THE LAST OF SOUTH AFRICA'S GAME HAUNTS
Decrease of game in South Africa--Journey from Mashunaland to the
East African coast--Find country full of game--Elephants--Great
herds of buffaloes--Five old bulls--Bushbucks--Other antelopes and
zebras--Curiosity of the latter animals--Wart-hogs, bush-pigs,
and hippopotamuses--Numbers of carnivorous animals--Three lions
seen--Fine male wounded, and subsequently killed.
During the twenty years succeeding my first arrival in South Africa
in 1871, I had constantly wandered and hunted over vast areas of
country, from the Cape Colony to far away north of the Zambesi,
and in that time had seen game of all kinds--from the elephants,
rhinoceroses, and buffaloes of the forest regions north of the Limpopo
river to the wildebeests, blesboks, and springbucks of the southern
plains--gradually decrease and dwindle in numbers to such an extent
that I thought that nowhere south of the great lakes could there be a
corner of Africa left where the wild animals had not been very much
thinned out, either as a result of the opening up and settlement of the
country by Europeans or owing to the extensive acquisition of firearms
by the native tribes.
In the year 1891, however, when attempting, on behalf of the British
South Africa Company, to discover a route free from the tse-tse fly
between Mashunaland and the East African coast, I walked into a
country still teeming with big game, for no white man, as far as I am
aware, had ever hunted there before the time of my visit,[20] and the
fell plague of rinderpest, more potent for mischief than many legions
of human game-destroyers, had only recently commenced its ravages,
thousands of miles away on the plains of Masailand. Moreover, the
natives living in this low-lying, fever-haunted district were few in
number and almost destitute of firearms.
[20] The Portuguese who travelled occasionally between the Pungwe river
and Massi-kessi never hunted or left the footpath, along which they
were carried in hammocks.
[Illustration: THE LAST OF SOUTH AFRICA'S GAME HAUNTS]
Elephants still wandered over this tract of country, often in large
herds, as their tracks and pathways leading in all directions plainly
showed. But these animals, whose fatal possession of ivory has made
them an object of pursuit to man in South-East Africa ever since the
days when the ancient Arabian traders carried gold and ivory to King
Solomon, appeared to have inherited a timid and restless disposition,
which, in spite of a present immunity from persecution, kept them
always on the move.
All other animals were, however, singularly tame and confiding. Great
herds of buffaloes feeding in the reed beds along the rivers or lying
in the shade of the scattered thorn trees allowed a near approach
before taking alarm, and some of the old bulls which were frequently
encountered either alone or in little bands of four or five together
would scarcely take the trouble to get out of one's way. I remember,
when first descending from the broken country at the head of the
Mutachiri river, where there was but little game, into the level coast
plains, the first buffaloes I encountered were five old bulls, which
were lying in the shade of some palm scrub on the bank of the river,
whose course I was following.
As I walked towards them they raised their great armoured heads and
looked curiously at the first human being with a hat and shirt on they
had probably ever seen. My small retinue of native servants was just
then some little distance behind, and not until I was within fifty
yards of them did first one, then another of these massive black bulls
rise from his bed. But not immediately to run off, for they stood their
ground and still for some time stared inquisitively--one might almost
have said menacingly--with outstretched noses and horns laid back on
their necks. However, in a long experience of African buffaloes, I have
not found old bulls of this species either savage or aggressive when
not molested--at any rate, when they are feeding or resting in ground
sufficiently open to allow them to see anything approaching; though a
sudden charge by a buffalo lying in long grass or thick jungle, which
has either been previously wounded by a hunter or mauled by lions, is
not an uncommon incident of African travel.
On the occasion of which I am speaking, when I was not more than thirty
yards from the five old bulls, one of them actually came trotting
towards me. I then took off my hat and waved it, shouting out at the
same time. Then the old fellow turned and trotted away, and soon
breaking into a heavy, lumbering gallop, was quickly followed by his
companions. Later on, the same day, another solitary old buffalo bull
allowed me and my native followers to walk past within eighty yards of
where he lay without even troubling himself to get up.
After the buffaloes, the bushbucks were the tamest animals in this
great natural game-park. These lovely little animals, whose rich dark
brown coats are in this part of Africa most beautifully banded and
spotted with white, would stand gazing at me, amongst the scrubby
bush or open forest they frequent, and often allow a very near
approach. The denizens of the open plains--blue wildebeests, tsessebes,
Lichtenstein's hartebeests--were wilder and more wary than the
buffaloes and bushbucks, but still tame compared with their much-hunted
relatives in other parts of South Africa; whilst waterbucks, reedbucks,
oribis, and zebras (Burchell's) were all very tame and confiding, and
the latter, if they did not get one's wind, very inquisitive, as I have
found them to be in other unfrequented districts.
One day I was resting with my native attendants and taking a midday
meal on one of the large ant-heaps with which many parts of South-East
Africa are studded, when a herd of perhaps a hundred zebras came up
over the open plain to see what was going on. Led by a gallant-looking
old stallion, the whole troop advanced slowly to within about a hundred
yards of where I and my boys were sitting. Then they halted, and for
a long time all stood quite still with ears pricked and eyes turned
towards us. After a time the leader came walking slowly forward, and
was soon followed by a few other adventurous spirits, the mass of the
herd remaining where they were. I was myself so absorbed in watching
this novel and interesting sight that I did not observe that one of my
Kafirs (who took no interest in anything but dead zebras) had stood up
behind me, until I saw the most venturesome of our visitors turn round
and trot back to their companions. I then told all my boys to sit down
and keep quite quiet; but although the old stallion and a few of the
bolder spirits amongst his followers came forward again, they would
not approach nearer than about seventy yards from us, the whole troop
moving up slowly behind them.
I suppose I must have sat watching these beautiful animals for upwards
of an hour, and they did not finally trot away until we had got our
things packed up and were preparing to move in their direction.
I found both the wart-hogs and the bush-pigs, too, either very tame
or very stupid; and several hippopotamuses, which were disporting
themselves in small muddy lagoons, were at my mercy, had I wished to
interfere with them; but on this trip I killed very few animals, nor
ever fired a single shot except when obliged to do so, in order to
secure a supply of meat for myself and my native attendants.
In a country so well stocked with antelopes, zebras, and buffaloes,
carnivorous animals, it may well be supposed, were not wanting,
and, indeed, in no part of Africa probably were lions, leopards,
hyænas, wild dogs, and jackals more plentiful than they were in the
neighbourhood of the lower Pungwe river at the time when Mr. Rhodes's
pioneers first entered Mashunaland.
But all carnivorous animals are almost entirely nocturnal in their
habits, and therefore only occasionally encountered in the daytime; and
on the occasion of my first visit to this district I saw neither lions,
hyænas, nor leopards, though the two former animals roared and howled
nightly round my camp, and the grunting cry of the latter was often
heard. Nor was I much more fortunate in this respect on my second visit
to the same part of the country in 1892; for though I spent six weeks
travelling and hunting between the Pungwe river and Lake Sungwe during
October and November of that year, I only saw three lions, though there
was not a single night during the trip on which I did not hear some
of these animals roaring, sometimes close to camp, at others in the
distance. On several occasions, too, I heard three different troops or
families of lions roaring on the same night.
On the day when I saw the three lions, I had left camp with a few
native followers very early in the morning, and was walking across an
open plain studded with large ant-heaps, from which the long grass had
been for the most part burnt off. On my right was a small river whose
banks were fringed with a thick growth of scrubby bush. My course lay
parallel to this river, but outside the strip of bush. Suddenly I came
in sight of two lions at a distance of 400 or 500 yards out on the open
plain. They were advancing at a slow walk towards the river and had
been previously hidden from our view by some large ant-heaps. These two
lions saw us at the same moment that we saw them, and at once halted
and stood watching us. Telling my native attendants to sit down and
remain where they were until my return, I commenced to walk towards the
lions, hoping that they would allow me to approach within shot before
running off, as I knew that these animals, which in many parts of
Africa are very shy and wary, had very little fear of man in the Pungwe
river district at that time. However, before I had advanced fifty
paces, both lions turned round and commenced to walk slowly towards a
small patch of long yellow grass which had escaped the last grass fire.
They walked away from me at a very slow and leisurely pace. One seemed
a monster, the other either a female or a young male with no mane.
I now commenced to run towards them, but had not gone far, when a
third lion, that had previously been hidden by a large ant-heap, was
suddenly revealed to me. He had evidently been walking over the plain
about a hundred yards to the right of the other two lions, and not
having seen me, did not understand why these latter had first come to
a halt and then turned round and walked back again in the direction
from which they had just come. When I first saw the third lion he was
standing turned away from me and looking at the other two. Quickly
swerving to the left, but without stopping, I almost immediately put
a large ant-heap between us, and then ran to it at my utmost speed.
This ant-heap was quite twenty feet in diameter at the base, and ten
or twelve feet in height. I quickly climbed half-way up it and then
looked round the side, and saw that the single lion was still standing
watching the other two, which were at that moment just entering the
patch of long grass of which I have already spoken.
I now edged myself in a sitting position to the side of the ant-heap
nearest the lion and prepared for a shot. He was facing half away from
me and something more than two hundred yards off; but there was not
so much as a blade of grass in the shape of cover on the level burnt
plain between us, and had I attempted to get nearer to him he would
certainly have seen me at once and then trotted after his companions.
So, steadying myself and taking a careful aim with the 200-yards'
sight, I fired. My bullet must have passed close beneath the brutes
chest--I think behind his forelegs--as I saw it knock up the dust just
beyond him. He at once sprang to the spot where the bullet struck
the ground and again stood still, facing now exactly away from me,
without apparently having taken any notice of the report of my rifle--a
450-bore single-barrelled Gibbs-Metford.
Extracting the empty cartridge and pushing a fresh one into the breech,
as silently and quickly as possible, I fired again, this time taking a
fuller sight and aiming for the centre of the lion's somewhat narrow
hind-quarters. The dull thud which answered the report of the rifle
assured me that I had hit him, but I never saw a lion before make so
little fuss about a wound. He gave one spring forwards, accompanied by
a loud growl, and then stood still again. But only for a moment. Then
he came trotting round towards where I sat on the side of the ant-heap,
turning first to one side then to the other, and evidently searching
for what had hurt him, and I am sure that had he made me out he would
have charged instantly. However, I was dressed only in an old felt hat,
a cotton shirt, and a pair of shoes, and my scanty garments and bare,
sunburnt limbs were all so weather-stained, and harmonised so well with
the neutral tints of my immediate surroundings, that he never saw me.
I had thrown the empty cartridge out of my rifle before the lion
turned, but had no time to reload before he commenced to trot towards
me, for, knowing that the very slightest movement on my part would
attract his attention, I sat perfectly still, feeling sure that in
case of a charge I should have ample time to slip the cartridge, which
I held ready in my hand, into the breech of my rifle before he got to
me. However, he never discovered me, though he approached to within a
hundred yards of the ant-heap on the side of which I was sitting. He
then stopped, and after first looking towards me, turned round and once
more stood facing exactly away from me.
This was my chance, so hastily loading and putting down the 200-yards'
leaf sight, I again fired at him, and again heard my bullet strike.
With a loud growl he sprang forwards, and then went off at a gallop.
He turned almost immediately and, running almost broadside to me, made
for a large ant-heap with some bushes growing at the top of it. Before
he reached it I fired again and knocked him down, but after having lain
still for a few moments he got up and half-ran, half-dragged himself to
the ant-heap and disappeared behind the bush on its summit.
I now walked round and reconnoitred the ant-heap behind which the lion
had disappeared, and found that just beyond it there was a small
patch of unburnt grass quite six feet high, in which, no doubt, he was
hiding. To have approached this patch of long grass across the open
plain would, I felt sure, have meant facing a fierce charge at close
quarters, for the wounded lion had shown every sign of being a savage
and determined animal.
About two hundred yards to the left of the place where the lion was
lying was another ant-heap, at the foot of which grew two good-sized
trees, and as I thought I might be able to see something from the top
of one of them, I went back to where I had left my Kafirs, and taking
one of them with me, made a circuit and came up behind the trees.
My native attendant quickly climbed to the top of one of them, but
declared he could see nothing of the lion, although he said that the
patch of grass in which it was lying was very small. He then began to
come down the tree again, talking all the time.
He had got about half-way down when two wart-hogs which had been lying
asleep somewhere near us, disturbed by his voice, got up and went
trotting straight towards the spot where the lion was lying. They did
not enter the grass, but passed close to it, and the lion must have
heard them coming and made ready at once to repel another attack, for
the Kafir suddenly saw it standing just within the edge of the grass.
"Sir, sir, I can see the lion," he called to me in his own language. "I
can see nothing," I answered. "Come up the tree a little way," he said,
"and you will be able to see it." I told him to come down low enough
to reach the rifle I handed to him, and then climbed into the lower
branches of the tree. When about ten feet above the ground I could see
the lion's head and the outline of its back indistinctly through the
grass. First aroused by the near approach of the wart-hogs, he was no
doubt now listening to us talking.
I got a little higher up the tree, but although from this position I
commanded a somewhat clearer view, I could not steady myself to fire,
so I came lower down and fired a shot with the 200-yards' sight. This
shot missed the lion altogether, but it had an excellent effect, as the
angry brute at once charged out of the grass and came straight towards
where he had heard the talking. At first he showed signs of partial
paralysis of the hind-quarters, but gathering strength with every
stride, he was soon coming along at a great pace, growling savagely and
evidently prepared to make things uncomfortable for the first human
being he met. I let him come on to within about fifty yards of the
tree in which I was perched, and then shot him right in the chest with
an expanding bullet, which tore open his heart and killed him almost
immediately.
This was the last of the thirty-one lions I have shot, and the first
and only one of these animals that I ever shot from a tree. He was a
fine full grown animal, just in his prime, with a good mane for a coast
lion, very thick set and heavy in build, and enormously fat. My first
two bullets had struck him close together just below the tail, and
either would probably have killed him had it been a solid projectile,
but being expanding bullets they had probably not penetrated beyond the
stomach.
We found subsequently, on examining the place where he had been lying
in the grass at the foot of the ant-hill, that he had vomited great
lumps of the meat and skin of a wildebeest on which he had been
feasting the preceding night. My third bullet had struck him too far
back, behind the kidneys, and passing just below the backbone, had
momentarily paralysed his hind-quarters, causing him to fall when hit
and subsequently to show weakness in the hind-legs.