Chapter 7

The river's banks on each side were clad with groves of shady thorn trees. After I had lain some time, squadrons of buffaloes were heard coming on, until the shady grove on the east bank of the water immediately above me was alive with them. After some time the leaders ventured down the river's bank to drink, and this was the signal for a general rush into the large pool of water: they came on like a regiment of cavalry at a gallop, making a mighty din, and obscuring the air with a dense cloud of dust. At length I sent a ball into one of them, when the most tremendous rush followed up the bank, where they all stood still, listening attentively. I knew that the buffalo was severely wounded, but did not hear him fall. Some time after, I fired at a second, as they stood on the bank above me; this buffalo was also hard hit, but did not then fall. A little after, I fired at a third on the same spot; he ran forty yards, and, falling, groaned fearfully: this at once brought on a number of the others to butt their dying comrade, according to their benevolent custom. I then crept in toward them, and, firing my fourth shot, a second buffalo ran forward a few yards, and, falling, groaned as the last; her comrades, coming up, served her in the same manner. A second time I crept in, and, firing a fifth shot, a third buffalo ran forward, and fell close to her dying comrades: in a few minutes all the other buffaloes made off, and the sound of teeth tearing at the flesh was heard immediately.

I fancied it was the hyaenas, and fired a shot to scare them from the flesh. All was still; and, being anxious to inspect the heads of the buffaloes, I went boldly forward, taking the native who accompanied me, along with me. We were within about five yards of the nearest buffalo, when I observed a yellow mass lying alongside of him, and at the same instant a lion gave a deep growl,--I thought it was all over with me. The native shouted "Tao," and, springing away, instantly commenced blowing shrilly through a charmed piece of bone which he wore on his necklace. I retreated to the native, and we then knelt down. The lion continued his meal, tearing away at the buffalo, and growling at his wife and family, who, I found next day, by the spoor, had accompanied him. Knowing that he would not molest me if I left him alone, I proposed to the native to go to our hole and lie down, but he would not hear of it, and entreated me to fire at the lion. I fired three different shots where I thought I saw him, but without any effect; he would not so much as for a moment cease munching my buffalo. I then proceeded to lie down, and was soon asleep, the native keeping watch over our destinies. Some time after midnight other lions were heard coming on from other airts, and my old friend commenced roaring so loudly that the native thought it proper to wake me.

The first old lion now wanted to drink, and held right away for the two unfortunate steeds, roaring terribly. I felt rather alarmed for their safety; but, trusting that the lion had had flesh enough for one night, I lay still, and listened with an attentive ear. In a few minutes, to my utter horror, I heard him spring upon one of the steeds with an angry growl, and dash him to the earth; the steed gave a slight groan, and all was still. I listened to hear the sound of teeth, but all continued still. Soon after this "Tao," was once more heard to be munching the buffalo. In a few minutes he came forward, and stood on the bank close above us, and roared most terribly, walking up and down, as if meditating some mischief. I now thought it high time to make a fire, and, quickly collecting some dry reeds and little sticks, in half a minute we had a cheerful blaze. The lion, which had not yet got our wind, came forward at once to find out what the deuse was up; but, not seeing to his entire satisfaction from the top of the bank, he was proceeding to descend by a game-path into the river-bed within a few yards of us. I happened at the very moment to go to this spot to fetch more wood, and, being entirely concealed from the lion's view above by the intervening high reeds, we actually met face to face! The first notice I got was his sudden spring to one side, accompanied by repeated angry growls, while I involuntarily made a convulsive spring backward, at the same time giving a fearful shriek, such as I never before remember uttering. I fancied, just as he growled, he was coming upon me. We now heaped on more wood, and kept up a very strong fire until the day dawned, the lions feasting beside us all the time, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the little native, who, with a true Bechuana spirit, lamenting the loss of so much good flesh, kept continually shouting and pelting them with flaming brands.

The next morning, when it was clear, I arose and inspected the buffaloes. The three that had fallen were fine old cows, and two of them were partly consumed by the lions. The ground all around was packed flat with their spoor; one particular spoor was nearly as large as that of a borele. I then proceeded to inspect the steeds: the sand around them was also covered with the lion's spoor. He had sprung upon the Old Gray, but had done him no further injury than scratching his back through the skin: perhaps the lion had been scared by the rheims, or on discovering his spare condition, had preferred the buffalo.

HUNTING THE WHITE RHINOCEROS,

LION, BUFFALO, AND GIRAFFE.

Upon the 9th, says Mr. Cumming, it rained unceasingly throughout the day, converting the rich soil on which we were encamped into one mass of soft, sticky clay. In the forenoon, fearing the rain would continue so as to render the valley (through which we must pass to gain the firmer ground) impassible, I ordered my men to prepare to march, and leave the tent with its contents standing, the point which I wished to gain being distant only about five hundred yards. When the oxen were inspanned, however, and we attempted to move, we found my tackle, which was old, so rotten from the effects of the rain, that something gave way at every strain. Owing to this and to the softness of the valley, we labored on till sundown, and only succeeded in bringing one wagon to its destination, the other two remained fast in the mud in the middle of the valley. Next morning, luckily, the weather cleared up, when my men brought over the tent, and in the afternoon the other two wagons.

We followed up the banks of the river for several days, with the usual allowance of sport. On the 16th we came suddenly upon an immense old bull muchocho rolling in mud. He sprang to his feet immediately he saw me, and, charging up the bank, so frightened our horses, that before I could get my rifle from my after-rider he was past us. I then gave him chase, and, after a hard gallop of about a mile, sprang from my horse and gave him a good shot behind the shoulder. At this moment a cow rhinoceros of the same species, with her calf, charged out of some wait-a-bit thorn cover, and stood right in my path. Observing that she carried an unusually long horn, I turned my attention from the bull to her, and, after a very long and severe chase, dropped her at the sixth shot. I carried one of my rifles, which gave me much trouble, that not being the tool required for this sort of work, where quick loading is indispensable.

After breakfast I sent men to cut off the head of this rhinoceros, and proceeded with Ruyter to take up the spoor of the bull wounded in the morning. We found that he was very severely hit, and having followed the spoor for about a mile through very dense thorn cover, he suddenly rustled out of the bushes close ahead of us, accompanied by a whole host of rhinoceros birds. I mounted my horse and gave him chase, and in a few minutes he had received four severe shots. I managed to turn his course toward camp, when I ceased firing, as he seemed to be nearly done up, and Ruyter and I rode slowly behind, occasionally shouting to guide his course. Presently, however, Chukuroo ceased taking any notice of us, and held leisurely on for the river, into a shallow part of which he walked, and, after panting there and turning about for a quarter of an hour, he fell over and expired. This was a remarkably fine old bull, and from his dentition it was not improbable that a hundred summers had seen him roaming a peaceful denizen of the forests and open glades along the fair banks of the secluded Mariqua.

During our march, on the 19th, we had to cross a range of very rocky hills, covered with large loose stones, and all hands were required to be actively employed for about an hour, in clearing them out of the way, to permit the wagons to pass. The work went on fast and furious, and the quantity of stones cleared was immense. At length we reached the spot where we were obliged to bid adieu to the Mariqua, and hold a westerly course across the country for Sicheley. At sundown we halted under a lofty mountain, the highest in the district, called "Lynchie a Cheny," or the Monkey's Mountain.

Next day, at an early hour, I rode out with Ruyter to hunt, my camp being entirely without flesh, and we having been rationed upon very tough old rhinoceros for several days past. It was a cloudy morning, and soon after starting, it came on to rain heavily. I, however, held on, skirting a fine, well-wooded range of mountains, and after riding several miles I shot a zebra. Having covered the carcass well over with branches to protect it from the vultures, I returned to camp, and, inspanning my wagons, took it up on the march. We continued trekking on until sundown, when we started an immense herd of buffaloes, into which I stalked, and shot a huge old bull.

Our march this evening was through the most beautiful country I had ever seen in Africa. We skirted an endless range of well-wooded stony mountains lying on our left, while to our right the country at first sloped gently off, and then stretched away into a level green forest, (occasionally interspersed with open glades,) boundless as the ocean. This green forest was, however, relieved in one direction by a chain of excessively bold, detached, well-wooded, rocky, pyramidal mountains, which stood forth in grand relief. In advance the picture was bounded by forest and mountain; one bold acclivity, in shape of a dome, standing prominent among its fellows. It was a lovely evening: the sky, overcast and gloomy, threw an interesting, wild, mysterious coloring over the landscape. I gazed forth upon the romantic scene before me with intense delight, and felt melancholy and sorrowful at passing so fleetingly through it, and could not help shouting out, as I marched along, "Where is the coward who would not dare to die for such a land?"

In the morning we held for a fountain some miles ahead, in a gorge in the mountains. As we approached the fountain, and were passing close under a steep, rocky, hillside, well wooded to its summit, I unexpectedly beheld a lion stealing up the rocky face, and, halting behind a tree, he stood overhauling us for some minutes. I resolved to give him battle, and, seizing my rifle, marched against him, followed by Carey carrying a spare gun, and by three men leading my dogs, now reduced to eight. When we got close in to the base of the mountain, we found ourselves enveloped in dense jungle, which extended half-way to its summit, and entirely obscured from our eyes objects which were quite apparent from the wagons, I slipped my dogs, however, which, after snuffing about, took right up the steep face on the spoor of the lions, for there was a troop of them--a lion and three lionesses.

The people at the wagons saw the chase in perfection. When the lions observed the dogs coming on, they took right up, and three of them crossed over the sky ridge. The dogs, however, turned one rattling old lioness, which came rumbling down through the cover, close past me. I ran to meet her, and she came to bay in an open spot near the base of the mountain, whither I quickly followed, and coming up within thirty yards, bowled her over with my first shot, which broke her back. My second entered her shoulder; and, fearing that she might hurt any of the dogs, as she still evinced signs of life, I finished her with a third in the breast. The bellies of all the four lions were much distended by some game they had been gorging, no doubt a buffalo, as a large herd started out of the jungle immediately under the spot where the noble beasts were first disturbed.

Showers of rain fell every hour throughout the day, so I employed my men in making feldt-schoens, or, in other words, African brogues for me. These shoes were worthy of a sportsman, being light, yet strong, and were entirely composed of the skins of game of my shooting. The soles were made of either buffalo or cameleopard; the front part, perhaps, of koodoo, or hartebeest, or bushbuck, and the back of the shoe of lion, or hyaena, or sable antelope, while the rheimpy or thread with which the whole was sewed, consisted of a thin strip of the skin of a steinbok.

On the forenoon of this day, I rode forth to hunt, accompanied by Ruyter; we held west, skirting the wooded, stony mountains. The natives had here, many years before, waged successful war with elephants, four of whose skulls I found. Presently I came across two sassaybies, one of which I knocked over; but, while I was loading, he regained his legs and made off. We crossed a level stretch of forest, holding a northerly course for an opposite range of green, well-wooded hills and valleys. Here I came upon a troop of six fine, old bull buffaloes, into which I stalked, and wounded one princely fellow very severely, behind the shoulder, bringing blood from his mouth; he, however, made off with his comrades, and, the ground being very rough, we failed to overtake him. They held for Ngotwani. After following the spoor for a couple of miles, we dropped it, as it led right away from camp.

Returning from this chase, we had an adventure with another old bull buffalo, which shows the extreme danger of hunting buffaloes without dogs. We started him in a green hollow, among the hills, and his course inclining for camp. I gave him chase. He crossed the level, broad strath, and made for the opposite densely-wooded range of mountains. Along the base of these we followed him, sometimes in view, sometimes on the spoor, keeping the old fellow at a pace which made him pant. At length, finding himself much distressed, he had recourse to a singular stratagem. Doubling round some thick bushes, which obscured him from our view, he found himself beside a small pool of rain-water, just deep enough to cover his body; into this he walked, and, facing about, lay gently down and awaited our on-coming, with nothing but his old, gray face, and massive horns above the water, and these concealed from view by the overhanging herbage.

Our attention was entirely engrossed with the spoor, and thus we rode boldly on until within a few feet of him, when, springing to his feet, he made a desperate charge after Ruyter, uttering a low, stifled roar, peculiar to buffaloes, (somewhat similar to the growl of a lion,) and hurled horse and rider to the earth with fearful violence. His horn laid the poor horse's haunch open to the bone, making the most fearful rugged wound. In an instant, Ruyter regained his feet and ran for his life, which the buffalo observing, gave chase, but most fortunately came down, with a tremendous somersault, in the mud, his feet slipping from under him; thus the bushman escaped certain destruction. The buffalo rose much discomfitted, and, the wounded horse first catching his eye, he went a second time after him; but he got out of the way. At this moment, I managed to send one of my patent pacificating pills into his shoulder, when he instantly quitted the field of action, and sought shelter in a dense cover on the mountain side, whither I deemed it imprudent to follow him.

A LEOPARD HUNT.

The dense jungles of Bengal was the place of the leopard's resort, and the havoc which it committed among the cattle was prodigious. It was dreaded, far and near, on this account, by the natives, and they scrupulously avoided their spotted enemy, knowing well that when his appetite was whetted with hunger, he was not over scrupulous whether his victims were beasts or men. On one occasion, the monster made a dash upon a herd of beeves, and succeeded in carrying off a large ox; and loud was the lament of the poor Hindoos that one of the sacred herd had thus unceremoniously been assailed and slaughtered before their eyes. A party of the Bengal native infantry, consisting of an officer and five others, having been informed of the circumstance, followed in the direction of the leopard's den determined, if possible, to punish him for this and the many other depredations he had committed. Having come to an intervening ravine, they were about to cross it, when they saw the object of their search on the opposite side. There he was, lying in his lair, heedless of danger, and luxuriously feasting on the carcass of his captive. It was the monster's last meal, however. The party approached with stealthy steps, as near as they could without crossing the defile. "Take your aim! fire!" cried the captain, in Hindostanee, we suppose. They did so, and four balls pierced the leopard, three in the neck and one in a more dangerous place, through the brain. Startled by this unpleasant salute, the animal rose, gazed with glaring eyes on its enemies, at the same time pawing the earth in its pain fury.

The sepoys were astonished that he did not roll lifeless at their feet; but, instead of this, before they had time to reload, the creature, after uttering a terrific cry, sprang across the ravine and seized one of its assailants. It must have been, in some degree, weakened by its wounds; but its strength was yet great, for the man seemed to have no power of resistance to its attack. The leopard, having a hold of the sepoy in its mouth, darted off in the direction of a jungle close at hand, the other soldiers following up as fast as they could, but not daring to fire, lest they should injure their luckless comrade Sometimes they lost sight of the leopard and its bleeding burden; but the blood marks on the grass or on the sand enabled them to regain the trail, and to carry on the pursuit. The animal at length came to a small river; it hesitated for a little on the brink, and then leaped in, still tenaciously retaining its prey. The stoppage thus occasioned enabled the pursuers to gain ground, and, just after the leopard had emerged from the river, and was shaking its skin free from the watery drops, one of the party seized the auspicious moment, and fired. The beast dropped its prey at once, howled furiously, and then fell dead. To their great surprise and joy, the soldiers found that their comrade was still in life, though he had fainted from fear and from weakness occasioned by the loss of blood. He gradually recovered, and, under the stimulating influence of a cup of brandy, was able to proceed home with his comrades. It was many weeks, however, before he was fit for service, and he will retain till his dying day the dental marks received from the leopard, by way of token what it would like to have done with him had there been none but themselves two on the desert wide.

The soldiers returned, some time after, and skinned the animal, carrying home its spotted covering for a trophy; and now, here it is, with the marks of the musket-balls upon it, remembrances of the strange story we have now recounted.

LIFE IN CALIFORNIA.

Every man, both honest and dishonest, in California, has his own horse--as a very good-looking, active one can be purchased, tamed to carry the saddle and rider, from the Indians, for four or five dollars; so that every one, I may add, of both sexes, ride in California. No one walks far but the hunter, and he is carried in canoe a long way up the river before he strikes into the forest after the animals he is in pursuit of. This last class of men are the most wild, daring, yet friendly and honest, of the lower class of the white population of California. Well: as the robber as well as the honest man are equally mounted, sometimes a very interesting steeple chase ensues,--ground rough, not being previously chosen, occasionally leaping over pools of water, large stones, and fallen trees. The Indians who use the lasso, generally keep the lead, to strive to throw the noose over either the man or horse they are pursuing. It is made of thongs of bullock-hide twisted into a small rope about thirty or forty feet long, with a noose formed by a running knot at the end of it. One end of the lasso is fastened to the back of the saddle: the entire length of it is kept in a coil on the right hand, and after two or three swings of it over their heads, they will throw it with such accuracy that the smallest object will come within the noose. Thus, then, if an equestrian traveler does not keep a good look-out as he is passing by a bush or thicket, one of these lassoes may be thrown out; the noose, falling over his head, will be jerked tight round his body, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he will be dragged off his horse, and away into the bush, to be stripped of everything he has. By all the accounts I have heard, and from what I have seen, the robbers of California are the most active in the world: the end of the dangerous lasso being firmly fastened to the saddle, enables the rider, as soon as his victim, either man or animal, is noosed, to wheel round his horse, and dash off like an Arab, dragging whatever he has fast after him. There is one method of averting the fall of the lasso noose over the body of a man, either on foot or horseback. If he holds, as he always ought, either sword or gun in his right hand, when he sees the lasso coming, let him instantly raise either and his arm in a horizontal position, and if the noose does fall true, it cannot run farther down, being stopped by sword, gun, or extended arm; then fling it off quick, or it may be jerked tight round the neck. I have known this subterfuge save many a man from robbers and perhaps murderers.