VI DEATH OF MENDOSE 107 



who lay upon the ground had fired at the elephants, 

 from about thirty yards behind myself, and then run 

 up an ant-hill, just as another Kafir, who preferred to 

 keep at a safer distance, discharged a random shot, 

 which struck poor Mendose just between the 

 shoulder-blades, the bullet coming out on the right 

 breast. I ran up at once to see what could be done, 

 but all human aid was vain — the poor fellow was 

 dead. At this moment two more shots fell close 

 behind, and a minute or two afterwards W. and our 

 Hottentot boy John came up. One of the three 

 elephants had fallen after my last shot, close at hand, 

 and a second, sorely wounded, had walked back right 

 on to W. and John, who were following on the 

 spoor ; and the two shots I had just heard had sealed 

 his fate. The third, however, and only surviving 

 one out of the original seven, had made good his 

 escape during the confusion, which he never would 

 have done had it not been for the untimely death of 

 Mendose. 



The sun was now close down upon the western 

 sky-line, and little time was to be lost. The Kafirs 

 still continued to shout and cry, seeming utterly 

 paralysed, and I began to think that they were 

 possessed of more sympathetic feelings than I had 

 ever given them credit for. However, on being 

 asked v/hether they wished to leave the body for the 

 hyasnas, they roused themselves. As luck would 

 have it, on the side of the very ant-hill on which the 

 poor fellow had met his death was a large deep hole, 

 excavated probably by an ant-eater, but now un- 

 tenanted. Into this rude grave, with a Kafir needle 

 to pick the thorns out of his feet, and his assegais 

 with which to defend himself on his journey to the 

 next world, we put the body, and then firmly blocked 



