SECOND EXPEDITION TO EAST AFRICA 207 



had a great respect for a buffalo. Shortly after 

 he entered my service he said to me one day : 

 " How many bullets you shoot buffalo ? " I 

 replied that, if he would get me a good shot, I hoped 

 to be able to do so with one bullet. Tagarru 

 scouted the idea, and said rather scornfully : 

 " Ten bullets/' I said nothing, but when the 

 time came I made good my word. I was hunting 

 one evening, on our way to the Lorian, with my 

 two gun-bearers, and we were returning to camp 

 along the left bank of the river, which was at 

 this point high above the stream, and was free 

 from cover. Both the gun-bearers were a little 

 in advance of me, and they saw a bull-buffalo 

 drinking on the other bank of the stream. They 

 beckoned me, and I had a steady shot with the 

 450 at the buffalo, which was quite unconscious of 

 our presence. He was standing at an acute angle in 

 the water, so that his stern was nearer to me than 

 his head, and to find his heart I was obliged to 

 shoot him in the side ; but I judged well, and the 

 shot inflicted a mortal wound. As I fired, the 

 buffalo galloped off ; and, much to Tagarru's 

 indignation, I did not fire the second barrel. 

 I ought to have fired, as African animals possess 

 wonderful vitality, but I thought that I had shot 

 straight and did not do so. " He will get away/' 

 said Tagarru excitedly in Swahili. " Hapana 

 kwenda [he will not go]," said Saasita, and the 

 confidence which the remark implied was pleasing 

 to me. Saasita was right, and in a few seconds 

 a moaning bellow, which reached us from the other 

 side of the river, showed that the bull was down. 

 In the morning we crossed the river with some of 



