The White Rhinoceros 55 



Chobi Rivers I never even saw the spoor of a white rhinoceros, and the 

 bushmen said there were none left. In July 1884, however, whilst camped 

 near the reed-bed in which the Mababi River loses itself, some natives 

 coming to my camp from their villages a few miles distant came on 

 a white rhinoceros crossing the footpath on its way back to the bush 

 from the water where it had just been drinking. The fact that it came to 

 the water in the middle of the day shows that this animal must have been 

 very thirsty, and had probably come from some vley in the desert country 

 to the south which had lately dried up. I followed its tracks for a long 

 way, but did not come up with it, and never either heard or saw anything 

 of it again. It probably went down the Tamalakan towards the Botletlie, 

 but could not have escaped the bushmen and Masubias — most of whom 

 possessed firearms — for very long. This is the last rhinoceros that I ever 

 heard of in any part of Western South Africa. 



In the country to the north-east of Matabeleland, between the Sebakwe 

 and the Manyami Rivers, white rhinoceroses were still fairly numerous in 

 1878, in which year I one day saw five together, and their numbers only 

 commenced to be seriously reduced after 1880. About that time rhinoceros 

 horns — of all sorts and sizes — increased very much in value, and as ivory 

 had then become very scarce in South Africa, the traders in Matabeleland 

 employed natives to shoot rhinoceroses for the sake of their horns — no 

 matter of what length — and their hides, which were utilised as waggon 

 whips and sjamboks. 



One trader alone supplied 400 Matabele native hunters with guns 

 and ammunition, and between 1880 and 1884 his large store always con- 

 tained great piles of rhinoceros horns, often the spoils of 100 of these 

 animals at one time, although they were constantly being sold to other 

 traders and carried south to Kimberley on their way to England. What 

 caused this sudden demand for short rhinoceros horns from 1880 to 1885 

 I do not know. But this freak of fashion in knife handles, combs, or what 



