fine nigger, but a terror to drink, and always in trouble. 

 He fairly wore me right out." 



We were generally a party of half a dozen the 

 owners of the four waggons, a couple of friends trading 

 with Delagoa, a man from Swaziland, and just then 

 an old Yankee hunter-prospector. It was our 

 holiday time, before the hard work with loads would 

 commence, and we dawdled along feeding up the 

 cattle and taking it easy ourselves. 



It was too early for loads in the Bay, so we moved 

 slowly and hunted on the way, sometimes camping for 

 several days in places where grass and water were good ; 

 and that lion skin was the cause of many disappoint- 

 ments to me. Never a bush or ant-heap, never a 

 donga or a patch of reeds, did I pass for many days 

 after that without the conviction that something was 

 lurking there. Game there was in plenty, no doubt, 

 but it did not come my way. Days went by with, 

 once or twice, the sight of some small buck just as 

 it disappeared, and many times, the noise of something 

 in the bush or the sound of galloping feet. Others 

 brought their contributions to the pot daily, and there 

 seemed to be no reason in the world why I alone should 

 fail no reason except sheer bad luck ! It is difficult 

 to believe you have made mistakes when you do 

 not know enough to recognise them, and have no 

 idea of the extent of your own ignorance ; and then 

 bad luck is such an easy and such a flattering 

 explanation ! If I did not go so far on the easy 



v road of excuse-making as to put all the failures 



24 



