64 Recollections of Adventures 



came near, then I took the trembling wretch with 

 me. Two days later I met some of his tribe and 

 handed him over to them. He told us that he had 

 wandered from a hunting party shortly before I met 

 him. The gang who were going to drown him had 

 just caught him and brought him to the river. My 

 kaffirs said that he was only a " Bapedi " and very 

 thin and not worth troubling about, and I might 

 have let the Matabeli drown him. The fellow him- 

 self seemed rather indifferent about it ; he had been 

 well fed at the wagons and preferred to go on with 

 us but I did not want him, so he returned to the 

 bosom of his family. 



All my spare working oxen and cattle I sent to 

 fatten in the bush-veld in winter. One year Philip 

 Bronkhorst had them at Rooibokfontein under the 

 Swart Rand near the junction of the Eland and 

 Olifant rivers. On my way to Zoutpansberg I 

 called to get some fresh spans and found my cheery 

 old friend, Willem Hans Prinsloo and his son Adrian, 

 and one or two others there. I asked if there 

 was much game as it looked an ideal bit of country. 

 Old Willem, nick-named "Boschbok " said that there 

 was game, but as an " Englishman could'nt shoot, 

 what did it help." He, however, sent Adrian with 

 me to see that I did not get lost in the hills. We 

 soon saw a blaauw wildebeest (Brindled Gnu), 

 which stood gazing at us about four hundred yards 

 away. I aimed at him, but Adrian said " Don't shoot, 

 he is too far ;" as he stood still, I dropped him with a 

 bullet between the eyes. I had then a Pryse and 

 Redman rifle, conical ball, and Adrian was astonished 

 at its accuracy. A little further we came on a herd 

 of pallah and I shot two, with only one shot each. 

 We then left the boys to skin the game and bring 

 the meat into camp. When we arrived, old " Bosch- 



