he could come
some other time and take her down.

I bought a lot of horses about forty miles farther

DISOBEDIENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

361

on, and with the assistance of some Bushmen, well
mounted, excellent riders, and very light weights,
we succeeded in reaching Bloemfontein at night,
put them in a stone kraal, and at dawn of day found
they had all broken out. David and I saddled up
immediately, and overtook some of the last stragglers
within a mile of where we had brought them from.
Holme’s Bushmen, seeing them coming, had pre¬
vented them from again joining the troop, or we
should have had another day’s hard work in driving
them out.

We herded them all day, and kraaled them at
night, and started off again the following morning,
and reached Bloemfontein and again drove them
into the kraal, when I gave David most positive
orders not to leave them till I had had something to
eat, and then I would come and watch, but I had
not been long at the inn, when I heard David’s
voice in the kitchen. I asked him whom he had
left with the horses, when he said he must have
something to eat as well as I; whereupon I
knocked him down, and on his getting up again,
still inclined to be saucy, I gave him another with
such right good will, that he went backwards through
a reed door down about six or seven steps. He made
off at the top of his speed, exclaiming 4 Alaminta,
my boss is mull ’ (Almighty, my master is mad) ; and
I never set eyes on him again.

I immediately went to the kraal ; every horse

362

AFRICAN HUNTING.

was gone, but luckily they were very hungry, so I
recovered them all on the outskirts of the town,
feeding. I got them in again with help, fetched my
blanket and saddle and watched them all night, not
being able to find Claas. In the morning that
worthy appeared, and I sent him out with the horses
to feed, and lent him a good mare, that he might be
able to turn them if they got their heads towards
home, and ran away.

In a couple of hours I went to look for him and
them, and found the latter scattered about, and the
fellow off with my mare, saddle, and bridle. In
this dilemma I gave them all in the charge of the
master of the skit kraal (the pound), who was answer-
able, and went to the Field Cornet, and we saddled up
and went in pursuit. In case of capture, I was to
take the law into my own hands, tie him up and
thrash him till I was perfectly satisfied, or could not
hit another blow, after which he was to be dealt
with in any manner the Landrost thought fit ; but I
knew the wily rascal was not going to be caught,
and I have never heard tidings of him from that day
to this.

I then started with a big lump of a Maccateese,
who rode so badly and fell off so often, that I had
to do all the driving myself ; he, however, watched
them three nights till we got down to Sand River,
when they broke out of a kraal and I lost them for
three days. I found them among the Yittebergen

USEFUL SERVANTS.

363

Mountains, and hearing nothing of my Maccateese,
who had gone back on the road to look for them, I
started alone, and eventually I succeeded in getting
all safely to the top of the Drakensberg, where I left
them in charge of Mr. King at Kelson’s Kop.

364

AFRICAN HUNTING.

CHAPTEB IX.

I860.

RESULT OF A ZEBRA HUNT - REACH MERICO - VISIT SECHELE

- - ELEPHANT HUNT - THE BATOKAS - THE ZAMBESI FALLS -

MEET WITH DR. LIVINGSTONE - INTENSE HEAT - ADVENTURE

WITH A LION - AM JOINED BY ENGLISH TRAVELLERS - ACCI¬
DENT TO ENGLISHMEN - RETURN TO NATAL.

April YJth.~ — Scoon Spruit — I am now about 450
miles from Natal, and have got on so far very well,
on the whole. I have been detained here three days
in getting three muids of wheat ground. The mill
was made in the year one, to judge from appearances,
and it has gone wrong twice since I have been here,
and delayed me not a little.

I went out this morning to try and get a zebra, as
my dogs were very hungry. I soon found a troop,
and was nearing them at every stride, on my horse
Midnight, and was within twenty-five yards of a
fat mare I had singled out, when down came my
horse in a hole. I picked myself up at a distance of
sixteen yards from the hole where the horse fell.
The old horse rolled over me twice or thrice, my
right foot sticking in the stirrup, but I managed to get
stirrup, leather and all, away, just before he regained

ZEBRA HUNT.

366

his feet and was off. It was some time before I could
stand up, when I found my gun lying four or live
yards away, with the muzzle towards me. I found
myself bruised all over the lower part of my body,
and the loose bullets and knife that I carried
crushed with the weight of the horse into my ribs,

causing me excruciating pain, but I have no serious
injuries, and hope to be able to ride again in a few
days. An excellent omelette for breakfast, with a very
fair amount of pontac, has already righted me consi¬
derably, but for the first ten minutes I thought I
was nearly done for.

My after-rider came up in all haste on seeing the
horse come back to the wagons, and brought a
bottle of water. I handed him the gun, and told
him to shoot a zebra, as my dogs were famishing. He

366

AFRICAN HUNTING.

1ms just killed one, and I have sent six oxen to bring
it bodily to the wagons. So far, I have been living
well on koran, wild ducks, and partridges, having
recovered my invaluable little Juno, whom I left
behind last year with a broken leg. She is all
right now, and is invaluable to me. She retrieves
everything in or out of water. I am well off for
dogs this year ; another old stager, Ponto, is nearly as
good ; and I have Gyp, Painter, Wolf, and Captain,
for large game, five horses, six Kaffirs, and one Tottie,
and have every comfort in my wagons.

I had some difficulty in getting a permit for 100 lbs.
of gunpowder and 500 lbs. of lead, but eventually
succeeded, so that I am now all right, and have
ample ammunition to go wherever my wandering
fancy may lead me. If I can only find a sufficiency
of water, I hope to reach the Zambesi this year.

19^. — I am still desperately sore and stiff, but
nothing but bruises. A goodly array of game is
hanging to the sides of my two wagons, including
springbuck, blesbuck, quagga, and wildebeest, and
both Kaffirs and hounds are sleek and fat. A Boer’s
wagon just in front of mine came across six lions
yesterday, and my driver Boccas saw two to-day,
very large, male and female, but did not shoot. I
cannot take the saddle again for a week, but manage
to pot my game by walking on ahead of the wagons,
and rolled over a wildebeest long ere sunrise this
morning. We inspan just as the morning star rises,
and it is very cold till the sun is well up.

ARRIVAL AT THE FRONTIER.

367

2 ftth.—Lobatse. — Reached Merico on the 21st, and
found my oxen all in prime condition. Meercat and
Ngami, my two youngsters, also show signs of good
caring for. I left all my jaded oxen behind in the
charge of a German missionary, Zimmerman by
name ; he is a good Samaritan, and took every possible
care of the last batch. Four more are dead of lung
sickness, and three others will follow their steps
shortly, I fear.

I laid in a great store of mealies, pumpkins,
corn and meal, tobacco, dry peaches, potatoes, and
onions, all in barter for rice, tea, coffee, and sugar,
and made a sheep into sausages. There was a
great harvest this year in Merico, and I found plenty
of everything.

When I arrived at the frontier, commandants,
field cornets, and all officers appertaining to the ad¬
ministration of Boer government, had gone to a public
sale of sheep, cattle, and land, some eighty or a hun¬
dred miles off, a very rich Boer having most oppor¬
tunely for me departed this life, and I was annoyed by
no one, and might, as it happened, have had a wagon
load of powder and lead ; but my 100 lbs., for which I
have a permit, is my all.

Yesterday, I had a fit of the blues, in consequence
of my old Kaffirs, Tanga and Matakitakit, leaving me.
The former I have had off and on for eight years, and
the latter has been with me the last five years, con¬
stantly, in all my long rambles into the interior ; and
I am really sorry to lose them, as they knew my

368

AFRICAN HUNTING.

ways, and I placed the utmost confidence in them
both ; the former an excellent cook and driver, and
altogether a strong, useful, handy, most obliging
fellow, and the latter invaluable as a horse-tenter. I
used to call him a second Earey ; the shyest animal
became perfectly quiet after being a week in his
charge, and he could catch any horse at any time.
They had overheard me say to my head man,
Boccas, that I had made up my mind to go direct to
Mosilikatse, and the mere mention of his dreaded
name quite unnerved them. I had only engaged
them to go as far as Sechele’s, being very ill at the
time, and thinking I should not again go' into the
interior, but being now so far on my way, and feeling
once more comparatively strong and well, the in¬
ducement is too great to resist. They never told me
they were going away until the last minute, and such
a thought never entered my head, and I was much
surprised and vexed. In my haste, I sent them Hy¬
ing away without a shilling, which I regret much
now, as I really had not a complaint to make against
either of them. Another, named Boy, not good for
much, also went with them. Spearman, a Bamang-
wato%. stuck to me, as well as Charley, and I hired
another driver immediately, rejoicing jn the name of
Adonis. I promised two Bechuanas some beads to
drive my oxen and horses to Sechele’s, and started
within two hours, so that this desertion did not delay
me much. I am only sorry that I did not give the
lads their money, and part on good terms, but any-

VISIT SECHELE.

369

thing like regard or gratitude for past presents and
kindnesses is not in the nature of any Kaffir. I never
heard an instance of one really becoming attached to
his master. I had become quite fond of these two,
but it was a misplaced attachment, and I find you
can only make use of these fellows as you would of a
useful, handy machine ; and for the future I will iavish
my kindnesses on the two much superior animals,
horses and dogs, in spite of the missionaries dunning
it into me, that a black man is my brother. I could
see yesterday that the good Samaritan was secretly
annoyed and displeased that I would not shake hands
with a parcel of his baptized, singing heathens.

May 5 th. — Kaporig (Full moon). — Midnight is
dead : 20 1. 10<s. gone to the dogs. This is the last
water we shall find for three days, and I had so
timed it as to start from this at full moon, but my
oxen broke out of the kraal last night, and it is now
late in the afternoon, and the Yachters (herd-boys)
have not yet returned with them ; therefore I much
fear I shall lose the moon, wffiich is of vast import¬
ance. Game is very scarce. I have been out all the
morning and not burnt powder. Yesterday I rode
far in quest of giraffes, but have found none as yet.
I have been out mostly on foot, and made great
havoc amongst guinea-fowls, and had curries till I
am tired of them. I found Sechele fat and well,
and he helped considerably to lighten one half aum
of pontac, and gave me nothing in return. He is
sending in with me a wagon full of hunters. I have

370

AFRICAN HUNTING.

not seen them, but hear there are some twenty-five,
with one horse amongst the lot, which is just now
about to expire, if it has not gone off the hooks
already. He says he knows that his men will potter
about near home, and kill nothing, if they do not go
in with me far into the interior, where game is plenty.
If they follow me this year I am likely to lead them
a pretty dance of it ; as my wagons are heavy with
all I require, and my oxen are in splendid order, and
for once my people, at present, at any rate, are in the
same mind as myself, and are willing to trek into
unknown regions. I have been lucky enough to get
January once more, whom I mentioned in a former
journal. On a spoor he is without an equal, and has
a natural instinct in finding his way back to the
wagons, which, in a country of such perfect same¬
ness as this is in most parts, is something wonderful.
There are no land-marks of any sort to guide the
eye ; it is one densely-wooded flat, as far as the
human eye can range. In most countries I am
myself a pretty good hand, but this land beats me
altogether.

9 th. — Batlanarmi ( a Fountain). — I have been
very lucky in finding water in two vleys, and have
come over this much-dreaded part of the road in a
manner most satisfactory to horses, oxen, and all the
party, dogs included. On Monday I fell in with
seven bull elands, and had a very long stern chase,
in consequence of my gun missing fire both barrels,
and owing also to the obesity of my horse Batwing,

RHEUMATISM AND BRUISES.

371

who went as slow as a coach, labouring frightfully
under his load of beef. It was all I could do to
come up with them a second time, with an unsparing
use of a pair of long military rowels, which did me
good service, and will, I hope, do the like again. I
eventually killed my eland in the middle of the
wagon-road, many miles ahead, however, of the
wagons. January, much better mounted, and very
light, drove another out to the wagons, where the
dogs all baited him in grand style, and Boccas
knocked him over, thus laying in a superabundance
of delicious meat for both parties. Sechele’s party
consists of about forty men in all. I have suffered,
and am still suffering, so much from rheumatism in
my left shoulder, that I cannot raise my gun, and
my left hand has sustained a severe bruise, in inspan-
ning an unruly ox. A leaf of tobacco applied wet,
and well chewed previously, is our remedy for cases
where the skin is broken.

I made this morning a very satisfactory shot at
a pallah, a beautiful young ram, of about 100 lbs.
weight, little less than 300 yards off. Finding I
could not raise my rifle, I made a rest of an old
dead tree, and took him beautifully through the
shoulder and heart ; he ran about 300 yards in thick
bush, but old Wolf, coming up about a quarter of an
hour afterwards, hit off his spoor beautifully, and I
found him lying dead.

I have this morning rejoiced the heart of old
Wildebeest, a Kafflr of Sechele’s, who has come

B B 2

372

AFRICAN HUNTING.

all this way for meat, by giving him the breast of
one of the elands, and he is going to carry it all the
way back to the State, four good days. His load
cannot weigh less than 7 0 lbs., though when sun-dried
it will of course be considerably less. We have found
two bees’ nests. I got a Bakalahari to-day from
Stably, a brother of Sechele’s, to go with me the
whole way, and he exhorted me to take care of him,
though they themselves treat them far worse than
dogs. We have been busy patching up Sechele’s
wagon ; it is in a desperate state ; every spoke out
of the nave of one wheel. Still, green hide will
do wonders ; it holds like a vice, as it gradually con¬
tracts as it becomes sun-dried.

12th. — I write this at Massouey, a fountain, now
full of delicious water, where we arrived last night,
and the roaring of a lion, close at hand, made us
particularly expeditious in getting the oxen kraaled,
and the horses made fast to the wagons. It was too
dark to see to shoot, and we fortunately found a
kraal already made to hand, which only needed a
little repairing to make it all right. The jackals kept
up a concert the whole night, but we heard no more
of his majesty. Three springbucks are all that we
have slain since Batlanarmi. I fell in with an old
gemsbok bull, but my after-rider’s horse, Snowdon,
ran right in between us, and so prevented my getting
a shot ; he is hot-headed and a bit of a bolter, and
January is a poor hand in the saddle. The sun is
very powerful and the roads heavy. I have just

AN AFRICAN SERENADE

DEATH OF “ FRENCHMAN.”

373

heaved off two eland skins to lighten the wagons,
and a starved wretch of a Masara immediately pro¬
ceeded to make a meal of a part, and cut up the rest
in portions that he could carry away for the same
purpose.

ISth [Friday). — Letloche. — On Sunday afternoon
I left Massouey, and lost my road in consequence
of the one I meant to travel being so overgrown with
grass as to be invisible. I was sorry on account of
the poor oxen, as the sun was roasting, the sand
heavy, and the bush thick. I reached Labotani on
Monday night, having got over a vast deal of ground ;
found plenty of water, and rested my oxen on
Tuesday, and we killed pallah, blue wildebeest, and
springbuck, six in all. I was awakened out of my
first sleep by hearing a short husky cough. I started
up and never closed my eyes again that night. Alas !
I was only too well acquainted with what it por¬
tended, and had it been my own summons instead of
my poor horse Frenchman’s, I could not have been
much more concerned. I remained over Wednesday,
and I was buoying myself up with the hope that
lots of bran mashes and boiled mealies might still
bring him round. He came to the wagon and to me,
and looked in the most piteous manner for help. I
cannot bear to see a dumb animal in suffering,
so I shouldered my gun and went after game, and
the old nag tumbled over, just as I returned at
sunset, dead. Yesterday I inspanned and came on
here : this is a wild, pretty out-of-the-way place,

374

AFRICAN HUNTING.

Gordon Cumming’s most northerly point — a splen¬
did natural stone fountain, about nine feet deep, but
so hidden that a stranger might pass close without
the slightest hope or expectation of finding water
from the nature of the country around, unless he
were guided there by some friendly turtle-dove or
Namaqua partridge. I have often been guided to
water by these birds, or the croaking of frogs, which
can be heard at a long distance in the deathlike
quiet of our lovely star-light nights.

I have just enjoyed a delicious swim in this foun¬
tain. I feel a little lonely, being without any com¬
panion with whom I can converse, with an immense
expanse of country all around me, all wood, and not
a trace of any human being. To-morrow I am about
to strike an entirely new line of country ; none of us
know anything about it, but there are evident traces
of late rains, and a probability of finding rain-water
in vleys, which encourage me. to proceed,

I intend treking as near due north as the country
will allow, capturing a wandering Bushman when
occasion offers, and pressing him into my service, until
I get a substitute, or he makes his escape. The life is
full of anxiety, excitement, hope, disappointment,
satisfaction and pleasure, comforts, and the reverse ;
it has great charms in some respects, but it requires
energy, determination, and perseverance. If my
health is only spared me I have no fear, but my con¬
stitution is very much shaken ; I have a very poor
appetite, and I live almost entirely on dry toast, cold

KAN YE.

375

roast guinea-fowls, partridges, pheasants, korans, dik-
kops, and ducks. My youngsters, Meercat and JSFgami,
are lively and well, and are very useful and handy,
and beginning to learn to talk Dutch, English, and
Kaffir, or a kind of bastard language of all three
combined.

I can bag any quantity of winged game as long as
I have Juno, and my old favourite gun, made by
Burrow, of Preston, whose guns have a capital name
in the county. I have shot for ten years constantly
with a seven-bore of his make, which for accuracy
and driving qualities could not be surpassed ; and in
our first disastrous expedition to St. Lucia Bay,
where eight of my companions died, they had all
previously determined on having similar weapons.
Burrow died during my absence, and his eldest son
now carries on the business.

21st. — Kanye. — I have been detained here two
days trying to get a guide, and have bribed old
Caballa, the captain of a tribe of Bakalahari, consi¬
derably, and am now waiting his final answer. I have
bought as much Kaffir corn as I can carry, as many
bucks or goats as I want, and have been busy making
sausages for the road.

On Saturday I shot two tsessebes at one shot,
breaking the leg of one, which the dogs took to the
water and pulled down ; and to-day I have been also
successful in bringing to bay a splendid fat eland cow.
Accompanied by January, on old Snowdon, and seven
Bakalahari, we sallied forth, and soon found fresh

376

AFRICAN HUNTING.

spoor, which the Kaffirs followed in the most inde¬
fatigable manner; it led us in a regular circle.
Though we maintained a dead silence, the elands
must have got our wind, as we found from the spoor
they were off at full speed. January then took up
the spoor, holding on fast by the pommel with one
hand, and kept it in the most marvellous manner at
a canter, wherever the bush would admit of it, for
three or four miles at least. I followed in his wake,
Ferus (fearless), who is in excellent condition, pulling
hard. I should have called a halt, but the spoor
led homewards. January still kept on at a canter
through the thick bush ; at length, I got sight of
three cows ; the rest of the party had done their
duty, it was now my turn : I contented myself by
keeping them in sight till we got into a much more
open part, when I let Ferns make play, and he
went at a slashing pace over everything. The elands
led me in among the Kaffir pit-fa] Is, and I steered
my nag wherever the fence was thickest, as being
safest, and he jumped like a stag, and in a very
short brush singled out and ran right into the best
cow, when I fired from the saddle.

25 th. — I have got on very slowly since logging up
last. There is no road ; we have to cut our way
through the bush, and we have had heavy sand-hills
to contend with. We have had so far an abund¬
ance of water, but have come in a very unsatis¬
factory zigzag sort of manner. I went out to shoot
a giraffe for food, with two Bushmen as guides, who

CHASE OP THREE KOODOS

A DRUNKEN TOTTIE.

377

knew nothing about the country, and, after waiting
in vain for the wagons, were obliged to follow our
steps all the way back. Got on the wagon-tracks
a little before sunset, and made great play to
catch the wagons before it was too dark to see
the spoor.

29i th. — -This is a festival of some kind or other in
England, it strikes me, but in the centre of South
Africa all days are much alike. I have been coming
in the right direction, at all events, since my last
entry. Early on Sunday we reached by a forced
march, on account of water, a pretty little river,
which we call Mesa or Nesa — the Kaffirs speak so
indistinctly I cannot get at the right pronunciation —
clear good water, and some hills in the neighbour¬
hood. The lions had killed two zebras close to
where we outspanned, and we made a strong kraal,
expecting a visit from them, and I set a stell (a
spring gun) for them by the remains of one of the
zebras. The oxen rushed pell mell into the large
vley here, and seemed to enjoy, not a little, a vigorous
pull of good rain water ; the day had been hot, and
we had come a long distance.

Adonis has just interrupted me by saying his gun
had burst. I expected something serious, but on
examination find it is only the stock, and an ele¬
phant’s ear put on wet, and dried in the sun, will
make it all right. One of my Totties has got drunk,
and is playing old Harry with the Masaras, chasing
them in all directions, and, if I do not at once

378

AFRICAN HUNTING.

interfere, we shall not have a guide left to show us
the next water, which I have every reason to believe
is far off. The game is wild and wary here, and
giraffes shyer than I ever before saw them.

June 3rd ( Fidl moon). — I am now outspanned at a
vley of rain water, the immense Salt-pan, nine days’
journey long, and two broad, fully in view, and any¬
thing more dreary and desolate I never conceived.
I have just returned, with one Masara, from a long
survey of the surrounding country. As far as the
eye can gaze there is nothing but sand, and not a
living thing to be seen but a few wildebeests, an
odd unhappy-looking springbuck or two, and nine
male ostriches, which I saw speeding along in search
of a less barren soil. I have come along the last
five days very satisfactorily, winding about to avoid
occasional hills, but not much out of the right line of
country, and I shall take every advantage of the moon
to cross the pan. I am quite at the east end of it, and
a night and a day will, I hope, see me over it, and then
ere long I may hope to come across a few straggling
elephants. I laid in plenty of flesh yesterday — a
buffalo, quagga, and blue wildebeest — and no less
than twelve Masaras are doing their best to demolish
a good share of it. I leave the Meea river, which
is now dry, a little to the east, and hope to come
to the Qualeba to-morrow night : this part of the
road is dreary and monotonous enough, but I hope
it will lead to something better. At all events, after
coming so far, I will persevere, though I have lots of

DISCONTENTED FOLLOWERS.

379

impediments to contend with. One front wheel of
my wagon is very shaky, but I have rectified it with
buffalo-hide as well as I can.

The row I mentioned had nearly had a serious
termination. When I went after him, the mad
Tottie, after breaking one fellow’s head with an
iron kettle, had just got his gun and was leisurely
buckling on his bandolier to shoot two or three
others, who had offended him. They scuttled away
like rabbits in the bush, and were hid like magic,
and I had great difficulty, at nightfall, in inducing
them to return. As soon as I had wrested the
gun from the Tottie, he at once packed up all
his traps and prepared to start off, but eventually
he agreed to wait till next morning, when he re¬
collected nothing of what had taken place, and all
is going on smoothly again, though they are difficult
to manage and keep in any sort of order. Two
more of Sechele’s Kaffirs were ready to decamp,
but I induced them to return ; still they are dis¬
satisfied and sulky, and I fully expect desertions
from my camp any day, on any pretext. They
do not know where they are going, and are getting
afraid, and believe implicitly the absurd stories the
Bakalahari and other wandering Bushmen tell them,
but I am determined to go on, and will succeed.
The oxen trek admirably, and the horses are in
capital order ; but they get little or no work, as I
am saving them for the elephants, and do all my
hunting on foot. I saw harrisbuck spoor yesterday,

380

AFRICAN HUNTING.

but was not fortunate enough to find any. I found
a vley in the heart of the bush, where immense troops
of buffaloes drank, and at least twenty different paths
of rhinoceros, &c., leading up to it, and should much
have liked to watch the water, but the wagons were
far ahead, and I reluctantly followed on, or else I
might have had great sport.

1C )th [Sunday). — I missed a day somehow or other ;
at least, I was a day beforehand, as I found out by
the moon. For the last eight days I have come on
well, crossing the Meea, which was dry, as I
mentioned above ; the Qualeba, which had three or
four water-holes at the source, the rest being dry ;
the Chonain, about forty yards wide, also dry ; the
Simvain, the same width, of brackish water on the sur¬
face ; and I now write this on the banks of the Shua,
where there is plenty of good water. The country is
very dry. The Masaras say they have had no rain
here. The leaves are all fast falling off the trees, and
everything is dreary and desolate. There is plenty of
rhinoceros spoor, but we have not found them, as
they stand so far off from the water. I have shot a
giraffe and eland, only for food, and last night a
splendid old manikin ostrich, in full feather. A
Bequina, a runaway from one of the Boers, joined
me yesterday, and describes the country in front as
totally without water or game of any description,
and the Boers are all treking home ; but I place no
reliance on his statement, and think it is only a ruse
on his part to induce me to return. The Boers say

POISON-SPEARS.

381

that the elephants have all left the country and gone
where rain has fallen. I should much like myself to
change my route, and hunt to the east of where I
now am, in Mosilikatse’s country, but that old tyrant
is almost sure to forbid me leave ; at any rate, I will
leave him as my final resource.

I have just lost one of my best oxen (Kaffir by
name) at the Simouani ; a spiked poison-spear fell
on him as he was grazing under the tree, and pene¬
trated through his back, and he swelled up to a great
size. Seeing no chance of his recovery, I shot him.
The Masaras set these spears (stells) for rhinoceros
and other game. They are hung in the branches
of a tree, high up, and supported by a line, which
comes under a forked stick and across the path, and
stuck loosely into the ground with a peg ; and any
beast running against the line, or pushing it away,
brings this great post, four feet long and as thick as
a man’s thigh, with a poisoned head of a barbed
assegai stuck loosely in it, right into the unfortunate
beast’s back, where the assegai remains, driven, as in
this case, right through the body by the weight of
the post, and the post falls to the ground.

I hope sincerely my casualties may be few this
year, as I can no longer afford very heavy losses. My
wagons are getting perceptibly fighter from the con¬
sumption of food — ten men feeding daily, besides
always a sprinkling of Masaras and six hungry curs ;
and the carelessness and recklessness of the idle vaga¬
bonds, who have already lost and broken the greater

382

AFRICAN HUNTING.

part of my cooking utensils. The Kaffirs care for
nothing ; they carry all their worldly goods on their
backs. They eat, drink, snuff, smoke, dance, sing, and
sleep, and if they can do all this, they do not seem to
have a wish on earth ungratified. I often envy them,
I must confess, as I feel very dull and lonely at
times. I was amused at one fellow last night, whose
only article of clothing was a straw hat, made after
the fashion of a bowl. Charlie, my leader, who is a
good-hearted boy, compassionated him, and said he
would give him an old worn-out cotton blanket of his,
worth when new about 2s. 6<i., and now about 1 \d. ;
but, on second thoughts, said he must give him his
hat for it, and the exchange was made on the spot.
To-morrow at daybreak we leave the river, and our
old blear-eyed Masara guide says it is two long days
to the next water ; after that, we come to the
Madinas and Bushmen, and if I can get through the
dense forests, which my authority says are im¬
passable in the dry season, I hope yet to reach the
Falls of the Zambesi.

13th.— I have been fortunate in getting two good
specimens of the rarer sort of antelopes, viz. roan
antelope and gemsbok, or oryx ; also, a giraffe
cow, in prime condition. My horse deserves all the
credit of the gemsbok, as he ran with the speed and
endurance of a steam-engine. The country was an
immense flat, and I had no thoughts of coming up
with the herd, and was just pulling up, but seeing them
evidently hard-blown, and feeling my horse strong

SHOOT A GEMSBOK.

PROCEED DUE NORTH.

383

and fresh, I nursed him for a burst, taking a cool sur¬
vey of the length of their horns meanwhile, and soon
decided on a splendid cow, and when I called on Ferns
he was alongside in 1,000 yards. The pace was
tremendous, and I rolled the gemsbok over, and
narrowly escaped going a header over her myself,
as she fell suddenly right under Ferus’ nose. I saw
the first elephant spoor yesterday, and I may now
fall in with them any day, and have all in readiness ;
it is not, however, my present intention to stay and
hunt here, but to get a couple of degrees farther
north, where they are three times as thick, and un¬
molested.

16^A. — I have just been paying a visit to some
Boers, about twenty miles off, partly from interested
motives, and partly from compassion for a sick man,
an old acquaintance of mine, to whom I thought 1
might be of service, from my experience in African
fever, and having the usual remedies by me. I found
him not so sick, however, but that he knew how to
put on a figure of 60 1. for his horse, which I at length
was glad to buy for 50/. I leave the wagons to¬
morrow to go forward in search of a route free from
that vile scourge the tsetse, which has turned back a
party of Boers.

21st — I have been away only five days from my
wagons, as I could not proceed, in consequence of
my Kaffirs not being able to keep up. It is
terrible hard work to go over the heavy sands on
foot ; my people were dead beat, and the next stage

384

AFRICAN HUNTING.

was two long days on horseback without water, so I
was obliged to give it up ; but I gained a good deal
of information about my journey, in case I make
up my mind to go in that direction. I found no
elephants, but tsetse in abundance ; the country
awfully heavy and dry, and drawbacks innumerable,
with nothing to encourage one to proceed. I
have ridden about seventy miles due north, diverg¬
ing west and east considerably for water. Makaina-
kanyama is the first water, about five hours on
horseback, riding fast; thence to Jurra, a little farther,
say six hours ; Tamahopa, Tamashaki, the latter
about four hours on horseback from Jurra, and my
farthest ; next Dundallah, too far east ; and two days
north we come to the En Duiker and Bonga rivers ;
the latter, my authority says, runs into the Zambesi,
four days on foot due north, but I think the infor¬
mation rests on no good foundation. There was little
game ; only two elands and two quaggas fell to my rifle.
Snowdon, seven successive days under the saddle, went
marvellously, as also did Ferus. They had nothing
but grass, as dry as a chip, to eat. We made the
horses fast to a tree every night, on account of
the lions. I saw one solitary old harrisbuck and
tried to stalk him, but two elands between us gave
him warning, unseen by me, and he disappeared in
the thick bush, where it was impossible to give
chase.

At Tamashaki I first fell in with the striped
eland, marked just like a koodoo, but differing

RAMSHUA.

385

in no other respect from the usual and common
kind. After a very sharp gallop through and over
some very ugly scrub and thorny bush, I ran into
and killed the first I saw of this new variety. Living¬
stone first discovered them near Sesheke, across the
Zambesi, one of Sekeletu’s outposts.

29 th. — Ramshua . — I found five bull elephants,
gave chase, and singled and drove out the largest,
and gave him a couple of pills to make him quiet ;
he shortly turned and stood at bay, about forty
yards off, and then came on with a terrific charge.
My newly-purchased horse, Kebon, which I was
riding for the first time, stood stock still, and I in¬
tended to give the elephant my favourite shot in the
chest, but at every attempt to raise the gun for the
purpose of so doing, my horse commenced tossing his
head up and down, and entirely prevented me from
taking aim. During my attempts to pacify and
steady him, the bull charged, and I fired at
random, and whether the ball whistled uncomfortably
near the horse’s ear or not I can’t say, but he gave
his head so sudden a jerk as to throw the near
rein over on to the off side ; the curb chain came
undone, and the bit turned right round in his mouth.
The huge monster was less than twenty yards off,
ears erected like two enormous fans, and trumpeting
furiously. Having no command whatever of my
horse, I dug the long rowels in most savagely, when
Kebon sprang straight forward for the brute, and I
thought it was all up ; I leaned over on the off* side

386

AFRICAN HUNTING.

as far as possible, and his trunk was within a few
feet of me as I shot close by him. I plied the rowels,
and was brought again to a sudden stand by three
mapani trees, In a sort of triangle ; a vigorous dig,
and he got through, my right shoulder coming so
violently in contact with one of the trees as almost
to unhorse me, slewing my right arm behind my back,

over my left hip. I know not how I managed to
stick to my gun, 14 lbs. weight, with my middle
finger only hooked through the trigger-guard, my
left hand right across my chest, holding by the end
of the reins, which, most fortunately, I had in my
hand when I fired, and in this fashion we went

ESCAPE FROM AN ELEPHANT.

387

at a tearing gallop through a thick tangled bush, and
underwood, mostly hack-thorns, over which my nag
jumped like a buck. He was very nearly on his
head three or four times, as the soil was very heavy,
sandy, and full of holes. The monster was all this
time dose in my wake ; at length, I got clear from
him, and he turned and made off in the opposite
direction at his best pace. As soon as I could pull
up, which I managed after performing three or four
circles, I jumped off, righted my bridle, and went
after him like the wind, as he had a long start, and
I was afraid of losing him in thick bush. After
giving him ten shots, and sustaining three more
savage charges, the last a long and silent one — far
from pleasant, as my horse had all the puff taken out
of him, and he could only manage to keep his own
before the brute — to my great satisfaction he at length
fell, to rise no more. I had long been quite exhausted,
and could not even put a cap on the nipple. Boccas,
on Batwing, turned up about an hour after ; he said
he fired all his powder away, giving his elephant six¬
teen bullets to no purpose ; but the horse looked quite
fresh, and both barrels were loaded, and every man
has a perfect right to form his own opinion as to the
reason why and wherefore.

Elephant hunting is the very hardest life a man
can chalk out for himself. Two blank days, riding
five hours at a foot’s pace to a vley, where the
Masaras tell you they have drunk ; sleeping in the
bush, with nothing to eat ; a drink of muddy water

c c 2

388

AFRICAN HUNTING.

in the morning, out of a dirty tortoise-shell, which
serves for breakfast, dinner, and supper; all day in
the saddle, under a broiling sun, following after three
half-starved Masaras in greasy, tattered skins, who
carry a little water in the belly of a quagga, which
is nauseous to a degree, and never seeing life the
whole day. Two days like this, followed by two
successful ones, is about what you may expect.

Nothing more miserable and dirty can be conceived
than a Masara encampment. It consists of temporary
half-thatched sheds, and a few bushes stuck in here and
there to break the wind, with half-putrid dried flesh,
water vessels, and shreds of old skins, hung up in the
surrounding trees. My trusty after-rider brings two
or three armfulls of grass and makes my couch in the
most eligible corner, with my saddle for a pillow, and
here I court sleep till daybreak, lying close to a
greenwood fire, the smoke of which passes over you
when yoli lie close to the ground, and keeps off the
mosquitoes. There is something quite overpowering
in the death-like stillness of the forest at night — a
brilliant sky, innumerable stars, bright and twinkling,
dusky figures in all possible attitudes lying around,
the munching of our faithful horses, which are tied to
trees all night, and frequently the jackal’s cry,
the hyena’s howl, the occasional low growl of a
lion, or the heavy tramp and crash in the bush of a
herd of elephants, with a scream which can be heard
at an immense distance. This is the way our nights
are usually passed in the bush, and the most light-

LOST IN THE BUSH.

389

hearted fellow in the world, when all alone for months,
must have occasional fits of despondency.

Full of thorns and bruises, and half dead from
thirst, I offsaddled Kebon, kneehaltered him, and then
lay under the shade of a tree, having not the most
remote idea as to my whereabouts, shouting and
firing blank powder to bring up the Masaras. To
add, if possible, to the many mishaps, my horse had
strayed, and I had to follow his spoor, and did not
overtake him for nearly a mile, and then I was
obliged to retrace my own footsteps, which was not
so easy. I had not long returned, when January
turned up, and he led the way back at a trot on foot,
distancing all the Masaras, and just at sunset got to
the wagon, where I first got a drink. Such days as
these are rather more than sport. I was much amused
by watching the tick birds trying to alarm an old
white rhinoceros, that we were approaching from
under the wind, quite ignorant of his danger. They
ran into his ears, and fluttered about his eyes,
keeping up an incessant chirping, but he would not
be warned till we got above wind, when he elevated
head and tail, snuffed, trotted, and snorted, and went
away in grand style at a swinging trot. We had
better game in view, but to-night I am going to
watch the water, as the moon is high, and then he
must be more wary. My fellows have just made a
hole at the edge of the water, as game is very scarce,
and we are hard up for meat.

July 8 th. — Tamashahi . — After much consultation

390

AFRICAN HUNTING.

and deliberation, I have decided, in spite of all the
remonstrances of the Boers, to trek due north, and
stand my chance of tsetse, kief (poison), with which
the bush in many places abounds, thirst, and other im¬
pediments. I have a hankering to reach the Zambesi
and see the great Falls, which is so strong as to over¬
rule all minor difficulties, though I cannot hide from
myself the great risk I incur to horses, dogs, and oxen ;
still something urges me on, and I will follow my
fate, good or evil, and am already three hard days
on my route, without accident.

I had a good night’s buffalo-shooting by the water ;
they came in large herds ; I was in a hole under the
wind, and made very good work, killing five dead on
the spot. A sixth had got about a mile away, and no
doubt many more subsided in the bush, but as there
was a superabundance of delicious flesh, I did not go
on the spoor of the wounded. Nothing but buffaloes
came, but they in great numbers, -and I could have
shot many, many more, but my bullets were ex¬
hausted. This was not mere butchery, though it looks
like it. The crops of the Maccalacas Kaffirs failed
this year, and they are more than half starved, and
it was only combining sport with charity, as not
even a bit of hide was suffered to remain. Poor
Gyp, I grieve to say, was taken by a tiger. I had
ridden forwards to water, and she came after me
on the spoor, before the wagons. It was night, and
Adonis heard the scuffle, and poor Gyp’s last
breath, which left her carcase, not in the shape of a
yell, but rather of a fierce angry whine that she

HINDRANCES TO PROGRESS.

391

could not gripe the brute in return. She was the
gamest of the game, and had had numberless escapes,
wonderful, lucky, or providential, whatever you like
to call them. Except my perfect Juno, I had sooner
the fate had happened to any other of the pack.

The country here is frightfully heavy white sand ;
and the air is so dry, and the sand so sharp, that my
wagon- wheel is completely gone. We have driven
in no end of wedges, and it is so bound round with
buffalo hide as to be almost hidden from sight. An
old Boer, however, says he will put new spokes in for
me, and the dissel-boom is about to be sacrificed
for that purpose.

19 th. — Mateste. — I have but little idea of my
whereabouts, as I hear such contradictory statements
from the Kaffirs. None of us can properly under¬
stand the language, which is a great drawback ; but
I have come to the conclusion the Kaffirs themselves
do not know, or at any rate will not tell the way to
the Zambesi, or give us any idea of the distance.
One man positively affirms that it is only four days,
the next that it is a month, the next never heard
the name of the river ; and they are one and all so
stupid and utterly indifferent, that I have given up en¬
quiry, and hold always due north. I have only treked
four days since last logging up, two very hard ones
without water, and then we came to an entirely dif¬
ferent country, bare and thinly wooded, with plenty
of small hills in every direction, lots of fountains and
running water. I have crossed two rivers, and fancy
one must be the Guaka.

392

AFRICAN HUNTING.

My party is now all dispersed. I have left behind
one wagon and twenty-three oxen, in charge of two
Kaffirs. Adonis and Isaac are gone into the fly
(tsetse) to shoot on foot three or four days, due east
from where I now write, where elephants are said to
be plenty.

I fell in with an Englishman, Poison by name, who
came in by Walvish Bay, about fourteen or fifteen
months ago, and has not yet got one load — a sorry
prospect for me. We passed three or four evenings
together very pleasantly, and assisted one another in
the way of exchange. I got a gun and powder for
ivory and beads ; it was a most agreeable break, and
we were very jolly together, and sorry to part; at
least, I speak for myself.

I wished to leave a heavy lot of flesh for my
Kaffirs during my absence, as they have no means of
providing for themselves, but game was so scarce
that I had two long blank days. On the third, how¬
ever, I got four quaggas, one eland, and a black rhi¬
noceros, despatched a wagon and pack oxen, and left
them with abundance until my return. Somehow or
other, I cannot come across any elephants. Though
I see lots of spoor, and have had some weary days in
search, they have managed always to elude me as
yet. This morning, very early, I actually heard one
scream, and, though we sallied out at once, and had
the benefit of January’s spooring, we could never
find him, and we were obliged to rest contented with
two fat elands.

THE BATOKAS.

393

2ith. — My plans are at present quite undecided.
I think I have got nearly as far as it is possible to
get. The country now in every direction is rugged,
rocky, and very broken, with great hills and nume¬
rous rivers, and altogether an effectual barrier to any
further attempts with a wagon ; added to which, the
tsetse abound in all directions, and I cannot at all
make out my whereabouts. The sun is intensely
hot, and the nights and mornings bitterly cold. I
think the thermometer must vary at least forty
degrees in the twenty-four hours, and the country is
decidedly most unhealthy at this season. Where on
earth the elephants have got to, I cannot imagine.

In my rambles yesterday, I came across another
nation, calling themselves Batokas. They are horrid
frights : it is their custom to knock out their four
front teeth, and to file a small space between each of
the under ones, and a more hideous lot of grinning
wretches I never saw. I heard, as a reason for their
thus disfiguring themselves, that they were anxious
to resemble an ox as much as possible, that being, in
their estimation, the noblest of animals. All the
natives are immensely fond of cattle, but this is carry¬
ing their veneration rather far. I have also heard
that they have a horror of looking like a quagga or
zebra. Remarking on one of my fellows, they said
he would be good-looking only for his front teeth.
The teeth of a Kaffir are splendid, snow-white,
sound and even, and set off the rest of his face to
great advantage.

394

AFRICAN HUNTING.

I gleaned from the Batokas that an Englishman,
whom from their description I guess to be Dr. Holden,
whom I met on my return from the Lake last year,
has knocked up a shanty close to their State, but he
has no wagons or horses, and they volunteer to take
me to him in three days on foot. They tell me he is
on the banks of a large river, which must be the
Chobe, and I am doubtful whether to look him up
or not; if he should have gone, I shall have some
tremendously hard work for nothing. My gun, ban¬
dolier, and ammunition, without which I never stir,
weigh 18 lbs., and trudging under a broiling sun,
even without this slight burden, is no easy matter,
especially when you consider the bill of fare, which
is flesh of some sort or other, salt, and water ; I wish
I could add bread, but I have no one to carry more
than my blanket, as my people are all dispersed.

29th. — After long arguments and reasoning with
myself, I at last decided to go on foot to the Chobe,
and learn from Dr. Holden my exact whereabouts,
and when and where I was likely to reach the great
Falls of the Zambesi, as I can gain no intelligence
whatever from the natives, and I now believe firmly
that none of them know themselves anything about
it. I appointed to meet the Batokas on the third day,
after in vain trying by bribery to induce them to come
with me to the wagon, for I had great doubts in my
own mind as to my finding the way back some
twenty miles, without a guide, over so rough and
broken a country. I reached the wagon in safety,

GRYSE STE1NBUCK.

395

and set off again to meet the Batokas, at break
of day, accompanied by January carrying my blanket
and a little spare ammunition, and got on well
for a long distance, recognising many objects I had
before noticed. At less than half the distance I got
wrong. Eventually, by great perseverance, I got
right again, and kept the direction for miles through
thick bush, heaps of tsetse, and heavy sand, and at
length reached the Batoka encampment — to find it
deserted. Weary and jaded, we made some faint
efforts to hit off their spoor, but lost all heart, as they
had set the grass on fire in a hundred places, and the
whole country looked as dreary and wretched as you
can imagine. We retraced our weary steps till dark,
when we made a fire and slept, and got back again
last night, not a little proud of finding our way.

My hopes of reaching the Zambesi, even on foot, are
fied. The only consolation I have had is that I have
shot another variety of antelope new to me, the gryse
steinbuck. I had often heard of him, but had never
seen him before ; and now I know of but one single
antelope that I have not myself shot, but must con¬
tent myself with a bought specimen — I mean the
nakong.

31st. — I am all alone. Boccas started yesterday
into the fly country, and my other driver has been
long there. I am off to-day to the Chobe river, two
and a half days ahead, and shall endeavour to get
through the fly in the night, the moon being now at
the full ; at all events, I will chance a pair of horses.

396

AFRICAN HUNTING.

After being in the saddle all day, and seeing nothing,
just as the sun went down, a giraffe bull stalked out
of the bush half a mile from the wagon. I got Bat¬
wing saddled forthwith, and had a break-neck chevy
after him over regular boulder stones by moonlight for
some three miles, as hard as ever I could prevail on
my nag to go, but he galloped in fear and trembling.
At last, the stones, or rather rocks, became almost
impassable even for the giraffe, and he had to slacken
his enormous stride, and I, putting on a spurt, was
alongside before he could get under weigh again, and
rolled him over, to my great glee, as I am most
anxious to be off, and I could not leave my wagon
without a supply of flesh.

August 4 th. — Zambesi Falls at last. I set off reso¬
lutely on the 1st, being determined to find the Falls,
walked all day and all night, and towards morning I
heard the roar of them. I never rested till I threw
myself down, just before daybreak, within three hun¬
dred yards of the river, and I spent yesterday at the
Falls, which far exceeded all I have been led to
expect. Eougher travelling I never encountered,
but I had the benefit of the full moon.

I struck the river first about two miles above the
Falls, and there it is not less than two miles wide,
covered with islands of all sizes, one at least ten or
twelve miles round, wooded to the water’s edge —
mowana trees, palmyra and palms, and plenty of wild
dates, some of the former measuring twenty yards
round the bole. The river is the finest and most

THE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI.

397

beautiful I ever saw. It is rocky and rather shallow,
and, just above the Falls, about one mile wide. And
now for the Falls. I heard the roar full ten miles
off, and you can see the immense volumes of spray
ascending like a great white cloud, over which shines
an eternal rainbow. The whole volume of water
pours over a huge rock into an enormous chasm
below, of immense depth. I counted from sixteen
to eighteen, while a heavy stone of about twenty
pounds weight was falling. I could not see it to the
bottom, but only saw the splash in the water. I
stood opposite to the Falls at nearly the same eleva¬
tion, and could almost throw a stone across. The
gorge cannot be more than a hundred yards wide,
and at the bottom the river rolls turbulently
boiling.

You cannot see the largest falls for more than a
few yards down, on account of the spray, and you
are drenched with rain for a hundred yards round
from the falling mist. It is one perpendicular fall
of many hundred feet, and I should think there are no
less than thirty or forty different cascades, of all widths.
The gorge cannot be less than 2,000 yards long, and
the outlet is not certainly more than forty yards wide.
This outlet is not at the end of the gorge, though
how far off I cannot say ; the streams meet, form a
wild mad whirlpool, and then rush helter-skelter
through the pass. Looking up the gorge from that
point is the most magnificent sight I ever beheld. It
is as if streams of brimstone fires were ascending high

398

AFRICAN HUNTING.

into the clouds. There was a never-ceasing rain for
fifty, and in some places a hundred yards, on the high
land opposite, and the rocks are very slippery, and
the ground where there are no rocks is a regular
swamp, where the hippopotamus, buffalo, and elephant
come to graze on the green grass. There is one
grand fall at the head of the gorge which you can see
to the bottom, about eighty yards wide, but not so
deep, as the river forms a rapid before it shoots
perpendicularly over the rock.

Below the Falls, the river winds about in a deep,
narrow, inaccessible gorge — a strong, swift, rocky
stream. I followed its windings for some distance,
and, after all, was not more than two miles, as the
crow flies, from the Falls. It is one succession of
kloofs, valleys, mountains, and the worst walking I
ever encountered.

The river through this fearful gorge seems not
wider than a swollen Highland torrent. The
greatest drawback to the otherwise magnificent
scene, is that the dense clouds rising from below
render the main Falls invisible, and it is only the
smaller cascades you can see to the bottom. There
are some thirty or forty of these, spreading over a
space of at least 1,500 yards. The Makololo are very
jealous, and very much alarmed at my having found
my way hither, and cannot account for it. I show
them the compass, and say that is my guide, and they
are sorely perplexed. The baboons here are out of
all number.

THE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI.

399

8th. — I saw the Falls from the opposite side
yesterday, and also from above. ISTo words can
express their grandeur. The view from above is, to
my mind, the most magnificent ; the water looks like
a shower of crystal, and it is one perpendicular fall
of immense height. There is only one outlet, and
it is marvellous how such an immense body of water
squeezes itself through so small an opening.

I have punted for three days in all directions in
the Makololo canoes, and could spend half my life on
the waters. Dr. Livingstone is expected here to-day,
and I am waiting to see him.

9 th. — I had the honour, yesterday, of cutting
my initials on a tree on the island above the
Falls, just below Dr. Livingstone’s, as being the
second European who has reached the Falls, and the
first from the East Coast.

Charles Livingstone says they far exceed Niagara
in every respect, and the Doctor tells me that it is the
only place, from the West Coast to the East, where
he had the vanity to cut his initials.

Masipootana, the captain (under Sekeletu) of the
Makololo nation, was exceedingly savage that I had
seen the Falls without any assistance from him or his
people, and sent several messengers to say that I must
pay him handsomely. On the third day I went to see
him, and made him a small present, but he was quite
on the high horse, and said, that now I had come
across he would take care I did not go back again ; I
must stay there till I had paid him for the water I

400

AFRICAN HUNTING.

drank and washed in, the wood that I burned, the
grass that my horses ate ; and it was a great offence
that I had taken a plunge into the river on coming,
out of one of his punts ; if I had been drowned, or
devoured by a crocodile or sea-cow, Sekeletu would
have blamed him, and had I lost my footing and
fallen down the Falls, my nation would have said the
Makololos had killed me ; and, altogether, I had
given him great uneasiness. As he put the matter in
this light, I paid him about 6 lbs. of beads and was
released. These beads were sent by Masipootana to
Sekeletu, who afterwards returned them to me.

I had some misgivings, at one time, as to our
treatment — we were entirely in their power, and
January was in such a taking that he could only just
manage to drive back floods of tears. He thought it
a very hard case indeed that he should be killed as
well as I, as it was entirely my doing that he came
at all, and very much indeed against his own will ; and
Masipootana endeavoured, I think, to frighten him, as
he told me, when we were left alone at night, that
they were going to take us out into the river and throw
us overboard, and, in case we swam, pelt us on the
heads with stones.

The tsetse, too, spoilt much of my pleasure ; and,
to crown all, just as I was ready to start back to
the wagon, I found both horses in pit-falls, the
one coffin-shaped and the other round, narrowing
towards the bottom, and about seven feet deep ;
the ground was clay, baked by the sun till it

MEET WITH DR. LIVINGSTONE.

401

turned the edge of an American axe, and smoke
flew from the blows as if you were striking stones.
Towards midnight, with the aid of rheims and a
large body of Kaffirs, I extricated them both,
very badly bruised, and with horrid, unsightly scars
and eyesores on them, but, fortunately, not seriously
injured for actual work. Poor Snowdon suffered
the most, as he had to sit up like a dog begging
for many hours ; the hole narrowed at the bottom
and was some six inches deep in water, and with
the clay he was regularly stuck there as if with
plaster and mortar ; the only wonder is that we did
not pull both head and legs off him. I had buffalo
rheims round all his fetlocks, fore and hind, also
round his neck, and some eight Kaffirs attached to
the ends of each, and so we hauled him bodily out,
after we had cut a sort of inclined plane down
towards him. We heard several skirmishes with
rhinoceros and buffaloes at night, in the thick bush,
both going and returning, but ensconced ourselves
behind the trees till the fray was over.

I have crossed three rivers between this and
the Zambesi — the Manyati, Setabangumpe, and
Massouey.

I consider myself very fortunate in meeting Dr.
Livingstone and his party. I spent the evening with
him, and gained great information about his recent
discoveries. He has gone on to Sesheke.

12th. — I returned to the wagon to-day, and found
all right.

D D

402

AFRICAN HUNTING.

18 th. — Just returned from my other wagon,
where I had been to get some powder, lead, and caps,
to trade with the Makololos. The day I started from
this, just towards sun-set, I fell in with a troop of cow
elephants, and gave a good account of them ; there
was scarcely more than half an hour’s sun, and
consequently no time to lose, as we have hardly any
twilight. I chased and shot fiercely at close quarters
till quite dark, being well mounted, and bagged five ;
I let the best, however, escape. Having given her a
bullet in the exact spot I wanted, I thought she could
not possibly go far and left her, and she is free, though
no doubt will die, but without benefiting me. I
made up my mind for mischief on my return, but
was two whole days in the saddle without coming
across any more ; they are very scarce, and it behoves
a man to do his very best, whenever and wherever he
meets with them. A grey jackal, whose brush now
adorns my hunting-cap, and a fine old bull roan
antelope, completed my best day this year. Poor
Snowdon is dead ; tsetse, sand-fly, midges, and gnats
proved too many for him, together with the frightful
struggles he made in the pit-fall, which no doubt
hastened his death. Kebon, my fifty-guinea purchase,
has turned out badly ; he is so flat-footed as to be
dead lame, and utterly useless, on stony ground.
My hunters in the fly have not done so badly ; ten
or eleven, in all, I hear, and some big bulls, which
help fast to make up a load.

The Maccalacas Kaffirs rile me frightfully ; during

OBSTRUCTIONS BY THE MACCALACAS.

403

my absence they have set the velt on fire m
a hundred places ; the grass is as dry as old tinder,
and with the high wind we have daily it roars away
for scores of miles, thus driving the little game there
is away. What their object is, except to drive me
away, I don’t know, as they have no cattle, sheep, or
goats.

I shot a waterbuck yesterday, for no reason but
just variety, as they are bad eating, but I want to see
how many different kinds of antelopes are to be got
in the interior of South Central Africa. From what
Dr. Livingstone told me, I believe that I am now
within a couple of days of the middle between the
east and west coast, two days nearer the former.

25 th. — My plans are entirely changed, and I intend
now to make the best of my way to Mosilikatse’s
country, as I have quite lost heart of finding elephants
here, and the ground is so frightfully stony as to make
our unshod horses dead lame in a few days.

I was disappointed in trading any tusks from the
Makololos, for some reason or other best known to
themselves ; but I believe the captain is exceedingly
annoyed at a number of his men lent by his father to
Dr. Livingstone remaining behind, and he blames the
Doctor, who, he says, ought to have made them come
back, and he is vexed also at the non-arrival of the
cannon and horses which the Doctor was to have
brought him — at least, so says my interpreter ; but
I have not much faith in his veracity.

Sept. 9 th. ■ — Tamashaki. — I hardly know what I

D D 2

404

AFEICAN HUNTING.

have done the last fortnight ; I have been five conse¬
cutive days in the saddle, without finding elephants.
I am now three days on my road back again — a weary,
long journey, without water so far, and I shall be
obliged to wait for rain before I can get out ; besides
which, the velt is now full of a poisonous herb,
which is certain death in a few hours to oxen, so
that we are obliged to be most cautious. Painter
was left behind yesterday for dead ; thirst and the in¬
tense heat of the sun had, to all appearance, finished
him ; but, to my amazement, he turned up again this
morning, having found his way in the night to our
old outspanning place.

The best of my stud, Ferus, yesterday got despe¬
rately staked in the breast. A wounded buffalo, which
I was trying to drive towards the wagon-spoor,
charged me most savagely, and none other but Ferus
could have brought me safely out. It was a near
thing for about one hundred yards, and when she was
not two yards from my horse’s tail, taking advantage
of an opening in the bush, I wheeled half round in
the saddle, and gave her a bullet through her right
ear and grazed the top of her back, without, how¬
ever, doing her any harm ; but she shortly gave up
the chase, when I reloaded, dismounted, and shot her
through the lungs dead. It was amongst hack-thorns,
and my clothes were completely torn off my body. We
had not a bite of anything at all at the wagon, and
no near probability of getting anything, therefore I
was rash, as a buffalo is a beast you cannot drive.

CHASED BY A BUFFALO.

WATCHING THE WATER.

405

The nipple of my gun broke short off in the worm
the other day, and I tried every means to get it
out for some time without effect, only making
matters worse by breaking a plug short off that I
had been hardening and shaping to lit all day. At
last I made a drill bore, and succeeded beyond my
most sanguine expectations, and she is now none the
worse. I also put 3 lbs. of lead in the stock, as my right
cheek and bone are nearly cut to pieces, and the blood
at every shot runs into my mouth. We are obliged
to load heavily for South African game ; six drachms
are my smallest dose, and my powder this year is
excellent. I only wish my nerves were as good.

\ith. — Juvea. — I think it hardly possible for the
country to be or look worse than now, and my poor
oxen and horses have fallen off fearfully. All the
vleys are dried up, and we only get a small quantity
of water at the fountains after hard digging, and
the little grass there is terribly dry. In the early
mornings, evenings and night, it is so cold that there is
ice in all the water- vessels, while the days are intensely
hot ; from ten to four it is hardly possible to trek ; we
sometimes have high, and often hot winds ; game of
all sorts is as thin as deal boards, and the fare, con¬
sequently, very indifferent.

Last night I watched the wTater, more out ot
bravado than with any hopes of shooting anything,
as Boccas got a fright the previous night that nearly
drove him out of his wits. He had made a hole and
covered it in with strong branches, and lots of grass and

406

AFRICAN HUNTING.

earth over, about 9 feet long by feet wide, and
there lay in wait for elephants coining to drink. One
savage cow got his wind, rushed up to the mouth
of the hole, thrust her trunk in as far as possible,
hammered away at the sides, and felt for him every¬
where, but could not reach him, and had not quite
sagacity enough to throw off the branches, or she must
have got him. He assures me she stayed full five
minutes, and he could see nothing to shoot at but her
fore feet and trunk. I was more fortunate ; I heard a
brute in the water, peeped cautiously out of my
hiding place, and just as she turned round after
quenching her thirst, I gave her my bullet behind
the shoulder, at a distance of twelve yards, with such
force as to go right through her, and there were two
streams of blood from the water to where we found
her, about 1,000 yards off, dead this morning. My face
is in such a bruised, discoloured state that my dearest
friend would scarcely recognise me ; and no wonder,
the reader will perhaps say ; but in this night shooting
you have only one chance, and if you don’t take ad¬
vantage of that, you have your long solitary watch
for nothing.

Tusks are gradually accumulating, and I shall
have one good load at all events, but have let the
best of the season go by, in my wild-goose chase
after the Zambesi Falls. I shall trek out in about a
month at farthest, and hope again to spend Christmas-
day in Natal.

I am going to sleep to-night at a fountain some

EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE KAFFIRS.

407

ten miles off, called Zebizena, where I hear lots of
elephants drink, and take the spoor from the water
at daybreak, but it is hard work following spoor, as
the elephants stand so far from the water ; horse and
man are wearied and jaded to death before finding
them, and, if we get above the wind, we have no
chance of ever seeing them. They have been perse¬
cuted this year much more than usual. All the
stores are coming to an end, and I anticipate another
hard bout of it, unless we get the rains which are
now due, but I do not see the remotest chance of any.
Ostrich eggs are now plentiful, but too rich and
bilious for me to eat many of them ; I greatly prefer
elephant’s heart. We have abundance and variety
enough of animal food, but my people are most
extravagant with the stores, and this year I have
helped so many sick men as to leave myself almost
destitute.

2 Qth. — Still at Jurea, sick and tired. I know not
why I take up my pen, unless to kill time, as I have
nothing to log up. We found nothing at Zemizena
but swarms of starved Maccalacas Kaffirs, and I have
been very sick and ill since ; I thought I was in for
the fever. The elephants came once again while I
was watching the water. I heard them a very long
way off ; at length the branches broke, and they came
at a swinging pace, with a heavy tread, and in single
file, within fourteen yards of where I was ensconced,
and began pouring the water down their throats with
a loud gurgling sound. I took the biggest behind

408

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the shoulder broadside sharp right and left, and the
whole herd vanished like smoke ; then came in¬
numerable hyenas, making the most appalling noise,
fighting, running, and yelling like demons. I cannot
imagine what was the cause, as I never heard them
so before. I heard lions, and hoped they would come,
but they did not ; and, just before the morning star
rose, feeling confident that no more elephants would
come, I shot a hyena, and sent men off on the spoor
of the wounded elephant. As it was Sunday, I would
not go out to hunt myself. They found the herd, and
the wounded one standing alone, some distance off,
but the dogs chased him, and he eventually got clear
away, and we have seen no more since ; we have shot
elands, quaggas, wild boar, harrisbuck, and roan ante¬
lopes by the water, but nothing that will help to pay
expenses. It is now too warm in the day to do any
good ; I myself cannot stand it. The hack-thorns
have torn all my clothes to rags ; they are patched
up in twenty places, and I am still hardly decent,
even for the velt, where any mortal covering will
do ; nothing but leather has any chance, and that is
too hot. A little bacon still left, though shaded
as much as possible from the sun in the very middle
of the wagon, has almost all melted away ; my other
wagon and two hunters are still behind, and I am in
hopes they will kill a good number, as among the
tsetse elephants are very numerous, but it is killing
work for a white man on foot. I must go and try
for a guinea-fowl or partridge by way of change, as

SUPPLY THE MACCALACAS WITH FOOD.

409

I am quite tired of this strong living — buffalo, eland,
or elephant day after day ; I cannot eat quagga ; and
the smaller varieties of antelope are awfully dry, and
the horses have now too little flesh to catch a giraffe.

30 th [Sunday). — Malakanyama, a Maccalacas
chief, came over to see me at Jurea, and besought
me to shoot some game for him and his people, as
they had fled from Mosilikatse and were starving.
The Matabele had killed great numbers of them,
when they at length showed fight — an unheard-of
thing — killed two of the principal captains, and are
now in daily expectation of a large commando coming
in quest of them.

Boccas shot twenty-three head in all, myself seven¬
teen, chiefly rhinoceros and buffalo, and two ele¬
phants. He killed three harrisbuck with one bullet,
an extraordinary shot by moonlight ; and last night,
he and I, by the water, killed four rhinoceros and
four buffaloes. Every vestige of the meat disappeared
at once, but we have left the poor fellows a large
lot of dried flesh to go on with. Malakanyama was
very grateful, and sent me a present of four tusks,
which paid well for powder and lead.

I lost the wagons for seven days, during five of
which I had not a bite of anything but flesh. I did
not lose myself, but it was owing to a mistake the
wagon took the wrong road, and Batwing ran away
back to the place from which I started, about forty
miles, finding his way in a most miraculous manner.
The Kaffirs on his spoor eventually brought him back,

410

AFRICAN HUNTING.

to my great joy, as the chances were about three to
one in favour of a lion making a meal of him.

By-the-by, I shot a very fine old manikin lion, but
having no arsenical soap was unable to preserve the
skin, and the claws and skull are all that I have got
as a trophy. I was alone watching the water when
he came, and I killed him dead within fourteen
yards. Three buffaloes, one white rhinoceros bull,
one quagga, a lion, and an elephant, fell to my rifle
that night, my best night’s shooting. My bullets
were reduced to five, and, not having an idea when
or where I was likely to find my wagon or horse,
and being entirely alone, I was in no enviable posi¬
tion, and had some fear of hunger before my eyes ;
but I succeeded in bagging two buffaloes and one
quagga, and had still two bullets left when the horse
made his appearance. The wagon came the fol¬
lowing morning, and I enjoyed the luxury of a cup
of tea, and a little boiled maccaroni. Poison’s wagon
accompanied mine, and I took leave of him yester¬
day, our roads lying in opposite directions : he goes
by Walvish Bay to the Cape, and has some desperate
hard work before him, as his wagon has not less
than 4,000 lbs., and his oxen are young, light, lean,
and weak. He will take at least four good months
to reach Walvish Bay, if he accomplish it in that
time.

A sick ox and horse are waiting to be doctored ;
the latter I hope may pull through, but the former
I must leave behind, I fear. I shall wait at Nanta,

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SHOOTING.

ADONIS.

411

three days ahead, for my other wagon, and then,
after the first rains, go out together.

Adonis has killed four more large bulls ; he runs
with the speed and endurance of an ostrich, and is
one of the very best shots, in all Africa. With these
accomplishments of nature, if his heart was only
in the right place, he might, in a few years, make a
fortune, but even a moderate amount of pluck has
not fallen to his share. Nothing would induce him
to watch the water at night, even in company, and
the roar of a lion at night makes him take himself
off at his best pace at once. Still, he is the best man
this year of my party, heading me in elephants by
two, and he is on foot and I on horseback ; but he
is in the midst of numbers, while I seldom find one ;
the tsetse prevent my being able to go into their
stronghold.

My plans are now to go on horseback to Mosili-
katse, if he will receive me, to ask him what I must
pay him to give me a hunting-velt next year, and
send him also presents to the amount of about 15/. ;
but I shall be no loser by doing this, as he is certain
to send me in return, if he accepts them, more than
an equivalent. It is about seven days from here
to his State, I believe ; but it is almost impossible to
get at the truth from any enquiries amongst the
natives here, as he is so much dreaded by one and
all, that they are positively afraid to speak of him.

Oct. 8th. — Nanta. - — I take up my pen to kill
time, as it weighs very heavily on my hands just

412

AFRICAN HUNTING.

now. I am out of sorts both in body and mind,
and anxiously awaiting the arrival of my second
wagon, which is overdue, and this is the place I
fixed to wait for it, and a more comfortless, barren,
desolate spot no human being could conceive.
There is neither grass, wood, nor water ; the sun is
intensely hot, and there is no shade of any sort, and
we have had three successive days of hot furnace-like
winds. Nevertheless, we have been labouring our
utmost to get a supply of fresh water for the oxen,
and have dug large holes in different places ; but
though the water is drinkable at first, after an hour’s
exposure to the sun it is as salt as brine. To add to
our discomfiture, our only spade has broken through
the middle ; still we contrive to kill enough game
for actual necessity, but the meat will not keep many
hours, and, worst of all, my oxen are dying daily.
I make a post-mortem examination, but am no wiser.
I know neither the disease nor the cure. They swell
up to an enormous size, drink gallons of this brackish
stuff, and, when opened, are full of a nasty yellowish
water. I tried bleeding without any good effect, and
this morning have tried cutting the skin where most
swollen, and letting the water run out.

The Masaras say there is not a drop of water
ahead, and what is to be done I do not myself
know. I was far down the river this morning and
found better water, and have sent the oxen thither.
The Kaffirs showed me a white man’s grave ; I can
learn no particulars as to the person buried there,

A WHITE MAN’S GRAVE.

413

but a more desolate spot to lay one’s bones can
hardly be conceived : I only hope such a fate may
not be mine. I was very nearly losing two of my
horses ; they went back in search of water at night,
and at daylight we started on the spoor. Boccas was
first, and saw two lions lie in waiting ; he was
within fifteen yards when he first perceived them,
fired at the head of one and jumped into a tree ;
fired again out of the tree, wounding one, when they
made off, and five minutes after, the lost horses came
trotting down to the water. The lions were as thin
as planks ; they had not killed anything, and would
have pounced on the horses instantly, but it is not
their usual practice to kill game in the day-time.

I have no appetite, and trail my limbs after me as
if they did not belong to me ; it is a great exertion
to get into the wagon, and my system is fearfully
enervated. There are wild ducks here, but I have
not energy enough in my whole frame to go and
shoot them, though they are not 200 yards off. I
send my youngsters to stir them up, and take my
chance of a dinner as they come past, and, as they
keep the river in their flight, I generally intercept
one or two as they come past, with the same small
eighteen-Burrow.

11th. — Wearied to death : still at Nanta, waiting
for my other wagon, and no news, good or bad, of it
as yet. No Kaffir can keep an appointment. My
oxen are not in a fit state to retrace their steps,
and my horses are equally poor ; two of the former

414

AFEICAN HUNTING.

are dead, and one of tlie latter is useless, on account
of a sore back. I unsaddled him when hot, the
sun blistered him, and then rolling in the sand
and fine stones completed the business. Not being
able to get two loads of ivory, I am preparing or
curing heads, male and female, of all sorts that are
to be met with here, but there is no great variety.
This salt water has been of inestimable value to my
wagon wheels ; I have let them all soak for twenty-
four hours, and they are now as tight as drum-heads.
We had the tail of a passing thunder shower last
night, but all appearance of rain has vanished this
morning, and the wind still continues in the old
quarter from which it invariably blows — due east.

I am considerably better again, and hope I may
now altogether escape the fever ; I have had two or
three twinges, but have thrown it off so far, and now
trust I may escape this year. Yesterday the heat
was so intense that I could not even bear the palms
of my hands on the sand, while I was trying to creep
up to some ducks ; from hard work, the covering is
much more like horn than skin.

1 §tli. — flow I have managed to kill the last five
days, and how to get rid of the next ten or fifteen, is
a perfect puzzle. I can find nothing in the world to
do, but very little to eat, and that little by no means
tempting ; wood next to none ; and I have drunk
almost enough brackish, nauseous water to share the
fate of Lot’s wife. Boccas set off two days ago in search
of my other wagon, a good 200 miles at least, back

REBELLIOUS SERVANTS.

415

again. The weather has been long threatening rain,
and this afternoon a very few heavy drops have
fallen, but I think it can hardly pass entirely away
without a downfall. It is almost as bad as being
becalmed on the Line.

To break the sameness of the thing, three Macca-
lacas Kaffirs were to show me some fresh elephant
spoor, and I shot three springbuck for them, made
bullets, and started ; and when I had got about ten
miles away, they told me it was old spoor, that I had
better turn back, and that they were going to their
kraals, and then deliberately set down my blan¬
ket, &c, to continue their journey. I waited my
opportunity quietly ; made a savage onset on one,
wrested his assegais and kerry from him, broke one
of the former over his head, jumped on Ferus, a hot¬
headed, hard-mouthed horse, rode right over a second,
sending him, salt, kalabash, fells, &c., in all directions,
and hurled the broken weapon at the third. Two of
them fell on their knees, begging for life, and the
third sped like an ostrich over the velt. I gave
them a little good advice, not to try and humbug an
Englishman again, and left them.

A Masara told me he had seen a lion not far off,
and I immediately went in pursuit, inviting Spear¬
man and January, but they declined, not being
ashamed to confess they were afraid. The Masara
was afraid, too, but he went eventually, and we took
the lion’s spoor for about half a mile, when the
Masara ran away, making frightful gesticulations.

416

AFRICAN HUNTING.

We were approaching the lion from above the
wind, and the old brute was wide awake. On
first perceiving him, about sixty yards off, he was
half crouched under some thick thorns, facing me,
and intently watching my every movement, but
before I was on the ground to shoot he turned and
made off, and I went after him. He went away only
leisurely, and I might have shot at him from behind
more than once, but I thought, if I headed him and
got below the wind, he would stand. Eerus was
ready to hunt him, but immediately he got the lion’s
wind he became very much alarmed, snorting and
very restive. The old manikin, likewise, on heading
him, growled savagely and shot into some very dense
underwood — his stronghold, in fact — where, without
dogs, it would have been insanity to follow him ; so
I left him, consoling myself that, even if I had shot
him, he was only a yellow-maned one, and his skin,
from poverty, not worth preserving.

It has hitherto always been my choice to be alone,
but I now feel my solitude so much that I am deter¬
mined, on any future journey, to take a companion
with me. I have two Masara boys about eight years
old, and January, by the wagon, and that is all. The
two former, though they understand every word, and
are most useful and handy, are mute as mice, though
I never speak cross to them, and they are to all ap¬
pearance as happy as the day is long, and make row
enough by themselves ; but when I try to converse
with them, they hang down their heads like dogs

A NATIVE VOCALIST.

417

convicted of sheep-worrying, and January laughs
like a born idiot. Spearman, the ox-vachter, some¬
times comes, but he has got hold of a Dutch psalm
tune, the most horrid concoction on earth, which he
is everlastingly humming, and which drives me quite
distraught ; so I generally greet his appearance with
a kick that sends him howling back again.

HPA.— I have so persecuted the widgeon here, that
the remaining four out of seventeen are uncommonly
shy, and whip under the lee-bank of the river with
the swiftness of sand martins. And I must not for¬
get to mention some rabbit-shooting I have had,
which has reminded me more of England than any¬
thing since I left. Eabbits are the same all over the
world, and excellent sport ; these differ in no respect
from those at home, but they have no holes. I found
them all lying out, but could make no hand at them
the first two days, as I gave them too much law ; but
I got into it the third, bagging five couple. Some
rascal Masara has stuck one of my oxen, Pontac, an
especial favourite, which I broke in myself. I have
sewn up the wound, and have hopes of him, unless
the assegai is poisoned. He and his mate Claret, so
named from the resemblance in colour, are about the
prettiest pair of Zulus I ever saw, and better were
never yoked.

Dull and lonely as it is, I could manage to get over
the day, but the nights are dreadful. When the sun
goes down, the wind invariably does the same ; then
come mosquitoes, midges, gnats, and sand-flies, and

418

AFRICAN HUNTING.

the air is as close as a draw-well. I can hardly en¬
dure a rag over me, and I lie on my back slapping
right and left, here, there, and everywhere, taking
hundreds of lives without diminishing the buzz, and
praying for morning or a breeze of wind, and getting
up occasionally to look at the stars, and see how far
the night has advanced. Even if I can, at times,
bear a blanket over me, it is not much protec¬
tion, unless I can manage to raise it an inch or so
with my knees and elbows, as the mosquitoes bite
through it. I dread a still night above everything,
and would give, at times, all I possess for a wind,
when the mosquitoes vanish.

‘ Sar, here come a folstrens on,’ was January’s
intimation to me about an hour and a half ago, and
I abandoned my pen for my rifle, and have been
creeping under the river-banks in the hopes he would
come to drink, keeping parallel with him for about
three miles ; but he had drunk, I suppose, as he never
came nearer than 600 yards.

24 th. — No news yet of the wagon. I have been
waiting more than three weeks, and can now neither
eat, drink, nor sleep, as there is neither food nor
drink to be got, and the mosquitoes and midges take
care I shall not sleep. I have become wrinkled and
haggard ; and, if my telescope, which I use as a
looking-glass, does not belie my appearance, prema¬
turely aged. My tea and coffee are all but finished,
and I must reserve a little of the latter for night-
work, to keep us awake when going out, as it is

HORRORS OF THE DESERT.

419

simply impossible to move in the day-time across
these heavy sands in the hot, parching winds. The
water here gets more and more salt daily, it is
nauseous both to taste and smell ; and the game has
been so persecuted that it has entirely left this part,
and nothing is now to be seen. I have reduced the
ducks to a couple, with a vast amount of perseverance,
and have slain this morning, I verily believe, the last
rabbit within a circle of eight miles ; the Kaffirs
have lately had nothing but these to live on. JSTo
rain comes, and all appearance of rain has vanished.
I started at dawn of day to shoot a giraffe, a weary
way across the desert, to some makolani trees ; found
eight, and shot one, a cow, when Ferus got away from
me, and never let me come within gunshot of him
till he made the wagon. I was never so exhausted
in my life ; the heat was beyond all description, and
I was sore afraid I should be sun-struck, as my
leathern cap was as hot as an oven. I could not rest,
or even stoop down to tie my shoe, which came un¬
done, as the sands were burning hot, and there was
no shade for a good twelve miles of desert. The
dogs remained behind, and did not come back till
near midnight ; and I should have been wise to
follow their example, but I could not bear up so
long against thirst ; it gave me the greatest pain to
swallow, and I suffered much, but after two hours in
the shade I was all right again. To-morrow I fully
expect to hear some tidings of the wagon, and I shall
bless the day I get out of this, though the Kaffirs

E E 2

420

AFRICAN HUNTING.

say there is neither game nor water ahead. The great
Salt-pan, in which the Zonga river loses itself, is only
a couple of hours west, and there is often a hurricane
blowing across the desert, with clouds of dust and hot
winds. I think my ox Pontac will recover, but
Eingals, the best front ox ever inspanned, is dead.

27 th .- — I have managed to supply the larder abund¬
antly, with two rhinoceros and two elands ; all lean
as crows, however, and very bad fare. I had to go a
weary way in search of them, and the flesh was gone
bad ere it reached the wagon ; but this morning I
had not much trouble with an old black bull rhino¬
ceros. I was lying half asleep a little after sunrise,
the mosquitoes having at last given me a little peace,
when he came to the water. I gave my rifle fifteen
drachms of coarse powder, as it was an open flat,
and I resolved to make short work of him. I crept
close to him, as he was drinking with his head in a
hole, and shot him through the lungs dead, with the
first barrel, which was just as well, as the cap of the
second barrel sprang off with the recoil, and though
I tried to give him a second pill, as he went away
for 500 or 600 yards, it was a case of snap, of course.

I made bad work of an ostrich yesterday, but the
glare of the sun on the sand of the dry bed of a river
was too much for me ; my eyes smarted, and I was
more than half mazed, and though I succeeded in
stalking within 200 yards, I felt sure I should miss
him, as I was as shaky as if I had got the palsy, and
I accordingly did miss him. The hardships of an

CHASE OP AH OSTRICH.

A TRAVELLER’S DRINXING-VESSEL.

421

African hunter are great, that is, if he really follows
up his game. I breakfasted yesterday about 2 p.m. on a
raw talo, a root somewhat resembling a huge potato,
but soft, sweet, and moist. Had a most refreshing
drink of water out of the paunch of a quagga, a
horrid thing to drink out of, and which requires
great skill, but, notwithstanding, it is the very best
thing one can carry water in, as evaporation takes
place, and though the sun is burning hot, the water
is remarkably cool and good. In any other water
utensil it would be as hot as charcoal. There is a
bonny medley of things lying around my wagon —
heads and horns of all descriptions ; lions’ and
wolves’ skulls ; ostrich eggs ; jackal and wild-cat
skins ; koodoo, tsessebe, wildebeest, springbuck,
rhinoceros horns and ears ; great lumps of salt ;
dry flesh hanging up ; rheims, neck-straps, and
yokeskeys ; guinea-fowls, ducks and geese, pheasant
and partridge feathers in all directions ; rabbit-skins
without number ; pots, pans, dog-meat ; ostrich
feathers ; buffalo and eland hide. This is what I
cast my eyes on from where I now sit ; such a chaos
I never beheld.

Nov. A.th . — I think it is Sunday, but every¬
thing is so monotonous, I have nothing to mark the
flight of time, and I may just as likely be out of
my reckoning as not. No news of the missing
wagon. The old saying, 6 ill news flies fast,’ is rather
consoling to me, as I now really begin to think there
has been some foul play somewhere. I place every

422

AFRICAN HUNTING.

confidence in Boccas, whom I started three weeks
ago, with the strictest injunctions to let me know the
cause of the delay without a moment’s loss of time,
and he had my favourite and best horse, Batwing. If
the Mosilikatse’s Kaffirs, or any others, have made
an end of my Kaffirs and men left in charge, my
losses will amount in all to 500/. ; wagon, oxen,
stores, guns, horse, and 500 lbs. of ivory that I
know of, besides probably much more, and some of
the finest heads and horns, of different sorts, of the
rarest antelopes I ever saw. We have been particu¬
larly fortunate this year, and shot an incredible
number, over 400 head, I think. I left meal, sugar,
and dried fruits, also behind, and am myself totally
without anything of the sort. I am positively in rags,
and my flesh resembles boiled lobster more than
anything else, being literally roasted with the sun.
The pain is very great, and all for want of a needle.
I had four in my hat on leaving the wagon, but they
have all got lost ; I might have saved the life of an
ox or two, had I only had a couple of pins. I bled
one, and tried to take up the vein with a thorn in
lieu of a pin, but it broke in the night, the vein
burst open again and the ox bled to death, and I
have been afraid to venture a second time. What
riles me most is, that the other wagon had more
than enough of all these requisites ; but I have not
yet quite lost all hope of its turning up some day
or other.

The days are so intensely hot, that it is impossible

ENVIABLE PLIGHT.

423

to stir, and the moon is just seven days past the full;
therefore, I must now wait fourteen days, so as to
have the full benefit of it, and then, if I hear nothing
previously, start myself in search, a good 250 miles,
without other meat or drink of any sort than what
my rifle will provide me with — which is precarious,
to say the least of it— and then back again another
250 miles. It has rained about forty or fifty miles
ahead at the Qualeba, and I hear that the young
grass is fast springing up, and that there is plenty of
water. As the residue of my oxen are wretched in
appearance, and keep on dying, I shall start to¬
morrow on the oxen’s account, and see if I can come
there, but I have great misgivings, as the wagon is
very heavy and I am but a poor driver ; however, I
cannot stay longer here. We have been most pro¬
videntially sustained with a good supply of meat all
along ; two more rhinoceros, an eland, springbuck,
quagga, tsessebe, roan antelope, pallah, and blue
wildebeest having succumbed, and weeks ago I
thought the last head had taken itself off to other
quarters.

Now for an adventure with a lion, which I have
reserved for the last. On Friday the old Masara
captain paid me a visit ; he had seen a lion on the
path, and left a lot of Masaras to watch him. I
had been working hard all day in the hot sun with
an adze, making a dissel-boom for the wagon, and
was tired, lame, and shaky in the arms, and did
not feel at all up to the mark for rifle-shooting;

424

AFRICAN HUNTING.

but I ordered Ferus to be saddled, who was also
not at all fresh, having had a tremendous burst in
the morning across a flat, after a lean eland cow.
Just after I caught sight of about twenty-five
Masaras sitting down, all armed to the teeth with
shields and assegais, my attention was attracted to a
Kaffir skull, which struck me as a bad omen, and the
thought entered my head, that it might be my fate
to lay mine to bleach there. I did not, however,
suffer this thought to unnerve me, but proceeded,
and found that the lion had decamped. The Masaras
followed his spoor about a couple of miles, when he
broke cover. I did not see him at first, but gave
chase in the direction in which the Masaras pointed,
saw him, and followed for about 1,000 yards, as
he had a long start, when he stood in a nasty thorn
thicket. I dismounted at about sixty or seventy
yards, and shot at him ; I could only see his outline,
and that very indistinctly, and he dropt so instanta¬
neously, that I thought I had shot him dead. I
remounted and reloaded, and took a short circle,
and stood up in my stirrups to catch a sight of him.
His eyes glared so savagely, and he lay crouched in
so natural a position, with his ears alone erect, the
points black as night, that I saw in a moment I had
missed him ; I was then about eighty yards from
him, and was weighing the chances of getting a shot
at him from behind an immense ant-heap, about
fifteen yards nearer. I had just put the horse in
motion with that intention, when on he came with a

Ka-nhai-l: , Imp

/

ADVENTURE WITH A LION.

425

tremendous roar, and Ferns whipt round like a top,
and away at full speed. My horse is a fast one, and has
run down the gemsbok, one of the fleetest antelopes,
but the way the lion ran him in was terrific. In an
instant I was at my best pace, leaning forward,
rowels deep into my horse’s flanks, looking back over
my left shoulder, over a hard flat excellent galloping
ground. On came the lion, two strides to my one.
I never saw anything like it, and never want to do so
again ; to turn in the saddle and shoot darted across
my mind, when he was within three strides of me,
but on second thoughts I gave a violent jerk on the
near rein, and a savage dig at the same time with
the off heel, armed with a desperate rowel, just in
the nick of time, as the old manikin bounded by me,
grazing my right shoulder with his, and all but
unhorsing me, but I managed to right myself by
clinging to the near stirrup-leather. He immediately
slackened his speed ; as soon as I could pull up,
which was not all at once, as Ferus had his mettle up,
I jumped off, and made a very pretty and praise¬
worthy shot, considering the fierce ordeal I had just
passed (though I say it who ought not), breaking his
hind leg at 150 yards off, just at the edge of the
thicket. Fearful of losing him, as the Masaras were
still flying for bare life over the velt, with their
shields over their heads, and I knew nothing would
prevail on them to take his spoor again, I was
in the saddle, and chasing him like mad in an
instant. His broken leg gave me great confidence,

426

AFRICAN HUNTING.

though he went hard on three legs ; and I jumped off
forty yards behind him, and gave him the second
barrel, a good shot, just above the root of the tail,
breaking his spine, when he lay under a bush
roaring furiously, and I gave him two in the chest
before he cried 6 enough.’ He was an old manikin,
fat and furious, having only four huge yellow blunt
fangs left. Then I had to hunt up the Masaras, who,
of course, never came near, nor never would have
done so, if he had taken a day and a half to eat up
my carcase. The gloomy forebodings which the
skull gave rise to at starting, were much nearer being
fulfilled than I reckoned for ; and why a man risks his
life for no earthly gain, is a problem I cannot solve.
I only know this, there is a secret feeling of inward
satisfaction at having conquered, that is almost
worth the risk to be run, though there are no ap¬
plauding friends or spectators present. I wish my
powers of description equalled those of a Masara ; I
think I never enjoyed a greater treat than to hear
one of them describe this adventure. I did not un¬
derstand a word he said, but his gestures and attitudes
were splendid ; his eyes flashed fire, he broke out
into a streaming perspiration, and mimicked the lion
so perfectly, as to make me feel quite cold. It would
be impossible to surpass his imitation of the horse
galloping, with myself spurring him, and all the
other incidents of the chase. I had the satis¬
faction of seeing that I held the very first place in
his estimation, and ever since the Masaras have

SEARCH FOR THE MISSING WAGON.

427

paid me great attention, bringing wood and water
unasked.

My waking thoughts and midnight dreams are
of the missing wagon, and I cannot help thinking
that something serious has happened. The Kaffirs
have only one punishment — death, for every
offence ; and Mosilikatse has been jealous of our
hunting without his permission, as he claims the
country, and there is no law here but that of the
stronger.

I shall go in search with a revolver, as well as my
rifle, to guard against surprise, and then I should
not be much afraid if I were well mounted ; but my
poor nag is all skin and bone, and I am afraid he
will not stand the journey.

9 th. — I have got over some sixty miles of the
journey. Twenty hours in the yoke without water,
three rivers which we crossed being dry ; at length we
came to some pits, and after working hr the broiling
sun, clearing them out like galley-slaves, eight only
of my unfortunate oxen were able to get any water,
and this they drank out of a zinc bucket. In this
emergency a Masara told me he had seen a little rain
water in a vley a long way off, and after a great deal
of wrangling, not having any beads to pay him, he
agreed to show me the water, if I, in return, shot him
a giraffe. To these terms I at once joyfully acceded,
and he set off with the vachter and the poor oxen,
and yesterday I fulfilled my share of the compact,
but not without great difficulty. After no end of

428

AFRICAN HUNTING.

hunting, I at length sighted one giraffe-cow, going at
a slapping gallop a long way ahead over a villanous
country covered with scrub bush ; but Ferus at
length managed to get up to her. I was doing all I
knew to head the giraffe from a thick forest of
makolani trees, and she strained every nerve and
sinew to gain her point. Ferus was going splendidly,
and fifty yards more must have finished the business,
as I was then not more than eighty yards off, when
over and over he rolled in a hole, like a rabbit shot at
full speed, and I, standing up in my stirrups leaning far
forward, was shot a prodigious distance, clear out of
all harm’s way. I was on my legs in a minute, but my
gun barrels were so covered with dust and old dead
roots of grass, which we had managed to tear up,
that I could not see the sight. I rapidly gave my
gun a brush with the cuff of my coat and shouldered
her again. The giraffe was at least 200 yards off, and
I struck her with both barrels, the first within an inch
of the hip-bone, the second through the fleshy part of
her off hind leg, but without doing her any injury. I
fully calculated on a walk back, but, for a wonder,
I managed to recapture my nag. I took up the
spoor, and found the giraffe lying dead less than a
mile off.

11 th [Sunday). — Matibele [a Fountain). — Got
here yesterday, after a journey of three days
from Qualeba, smoking hot and dog-tired, and I
vowed over and over again that nothing but sheer
necessity should ever compel me to come again to

SHORT OF WATER.

429

this thirst-land. The oxen, hollow and flat-sided, did
nothing but low, and when outspanned kept on the
track, and would not stand or eat a moment. The
ground wTas so hot that the poor dogs to whom I gave
water could not stand still to drink, but had to keep
moving their feet ; the velt is, if possible, gradually
getting worse and worse, and it is three hard days to
the next water. I was never before in such a strait,
and the Masaras positively refuse to go with me, as they
say there is no water. The fiend assuming the shape
of a Masara, who was the cause of my leaving Nanta,
by his assurance of green grass and abundance of
water, vanished in the night, or I should have
crippled him for life at least, and I have been forced
into coming thus far to save the lives of my oxen,
and people, and self ; it has added another hundred
miles to my journey back in search of my other
wagon, and I must now give up the idea altogether,
as I am sure my poor horse will never accomplish it.
I place every confidence in the people I left in
charge of the wagon ; if they are alive they will
bring it out, and if dead I could not bring the
wagon out myself, but should most probably share
their fate. I shall therefore do all I can to get out
with what I have, a bird in the hand being worth two
in the bush ; but this is but poor consolation for a
loss of at least 500/.

12th. — I dread more what I am just now about to
undertake than I ever dreaded anything before. It is
three long days to the next water ; heavy sand most

430

AFRICAN HUNTING.

of the way, the wagon also heavy, the near hind
axle-tree sprung ; and no offer whatever will induce
a Masara to go with me, as they dread sun and
thirst too much. I must, however, attempt it, as I
am greatly in need of a change of food, and
thoroughly sick of meat, meat, meat, without anything
besides. No news, good, bad, or indifferent, of the
other wagon. I have long since ceased making conjec¬
tures, but must first replenish my stores, and then
go in search. There is little use in waiting for the
chance of rain, as Dr. Livingstone told me, that when
he was living at Kolobeng, Sechele’s country, it never
once rained for five years. The trees, notwithstand¬
ing the drought, are all fast coming into leaf again,
and the bush is getting green and thick, so that
there is no more hunting ; besides, the unhealthy
season is just beginning, and it is high time to get
out into a better climate. Driving my own wagon is
cruel hard work, very different from walking, lying,
riding in the wagon, or on horseback, just as my in¬
clination tended ; now my hands are all scars and
sores from the oxen’s horns, and I am quite hoarse
with calling and shouting at them.

YJtli. — We are now at the Eiver Mesa, which we
reached two days ago. I had miscalculated the dis¬
tance, it being four days instead of three ; but I got a
little water for my oxen half way, in a vley. That
indefatigable, careless vagabond, January, hit off a
Bushman’s spoor and caught him up, and though he
assured him positively that there was no water, that

MY HORSES KILLED BY LIONS.

431

the vley he drank out of was dry, and that he was
just then starting himself in search, yet, when the
news reached me, I outspanned at once, saddled up
and took my gun, and made the Bushman show us
a vley where there was barely sufficient, but it was
worth its weight in gold to me. About four miles ere
reaching this, my pole pulled out of the iron bolt, and
the oxen walked on quite unconcerned, leaving the
wagon a fixture. I remedied this temporarily with
the rheim-chain, making the pole fast with rheims
round the fore tongue just for the two after-oxen to
steer by, and got here without further mishap ;
yesterday I put in a new dissel-boom, and intended
to proceed when the sun had sunk a few hours.

Dog-tired, I went fast asleep as soon as I lay down,
and never awoke till the morning-star rose, when I
heard lions roaring, and immediately jumped up to
see if my horses and oxen were all right. I was
horrified at seeing no signs of either, sent the Kaffirs
off at once, and now came the climax of all my mis¬
fortunes. January had never made the oxen fast,
though he had seen five lions in the afternoon, and
poor Ferus and Kebon lay dead within sixty yards
of one another and some 600 from the wagon, the
latter, who was in very fair condition, being entirely
devoured ; Ferus was untouched. They cost me
90/. cash, and I should have got at least 120/. for
them, had I wished to sell. At sunset the Kaffirs
returned, reporting the deaths of Yambrown and
Scotland, two of my middle oxen, devoured by

432

AFRICAN HUNTING.

lions. They had followed the oxen’s spoor several
hours, and eventually brought back all the rest, and
we made a strong kraal and kept watch all night, with
several large fires round, but, apparently satisfied
with what they had already done, the lions did not
pay us another visit. It is vexatious to suffer such a
loss through the carelessness of the Kaffirs, but I must
make some allowance for them ; the poor lads were
as dead beaten as myself with our four days and
nights forced march.

I have no brass wire, beads, or anything to trade
a goat or sheep, or a little Kaffir corn from the
Kaffirs, and can shoot nothing now on foot but small
dry bucks, or a quagga or other rubbish, hardly
eatable, and I shall have a hard bout of it now, ere
I once more reach civilisation. When I do reach it,
I shall not be in a hurry to leave it again. I am
writing with a mixture of coffee and gunpowder.

In about eighteen or twenty-one days, if all goes
well, I hope to reach Sechele’s, where I may reckon
on a few comforts from the German missionaries ;
but the wagon runs heavily, squeaking all the way,
and the wheels are as dry as tinder, and where now
to procure a bit of grease to smear them with, I do
not know.

I had not even the satisfaction of shooting one of
the lions, as it was mid-day ere I found the horses,
and there were then no traces to be seen of them.
January had taken himself off, sneaking back in
the night.

WANDERINGS.

433

18th. — Rain at last, but only in heavy passing
showers. I am now outspanned under the very same
tree as three years ago on my return from Mosilikatse’s
with Martinus Swartz. I little expected then ever
to be here again, as I had a very hard bout of it
that time. I have led but a vagrant sort of life since
then, doing little good for myself or anybody else,
except supplying the ungrateful, half-starved Masaras
and Maccalacas with abundance of flesh. I have
scarcely ever been still, and must have journeyed over
some twelve or fifteen thousand miles at least, and
that at much less than foot pace, having been through
the Transvaal Republic, Free State, and part of the
Old Colony, twice down to Natal, and twice round
Lake Ngami, and now over the Zambesi into
Makololo and Batoka lands ; and it is now, I think,
nearly time to call a halt.

I have this morning come over some very heavy
sand-bolts, with thick trees, and sharp, short turns,
entirely to my own satisfaction, with a very heavy
wagon and the loss of two of my oxen, and I take
a deal of merit to myself. It is rather exciting
work, and, if I had only food, I should not mind it at
all. I have got once more into a hilly country, which
quite gladdens my eye after the immense amount of
flat, uninteresting country I have lately passed over.

2RA. — I have endless difficulties to contend with
in the way of writing fluid, having lost my ink-bottle,
and have nothing but a little tea and coarse gun¬
powder in a bullet-mould, which oozes out fast. I

434

AFRICAN HUNTING.

got on well for three days, when I lost the way and
got under the Bamangwato Hills, the roughest and
thickest bush a wagon ever encountered. I was con¬
gratulating myself that we should come to Letloche
next day, where I should get into a beaten path,
and the worst of my difficulties would be over, when
at last the tent of my wagon was carried bodily away
with a crash, horridly grating to my ears. Guns,
telescope, oil-flask, ostrich feathers, and a variety of
things made fast thereon, went with it, and the two
sails, torn from top to bottom. I could no longer
steer the wagon, and the oxen were dead beaten ;
that night, when I had no protection, of course it
rained in torrents, and we had most violent thunder¬
storms, the first we have had for ten months. While
treking across an extensive open plain by moonlight,
I found an ostrich nest with fifteen eggs, which we
bagged at once. About twelve the following day I
reached Letloche, where I spent two days repairing
damages, and I hope to reach the Bamangwato
State (Sicomo’s) early to-morrow.

Waddington and Aldersley, two Englishmen,
joined me here, greatly to my astonishment ; they
had chartered a vessel from the Cape to Angra
Peguina, on the west coast, in February last, and
had worked their way up to the Lake, through
Great Namaqua and Damara lands, and are now on
their way back to the Cape. A pretty good round
they will have had of it. We sat up all last night
relating our different adventures, though three

A DELIGHTFUL MEETING.

435

hours previously perfect strangers to one another. A
chance meeting of this sort is most refreshing and
delightful, after being months and months alone, and
tongue-tied in the desert.

I had the good fortune to exchange my only
blanket, six days back, for a little Kaffir corn, and
got an intombi (young girl) to stamp it in a block
for me, and have been luxuriating on porridge and
salt for breakfast and dinner ever since ; it is about as
coarsely ground or crushed as fine gravel, but very
wholesome, and a great treat it was for the first
three days, after being so long a time living entirely
on flesh or fowl, cooked in every conceivable way.
I am now beginning to think that a little sugar,
milk, or treacle, might be no bad addition ; but in
another ten days, if all goes well, I may hope for
some Boers’ meal from the German missionaries at
Sechele’s, the most hospitable men in the whole
world. My poor oxen are very much used up, but
I hope to purchase two or three fresh ones here,
which will wonderfully assist me. I have left my
friends behind; their oxen are entirely done up,
falling in the yoke from sheer poverty and leg
weariness.

29 th. — Massouey. — I am here again for the seventh
time, and last, I hope, as I see no encouragement to
return. I spent two days at the Bamangwato State,
and bought six oxen, young, thin, and unbroken. I
have already had four inspanned, but was obliged
to fall back on two of my old ones again in place of

F F 2

AFRICAN HUNTING.

436

two whom no amount of flagellation would induce
to trek. I got also about 45 lbs. of ivory, but it
was very dear, and I plainly perceive that there is
no more good to be done. We have had a heavy
thunder-storm, and I fully expect to get a little rain¬
water ahead, for after leaving Lopepe, a day and a
half from this, we get no more to Kaporig, three
hard days, with a good deal of night work added ;
but I do most of my treking at nights, whenever the
moon is near the full.

I heard of a dreadful accident which happened to
three Englishmen on the velt this year : three wagons
and their contents blown all to rags, from the explo¬
sion of 1,600 lbs. of powder; seven horses killed, one
Hottentot and one Englishman.

Four Maccalacas Kaffirs joined me here to go to
Natal, so that I am now quite independent of any
Natal Kaffirs.

I have just potted five ducks, the whole batch, in a
most disgraceful manner. It was too great a windfall
in these times to give them a ghost of a chance, and
I got well under the wind, crawled in upon them on
all fours like a snake in the grass twice successively,
and bagged all but one on the water, when I might
have taken them fairly on the wing, right and left.
I now contemplate them with great satisfaction, as I
have been living villanously since the death of my
nags, and — what makes it, if possible, still more
aggravating — we yesterday saw a troop of giraffes
from the wagon, and made a vain effort to stalk in

PREPARATIONS FOR A MOVE.

437

upon them on foot, when the best of the herd must
have bitten the dust had my poor Ferus been alive.
Those rascally Mangwatos stole my last spoon and
axe, a box of caps, and my knife also, and very likely
many more things that I have not yet missed.

Dec. 2nd [Sunday). — Lopepe. — This is the last
water for three long days, and there are no signs of
rain, though it is so late in the year. I hear the
Bakwains at Sechele’s State are all starving : a com¬
fortable prospect before me. I am getting all in
preparation for a move — cask, water- vats and cala¬
bashes full, rheims and neck-straps mended, that we
may have no cause of delay or hindrance of any kind
that a little foresight might have avoided, and I shall
do all I can to get over this much-dreaded part of
the road to Kapong, after which, except the flooded
rivers, it is all plain sailing to Natal. I have rested
here the best part of three days to recruit my poor
oxen, but they have not benefited much, as the
grass is too scarce. I have broken in three young
ones from Bamangwato, but they only help in the
day, as they plague too much yet for night-work,
and are continually getting wrong in the yoke. I
have bagged this time with great difficulty one pallah
and one springbuck, and should be very glad if I had
with me any young ardent sportsman to take this job
off my hands, as it begins now to pall upon me, and, as
soon as ever I have procured sufficient for the day, I
immediately make the best of my way back. It is no
longer sport ; the days are now gone by when I

438 AFRICAN HUNTING.

would walk from Leyland or Hoghton to Brinseall
and back, for the chance only of a shot or two at a
snipe, or from Ledard to the port of Monteith and
back, ten long Scotch miles each way, for a day at
rabbits and woodcocks, as I used to do every Saturday
all through the winter.

4 th. — Waddington lent me Dr. Livingstone’s work
at Letloche, and I have just now for the first time
read his description of the Falls of the Zambesi, and
compared notes with my own ; they differ materially,
but on carefully reperusing mine I cannot alter a
word. He has much underrated their magnitude. I
saw them every successive day for a week from every
accessible point, from opposite, from both sides, and
above. Distance is most deceiving in this country,
and still more so on the water ; when I stepped it off
opposite I was myself surprised to find it so far, and
am confident I have not overrated the river at 2,000
yards wide. I may perhaps have rather overrated the
depth, but the Umgani Falls in Natal are 100 yards
deep, and the Zambesi, as far as the eye can judge,
look as deep ; as to the width, I can throw a stone
ninety yards, and though I had some good ones to
choose from, and threw with force and confidence
from within twenty feet of the edge, having a very
good head and never getting dizzy, yet I never suc¬
ceeded in many attempts in throwing one across.
It is probably, therefore, as many yards as the
Doctor says feet ; otherwise his description is very
good, and exceedingly well expressed. He has

PREPARATIONS FOR A MOVE.

439

erred on the right side, being too careful not to
exaggerate ; he allows that he has a bad eye and is
not a good judge of distances, as he says himself
that he judged a distance to be 400, wdiich proved
to be 900, yards. The discovery of the Falls was
made in 1855, and from that time to this (1860),
with the exception of Livingstone’s party, no Euro¬
pean but myself has found his way thither.

To give myself a good idea in rifle-shooting at game,
I have been for years constantly judging and stepping
off distances — for instance, from one ant-heap to
another — and have hardly ever shot any game on the
flat that I have not previously in my own mind
first judged the distance, sighted accordingly, and, if
successful, afterwards stepped it off, so that I can now
form a very good idea. It is astonishing what wide
shots others make who have not been in the habit of
so doing ; objects look very much nearer than they
really are, owing to the clearness of the atmosphere.

9 th [Sunday). — Got to Sechele’s three days ago,
and am now the best part of a day on my road
towards Merico. My two Bequina boys left me at
Sechele’s, and we had a whole day’s quarrelling as
to pay, their captain demanding much more than
had been previously agreed upon, in consequence
of the distance and time that I had been away ; he
also demanded as their right one tusk for every
. elephant shot by a Bequina, and this matter still
rests in the hands of the German missionary,
Mr. Schroeder, whom I have appointed to act in

440

AFRICAN HUNTING.

my stead, when (if ever) my lost wagon makes its
appearance, as the Bequinas will not otherwise allow
it to pass.

I am now left almost entirely to my own resources
to manage wagon and oxen over a heavy path, and
some very ugly drifts and places. My Maccalacas,
though willing enough, are surprisingly stupid, and
we cannot understand one another a bit, and had
all but broken the wagon twice yesterday from short
turning and losing the spoor ; but they will, it is to
be hoped, improve as they go on.

I got a supply of bread, sugar, and coffee from Mr.
Schroeder, and a few beads also, and two sheep. He
treated me more than hospitably ; my difficulties
and hardships are now only things to be looked back
upon, and I am none the worse, though they thought
me very lean and fine-drawn, and stuffed me, during
my stay, as they do a Norfolk turkey ten days before
Christmas ; Germans feed in such an extraordinary
manner. I had boiled rice and raisins, cinnamon and
nutmeg, boiled dried peaches, a lot of fried very fat
mutton swimming in grease, pancakes and sugar, all
piled up on my plate at once. I begged and implored
them to stop, and when Mr. Schroeder, as a climax,
poured some yellow fluid, which I took to be melted
butter, but which proved to be vinegar, over all this
compound, I need hardly say I had a bilious headache
all the following day, as I was ravenously hungry, and
saw through most of it, and then drank coffee to an
enormous extent. There were all the ingredients for

HOSPITALITY.

441

a very good repast, if they would only have allowed
me to take it in my own manner, and help myself,
but Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder took every opportunity,
when my attention was called away, to load up
another spoonful or two of anything that came to
hand. I had once or twice the satisfaction, by sud¬
denly whipping my plate away, of letting a few
compounds fall on the table, to be snapped up by
the numerous black progeny, immediately after grace
was said.

I reached Merico in due course, where I left my
two lads, Meercat and Ngami, in Mr. Zimmerman’s
charge. I got my fresh oxen there, and made good
play once more to Durban, where I arrived all right
in about a month, without any occurrence of note,
invested in two fresh and fat horses in Mooi Biver
Dorp, and kept the wagon and my Maccalacas sup¬
plied with wildebeest, blesbuck, and springbuck, until
we crossed the Drakensberg. My Kaffirs turned out
active, clever, intelligent fellows in no time, trust¬
worthy and honest in every respect, capital hands
with then* long needles at sewing, and excellent
cattle and horse-herds. Two whom I turned into
grooms were wild with joy at the success of the
horses in their charge at the Durban Bace Meeting,
and their consequent reward, and when I left for
England immediately after, they returned again to
their native homes on the Cashan Mountains, some
700 miles NW.

My missing, and, as I thought, lost wagon, came

442

AFRICAN HUNTING.

down to Natal, about six weeks after my arrival, in
charge of Boccas, with a heavy load of ivory. The
oxen and poor Batwing were in a sad state of poverty,
but 1 had the pleasure of seeing them marvellously
recruited before I left the colony. Boccas had hung
up all my trophies, many of the finest specimens I
ever saw, in trees, to make room for the ivory, the
more valuable commodity ; consequently, I had the
mortification of losing them all, though I was com¬
pensated in a great measure by some very fine ivory.
The number of elephants they found in the tsetse
country had been their inducement for remaining so
long behind, and altogether they gave a most satisfac¬
tory account of themselves.

‘THE END.’

443

The following is a List of Game killed by four guns in my last
expedition (1860) to the Zambesi, with the Kaffir names — as
far as I am acquainted with them — attached :

English

Kaffir

English

61 Elephant . . .

Inihlovi

12 Blue Wildebeest

2 Hippopotamus .

Imvubu

2 Black „

11 Rhinoceros, white

Incomba

71 Quagga . . .

12 „ black

Borele

Zebra (Burchall’s)

„ blue

Reitbuck . . .

„ two-horned

Oribo ....

11 Giraffe ....

Ututla

3 Duiker . . .

21 Eland ....

Impofu

Klipspringer

30 Buffalo . . .

Inyati

Bush Buck . .

12 Harrisbuck . .

Potoquaine

14 Roan Antelope

Red Bush Buck

2 Gemsbuck . . ,

, Kukama

Bluebuck . . .

9 Koodoo . . .

. Iganthla

10 Steinbuck . .

4 Waterbuck . .

. Ipifa

1 Gryse Steinbuck

1 Hartebeest . . ,

. Inthluzela

Pokur ....

12 Tsessebe . . . .

, Tsessebe

Nakong . . .

18 Impala . . .

. Impala

1 Fall Rheebuck

Inyala ....

. Inyala

Roy Bluebuck

Leche ....

. Leche

Kama ....

1 Blesbuck

2 Striped Eland .

25 Springbuck . .

. Insepe

English

Kaffir

English

4 Lion ....

, Inconyama,

9 Silver Jackal

or Imbubi

Grey „

Leopard * . . .

. Umsila

Lynx

Panther . . .

. Ingive

Rattle

Hyena, Striped

Pole Cat

4 „ Spotted .

. TJmpisi

Otter, two kinds

Wild Bog . .

. Inf a

Porcupine

Small Wild Dog

Anteater

Black Wolf

Bush Boar . . *

2 Wild Cat

Kaffir

Inconcon

v

Idube

Umsica

lula

Impunzi

Igoko

Inconka (m.)
Imbabala (f.)

Umpiti

Nkina

v

Pukur

Nakong

Kama

Impofa

Kaffir

Ingluhi

444

English

Veit Boar,
Fare

Crocodile .

Guana

Armadillo

Ocelot

Meercat

Kaffir

or Flac

Nguana

English

Baboon
Umsemanga
Monkeys, various
3 Hare
24 Rabbit
Rock Rabbit
1 Tiger Cat . .

Kaffir

. Umsemanga

. Nlozi

LAND

2 Ostrich

Large Crested Bustard
Common „

Koran, or small „ six varieties
Guinea Fowl, Black

„ „ Blue or Grey

Pheasants, two kinds
Partridges, three kinds
Quail, two kinds
Snipe, Common and Painted

BIRDS

Dikkop

Namaqua Partridges, three sorts
Plovers, three kinds
Pigeons — Wood, Rock, and
Turtle Dove, six of the long¬
tailed variety
Hadada
Sacred Ibis

Bush Turkey, not eatable

Black Goose

Grey «

Golden „

Muscovy Duck

Yellow-billed „

Common ,,

Brown „

Wigeon

Teal

Divers

Coots

WATER BIRDS

Water Hens, and every variety
of Water Fowl
Curlew
Pelican
Flamingo
Hammer Kop
Meahem
Herons
Storks
Cranes

INDEX.

INDEX

ABO

BOUTI Inyouti, a beer, 77
African cuisine, 333
— Gum-trees, 84
Amabouche, an African fruit, 62
Amas, 13, 69, 71
Amasi, thick sour milk, 350
Amatonga bread, 84
Amatongas tribe, the, 75, 119, 121;

their courtesy, 77; their industry, 85
Amobella meal, 13
Antelopes, 199, 382
Ants, 25, 69
Ant-heaps, 283
Armadillo, 146

BALDWIN, William Charles, early life,
2; land in Natal, 4; first hunt¬
ing expedition to St. Lucia Bay, 5:
encounter an elephant, 8 ; sup on the
elephant’s heart and foot, 9 ; go out
duck-shooting, 9 ; escape from a cro¬
codile, 1 0 ; trade with the natives, 1 1 ;
sleep in a Kaffir hut, 1 2 ; am charged
by a buffalo, 14; shoot my first sea-
cow, 15; construct a house of reeds,
16; am taken ill, 17; become my
own doctor, 1 7 ; boat attacked by a
sea-cow, 18; am attacked by ague,
20; break up of the camp, 21; re¬
turn to Natal, 22; recover from a
long illness, 23; two years on the
Inanda, 24; monotonous life, 24;
narrow escape from crocodiles, 26, 27 ;
go into the Zulu country, 29; fall

BAL

under a wagon, 30; shoot an eland,
32; receive a visit from a panther,
34; chase after baffaloes, 35; enter
King Panda’s country, 38 ; sent back,
39; hard chase after a buffalo, 42;
narrow escape from a lion, 46; wound
a lion, 49; shoot a blue heron, 51;
lose my dog Hopeful, 52; bring back
ample supplies, 53 ; am conducted by a
honey-bird to a bees’ nest, 53 ; chase an
eland bull, 55 ; breakfast upon buffalo
tongues, 56; disappointed of food, 60;
kill a bush pig, 61 ; life in Africa,
62; run down a tiger-cat, 62; finish
a pair of boots, 64; bad weather, 64;
short of food, 66; pursuit of ‘ Justice,’
66 ; a wet night, 68 ; short commons,
69; shoot sea-cows, 70; a good din¬
ner, 70; kill an eagle, 73; shoot for
the Zulus, 75; visit the Amatongas,
75; bag an inyala, 76; come upon
lions, wolves, &c., 78; through the
bush, 79; come upon an elephant,
79; cross the Pongola, 81; chastise
the Kaffir Jack, 81 ; am swept out
of a canoe, 87 ; encounter with a sea-
bull, 89; symptoms of fever, 90;
purchase cattle, 93 ; go into the Zulu
country, 95; dangerous descent, 96;
lose a favourite horse, 98 ; narrow' es¬
cape from crocodiles, 100; missions
in the Zulu country, 104; shoot a
rhinoceros, 106; meet a puff adder,
111; third hunt in the Zulu country,

448

INDEX.

BAL

112; tent invaded by a lion, 117:
am charged by a buffalo, 123; des¬
perate situation, 124; a hurricane,
131; war among the Kaffirs, 133;
frightful state of the country, 136;
enter the Transvaal republic, 142;
am visited by a Coranna chief, 154;
a night in the open, 155; go into the
Merico country, 160; life amongst
the Boers, 1 64 ; chase a giraffe, 171;
a timely storm, 176; encounter a
giraffe, 178; feet pierced by thorn,
180; my rifle damaged, 182; pursue
a giraffe, 187 ; suffer from heat, 188;
suspected by a Kaffir chief, 195;
shoot my first tsessebe and first har-
risbuck, 197; chase of an antelope,
199; chase after Bryan, 202; want
of water, 207 ; narrow escape from an
elephant, 212; lost in the bush, 215;
a Maccateese kraal, 217; a Hottentot
maid, 225 ; Christmas in Africa, 229 ;
am arrested under suspicion of smug¬
gling, 232; adopt a Masara boy,
248; deserted by my Kaffirs, 249;
alone in the desert, 251 ; dangerous
encounter with elephants, 263; see
Lake Ngami, 265; a Kaffir repast,
266; barter with Kaffirs, 268; Kaffir
cruelty, 269; lose a valuable horse,
274; am seized with ague, 276; a
strong stomach, 277; farewell to
Leche, 282; Masara boy deserted,
286; return of fever, 287; hot pur¬
suit of a giraffe, 289; am ungrate¬
fully treated by Sechele, 290; re¬
monstrate with Sechele, 292; bush
on fire, 296; great scarcity, 301;
horses, 305 ; go on another trip, 305 ;
heavy losses, 308; harvest time, 309;
course of a; bullet, 309; get robbed,
312; how we find water, 313; after
elephants, 316; fear of the tsetse,
321; hard pursuit of an elephant,
322 ; exciting chase, 327 ; African
cookery, 333; in search of a rhino¬
ceros, 334 ; a riddle solved, 335 ; am
deserted by the Kaffirs, 336; am pre¬
sented with Ngami, a Masara boy, 337 ; '

BOC

have a return of fever, 339; great
heat, 340; visit some English mis¬
sionaries, 342 ; suffer from thirst, 343 ;
from hunger, 345; birds, 349; sell
my ivory, 353; a bad gun, 353; nar¬
row escape from drowning, 354; dif¬
ficulties of crossing the Tugela, 356;
our wagon upset, 357 ; a finished
actor, 360; knock David down, 361 :
upset with Midnight, 364: a Kaffir
Rarey, 368; African serenade, 372;
lose my horse Frenchman, 373; a
hunter’s life, 374; after elands, 376;
view of the Salt-pan, 378 ; light
pockets, 382; perilous position, 385;
a Masara encampment, 387 ; trek
due north, 389; my dog seized by a
tiger, 391 ; meet an Englishman, 392 ;
shoot a gryse steinbuck, 395; arrive
at the Zambesi Falls, 396; meet Dr.
Livingstone, 399; in the hands of
Masipootana,401 ; see Dr. Livingstone
again, 403; savagely charged by a
buffalo, 404; watch the water, 406 ;
shoot a lion, 410; in difficulties at
Nanta, 412; am deceived by and
punish some Maccalacas, 415; per¬
secuted by mosquitoes, 419; shoot
a rhinoceros, 420; water from the
paunch of a quagga, 421; unen¬
viable plight, 422; adventure with
a lion, 424; am thrown in the pur¬
suit of a giraffe, 428; through the
thirst country, 431 ; my horses des¬
troyed by lions, 431 ; retrospect, 433;
accident to my wagon, 434 ; meet two
Englishmen, 434; dreadful accident,
436; return to Natal, 437; lost
wagon recovered, 442
Baboons, 128, 209, 398
Bamangwatos, a Kaffir tribe, 293, 308
Barbel, 241
Bashoo nuts, 275
Batlanarmi wells. 178, 295
Butokas, a tribe in South Africa, 393
Bees’ nests, 372
Blue wildebeests, 204
Boccas, a servant of Mr. Baldwin’s,
409, 413, 427, 442

INDEX.

449

BOE

Boers, the, 165, 194
Buffaloes, 14, 35, 42, 44, 77, 109, 122,
128, 139, 191, 223, 333, 335, 340,
390, 404
Bush on fire, 296
Bush koran, 332
Bustards, 114, 152; 332

CABALLA, 284

Camelopards, 241
Cattle, price of, in Natal, 24
Chapeau, or Beauclekky, 241
Chase of an eland bull, 55
Clapper, a wild fruit, 198
Crabs, 208
Cranes, 79

Cream of tartar, an African tree, 311
Crest-peau, or bustard, 1 14
Crocodiles, 10, 15,26,86, 100,110, 130

DEATH of Arbuthnot, Price, and
Monies, 22

- Bessie Bell, 98

Delagoa Bay, 208

Dikkop (thickhead), a bird, 36, 109
Disturbances amongst the Kaffir tribes,

291

Dogs trained to face hyenas, 2 1 1
Dog-wolf shot, 46
Dog attacked by a tiger, 40
Drakensberg mountain, 142
Dress of an African hunter, 58
Duikers, 7
Durban, 94, 441

Elands, 32, 52, 60, 206, 31.1, 370,
375

— striped, 384

Elephant, the, 8, 9, 13, 80, 85, 212,
259,261, 271, 316, 322—28, 385
—87, 402, 406

Ferocity of lions, 151

Fletcher, Mr., killed by cow ele¬
phant, 31

IRI

AME killed, list of, 443
Gemsbok, or oryx, 246, 256, 307,
308, 372, 382
German Missionaries, 298
Giraffes, 171, 178, 185, 187, 188, 223,
224, 279, 289, 342, 396, 428, 437
Goats, 217

I Golden-goose, chase of a, 16
j Gryse steinbuck, 395
Guia, or Tobacco River, 206
Guinea-fowl, 82

HARR1SBUCK, or Potoquaine, 186,
187, 201, 282
Harrysmith, 143
! Hartebeest, 210
Heat, effects of, on clay, 401
j Heron, a blue, 51

Hippopotamus, or sea-cow, so called in
Southern Africa, 5, 15, 69, 89, 121
! Holden, Dr., 341
j Honey-birds, 53, 300
! Horses, 305, 307

! Horse in a pit, 320; eaten by lions, 431
j Hottentots, beauty of their hands and
j feet, 31; their extravagance, 312
! Hunting expedition into the Zulu coun¬
try, 29; into the Amatonga country,
59

Hyenas, 116, 118, 125, 127, 145, 211,
319, 329, 350, 408

IA, a Hottentot maid, 225

Impalas, 79, 125, 126, 127, 347
Impangane, the, a small river, 33
Inseline, the, a small river, 1 1
Inkukus, a river, 67
Instinct of dogs, 312
Inyalas, 76, 92, 117, 282
Inyati, a Kaffir guide, 21
Inyelas, 73

j Inyesan, plains of the, 8, 53, 61
! Inyoni River, 105

| Inyons, a servant of Mr. Baldwin’s, 306,
j et passim
; Inyonti porridge, 75
| Irish informer, 302

450

INDEX,

ivo

Ivory, 110, 161, 205, 214, 221, 294,
344, 353, 414

JACKALS, 127, 230, 372, 402
Jurea, 407

‘Justice’ in difficulties, 65

AFFIR appreciation of wealth, 105
Kaffir church, 103
Kaffir banquet, 266

Kaffirs, the, habits and manners, and
traits of character of, 7, 14, 17, 18,
24, 31, 72, 73, 74, 83, 98, 104, 105,
114, 135, 175, 177, 183, 203, 219,
242, 265, 266, 268, 273, 277, 292,
298, 300, 326, 347, 348, 352, 361,
369, 377, 379, 382, 413
Kaffirs, war among the, 133
Kleinboy, 306, 313
Klip River, 142
Koodoos, 34, 41, 74, 129, 131
Koran, 109, 114

Ladysmith, 142

Laughing hyenas, 62
Leches, 247, 279
Lechulatebe, 331
Leeches, 208
Letloche, 233

Lindley, Mr., an American Missionary,
25

Lions, 46 — 51, 109, 116, 118, 126,
145, 151, 162, 185, 294, 300, 366,
410, 413, 416, 424, 431
Lion velt, 352

Livingstone, Dr., 173, 278, 385, 399,
401, 403, 430, 439
Lopepes vley, 181, 294, 346

MACCALACAS, an African tribe,
181, 311, 319, 403, 415, 440
Maccateese tribe, the, 149
Makolani trees, 419, 428
Makololos, the, an African tribe near the
Zambesi, 398, 402

PON

|

j Malakanyama, a Maccalaca chief, 409
Mamba, a snake, 99, 222
Mangwatos tribe, 437
Manyati River, 401
Mapani trees, 246, 296
Masaras tribe, the, 191, 296, 308, 313,
321, 337, 338, 388, 416
Masipootana, a chief, 400
Massouey, a fountain, 37 2
Massouey River, 401, 435
Matakoola River, the, 31
Matchevi, a fountain, 342
Matibele, a fountain, 428
Meea River, 380
Meercat, a Masara boy, 338
Merico country, 160, 162, 298, 301, 441
Mesa River, 430
Moffat, Rev. Robert, 193, 295
Mooi River Town, 143, 441
Mosilikatse, a Kaffir chief, 195, 205,
214, 219, 273, 290, 309, 329, 411
Mosquitoes, 11, 134, 340, 418
Mowane trees, 268

TYTAMAQUA partridge, 152
' Nanta, 412
Ngami, Lake, 257, 265
Ngami, a Masara boy, 338
Nights in the Amatonga country, 79;
in the Zulu country, 102; near the
Zambesi, 418

Norwegian Missionary, 103

0MB OMB 0 Mountains, 116

Oryx, or gemsbok, 246, 256, 307
Ostriches, 143, 178, 420
Ostrich eggs, 407

PALL AH, the, 78, 371
Panda, king, 38, 67
Panthers, 34, 210
Peau, 114

Pet Jacobs, a famous hunter, 343
Pheasants, 328
Poisonous herb, 404
Pongola River, the, 81, 139

INDEX.

4b I

POW

Powder, amount of, for African game, 405
Puff adder, 110

QUAGGAS, 74, 143, 156, 278, 421
Qualeba River, 380

EABBITS, 417

Raffeta, the Bastard, 338
Rats, 78, 91

Reedbucks, 65, 108, 114
Reitbuck, the, 7

Rhinoceros, 106, 109, 125, 127, 223,
334, 389, 420
— hump, 190

SALT-PAN, the, 378
Sangarni, 182

Schroeder, Mr., Norwegian Missionary,
104, 113

Sechele, 290, 295, 296
— feigns to be religious, 295
Setabangumpk River, 401
Sicomo, 307, 309
Slatakula bush, 40
Snakes, 69, 221
Springbuck, 415
Steinbok, 65
Steinbucks, 7, 109, 114
Stew, a good, 68
St. Lucia Bay, 118
St. Luey River, 74, 108, 116

fTALO, a root like a potato, 421
-i Tamalakarni River, 323
Tegwan, a mountain, 128
Thirst country, 343, 430
Tiger-cat run to bay, 62
Tigers, 328, 391
Tsessebes, 168, 375

ZUL

Tugela, the river, 5, 31, 59, 98, 112,
136, 354

Two-legged wolves, 303

MGOWIE Mountains, 68
Umkusi River, 78, 108
Umlilas, the, 9, 33, 98
Umpongal, an Amatonga chief, 86, 90
Umsindoosie River, 71, 115, 134
Umslali, the, 30

Umslatoose, the river, 33, 67, 113
Umsutie, or Mapoota River, 86
Umveloose, the black, 12, 21, 36, 40,
51, 72, 105, 115
Umvoti, the, 6, 30, 31

YAAL River, 353

Yiljoen, John, a famous hunter, 343
Visit to King Panda, 38
Vultures, 127

WATCHING the water, 406
Waterbuck, 78, 403
Water rails, 79
Wedding trip, a, 341
White man’s grave, a, 413
Widgeon, 79, 417
Wild boars, 159
Wild dogs, 342
Wild ducks, 413
Wild fig-tree, 81
Wolves, 78, 127, 167, 328

ZAMBESI River, 205 ; falls of the,
396, 439

Zebizena, fountain, 407
Zonga River, 328
Zulus, the, 35, 74
Zulu feast, 75

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THE SEMI-ATTACHED COUPLE. 2s. 6d.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE’S THREE CLERKS. 3s. 6d.

RITA. 2s. 6d.

THE LADIES OF BEVER HOLLOW. By the Author of
‘ Mary Powell/ 2s. 6d.

THE SEASON TICKET. 2s. 6d.

THE SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE. 2s. 6d.

EASTON AND ITS INHABITANTS. 2s. 6d.

QUITS. By the Author of f The Initials/ 3s. 6d.

VILLAGE BELLES. By the Author of f Mary Powell/ 2s. 6d.
NELLY ARMSTRONG. By the Author of f Rose Douglas/
2s. 6d.

To be followed by y

VONVED, THE ROVER OF THE BALTIC. ByW.HuuTON.
THE INITIALS. By the Author of f Quits/

AND OTHER WORKS OF EMINENT WRITERS OF FICTION.

I

This popular Series is unexceptionable in point of taste. Here are to be ;
found works of brilliant wit and humour, and stories of exciting interest and
tragic power. There is not one story to offend the most fastidious. Bentley's
Standard Novels will be a welcome guest in every household.

10 Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

TXMBS’ ANECDOTE BIOGRAPHY.

In Four neat volumes, small 8vo. with numerous Portraits, price 24s. bound,

ANECDOTE BIOGRAPHY.

By JOHN TIMES.

Eiest Volume . STATESMEN.

Second Volume ...PAINTERS.

Thikd Volume ...WITS AND HUMOURISTS.

Fourth Volume... WITS AND HUMOURISTS.

ffif* ANY VOLUME MAY BE HAD SEPARATELY. Price 6s.

‘The cream of a dozen interesting biographies.’— Saturday Review.

* Executed in Mr. Timbs’ best manner.’— Daily News.

In small 8vo. price 5s.

MOTHERS OF GREAT MEN.

By Mrs. ELLIS.

‘ This work will be placed by the majority of its readers not only at the head of Mrs. Ellis’s
works, but in the very first ranks of English literature. It is peculiarly valuable, and ought to
be in the hands of every mother in the land.’— Illustrated News.

MEMOIR

OF

DR, MARSHALL HALL, M.D,

By his WIDOW.

‘ Dr. Marshall Hall was not less an amiable man than a scientific enquirer, with an intellect
of noble proportions and lofty aim. In the world of physiological science he may fairly be ranked
as the companion of Harvey and Bell.’— Athenaeum.

‘As a narrative this work is more interesting than a novel ; as a memorial of a great English
worthy, it will be perused with pride ; as an incentive to honourable toil and the practice of
virtue, this story of Marshall Hall deserves to take rank amongst the most favourite tales of the
triumphs of genius.’ — Lancet.

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

11

In small 8vo. with Illustrations, neatly bound, price 6s. with an Introduction by
the Author of * Mary Powell,’

JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN

AT*D

THE WAY TO IT.

By the Rev. HERMAN DOUGLAS, M.A.

. Anthor of 1 Londoners Over the Border

DR. CUMMING’S WORKS.

In small 8vo. price 7s. 6d. Thirteenth Thousand,

THE (TREAT TRIBULATION.

By the Rev. Dr. JOHN GUMMING.

In small 8vo. price 7s. 6d. Sixth Thousand,

REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH.

By the Rev. Dr. JOHN CUMMING.

In small 8vo. price 7s. 6d,

THE MILLENNIAL REST.

By the Rev. Dr. JOHN CUA1MING.

‘Whether Dr. Cumming’s interpretations be right or wrong, there is no doubt that the
barometer of Europe singularly corresponds with his deductions from prophecy.’— Times.

12

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

New Edition, in small 8vo. 6s. neatly bound, with Portrait of M. Guizot,

NARRATIVE OF AN EMBASSY

TO THE

COURT OF ST. JAMES

IN 1840.

By FRANCOIS GUIZOT,

AMBASSADOR FROM HIS MAJESTY LOUIS PHILIPPE.

‘The descriptions of character, the reminiscences of men, manners, conversations, dinners,
and joyous sayings and doings are here given true, brilliant, eloquent, and sparkling.’

Athen^um.

‘This volume will be read with more avidity than any which has lately come from the press.
It is one of the most valuable contributions hitherto made to the history of modern times. The
author is one of the best read and most correctly judging of French historians.’ — Morning Post.

In small 8vo. price 6s. with fine Portrait of the Protector,

THE

LIFE OF OLIVER CROMWELL

LORD PROTECTOR.

By FRANCOIS GUIZOT.

‘ M. Guizot has unravelled Cromwell’s character with singular skill. No one, in our opinion,
has drawn his portrait with equal truth. M. Guizot’s acquaintance with our annals, language, i
customs, and politics is altogether extraordinary. He is an earnest and profound writer.’

Quarterly Review.

‘ M. Guizot has given us an admirable narrative, far more candid than any from an English
pen.’ Times.

‘ We cannot doubt that this important work will meet with a hearty and universal welcome.
The position of M. Guizot, the circumstances of his country, and the interest of his theme, will
combine to attract towards his “ History of Cromwell ” no ordinary share of public curiosity.’

Athen/eum.

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications. 13

LIBRARY EDITION,

IN TWO VOLS. WITH A PORTRAIT, TWENTY-ONE SHILLINGS;

AND A

POPULAR EDITION,

In One Volume, small 8vo. with a Portrait and Four Charts, price 5s. neatly bound,

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF THE

EARL OF DUNDONALD

( LORD OOOHRA1ME).

‘ We may safely predict for this work an unbounded popularity. It is worthy of
one of the very best places on any shelf of military and naval memoirs, and is full
of brilliant adventures, described with a dash that well befits the deeds.’ — Times.

* We are glad and proud that such a man as Lord Dundonald survives to tell his
own story. Everything about his biography is strange and romantic : he was more
like Nelson than any officer of his generation. He performed brilliant exploits and
acquired celebrity and friends. He has freed Republics, captured frigates, driven
a French fleet ashore, been taken and retaken. His career recalls that of the
Raleighs, Willoughbys, and the Herberts of Cherbury. This work will take its place
with our best naval histories.’ — A'J'HEN^ujm.

‘The career of Lord Dundonald yields the best illustration of the spirit which
in our day can defend England. With a conscious dignity, related in no way to
ostentation, Lord Dundonald tells the story of a life of manly daring at the age of
eighty-four, and his work proves that neither under age nor injury has his heart
sunk or his intellect failed in its vigour.’ — Examinee.

‘ A work which, once read, will imprint itself on the memory for ever. It is an
admirable work.’ — Spectator.

‘ A compact, inexpensive, yet an elegant and complete edition of a book which
every Englishman ought to read.’— Daily News.

14

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION.

- ♦ -

In 5 vols. small 8vo. with Forty-five fine Engravings of the Startling Events, and
Portraits of all the most Prominent Persons engaged, in the Revolution,

THE HI8T0EY

OF •

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

From its Commencement in 1789 to the Period of the Establishment of
Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul in 1801.

By M. THIERS.

THE FINE ENGRAVINGS INCLUDE

Attack on the Bastille
Portrait of the Duke of Orleans
Portrait of Mirabeau
Portrait of Lafayette
Orgies of the G-ardes du Corps
Portrait of Marie Antoinette
Return of the Royal Family from
Varennes

Portrait of Marat
The Mob at the Tuilleries
Attack on the Tuilleries
Murder of the Princess De Lamballe
Portrait of the Princess De Lamballe
Portrait of Madame Roland
Louis XVI. at the Convention
Last Interview of Louis XVI. with
his Family

Portrait of Louis XVI.

Portrait of Dumouriez.

Triumph of Marat
Portrait of Larochejacquelein
Assassination of Marat
Portrait of Charlotte Corday

Portrait of Camille Desmoulins
Condemnation of Marie Antoinette
Portrait of Bailly (Mayor of Paris)
Trial of Danton, Camille Desmoulins,
&c.

Portrait of Danton
Portrait of Madame Elizabeth
Carrier at Nantes
Portrait of Bobespierre
Last Victims of the Beign of Terror
Portrait of Charette
Death of the Deputy Feraud
Death of Bomme, Goujon, Duquesnoi,
&c.

Portrait of Louis XVII.

The 13th Vendemiaire (Oct. 5, 179 5)
Summoning to Execution
Portrait of Pichegru
Portrait of Moreau
Portrait of Hoche
Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte
The 18th Brumaire (10th November
1799) &c. &c.

‘ The palm of excellence, after whole libraries have been written on the French Revolution, has
been assigned to the dissimilar histories of Thiers and Mignet.’ — William H. Prescott.

‘ I am reading “ Thiers’s French Revolution,” which I find it difficult to lay down.’

Rev. Sydney Smith.

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications

15

In Five Volumes small 8vo. with Portrait,

THE HISTORY

OF

■ THE BRITISH NAVY.

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY
WAS TO THE BATTLE OF NAVABINO.

.

By W. JAMES.

‘The best naval history of England. Its impartial statement of facts is so well established
that it was constantly referred to by French naval officers visiting my ship in the Mediterranean
to decide any question in discussion.’— Adm iral Sir Pulthney Malcolm.

‘ This book is one of which it is not too high praise to assert, that it approaches as nearly to
perfection, in its own line, as any historical work perhaps ever did. The principal transactions
narrated in it, and we trust by this time the narrative itself, are fortunately too well known to
require a detailed notice of its contents. But a general sketch of its plan, and the manner of its
execution, will we think convince our readers that the high character we have given of it is not
exaggerated. Mr. James commences his work with a very useful introduction, in which he
briefly and clearly sketches the progress of Naval Architecture in Gi’eat Britain, apd the origin
of the principal improvements in the British Navy before the time of the French Revolution.
The history itself opens with the declaration of war in 1793, and closes with the general peace of
1815. [The History has since been brought down to the Battle of Navarino.] Every year
between these two periods occupies a separate division of the work; and every such division
is subdivided under three heads, detailing respectively the movements of the hostile fleets, the
j encounters of single ships and boat attacks, and all colonial naval operations. The research
necessary to procure materials for twenty-eight such abstracts, and the labour of composing
them, must have been so great, that they alone may be considered as a striking monument
of industry. With a candour almost as uncommon as his accuracy, he never fails to notice any
variation of consequence in the statements of the hostile party ; and either to refute it by argu¬
ment, or fairly to balance it with the opposing testimony. We cannot contemplate without
admiration the impartial and unwearied zeal for historical truth which alone could have sup¬
ported him through his tedious and thankless labours.’ — Edinburgh Review.

‘A new and popular edition of one of the most valuable works in the English language.’

United Service Gazette.

f A new and well-edited edition of our standard naval history. The interest in our navy
never was so active as it is now. The desire to perpetuate that interest by showering upon our
young people gift-books relating to the sea is more manifest every year. The book before us is a
standard history and not a child’s book, but for that reason perhaps it is more worthy to be
chosen as a gift-book for the boy who will soon have his manhood to assert.’— Examiner.

16 Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

SIR EDWARD CREASY’S WORKS.

In one handsome volume 8vo. Twelfth Edition, price 10s. 6d.

THE

FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES

OF THE WORLD,

FROM MARATHON TO WATERLOO.

By Professor (now Sir Edward) CREASY, Chief Justice of Ceylon.

‘ It was a happy idea of Professor Creasy to select for military description those few battles
which, in the words of Hallam, “A contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of
the world in all its subsequent scenes.” The decisive features of the battles are well and clearly
brought out ; the reader’s mind is attracted to the world-wide importance of the event he is
considering, while their succession carries him over the whole stream of European history.’

Spectator.

Also, by the same writer, Sixth Edition, post 8vo. price 7s. 6d.

THE EISE AND PEOGEESS

OF

THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION

A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE PRIMARY PRINCIPLES;

THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH
CONSTITUTION, AVOIDING ALL PARTY POLITICS.

This book is well adapted to answer its purpose as a summary of constitutional history or
an introduction to more elaborate works. Mr. Creasy exhibits originality of view, and presents
his facts and opinions with clearness and in an attractive manner.’— Spectator.

‘We are not aware of any book on the subject which could be so safely put into the hands of
a student.’— Morning Chronicle.

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications. 17

Fourth Edition, in 8vo. price 10s. 6d.

THE AMERICAN UNION.

By JAMES SPENCE.

* This work is the best thpt has appeared on the American crisis.’— Times.

‘ We can hardly speak too highly of it. It is the most able statement of the whole case,
written with remarkable knowledge and power, and we strongly recommend it to our readers if
they wish to make themselves acquainted with the facts of the great American controversy,
which are so often obscured by passion and distorted by interest.’ Quarterly Review.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

In 8vo. price Is.

ON THE RECOGNITION OF THE
SOUTHERN STATES.

In small 8vo. in Two Series, price 12s.

CURIOSITIES NATURAL HISTORY

Part I. Containing Eats, Serpents, Fishes, Monkeys, &c. 6s.

Part II. Containing Wild Cats, Eagles, Worms, Dogs, &c. 6s.

By FRANCIS BUCKLAND, Esq.

‘These are some of the most fascinating works on Natural History.’— Morning Post.

‘ Full of interest, and well worth reading,.’ — Morning Herald.

‘ It is quite impossible to do justice to the merits of this book. Nothing short of its own
clearly defined originality, cleverness, and detail can lead to a proper appreciation of its intrinsic
excellencies.’ J3ell’s Weekly Messenger#

‘ So pleasant and gossiping, and written in so popular a tone and on so popular a subject, that
it is fair to contemplate for it as large a share of favour as the first series so deservedly attained.

Notes and Queries.

_ _ - _ —

I I

18 Mr. Bentley’s New Publications.

EDITION AUTHORIZED BY THE FAMILY.

In 3 vols. post 8yo.

Volumes I. and II. now ready , price 15j.

THE

LIFE AND LETTERS

OF

WASHINGTON IRVING

AUTHOR of ‘The SKETCH-BOOK/ &c.

c The most interesting portion of the first volume relates to Washington Irving’s
sojourn in London ; then follows the account of his love-making affair with young
Matilda Hoffman. Washington Irving sojourned in England seventeen years.’

ATHEN-EUM.

* A life-like portrait of Washington Irving. Here he is his own biographer. In
this second volume we have some of the best descriptions of men and manners which
Washington Irving ever traced. We find him in friendly communication with
Campbell, Scott, Leslie, Alison, Jeffrey, and others noble in literature; and with
Siddons, Young, Kean, Cooke, and the aristocracy of the stage. This is a book to
be read and re-read. We have derived much pleasure from its perusal.’

Monday Review.

{ Washington Irving has been most universally admired ; he has the reputation
of being the most refined of American writers. A wide circle of eager readers will
doubtless be found for this interesting biography.’ Dial.

‘When thought flowed from Irving’s brain through his pen, he was most
attractive, most brilliant, most full of pleasant sayings and playful suggestions.’

Athenjeum, in review of Second Volume.

Mr. Bentley’s New Publications. 19

In small 8vo. price 18s. boards,

THE HISTORY OF ROME

FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PERIOD
OF ITS DECLINE.

By DR. THEODOR MOMMSEN.

TRANSLATED WITH THE AUTHOR’S SANCTION, AND

ADDITIONS,

By the Rev. W. PITT DICKSON,

AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. SCHMITZ.

* Since the days of Niebuhr, no work on Roman History has appeared that

combines so much to attract, instruct, and charm the reader. Its style — a rare
quality in a German author — is vigorous, spirited, and animated. Professor
Mommsen’s work can stand a comparison with the noblest productions of modern
history.’ Du. Schmitz.

‘ This is the best history of the Roman Republic, taking the work on the whole —
the author’s complete mastery of his subject, the variety of his gifts and
acquirements, his graphic power in the delineation of natural and individual
character, and the vivid interest which he inspires in every portion of his book. He
is without an equal in his own sphere. The work may be read in the translation
(executed with the sanction of the author) not only with instruction, but with great
pleasure.’ Edinburgh Review.

c A book of deepest interest, and which ought to be translated.’ Dean Trench.

£ Beyond all doubt to be ranked among those really great historical works which
do so much honour to our own day. W e can have little hesitation in pronouncing
this work to be the best complete Roman History in existence. In short, we have
now for the first time the complete history of the Roman Republic really written in
a way worthy of the greatness of the subject. M. Mommsen is a real historian ;
his powers of research and judgment are of a very high order ; he is skilful in the
grasp of his whole subject, and vigorous and independent in his way of dealing with
particular questions. And an English critic may be allowed to add, that his book is
far easier and more pleasant to read than many of the productions of his fellow
countrymen.’ National Review.

* An original work, from the pen of a master. The style is nervous and lively, and

its vigour fully sustained. This English translation fills up a gap in our literature.
It will give the schoolboy and the older student of antiquity a history of Rome up to
the mark of present German scholarship, and at the same time serve as a sample of
historical enquiry for all ages and all lands.’ Westminster Review.

i i 2

20 Mr. Bentley’s New Publications .

DR. M° CAUSE AND’S WORKS.

Ninth Edition, in fcp. 8vo. 4s. neatly bound.

SERMONS IN STONES;

OE,

SCRIPTURE CONFIRMED BY GEOLOGY.

By Dr. DOMINICK MCCAUSLAND, LL.D., Q.C.

The object of the author in this work is to prove that the Mosaic narrative of the Creation
is reconcilable with the established facts of geology; and that geology not only establishes the
i truth of the first page of the Bible, but that it furnishes the most direct and sensible evidence of
j the fact of Divine inspiration, and thereby authenticates the whole canon of Scripture. The
I word of God is thus authenticated by His works.

‘The object of this work is to reconcile the discoveries in geology with the Mosaic account of
the Creation. The case is clearly made, and the argument cleverly managed.’— Spectator.

Also, by the same Author, in 8vo. price 10s. 6d.

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

‘ The book of a reverent student of Scripture.’— Guardian.

‘ More conclusive than any work we have yet met with on the difficult subject of which it
treats, and possesses all the merit which ought to obtain for it a standard reputation.’

Messenger.

‘The general argument of this work respecting the part which the Jewish nation are yet
intended to play in development of God’s purpose, and the position which Rome occupies in
relation to the Christian Church, is well worthy of attention — more particularly in watching the
process of the remarkable events which are now taking place.’ — Press.

New Edition, in small 8vo. price 5s.

; RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS.

By W. WILKIE COLLINS,

AUTHOR OF ‘THE WOMAN IN WHITE,’ ETC.

‘An attractive and interesting work.’ — Observer.

‘ Any publication, especially of the lively, truthful character of Mr. Collins’s impressions of
his rambles and explorations, we heartily welcome.’ — Globe.

Mr. Bentley's New Publications.

21

With fine Steel Engravings and many Woodcuts. 8vo. 14s.

HOW WE GOT TO PEKIN;

A 1ST arrative of the Campaign in China in 1860.

By the Rev. R. L. M‘GHEE, Chaplain to the Forces and to His Excellency the Earl of

Carlisle.

,. There is a spice of broad hilarity in this narrative. Mr. M‘Ghee was as fond of campaigning as of travel, and

ms visit to the Summer Palace is well and amply described, and the whole narrative entertaining ’ _ Amentum,

‘A very entertaining book.’— John Boil.

' - =>-5^S£'j

In crown 8vo. with Illustrations.

ON THE MOUNTAIN:

Being the Welsh Experiences of Abraham Black and Jonas White, Esqrs.,
Moralists, Photographers, Fishermen, and Botanists, &c.

By the Rev. GEORGE TUGWELL, M.A.

THE NOVELS OF MISS AUSTEN,

A LIBRARY EDITION. 5 vols.

Yol. I. Sense and Sensibility
Yol. II. Emma
Yol. III. Mansfield Park

Yol. IV.
Vol. Y.

With Ten Illustrations, 15 s.

North anger Abbey, and
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice

‘ Miss Austen has a talent for describing the feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most
wonderful I ever met with. Her exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters
interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.’— Sib Walter Scott.

In 4 vols. 8vo. with fine Portrait, £3.

DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF LORD
AUCKLAND.

With a Preface and Introduction by the Right Hon. and Right Rev. the Bishop of Bath and

Wells.

‘ In the midst of all these we have samples of the 18th century social life. Mr. Storer is the Sydney Smith of
the circle, Lord Sheffield sarcastic, Lord Loughborough keen and shrewd. Mr. Pitt’s letters are full of interest.
We have Lord North’s irresoluteness and wit, and Louis XYI. speaking and reading English well. We have a
peep into life at Court, and find the Duchess of Marlborough and Lord Harcourt as tired as poor Madame D’Arblay
of waiting on Her Majesty. Some sketches also of Parliamentary skirmishes are drawn to the life. Entertaining
anecdotes abound throughout the whole work.’— Union.

* For all those who love to be amused, and who delight in anecdote, sketches of character, and traits of social
life, this work will have great attractions.’ — Athenjeum.

22

Mr. Bentley's New Publications.

In post 8vo. gilt edges, 5s.

ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS.

With Eight spirited Illustrations by Wolf.

‘ An agreeably compiled and well selected miscellaneous collection of anecdotes, containing much fascinating
matter in the way of personal adventures, and in all respects admirably suited to popular reading.’— Live k pool
Albion.

In 8 vo. 12s. boards.

HISTORY OF ROMAN CLASSICAL
LITERATURE.

By R. W. BROWNE, M.A., Ph. D., Prebendary of St. Paul’s, and Professor of Classical
Literature in King’s College, London.

‘ Professor Browne is not only a classical scholar, but one of the most graceful of English modern writers. In
clearness, purity, and elegance of style, his compositions are unsurpassed ; and his sketches of the lives and works
of the great authors of antiquity are models of refined taste and sound criticism. This is a work which, for utility of
design and excellence of execution, may challenge comparison with any which the present century has produced ;
nor can we hesitate to regard it as a very valuable instrument for the instruction of the national mind, and the
elevation of the national taste.’— Morning Post.

In post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

GEMS AND JEWELS:

Their History, Geography, Chemistry, and Ana, from the earliest Ages down to the Present
Time. By Madame BARRERA.

‘ A really charming volume, as amusing as it is instructive, and in its graceful “ getting up” worthy of a place
in every locality where useful books are as highly valued as carcanet or ruby. We cheerfully recommend her
pretty volume to the general public.’— Athenjbom.

Crown 8 vo. 5s.

STORIES FROM THE SANDHILLS OF
JUTLAND.

By HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. Translated by Mrs. Bushby.

‘ These stories are not exceeded by any of the same hand. His fancy, humour, tenderness, are in no respect dimmed
or deadened. He is, as of old, a king and ruler in his own world without a peer. Few tales have been more touching
than the first. “The Mad King’s Daughter” is also a capital t»le ; but, for one reason or other, every one of these
stories could be commended. It is long since we have dealt with a book so fresh, so individual, so full to over¬
flowing with gamesome fantasies, right feelings, and pure morals as this.’— Athenjectm.

‘ Andersen’s tales are welcome to every household and every age. They stand unrivalled for delicate
humour and gentle wisdom.’— Saturday Review.

TALES FROM BENTLEY’S MISCELLANY.

4 vols. Is. 6d. each, sold separately ; or in 2 vols. 6s.

In 8vo. 7s, 6d. boards.

THE LETTERS OF JAMES BOSWELL TO
THE REV. WM. TEMPLE.

‘ Equally with the famous biography of Dr. Johnson, these Letters have the charm of sincerity— a charm which,
as long as the world lasts, will be the greatest whieh the writings of one man can have for another. Boswell never
disappoints us. He ls.an unfailing joke. Whether he writes about love, or riches, or literature, he is always the
same, inimitable and inexhaustible. It is rarely that we come across a volume with so much to entertain us and
make us laugh.’— Saturday Review.

Mr. Bentley's New Publications.

23

Third Thousand. In 3 vols. post 8vo. 31s. 6d.

THE CHANNSNGS.

By the Author of ‘ East Lynne.’

In fcp. 8vo. 4s. boards.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF

PLATO.

By Lady CHATTERTON.

‘ An elegant volume of selections, in which Lady Chatterton has brought together some of the most impressive
passages of Plato.’— Quarterly Review.

In 8vo. price 4s.

MILITARY OPINIONS.

By General the Hon. Sir JOHN BURGOYNE, K.C.B.

In 8vo. price 12s.

THE LIFE OF THE GREATEST OF THE
PLANTAGENETS.

By EDMUND CLIFFORD.

In 3 large vols. 8vo. with Thirteen fine Portraits. First Series, £2 10s. ; Second Series,
in 3 vols. 8vo. with Nine Portraits, and a copious Index to the whole work, £2 10s.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND
CORRESPONDENCE OF MARY GRANVILLE
(MRS. DELANY),

TO-itlj §Ummis«uas of lung ($ targe % ®Ijirh nnh ^urrn Charlotte.

Edited by the Right Hon. Lady LLANOVER.

*li* Only a few copies remain unsold of this elegant work.

‘ The reader wends his way as amused and bewildered and dazzled as if at a masquerade. Here is the abiding
eharm of these volumes. They abound in the illustrations of the period, and still more in sketches and portraits.
There sweep by us a whole bevy of ladiesj with hoops and head-dresses that come in collision now and then with the
chandeliers. In details of their love-making, and their marriages, these volumes are more than ordinarily rich. The
Royal characters (.George III. Queen Charlotte, and their jubilant family) which figure in them are even more in¬
teresting than the noble and gentle men and dames who flock, bow, and cringe before them. A book that may
speedily be in so many hands needs no further illustration.’— Athen^um.

24

Mr. Bentley's New Publications.

Seventh Edition. In crown 8vo. price 6s.

EAST LYNNE.

By Mrs. HENRY WOOD, Author of ‘The Channings.’

In 2 vols. post 8 vo. 15s.

LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND OF
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.

By Dr. DORAN.

‘ These “ Lives’’ indicate afresh the wealth and variety of Dr. Doran’s collections.’— Athenjeum.

‘An extraordinary repertory of facts and anecdotes.’— Spectator.

Used at Eton and other Public Schools.

THE ANDROMACHE OF EURIPIDES;

With Suggestions and Questions at the foot of each page; together with Copious Gram¬
matical and Critical Notes ; also with a Brief Introductory Account of the Greek
Drama, Dialects, and Principal Tragic Metres.

By the Rev. J. EDWARDS, M.A., and Rev. C. HAWKINS, B.C.L.

A Greek Play , 'prepared for Schools.

Price Is.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A WORKING MAN.

By the Hon. Miss E. EDEN.

In crown 8vo. price 5s.

CHAPTERS ON WIVES.

By Mrs. ELLIS, Author of ‘ The Mothers of Great Men,’ &c.

In 8vo. with three beautiful Portraits, 5s.

NARRATIVE OF HER LIFE DURING THE
GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION.

By Mrs. DALRYMPLE ELLIOTT.

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