54 SOUTH AFRICA. 



length of time he often charges into the brown 

 of his assailants effectively. I once witnessed a 

 performance of the kind in which three horses got 

 fearfully torn up, and one young Boer had his foot 

 seriously crushed by the hoof of a panic-stricken 

 horse. 



I have known only four Boer hunters who ever 

 venture a conflict with lions when on foot, or 

 not well within reach of a horse. Personally, my 

 impression is that the safest and most effectual 

 method of lion hunting is alone, with a gun-bearer 

 carrying a spare weapon, or at most with one trusty 

 fellow hunter, and I have never had occasion to 

 complain, as I have heard many do, of the 

 behaviour of a native attendant, if isolated from 

 companions of his own race. And here I may 

 remark that although I have been in many tight 

 corners when hunting lions I have never been 

 mauled, nor has any casualty befallen any of my 

 " boys " on these occasions. 



And now perhaps it may be well briefly to 

 describe the first rather serious trying incident I 

 experienced, although previously several lions had 

 fallen to my gun in the usual order of such events. 

 On the occasion about to be mentioned my camp 



