That evening Mr Harvey and the lads were again invited to dine at mess,
and after dinner the colonel asked Mr Harvey if he would be good enough
to tell them some of his adventures in the interior.
"I have had so many," the trader said, "that I hardly know which would
be most interesting. I have been many times attacked by the natives,
but I do not know that any of these affairs were so interesting as the
fight we had in the defile the other day. Some of the worst adventures
which we have to go through are those occasioned by want of water. I
have had several of these, but the worst was one which befell me on one
of my earliest trips up the country. On this occasion I did not as
usual accompany my father, but went with a trader named Macgregor, a
Scotchman, as my father was ill at the time. He considered me too young
to go by myself, and when he proposed to Macgregor that I should join
him with the usual number of waggons he sent up, Macgregor objected,
saying,--I have no doubt with justice,--that the double amount of goods
would be more than could be disposed of. He added, however, that he
should be glad if I would accompany him with a couple of waggons. It
was; as it turned out, a very good thing for my father that his venture
was such a small one. Macgregor was a keen trader; he understood the
native character well, and was generally very successful in his
ventures. His failing was that he was an obstinate, pig-headed man,
very positive in his own opinions, and distrusting all advice given him.
"Our trip had been a successful one. We penetrated very far in the
interior, and disposed of all our goods. When we had done so, we
started to strike down to Kimberley across a little-known and very sandy
district. The natives among whom we were, endeavoured to dissuade
Macgregor from making the attempt, saying that the season was a very dry
one, that many of the pools were empty, and that there would be the
greatest difficulty in obtaining water. Macgregor disregarded the
advice. By taking the direct route south he would save some hundreds of
miles. He said that other caravans had at different times taken this
route in safety, and at the same time of the year. He insisted that the
season had not been a particularly dry one, and that he was not going to
be frightened by old women's tales. The natives were always croaking
about something, but he did not mean to lose a month of his time for
nothing.
"Accordingly we started. The really bad part of our journey was about
150 miles across a sandy country, with low scrub. The bullocks, when
driven to it, would eat the leaves of this scrub, so that we did not
anticipate any difficulty in the way of forage. In the wet season many
streams run across the country and find their way into the Limpopo. In
summer they dry up, and water is only obtained in pools along their
courses. There were twelve waggons in the caravan--ten belonging to
Macgregor, and my two. I had with me a servant, a native, who had been
for years in the employment of my father, a very faithful and
trustworthy fellow.
"At the end of the first day's march of fifteen miles we found water at
the spot to which our native guide led us. The second day the pool was
found to be dry. We got there early, having started before daybreak,
for the heat was tremendous. On finding the pool empty I rode ten miles
down the course of the stream, and Macgregor as far up it, but found no
water, and on getting back to the camp the oxen were inspanned, and we
made another march; here we found water, and halted next day.
"So we went on, until we were half-way across the desert. Several of
the marches had been double ones, the track was heavy from the deep
sand, some of the oxen had died, and all were much reduced in strength.
Although Macgregor was not a man to allow that he had been wrong, I saw
that he was anxious, and before advancing he sent on a horseman and the
native guide two days' journey to see how the water held out. On their
return they reported that twenty miles in front there was a pool of good
water, and that thirty miles farther there was a small supply, which
was, however, rapidly drying up. Macgregor determined to push on. The
first day's march was got through, although five or six more oxen
dropped by the way. The second was a terrible march; I have never known
a hotter day in South Africa, and one felt blinded and crushed by the
heat. The weakened teams could scarcely draw the waggons along, and by
nightfall but half the journey had been performed. The oxen were turned
loose and allowed for an hour or two to crop the bush; then they were
inspanned again. All night long we continued our march; when, just at
sunrise, we got to the place where water had been found, the pool was
empty--the two days' sun since the horseman had been there had
completely dried it up. We set to work to dig a hole; but the sand was
shallow, the rock lying but a foot or two below, and we only got a few
buckets of water, but just enough to give a swallow to each of the oxen
and horses. Again we searched far up and down the course of the stream,
but without success; we dug innumerable holes in its bed, but without
finding water.
"We were still fifty miles from safety; but in that fifty miles the
natives said that they did not think a drop of water would be found, as
this was notoriously the driest point on the route. Half the oxen had
now died, and Macgregor determined to leave all but two of the waggons
behind, to harness teams of the strongest of those remaining, and to
drive the rest alongside. We halted till night to allow the animals to
feed, and then started. We got on fairly enough until daybreak, then
the sun rose, and poured down upon us. It was a terrible day. No one
spoke, and the creaking of the wheels of the waggons was the only sound
to be heard. Every mile we went the numbers lessened, as the bullocks
lay down to die by the way. My tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of
my mouth, and the sun to scorch up my brain. I hardly took notice of
what was going on around me, but let the reins hang loose on my horse's
neck. Several times he stumbled, and at last fell heavily. I picked
myself up from the sands, and saw that he was dying. The waggons had
come to a standstill now, and I had, I saw, for the last quarter of a
mile gone on alone. I looked at my watch; it was four o'clock, and I
turned and walked slowly back to the waggons. The drivers had unroped
the oxen, but most of them lay where they had halted, incapable of
rising to their feet; others had tottered to the shade cast by the
waggons, and had thrown themselves down there. The drivers were lying
among them. As I came up Macgregor staggered towards me; he was chewing
a handful of leaves. `I have been wrong, Harvey,' he said, in a hoarse
voice, `and it has cost us all our lives. Say you forgive me, my boy.'
`I forgive you heartily,' I said; `you thought it was for the best.' I
don't remember much more. I lay down and wondered vaguely what had
become of my man, whom I had not seen since we started on the previous
evening.
"The next thing I remember was that it was night. I got up on my feet
and staggered to a bullock that I heard faintly groaning; I cut a vein
in his neck and sucked the blood, and then started to walk; fortunately,
as it turned out, I had not gone a hundred yards when a dizziness came
over me, and I fell again to the ground. I must have lain there for
some hours; when I became conscious, water was being poured between my
lips. I soon recovered sufficiently to sit up, and found that it was my
faithful man. When the caravan started from the last halting-place, he
had seen that it was impossible for it to reach its journey's end, and
although, like the rest, he was exhausted and worn out, he had started
at full speed alone, and by morning reached water, having travelled
fifty miles in the night. It was midday before he succeeded in finding
a native kraal; then by promise of a large reward he induced forty men,
each laden with a heavy skin of water, to start with him, and at three
in the morning reached the camp; fortunately he stumbled across me just
before he got there.
"The assistance arrived in time. Two of the drivers were found to be
dead, but Macgregor and the other hands, sixteen in number, were all
brought round. The supply carried by the natives was sufficient to give
an ample drink to the eighteen oxen which were still alive. A feed of
maize was then given to each, but as they were too weak to drag even one
of the waggons they were driven on ahead, and most of them got over the
twenty-five miles which still separated them from water. We halted
there a week, to allow the animals to recover; then, carrying skins of
water for their supply on the way, they went back and brought in the two
waggons, one at a time. With these I came down to the colony.
Macgregor remained behind, and directly the rain set in went up with
native cattle and brought down the other waggons, all the valuable
contents of which, however, had in the intervening time been carried off
by natives. It was a near squeak, wasn't it? Macgregor was never the
same man again, and shortly after his return to Natal he sold off his
waggons and went back to Scotland. Being young and strong I soon
recovered from my privation."
"Lions are very abundant in some parts of the interior, are they not,
Mr Harvey?" one of the officers asked, after they had thanked the
trader for his story.
"Extraordinarily so," Mr Harvey replied; "in fact it has long been a
puzzle among us how such vast quantities could find food--in no other
country in the world could they do so; but here the abundance of deer is
so great that the lions are able to kill vast numbers, without making
any great impression upon them."
"But I should not have thought," an officer said, "that a lion could run
down a deer!"
"He cannot," Mr Harvey said, "except for short distances. The South
African lion is a lighter and more active beast than the northern lion,
and can for the first hundred yards run with prodigious swiftness,
taking long bounds like a cat. Stealing through the long grass, and
keeping to leeward of the herd, he will crawl up to within a short
distance unperceived, and then with half a dozen tremendous bounds he is
among them before they have fairly time to get up their full speed.
They hunt too in regular packs; twenty or thirty of them will surround a
herd, and, gradually lessening their circle, close upon their affrighted
prey, who stand paralysed with fear until the lions are fairly among
them.
"I was once surrounded by them, and had a very narrow escape of my life.
I had left my waggons at a large native village, and had ridden--
accompanied only by my native servant--some fifty miles across the
country to another tribe, to see whether they had lately been visited by
any traders, and whether they had goods to dispose of. I reached the
kraal in the morning, and the palaver with the chief as usual wasted the
best part of the day; it was nearly dark when I started, but I was
accustomed to ride by the light of the stars, and had no fear of missing
my way. I had been only two hours on the road, when the sky became
overcast, and half an hour later a tremendous storm burst. Having now
no index for directing my way I found that it was useless to proceed;
the plain was open, but I knew that a goodsized river ran a short
distance to the north, so I turned my horse's head in that direction,
knowing that on a river-bank I was likely to meet with trees. Several
times I missed my way in the driving rain, for the wind shifted
frequently, and that was of course the only guide I had.
"At last, to my great satisfaction, I struck upon the river and kept
along its bank until I came to a large clump of trees; here we unsaddled
our horses, picked out a comparatively dry spot under a big tree, which
stood just at the edge of the river, wrapped ourselves in our rugs, and
prepared to pass the night as comfortably as we could. The river was
high, and my only fear was that it might overflow its banks and set us
afloat before morning. However, we had not been there long before the
rain ceased, the sky cleared, and the stars came out again; but as the
horses had done a long day's work on the previous day, I determined to
remain where I was until morning. Having been in the saddle all the
previous night, I slept heavily. The wind was still blowing strongly,
and I suppose that the noise in the trees, and the lapping of the water
by the bank close by, prevented my hearing the stamping of the horses,
which, under ordinary circumstances, would certainly have warned me of
the approaching danger. Suddenly I awoke with a terrific uproar. I
sprang to my feet, but was instantly knocked down, and a beast, I knew
to be a lion, seized me by the left shoulder. My revolver was, as
always, in my belt; I drew it out, and fired into the brute's eye; his
jaw relaxed, and I knew the shot was fatal. A terrible din was going on
all round; there was light enough for me to see that both the horses had
been pulled to the ground; two lions were rending the body of my
servant, and others were approaching with loud roars. I sprang to my
feet and climbed up into the tree, just as two more lions arrived upon
the spot. My servant had not uttered a cry, and was, I have no doubt,
struck dead at once. The horses ceased to struggle by the time I gained
my tree. At least twenty lions gathered round, and growled and
quarrelled over the carcases of the horses. When they had finished
these, they walked round and round the tree, roaring horridly; some of
them reared themselves against the trunk, as if they would try to climb
it, but the lion is not a tree-climber, and I had not much fear that
they would make the attempt. I hoped that in the morning they would
move off; but they had clearly no intention of doing so, for, as it
became daylight, they retired a short distance and then either lay down
or sat upon their haunches in a semicircle fifty yards distant, watching
me.
"So the whole day passed; I had only the four shots left in my revolver,
for my spare ammunition was in the holster of my saddle, and even had I
had a dozen revolvers I could have done nothing against them. At night
they again came up to the tree, and in hopes of frightening them off I
descended to the lower branches, and fired my remaining shots at brutes
rearing up against it. As I aimed in each case at the eye, and the
muzzle of my pistol was within four feet of their heads, the shots were
fatal; but the only result was that the lions withdrew for a short
distance, and renewed their guard round the tree.
"You will wonder perhaps why all this time I did not take to the water;
but lions, although, like all the cat tribe, disliking water, will cross
rivers by swimming, and they seemed so pertinacious that I feared they
might follow me. Towards morning, however, I determined on risking it,
and creeping out to the end of a branch which overhung the river I
dropped in. The stream was running strong, and I kept under water,
swimming down with it as hard as I possibly could. When I came up I
glanced back at the tree I had quitted. The lions were gathered on the
bank, roaring loudly and lashing their tails with every sign of
excitement, looking at the water where they had seen me disappear. I
have not the least doubt but that they would have jumped in after me,
had I not dived. I took this in at a glance, and then went under again,
and so continued diving until I was sure that I was beyond the sight of
the lions; then I made for the bank as quickly as possible. The river
swarmed with crocodiles, and had it not been for the muddiness of the
water I should probably have been snapped up within a minute or two of
entering it.
"It was with a feeling of deep thankfulness that I crawled out and lay
down on a clump of reeds half a mile beyond the spot where the lions
were looking for me. When the sun got high I felt sure that they would
have dispersed as usual, and returned to their shelter for the day, and
I therefore started on foot, and reached my camp late at night.
"The next day we got in motion, and when, three days later, we arrived
at the kraal from which we had started, I rode over to the tree and
recovered my revolver and saddles. Not even a bone remained of the
carcases of the horses, or of my native attendant."
"That was a very nasty adventure," the colonel said. "Is it a common
thing, caravans being attacked by lions?"
"A very common thing," the trader replied; "indeed in certain parts of
the country such attacks are constantly made, and the persistency with
which the lions, in spite of the severe lessons they have received of
the deadly effect of fire-arms, yet continue to attack caravans is a
proof that they must often be greatly oppressed by hunger."
"Which do they seem to prefer," one of the officers asked, "human beings
or cattle?"
"They kill fifty oxen to one human being; but this probably arises from
the fact that in the lion-country the drivers always sleep round large
fires in the centre of the cattle. I think that by preference the lions
attack the horses, because these are more defenceless; the cattle
sometimes make a good fight. I have seen them when loose forming a
circle with their heads outside, showing such a formidable line of horns
that the lions have not ventured to attack them. Once or twice I have
seen single oxen when attacked by solitary lions, come out victors in
the assault. As the lion walked round and round, the bullock continued
to face him, and I have then often seen them receive the spring upon
their horns, and hurl the lion wounded and half-stunned yards away.
Once I saw both die together--the bullock with one of his horns driven
into the lion's chest, while the latter fixed his teeth in the bullock's
neck, and tore away with his claws at its side, until both fell dead
together."
"It must be a grand country for sport," one of the officers said.
"It is that!" the trader replied. "I wonder sometimes that gentlemen in
England, who spend great sums every year in deer-forests and
grouse-moors, do not more often come out for a few months' shooting
here. The voyage is a pleasant one, and although the journey up country
to the interior of course takes some time, the trip would be a novel
one, and every comfort could be carried in the waggons; while the sport,
when the right country was reached, would be more abundant and varied
than in any other part of the world. Lions may be met, deer of numerous
kinds, giraffes, hippopotami, crocodiles, and many other animals, not to
mention an occasional gallop after ostriches. The expenses, moreover,
would not be greater than the rental and keep of a deer-forest."
"Yes, I am surprised myself that more sportsmen do not come out here.
In odd times, too, they could get good fishing."
"Excellent," the trader replied; "some of the rivers literally swarm
with fish."
"When I get back to England," the colonel said, "I must advise some of
my friends to try it. As you say, there are scores of men who spend
their thousands a year on deer-forests, grouse-shooting, and
horseracing, and it would be a new sensation for them to come out for a
few months' shooting in the interior of Africa. I must not tell them
too much of the close shaves that you and your friends have had. A
spice of danger adds to the enjoyment, but the adventures that you have
gone through go somewhat beyond the point."