XV DONKEYS ATTACKED BY HYENAS 317 



reached late in the afternoon after a pleasant voyage 

 up the river, passing many herds of sea-cows d*;/ route. 

 The mouth of the river Kafukwe is not very broad 

 — about 1 50 yards, I think ; but it looked very 

 deep, and seemed to pour a very large body of water 

 into the Zambesi. During my stay in Mendon^a's 

 island I shot five head of game, all on the southern 

 side of the Zambesi. They were one zebra, one 

 impala, one wild pig, one black rhinoceros, and one 

 waterbuck. Owen shot on the north bank one zebra 

 and two waterbucks. 



On the night of December 9, my lazy boys 

 allowed two of the donkeys to stay outside the kraal. 

 The hygenas, which are very numerous and fierce 

 about here, tackled them, and would have killed 

 both had not Owen driven them off — it was a moon- 

 light night — with repeated charges of buckshot. As 

 it was, they killed the stallion, and mangled the other 

 badly ; however, I sewed up his wounds on the 

 following day, and he eventually recovered, only to 

 die of something else. Two nights after this, the 

 boys again left all the three donkeys out. I had 

 been away hunting, and on my return, just at dusk, 

 Franz shouted across the river that the donkeys were 

 away. Mendonca at once called up a headman and 

 a lot of slaves, and, giving them a lantern, told them 

 to cross the river at once and take the donkeys' 

 spoor, and not to leave it until they found them 

 alive or dead. In a few minutes we were paddling 

 across the river, but before reaching the shore we 

 heard the hyasnas making a tremendous noise, not 

 very far away, and I knew that it was all up with my 

 poor donkeys. We found the spoor, and, following 

 it — guided, too, by the howling of the hyaenas — at 

 length came to the scene of the disaster. The 



