CHAP. i. BUFFALO. 21 



As it was, I instantly fired into its chest and dropped it, 

 bellowing, and then retired to the banks of the stream to 

 load. Meanwhile Umdumela had come on, and after firing a 

 second shot, joined me. He had seen two buffaloes a bull 

 that he had last fired at, and which had moved further 

 back, and the first one, a young cow, which was standing 

 a few yards beyond where mine was lying. While he 

 loaded I advanced again, and catching sight of his cow I 

 brought it to the ground, standing as I did so within a 

 few feet of my own, which struggled up at the shot, and 

 took my second barrel to keep her down. Three more 

 hunters then came up, attracted by the firing, and finished 

 these two off, and while we were turning them over, and 

 examining the bullet-marks to see whether they had been 

 previously unwounded, one of them, hearing us say that 

 there was a third buffalo standing a little further in, went 

 after it unperceived by us, and the first intimation we had 

 of his having done so was the report of his gun, followed 

 by loud and repeated grunting on the part of the bull, and 

 every evidence of a furious charge having been made. Of 

 course a simultaneous rush was made in the direction, and 

 we found the man knocked down, and rather shaken, but 

 otherwise unhurt. Nothing annoys native hunters so 

 much as one of their number being injured, and the bull 

 was followed with as much haste and noise as if it had 

 been a harmless antelope, the result of which was that he 

 charged us before we saw him, and it was only by luck 

 that one of the half-dozen bullets hurriedly fired at him 

 was successful in stopping him. 



After this we again crossed the river, and commenced 

 to search the opposite bank, Umdumela keeping near the 



