MY GUNS AND THEIR MAKERS. 9 



if no change had come over a spirit, or the spirit, of a 

 dream, that seemed to go with me as my shadow ? 



The "Africa" is an excellent sea-going, safe ship, like 

 her twin sister, the " Asia," in the Cunard line, and if not 

 a very fast one, still she is very sure. In the tender 

 or boat which took me on board her from the quay at 

 Liverpool, I renewed an acquaintance with an old 

 hunting friend whom I had not seen for years (Mr 

 Brown), and made the acquaintance of Sir John Rennie, 

 both bound for New York, but not on missions like my 

 own. In the society of these two friends I had much 

 amusement, though Sir John insisted that I should be 

 scalped by the Indians, and we enjoyed a vast deal of 

 merriment occasioned by the circumstances of the hour. 



The arms that I took with me to the plains were my 

 two old favourite double-shot guns, of eleven gauge, 

 made by John Manton, of Dover-street renown, and 

 which I had shot with for thirty years, and my old 

 favourite single rifle, of a similar period, from the same 

 master hand. To these were added a double-shot gun, 

 most splendidly put out of hand by Mr Pape, of New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, slightly less in gauge than eleven, 

 and a double breech-loading rifle, with the conical ball, 

 by the same maker also a first-rate article, needing no 

 additional cap, the cap being contained in the car 

 tridge ; a breech-loading carbine by Mr Prince, of Lon 

 don, on the pattern of that arm for cavalry, but made to 

 carry a heavier ball, for the benefit of the buffalo or 

 bison, to which special service I intended to address it. 

 These, with a powerful double rifle made by Collins, lent 

 me with a revolver by Captain Bathurst, of the Grena 

 dier Guards, and a splendid East Indian dirk, or cou- 

 tcau de chasse, kindly put into my hands by Colonel 



