On the evening of the eighth day after leaving Macora the hunters
encamped on the bank of a small stream, which they computed to be about
one hundred and twenty miles south of the place from where their return
journey commenced.
Within the mind of Groot Willem, there was still a lingering hope that
they might again meet with giraffes; and he had never lost an
opportunity of looking for them along the route.
The delays caused by his explorations had been a source of constant
annoyance to the others; but as Willem had a will of his own,--one,
nevertheless, united with a disposition so cheerful as to be proof
against any attempts at a controversy,--his companions were compelled to
be content with the knowledge that they were slowly progressing towards
Graaf Reinet.
In the morning after entering their new camp, they arose to look upon a
scene more beautiful than any other they had yet beheld in the extended
country over which they had wandered. Near them was a grove of oleander
bushes, loaded with beautiful blossoms. Every branch was adorned by the
presence of two or more beautiful green sugar-birds,--the _certhia
(Nectarinia) famosa_. Nothing in nature can exceed in splendour the
plumage of the sugar-bird. The little vale in which the hunters had
encamped seemed a paradise, bathed in golden sunlight; and even the
cattle appeared to leave it with some reluctance.
On moving down the bed of the watercourse, they found that they were not
travelling by the side of a running stream, but by what, in the dry
season, was a chain of lakelets or water-holes. After crossing a bar
between two of these ponds, they were much annoyed by a horrible stench
borne upon the breeze, and coming from the direction they intended to
take. As they journeyed on, so offensive grew the smell that a halt was
made, and a resolution passed without a dissenting voice, that they
should turn to the east and get to windward of this offensive odour,
still unexplained.
While doing this, they observed to the west, a flock of vultures,
wheeling high up in the air; and, down upon the plain below, hundreds of
jackals and hyenas were seen leaping about. So large an assemblage of
these carrion-feeding creatures called for an explanation; and, on
riding nearer, the hunters saw a number of dead antelopes lying within a
few feet of each other.
As they rode farther along the plain, more dead antelopes were seen, and
they began to fear that they had entered some valley of death, from
which they might never go out. The mystery--for such it was to them--
was readily cleared up by the Makololo and Congo. The antelopes had
been drinking water from a pond or spring poisoned by the natives; which
proved that our travellers had arrived in the neighbourhood of some
tribe of the Bechuanas. Of this method for wantonly destroying animal
life, practised by many of the native African tribes, the hunters had
often heard. The many stories which they had been told of the wholesale
destruction of game by poison, and which they had treated with
incredulity, after all, had not been exaggerated. They estimated the
number of dead antelopes lying within a circumference of a mile, at not
less than two hundred. One of the water-holes of the chain by which
they had halted, had been poisoned. A herd of antelopes had quenched
their thirst at the place, and had only climbed up the bank to lie down
and die.
"We have been very fortunate," remarked Groot Willem, "in not encamping
by the poisoned water ourselves. Had we done so, we would all, by this
time, have been food for the jackals and hyenas, as these antelopes now
are."
To this unqualified surmise, Congo did not wholly give his assent. He
believed that men would not be likely to drink a sufficient quantity of
the water to cause death; though he further stated that their cattle and
horses, had they quenched their thirst at the pond, would have been
killed to a certainty.
For the sake of procuring three or four antelopes for food, with the
least trouble, the Bechuanas had destroyed a whole herd. This is the
usual economy practised by those who live in a land teeming with a too
great abundance of animal life.
To get away from the sickening scene thus presented to their view, even
Groot Willem was willing to continue the journey; and it was resumed,
all being thankful that the distance accomplished on the day before had
not been so long, by a mile or two, as it might have been.
Knowing that they were in the neighbourhood of Bechuanas, the Makololo
professed some fear for their cattle. They said that these might be
stolen or taken from them by force. But the hunters believed such fears
too flattering to the Bechuana character. From all they had heard of
the people composing that numerous nation, they were under the
impression that they were too cowardly and indolent to be regarded with
any apprehension.
The next morning, when continuing their journey, Arend, who was riding a
little in advance, suddenly reined up, at the same time, calling out--
"I see a kraal and a field of maize."
Groot Willem and Hendrik rode forward, and became convinced that Arend
was in the right. Almost at the same instant, the hunter descried other
objects in which he was more interested than in a village of Bechuanas,
or anything belonging to them. Two large elephants were seen moving
across the plain, in the direction of the maize-field.
"Let us steal upon them silently," suggested Willem. "We need not all
go. Two or three will be enough. Some one must stay with the cattle."
Saying this, he rode off, followed by Hendrik and Arend.
Hans assented to stay behind, attended by Swartboy; and Congo, with the
assistance of the Makololo, halted the cattle and pack-horses; thus
tarrying, they were witnesses of what they expected to prove an
interesting scene. They saw nothing to prevent the stalkers from
obtaining a fine opportunity for a shot; and they knew that a wounded
elephant seldom seeks safety in flight. One or both of the animals
would be killed; and the violent death of an elephant is, under all
circumstances, a spectacle painfully interesting.
"But for us," said Groot Willem, as he rode by the side of Hendrik,
"those elephants would destroy that field of maize. The owners of the
field could not prevent them, if they were to try. They cannot even
frighten them away from their work of devastation."
The young hunter was soon to be undeceived.