84 MR. GORDON HUMMING. 



with, " There is no news; I heard some lies only," and 

 then tell all they know. 



This spot was Mr. Gordon Cumming's farthest station 

 north. Our house at Kolobeng having been quite in the 

 hunting-country, rhinoceros and buffaloes several times 

 rushed past, and I was able to shoot the latter twice from 

 our own door. We were favored by visits from this famous 

 hunter during each of the five years of his warfare with 

 wild animals. Many English gentlemen following the 

 same pursuits paid their guides and assistants so punc- 

 tually that in making arrangements for them we had to be 

 careful that four did not go where two only were wanted : 

 they knew so well that an Englishman would pay that 

 ihey depended implicitly on his word of honor, and not 

 only would they go and hunt for five or six months in the 

 iiorth, enduring all the hardships of that trying mode of 

 life, with little else but meat of game to subsist on, but 

 they willingly went seven hundred or eight hundred miles 

 to Graham's Town, receiving for wages only a musket 

 worth fifteen shillings. 



No one ever deceived them, except one man ; and, as 1 

 believed that he was afflicted with a slight degree of the 

 insanity of greediness, I upheld the honor of the English 

 name by paying his debts. As the guides of Mr. Cumming 

 were furnished through my influence, and usually got some 

 strict charges as to their behavior before parting, looking 

 upon me in the light of a father, they always came to give 

 me an account of their service, and told most of those 

 hunting-adventures which have since been given to the 

 world, before we had the pleasure of hearing our friend 

 relate them himself by our own fireside. I had thus a tole- 

 rably good opportunity of testing their accuracy, and I 

 have no hesitation in saying that, for those who love that 

 sort of thing, Mr. Cumming's book conveys a truthful idea 

 of South African hunting. Some things in it require ex- 

 planation, but the numbers of animals said to have been 

 met with and killed are by no means improbable, consider- 



