118 ABVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



by sea and land, and is at the moment that I write 

 brandishing in the Highlands of Scotland an imitation 

 of a Cape wagon-whip which he has constructed, and 

 calling out with stentorian lungs the names of the oxen 

 composing the team which he, at a subsequent period, 

 drove when he alone stood by me, all my followers 

 having forsaken me in the far interior. 



In the afternoon I saddled up, and started with my 

 two after-riders and a spare horse, with the intention 

 of sleeping in the oryx country, and hunting next day. 

 We rode north through sandy plains and hollows on 

 which large herds of gnoos and springboks were graz- 

 ing. Just as the sun descended we started a fine old 

 buU ory^. We discovered him in a bushy hollow; 

 after a sharp burst Cobus managed to turn him, when, 

 by heading him, I got within range, and finished him 

 with a couple of shots. It was now dark ; having off"- 

 saddled our horses, we knee-haltered them, and allow- 

 ed them to graze for an hour ; after which, having se- 

 cured them to a neighboring bush, we lay down to 

 sleep on the hard ground. My pillow was the neck 

 of the old bull ; the jackals sang his coronach. On the 

 13th I shot a fine old steinbok, and on nearing my en- 

 campment I discovered two different vleys containing 

 water. Upon reaching my camp I found a funny lit- 

 tle fellow in the shape of the Bushboy before alluded to 

 awaiting my arrival. My Hottentots had detected his 

 black, woolly head protruding irom the reeds adjoining 

 the fountain, and had captured him. I presented him 

 with a suit of new clothes and a glass of spirits, and 

 we immediately became and have ever since continued 

 the best of friends. He informed me that, when a child, 

 he was taken by a party of Dutch Boers at a massacre 

 of his countrymen, and from these he had subsequently 



