INHUMAN CRUELTY OF MY BOYS. 439 



noon, having come across my spoor and tracked me 

 home. 



I have never in my life seen such quantities of 

 Namaqua partridges as frequent this vley morning and 

 evening they come and go in almost uninterrupted flocks 

 of thousands; while turtle-doves in very nearly equal 

 numbers are also visitors. "With a shot-gun any person 

 might have killed hundreds of these beautiful birds, for 

 they were so tame that they would barely clear my 

 head by more than a few feet, so anxious were they to 

 satisfy their thirst. 



From here we made two trecks through a country 

 more densely wooded than any I had lately passed. As 

 it got dark, when still half a mile from water, one of my 

 oxen, big Buffle, lay down, and would not rise. Be- 

 lieving that a short rest would again put him on his 

 legs, I went forward to examine the trail. When I 

 returned possibly after an absence of half an hour a 

 queer smell, as of burnt meat, pervaded the neighbour- 

 hood. This I discovered was caused by the cruel, un- 

 feeling boys having lit a fire under the poor ox to make 

 him get up. Such torture was of no avail the poor 

 creature could not get up, and consequently had to 

 submit to the inhuman device of its persecutors. Thus 

 it had to be left behind, with the hope that it might be 

 able to be driven on in the morning. During the night 

 the hyaenas and jackals made a great disturbance. As 

 the quarter whence their voices came was that in which 

 poor old Buffle lay, I surmised, and truly, that I 

 should never see him again alive. When I returned at 

 sunrise to bring him up, alas ! nought remained but a 

 very imperfect skeleton to point out where he had lain 

 down. 



