KAFFIR INCREDULITY--THE GREAT KALAHARI--A PRIZE--AN EXCITING CHASE--THE
KAFFIR GAME-TRAP--A NATURAL BRIDGE--AN AFRICAN FLOOD.
Daylight broke at last, and the two watchers were rejoiced to perceive
that their prisoners, though evidently recovered from any injuries which
they might have sustained, still remained in the same place, indeed in
the same attitude as on the previous night. This, however, appeared to
be mainly due to Lion's vigilance, the latter still keeping the most
jealous watch over them, breaking out into an angry growl, and showing a
formidable broadside of teeth, whenever either of them moved hand or
foot. As soon as the morning meal was over, De Walden untied the thongs
by which they had been secured, and taking them apart, addressed a long
and seemingly an angry remonstrance to them. They replied submissively,
and appeared to be entreating pardon, which he was reluctant to grant.
At length the conference came to an end. With a low inflection of their
bodies, they turned away, and pursued the path up the kloof, never
turning their heads to look back, till they had vanished from sight.
Mr De Walden now rejoined his companions. "In what direction is it
your purpose to proceed?" he inquired.
"We were about to ask your advice," said Lavie. "We have turned out of
our direct way to avoid being followed by the Hottentots among whom we
have been living for several weeks, and now want to make our way as
quickly as we can to Cape Town."
"I will accompany you there," said the missionary, "if it be agreeable
to you. Until last night it was my intention to travel into the country
you have just quitted, and resume my old mission work, which I left
three years ago. But, singularly enough, I am now in the same strait as
yourself. I have been living for the last year or two in the Bechuana
country; and the idea has latterly taken possession of one of the Kaffir
chiefs, named Chuma, that I have the power of controlling the elements,
and driving away disease at pleasure."
"It is not an uncommon one, is it?" asked Lavie.
"It is common enough for impostors among the Kaffirs themselves, to
pretend to such power, and they gain a certain amount of credence from
their countrymen," answered De Walden; "but they do not often fancy that
Europeans are so gifted. The fame of a very simple cure of a Bechuana
child, which was suffering from croup, and the circumstance that a
seasonable rain, after long drought fell, while I was residing in the
Bechuana village, are, I believe, the only grounds for the notion. But
Chuma was so possessed with it, that he has repeatedly made me the most
splendid offers, if I will take up my abode in his kraal."
"I wonder you did not accept it," remarked Lavie.
"You think it would have been an opening for teaching them better
things, I suppose. But that would not have been so. I could only have
gone as a professed wizard or prophet--under false colours, in fact.
And the moment I threw any doubt on the reality of my pretensions, they
would have turned on me as an impostor, and justly too. No, I told
Chuma that I would come to him as the servant of the God who sent the
rain and the sunshine, if he would have me. But that He alone could
command these, and I had no power over them, any more than Chuma himself
had."
"And he?" pursued Lavie.
"He did not believe me, and once or twice tried to seize me, and compel
me to comply with his wishes. I was very glad when the news of the
reoccupation of the Cape by the British, offered an opening for my
return to Namaqua-land. I thought I had managed my departure so well,
that they would not discover it for many days. But I was mistaken.
Chuma sent those men yesterday with peremptory orders to seize and
convey me to his village."
"And you are going to change your route, in consequence?" said Lavie.
"Yes; I do not believe Chuma will abandon his purpose even now. I shall
proceed to Cape Town and thence obtain a passage to Walfisch Bay. In
that way I shall baffle the chief, but probably in no other. If you
think Frank--that is his name, I believe--if you think him fit to
travel, we had better set off for the Gariep as soon as possible. Chuma
will be sure to send out a fresh company, as soon as these have returned
to him."
"Frank is nearly well in my opinion," said Lavie. "The poison seems to
have been driven out by the profuse perspiration. He is a little weak;
but with an occasional rest, and an arm to lean on, he can go a
tolerable day's journey, I have no doubt."
"Let us set off, then, as soon as possible. We have a long and very
dreary tract to traverse before we reach the Gariep--three hundred miles
and more, I should think. It will probably take us at least three weeks
to accomplish it, even if your young friend quite recovers his
strength."
"But you are well acquainted with the way?"
"Yes, indeed. I have traversed it often enough."
"We are fortunate to have fallen in with you. I will go and arrange
everything for starting."
They were soon on their way, Frank stepping bravely along, and declaring
that the motion and the morning air had driven out whatever megrims the
euphorbia water might have left behind. They soon came into a different
character of country from that which they had recently been traversing.
Hitherto they had been moving to and fro on the skirts of the great
Kalahari; they were now about to pass through its central solitudes. As
they advanced, the groups of trees and shrubs grew scantier, and at
length almost wholly disappeared. Interminable flats of sand, varied
only by heaps of stone scattered about in the wildest disorder,
succeeded each other as far as the eye could reach. For miles together
there was no sign of animal or vegetable life--not the cry of an insect,
not the track of a beast, not the pinion of a bird. The red light of
daybreak, the hot and loaded vapours of noontide, the gorgeous hues of
sunset, the moon and stars hanging like globes of fire in the dark
purple of the sky, succeeded each other with wearying monotony. There
was no difference between day and day. They depended for their
subsistence almost entirely on the roots, which De Walden knew where to
search for, and which relieved the parched lips and burning throat as
nothing else could have done. Their resting-place at mid-day, and at
night alike, was either the shadow cast by some huge stone, or a natural
hollow in its side, or more rarely a patch of scrub and grass, growing
round some spring, either visible or underground. The cool sunset
breeze every evening restored something of vigour to their exhausted
frames, and enabled them to toil onward for another, and yet another,
day.
After nearly three weeks of this travel, they found the landscape begin
once more to change. The kameel-doorn and the euphorbia again made
their appearance, at first in a few comparatively shaded spots; then the
aloe and the mimosa began to mingle with them; and in the course of a
day's journey afterwards, birds chirped among the boughs, the secretary
was seen stalking over the plain, and the frequent spoor of wild animals
showed that they had again reached the world of living beings.
Their guide now told them that they were within two days' journey or so
of the Gariep; which he proposed to pass at some point immediately below
one of the great cataracts. The river at this spot ran always, he said,
with a rapidity which rendered it almost impossible to ford; but at the
times when it was at the lowest, after long drought, as was the case
now, it might be crossed by climbing along trunks of trees which had
been lodged among the rocks and left there by the subsiding waters of a
flood. This required nothing of the traveller beyond a steady foot and
a cool head. Where there were several to help one another, the risk was
reduced almost to zero.
The party woke up gladly enough on the morning of the last day of their
desert travel. The country was now thickly covered with wood.
Immediately before them was a plain very curiously dotted with patches
of thorns, growing at regular intervals about fifty paces apart from one
another, enclosing a large tract of ground with a kind of rude fence.
Nick was so struck with its singular appearance, that he stopped behind
his companions to examine it more closely. While thus engaged, his
attention was attracted by a grunting noise in the bush near him, and
peering cautiously through the bushes, saw what he supposed to be a
large black hog, unwieldy from its fat, lying in a bed of thick grass.
Here was a discovery! The party had not tasted the flesh of animals for
weeks past, and had not tasted pork since they left the _Hooghly_. He
shouted as loud as he could, to attract the attention of Lavie and the
others. Failing to do this, he discharged his gun at the hog, intending
at once to kill the animal and induce his fellow-travellers to return.
He waited for some minutes, but without hearing anything but a distant
halloo. Resolving not to lose so valuable a booty, he took the
creature, heavy as it was, on his shoulders and set out, as fast as he
could walk, under the burden, in the direction which they had gone.
He staggered along until he had cleared the thicket, and was moving on
towards the thorn patches, when he heard a voice at some distance
shouting to him. He looked up and saw Lavie running towards him at his
utmost speed. Presently the voice came again.
"Drop that, and run for your life. There's a rhinoceros chasing you."
Nick did drop his load, as if it had been red hot iron, and glanced
instinctively round. On the edge of the thicket which he had quitted, a
large black rhinoceros was just breaking cover, snorting with fury, and
evidently making straight for him. Nick's gun was empty, and even if it
had been loaded, he would hardly have ventured to risk his life on the
accuracy of his aim. He threw the gun away, and took to his heels, as
he had never done since he left Dr Staines's school. He was swift of
foot, and had perhaps a hundred yards start. But the rhinoceros is one
of the fleetest quadrupeds in existence. Notwithstanding the lad's most
desperate exertions, it continued to gain rapidly on him. Nick felt
that his only chance was to get within gun-shot of his companions, when
a fortunate bullet might arrest the course of his enemy. He tore
blindly along, until he found himself within twenty yards of the thorn
bushes, which had so excited his curiosity shortly before. The next
minute he felt himself passing between two of the bushes, the rhinoceros
scarcely thrice its own length behind him, its head bent down, and its
long horn ready to impale him.
He gave himself over for lost, and only continued to dash along from the
instinct of deadly terror. As he rushed between the bushes, he suddenly
felt the earth shake and give way under him. Staggering forward a few
paces, he fell flat on his face, tearing up the ground from the force of
the fall. At the same moment a tremendous crash was heard behind him,
followed a minute afterwards by a dull heavy shock. Nick sprung up
again, notwithstanding the cuts and bruises he had received, and glanced
hastily round him, expecting to see his terrible antagonist close on his
flank. But, to his amazement, the creature had disappeared! There was
the open space between the thorn bushes, through which he had just
passed, and there was the long grass through which he had rushed, but
where was the fierce pursuer, who was scarcely four yards behind him?
While he was gazing round him in a maze of alarm and wonder, he heard
Lavie's voice close to him. "You may be thankful for the narrowest
escape I ever remember to have witnessed!" he said.
"Where, where is the rhinoceros?" stammered Nick.
"Down at the bottom of that pit, into which you would have tumbled
yourself, if you hadn't been running like a lamplighter. I'll just see
if the poor brute is alive or not, and if he is, put a charge through
his brain."
He peered cautiously down the hole, but all was still there. The animal
had been impaled on the strong stake always placed at the bottoms of
such traps, and it had probably penetrated the vitals. Satisfied on
this point, he returned to Gilbert, who had now somewhat recovered his
self-possession.
"Why didn't you run when we first called to you?"
"I didn't know you were calling to me. What made the brute attack me?"
"I don't know. The black rhinoceroses very often attack men without any
apparent reason, though the white seldom do so. But what were you
carrying on your back?"
"A black hog, which I had shot--famous eating, you know. We had better
go and fetch it now. It will last us--"
"A hog!" exclaimed De Walden, who with Warley and Wilmore had now joined
them. "I don't fancy there are any wild hogs about here; I never heard
of any. Is this what you call a hog?" he continued, a minute or two
afterwards, when they had reached the place where Nick had thrown his
load down. "Why this is a young rhinoceros--about a week old, I should
say! There is very little mystery now in the mother having charged
after you. Well, you may indeed thank God for your escape! I would not
have given a penny for your life under such circumstances. However, as
we have the animal, we had better take as much of its flesh as we can
carry. It is very excellent eating."
"I should like to examine the pitfall, sir, if you have no objection,"
said Warley. "I have never seen one, though I have often heard of
them."
"I'll cut up the carcass, Mr De Walden," said Lavie, "if you like to go
with the lads."
The missionary consented, and taking the three boys with him, pointed
out to them the ingenious construction of the trap, which had been the
means of preserving Nick's life. He showed them, that the whole
enclosure which had excited Gilbert's wonder, was one network of pits.
The thorn bushes were everywhere trained to grow so thick and close,
that it was impossible to penetrate them; and in the centre of each of
the open spaces between them a deep excavation was made, the top of
which was skilfully concealed by slight boughs laid over it, and covered
with tufts of long grass and reeds. At times, he said, the hunters
would assemble in a large body, and drive the game in from every side,
towards the enclosure. The frightened animals made for the entrances,
and great numbers were thus captured in the pits. Even those which had
passed safely through the openings, became easy victims to the arrows
and assegais of the pursuers, being, in fact, too much alarmed to
attempt to escape from their prison.
Before they had completed their examination of the ground, Lavie was
ready to accompany them. Setting out without further delay, they
reached an hour before sunset the banks of the Gariep. Wearied as they
were with one of the longest day's journeys which they had accomplished,
neither Lavie nor Warley could rest till they had taken a full view of
the magnificent scene which broke upon them, when, after threading the
dense thickets and tortuous watercourses which border the great river,
they came at last on the main stream itself. The vast mass of water--
which had been narrowed in, for a considerable distance by lofty cliffs
on either side, to a channel hardly more than thirty yards in width--
shot downwards over a rocky shelf in an abrupt descent of fully four
hundred feet in height. On either side, the crags, partly bare and
rugged, partly clothed with overhanging woods of the richest green;
above, the tall mountains rising into broken peaks; and below, the
boiling abyss--formed a frame, which was worthy of this splendid
picture. The beams of the setting sun pouring full on the cascade, and
producing a brilliant rainbow which spanned the entire width from side
to side, together with the ceaseless thunder of the falling waters,
seemed alike to entrance and overpower the senses of the beholder. It
was not until they had stood for more than an hour gazing at this
glorious spectacle, that either of the travellers could tear themselves
from the spot, to seek the rest which overwearied nature demanded.
On the following morning they were awakened by De Walden at an earlier
hour than usual. "We must lose no time," he said, "in crossing the
river. It is not so high as I expected to find it, and at the point for
which we must make, we can get over without much difficulty. But it is
on one of the channels which just now are almost dry, that I fear we may
encounter difficulty. The sky looked threatening last night, and if it
had not been too late I should have attempted the passage. It looks
worse this morning. I am half afraid there must be rain further up the
country; and if such be the case, the river may suddenly rise so
rapidly, that it will be next to impossible to escape it. We have not a
moment to lose."
They hurried on under his directions, Lion following, and in an hour's
time had reached a narrow part of the stream, which was there further
diminished by an island in mid-channel. The latter was steep and
narrow, having evidently been worn away by the action of successive
ages, until scarcely more than ten feet of it remained. Against the
craggy peaks into which it rose, several massive trees had lodged during
some former flood, and had been left by the subsiding waters at a height
of eight or ten feet above their present level. They formed a kind of
rude bridge, which might be safely traversed by any one whose nerves
were firm enough to attempt the feat.
Calling to Lavie to follow him, De Walden laid down his rifle and
climbed up the mossy roots of one of the largest of these wrecks of the
forest, till he had reached the first fork of the branches. Here he
stopped, and waited till Lavie was within six feet or so of him, when he
signed him to stop also. Warley followed, and then Frank, and lastly
Nick; each taking up his station a few feet off from his nearest
companion. Nick then passed along the various articles from hand to
hand, until they reached De Walden, who secured them by thongs to the
upper branch of the fork, and then climbed on till he had reached the
island, when the same process was repeated.
In this manner, in about an hour's time, they passed safely over the
central stream, and began descending the bank on the other side, passing
without difficulty two or three of the narrower channels. But their
progress through the tangled underwood, which in some places had to be
cut with the axe before it would yield a passage, was necessarily slow,
and it was past noon before they came to the edge of the last and
broadest of the tributary channels--a stream too wide and deep to be
forded, even if there had not been fear that the overhanging banks
contained holes in which crocodiles might lurk. "We must fell a tree,"
said the missionary. "We shan't get across in any other way. One of
the longest of these pines will answer our purpose, if it is dropped in
the right place; but we must go to work without delay, for I fear before
nightfall there will be rain. It seldom gives long notice of its coming
in this country, and when it does fall, it falls in a perfect deluge.
It is lucky we have the axe, or we must have gone back to the other bank
again. Hand it to me, Ernest. I think I can contrive to drop this fir
exactly into the fork of that large projecting yellow-wood there."
He took the axe as he spoke, and went to work with a will, the others
relieving him at intervals, and labouring under his directions. But the
edge of the instrument had unfortunately become blunt from use, and made
its way but slowly into the tough wood. It was nearly three hours
before the task was accomplished, and the long trunk dropped skilfully
into the hollow of the tree opposite.
"Now then, we must not lose a minute," said De Walden. "We are
fortunate that the rain has held off so long, but it must come soon."
He mounted the trunk as he spoke and crawled along it, observing the
same precautions as before. They had just reached the further end, when
suddenly there came--from a considerable distance it seemed--a dull
hollow roar, accompanied by a rush of chilling wind.
"Quick, quick," he cried; "the flood is close at hand. If it catches us
here, we are lost. Climb the tree. It is our only hope." He sprang on
the nearest branch as he spoke, and mounted up from bough to bough,
until he had reached an elevation of twenty or thirty feet above the
surface of the stream. The others followed his example, as well as they
were able, catching at the limbs of the great yellow-wood tree which
chanced to be nearest to them, and scrambling from point to point with
the agility which deadly peril inspires. Nick, who was the hindmost of
the party, had not mounted more than fifteen or twenty feet, before they
all beheld, not a hundred yards off, a vast cataract of water rolling
down the river gorge, sweeping from side to side, as it advanced, and
converting the whole valley into a roaring torrent. Their temporary
bridge was swept away and snapped in pieces like a reed, and for a
moment De Walden feared that even the great yellow-wood in which they
had found refuge, might experience a like fate. It stood firm, however,
and the missionary was able to assure his companions that, as the flood
was not likely to rise higher, they were in comparative safety. But
they would have to pass the night, and possibly the next day, in their
present position, as it would be madness to attempt breasting the flood,
until its fury had spent itself. They had fortunately taken their
morning meal on the further bank, and each had some remains of it in his
wallet But it was a dreary prospect at best, and if the rain should
again fall there would be the greatest danger lest the cold and
weariness should so benumb their limbs, that they would be unable to
retain their hold on the branches.
"What has become of Lion?" Nick managed to ask of Wilmore, who was
niched near him, in a hollow formed by the junction of three boughs in
one of the largest limbs of the yellow-wood. "I haven't seen him since
we got on the tree."
"Poor old boy," returned Frank, "he was swept down the stream, when the
fir was carried away. I tried to catch him by the collar, but couldn't.
The last thing I saw of him was his black head in the midst of the
boiling waters. I think I would sooner have been drowned myself!"