SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 4t 
and the buffalues, in large herds—springbucks, hartebeests, 
gnus, &c., filling in the picture ; together there could not 
have been fewer than 3,000. I shot a couple of buffaloes 
_ for the camp. and then inspanning passed ahead towards the 
ridge of low hills, fifteen miles beyond, and running east 
and west; they told of a coming change of scenery, and 
_ the next day we stood on the top of them—to the south 
_ 60c miles of rolling plain, very similar to that immediately 
below, lay between us and the southern sea; but to the 
north the scene was changed, the well-wooded and watered 
| valley of the Ba-Katla, a broken country full of game, was 
stretched out before us—in those days a hunter’s paradise. 
_ For the first time tracks of rhinoceros, giraffe, and other 
_ unknown creatures were abundant, and we longed to cultivate 
_ the closest relations with them. 
3 Without any just cause I thought myself a better sportsman 
_ than my companion, and determined to seek my game alone, in 
_ the hope that I might be the first to baga rhinoceros. All 
_ day long I followed, with an attendant Hottentot, a trail 
_ of one of these animals, neglecting inferior game, but my 
_ experience in African woodcraft was small then, and I believe 
_ now that the spoor may have been a week old. At last, tired 
- and disgusted with my want of success in not coming up with 
the object of my search, I shot an antelope, and returned rather 
earlier than usual to the waggons, which had been ordered to 
outspan under the range of hills. It was still daylight when 
I reached them, and there sat my friend Murray, quiet, cool and 
calm, very calm indeed. He greeted me with a nod anda 
smile, and asked me what Ihad killed? ‘A buck,’ I answered. 
‘He said nothing, but kept on smiling serenely. Presently I 
noticed a group of Kafirs sitting round their fire, and eating 
as only Kafirs can eat. ‘What are those brutes gorging them- 
‘selves with ?’ I asked my quiet friend. ‘Oh, only some of 
the rhinoceroses I shot this afternoon.’ I noted the plural, 
the iron entered into my soul, but I merely said: ‘Ah! 
indeed '’ in an easy nonchalant way I flattered myself, as if 
