352 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



appeared that two of their Kafirs having gone out 

 early to hunt, had come upon a large herd, which, 

 when fired upon, ran straight to the Griqua encamp- 

 ment — out of the frying-pan into the fire, in fact. 

 All hands then turned out, and between them — three 

 Griquas and several Kafirs — they killed eight, all 

 cows. This happened about mid-day, when we were 

 at Zweswe drift, only seven or eight miles away. 

 Had we only known what was going to take place, 

 we might with the greatest ease have inspanned that 

 morning, and come in for a share in the sport. 



We heard from the Griquas that our friends had 

 their permanent encampment on the river Umfule, 

 only two waggon-treks from here. They said, too, 

 that they had already shot a lot of elephants, nearly 

 all fine bulls, and that on Sunday last, September 8, 

 Messrs. Chirkson and Wood rode right on to a large 

 herd, and shot eight of them, all good bulls. Also 

 that Mr. Wood's foreman — that is, the man given 

 him by the king as head man over his Kafirs — had 

 been killed by an elephant a few days before. 



We were now certainly getting amongst the 

 elephants once more, and I hoped before long to 

 renew my acquaintance with them. 



As it was a bright moonlight night, we inspanned 

 again about lo p.m., and trekked on half-way to 

 Umfule, and a couple of hours' ride the next morning- 

 brought us to our friends' encampment. They were 

 all away, however, having left the previous day for 

 the scene of the slaughter of the eight elephant bulls 

 shot on Sunday last, as they intended to form another 

 camp there and hunt from it, more to the north and 

 east, in the direction of the river Hanyane. 



Upon receipt of this news I determined to follow 

 their waggon spoor, as I felt sure I should be able 



