PREPARATIONS AND DISSUASIONS. 25 



The general impression among my military friends 

 was, that any game which remained in the interior 

 must have, ere then, retreated to such remote parts, 

 far away in the territories of savage tribes, as to be ut- 

 terly beyond the reach of any sportsman, however en- 

 terprising ; and when they saw me bustling about, 

 ma]\;ing my purchases, they used to sa}'" to me, " It is 

 all nonsense your laying out your money in this way. 

 Wny don't you rather go home at once to your own 

 country ? We shall see you returning in a month or 

 two, like those fellows who went on a shooting trip last 

 year, with a coup-de-soleil and an attack of dysentery, 

 utterly disgusted with the country, and selling ofl' all 

 these things on which you are now expending so much 

 capital." 



The shooting party here alluded to consisted of one 

 officer of the 7th Dragoons, two of the 27th, and others 

 who, having obtained a few weeks' leave, and burning 

 to distinguish themselves in a campaign against the 

 ferae of Southern Africa, had hired a wagon and pene- 

 trated as far as the Thebus Mountain, where for a few 

 days they enjoyed some good sport among the black 

 wildebeest and springboks which abound on the plains 

 surrounding that mountain ; till, having broken the 

 stocks of their rifles in falls from their horses while im- 

 petuously "jaging" the game, they returned to head- 

 quarters, one suffering from coup-de-soleil, and the rest 

 from dysentery brought on by drinking bad water, they 

 having been unfortunate in the vley beside which they 

 had fixed their encampment. My gallant friend Lieu- 

 tenant H , of the 91st, was one of the most urgent 



in endeavoring to dissuade me from my steadfast pur- 

 pose of trekking up the country, and recommended me 

 rather to return with him to England, whither he -vas 



Vol-. I — B 



