280 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



the pin-suit for years, will find that the true character of the 

 animal is one of stubborn unflinching courage, and unmitigated 

 revenge should it gain the ascendant. 



During eight years' experience in Ceylon I was fortunate in 

 escaping from any casualties among my followers, although very 

 nearly caught myself; but in Africa I lost my best man, only 

 through the fact of his being badly armed. 



I shot a bull, late in the evening, upon the marshy border of 

 the White Nile ; this was knocked over, apparently dead, by the 

 first bullet from a No. 10 rifle. My men actually danced in 

 triumph upon its body, in the anticipation of a feast, after a long 

 absence from fresh provisions during a voyage upon the desolate 

 river. Instead of hamstringing the lifeless beast, they continued 

 their insane gesticulations, when suddenly the buffalo jumped up, 

 and sent them flying into the river, like so many frogs, swimming 

 for their lives towards my diahbeeah. The buffalo disappeared iu 

 the swamp of high reeds and aquatic vegetation. On the following 

 morning, supposing that the beast must have died during the 

 night, about thirty or forty men, armed with double-barrelled 

 smooth-bores, went ashore to look for the dead animal. They had 

 not been ashore for many minutes when I heard a shot, then 

 another, followed by a regular volley. My people returned with 

 the head of the buffalo and a large quantity of meat, but they also 

 earned the body of my best man, who, when leading the way 

 through the high reeds upon the traces of blood, actually stumbled 

 over the buffalo lying in the swamp, and the light guns failed to 

 stop its charge. 



The crooked horn had hooked him beneath the ear, and pene- 

 trating completely through the neck, had torn out the throat, as 

 though it had been cut. The savage beast had then knelt upon 

 the body and stamped it into the muddy ground, until it fell dead 

 before the united fire of thirty men. 



I have never experienced any great difficulty with African 

 buffaloes, for the best of reasons, that I have been extremely 

 cautious, and have always shot with very powerful rifles. Baron 

 Harnier, a Prussian, was the first unprofessional hunter to visit 

 the White Nile as an independent traveller. He had his own 

 vessel and two German servants, both of whom died of fever. 

 Although he had great experience in buffalo-shooting, he was 

 eventually killed by a large bull, which attacked his native servant 

 after having received a death-wound from a single-barrelled rifle. 

 Being unloaded, Baron Harnier attacked the buffalo with his 

 clubbed rifle, in the hope of driving it away from his servant, who 



