44 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



to within twenty or thirty paces of the beast, and consequently 

 were in some degree actuated by our fears, we discharged oui 

 pieces pretty nearly at the same time ; while the buffalo, which 

 was upon rather lower ground than we were, behind a thin scam- 

 bling bush, seemed to turn his head around in order to make 

 toward us. In the meanwhile, however, the moment we had 

 discharged our guns, we had the pleasure to see him fall, and 

 directly afterwards run down into the thickest part of the wood. 

 This induced us to hope that our shot had proved mortal ; fo 

 which reason, we had the imprudence to follow him down intc 

 the close thickets, where luckily for us we could get no farther 

 We had, however, as we found afterwards, only hit the hindmost 

 part of the chine, where the balls, which lay at the distance of 

 three inches from each other, had been shivered to pieces against 

 the bones, 



"In the meanwhile, our temerity, which chiefly proceeded from 

 hurry and ignorance, was considered by the Hottentots as a proof 

 of spirit and intrepidity hardly to be equalled; on which account, 

 from that instant they appeared to entertain an infinitely higher 

 opinion of our courage than they had ever done before. Severa. 

 of our Hottentots now came to us, and threw stones down into 

 the dale, though without success, in order to find out, by the beljow- 

 ings of the beast, whither he had retired : afterwards, however 

 he se"emed to have plucked up his courage, for he came up at 

 last out of the dale of his own accord, to the skirts of the wood, 

 and placed himself so as to have a full view of us on the spot, 

 where we were resting ourselves somewhat higher up : his inten- 

 tion was, in all probability, and in the opinion of old sportsmen, 

 to revenge himself on us, if we had not happened to see him in 

 time, and fired at him directly. 



" What, perhaps, put a stop to his boldness was, that we stood 

 on higher ground than he did : for several veteran sportsmen have 

 assured me of it as a fact, that they know from experience, that 

 the buffaloes do not willingly venture to ascend any hill or emi- 

 nence in order to attack any one. The third shot, which after- 

 wards was observed to have entered at the belly, was fatal. This 



