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.
[Illustration: CHARGE OF THE BUFFALO.]
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.