CHAP. i. BUFFALO. 53 



cess as a hunter. In point of fact he used to do what no 

 European, nor, indeed, any one to whom life had any 

 value, would care to do namely, to hunt and kill all the 

 dangerous game without better arms than a few spears, a 

 sorry weapon to depend upon to turn a charging buffalo. 



A book might be filled with his hairbreadth escapes and 

 other hunting anecdotes that I have heard him tell, and on 

 this occasion, on which he* cannot be said to have escaped 

 with anything but life, he was hunting, as he generally did, 

 with only two or three dogs for companions. After follow- 

 ing the spoor of a herd of buffalo for some time, he succeeded 

 in crawling up very near, and in severely wounding one 

 which was on the ground, and in planting another spear in 

 it as it rose, and, after a chase of a mile or more, his dogs 



' ' * ^5 



brought it to bay in a small open surrounded by thorn- 

 trees, of which the native took advantage to endeavour to 

 approach within the distance at which he could effectually 

 hurl his spear. Unluckily, however, the buffalo saw him, 

 and as is usual when baited with dogs, it at once left them 

 and charged their master, who, throwing his spear into it, 

 turned and made for the nearest tree, but, his foot slipping, 

 was at once overtaken and tossed, the horn of the enraged 

 animal striking him on the thigh. As he descended it 

 again caught him, this time stabbing him in the side and 

 tossing him so far forward that he fell on a thorn-tree, a 

 broken stump of one of the branches of which caught in 

 the wound in his thigh, and held him dangling there for 

 several minutes, which, though the saving of his life, must 

 have seemed an age to him as he swung about head down- 

 wards. The buffalo, missing its victim and constantly 

 baited by the dogs, in the meanwhile moved its position, 



