1^2 A Breath from the Veldt 



the denseness of the thorns was so great that we had to creep on hands and 

 knees to get through most of it, regardless of the awful little hooks and daggers 

 with which the ground was carpeted. However, just as we were about to 

 give it up for the night, for the sun was now setting, we stumbled across her 

 spoor doubling back in a spot that had several times puzzled us. Here after 

 some trouble we found her lying within 200 yards of my cow ; so all three 

 animals were, after all, close together. It was late when the beasts were 

 grallocked, and would have been later still had not Tace unexpectedly turned 

 up and lent us a hand in cleaning and covering the carcases for the night, to 

 keep off hyaenas, lions, and vultures. 



We were all pretty tired, but jolly, that night at supper, and spent the 

 whole of the next day in getting the animals home. A perfect crowd of 

 vultures rose from one of the koodoo cows as we approached, showing plainly 

 that some animal had been at work at one of the carcases. This proved to 

 have been two hyaenas, which had eaten half of Oom's cow, whilst the vultures 

 had finished the rest ; so there was little left to carry away. The other two 

 beasts were untouched ; but we were, I fancy, only just in time to secure them, 

 for the large number of vultures in the air had attracted other visitors to the 

 scene of the previous day's sport. Just as Oom and I arrived (for we had come 

 on foot, and the day was sweltering) a party of natives suddenly appeared. 

 There were about twelve of them, all splendid men, some being strikingly 

 handsome and well armed. Oom said they were " Kail Kaffirs," the Dutch 

 appellation for Matabele. He was evidently right, for more overbearing or 

 objectionable black men I never met. This was just about the beginning of 

 the Matabele row ; and as we had all been warned against these people, we 

 thought it best to adopt conciliatory measures by appealing to their stomachs. 

 Without much ado they told us we must trek and go back to the Transvaal, as 

 the Matabele intended to clear every white man out of Mashonaland during 

 the following six months. I have not a doubt it was these brutes who came 

 a few nights later and murdered six poor defenceless Basutos within a few 

 hundred yards of Frau Van Staden's camp, at the same time making things so 

 hot for her that she was glad to get clear with her sons back into Transvaal. 



The day after our leaving Gong a war-party of slave-hunting Matabele 

 came there and drove out five hunters who were following immediately behind 

 us ; so we were really lucky to get away to the east as we did. A few weeks 

 later the whole of this country was in a ferment, and what happened on the 

 breakmg out of war is now generally known. It was a war that was bound to 



