528 CHARGE OF A BUFFALO. 



proclaimed. The Mambowe hunters were much alarmed until my 

 name was mentioned. They then joined our party, and on the 

 following day discovered a hippopotamus dead, which they had 

 previously wounded. This was the first feast of flesh my men 

 had enjoyed, for, though the game was wonderfully abundant, I 

 had quite got out of the way of shooting, and missed perpetually. 

 Once I went with the determination of getting so close that I should 

 not miss a zebra. We went along one of the branches that stretch 

 out from the river in a small canoe, and two men, stooping down 

 as low as they could, paddled it slowly along to an open space 

 near to a herd of zebras and pokus. Peering over the edge of the 

 canoe, the open space seemed like a patch of wet ground, such as 

 is often seen on the banks of a river, made smooth as the resting- 

 place of alligators. When we came within a few yards of it, we 

 found by the precipitate plunging of the reptile that this was a 

 large alligator itself. Although I had been most careful to approach 

 near enough, I unfortunately only broke the hind leg of a zebra. 

 My two men pursued it, but the loss of a hind leg does not prevent 

 this animal from a gallop. As I walked slowly after the men on 

 an extensive plain covered with a great crop of grass, which was 

 laid by its own weight, I observed that a solitary buffalo, disturbed 

 by others of my own party, was coming to me at a gallop. I 

 glanced around, but the only tree on the plain was a hundred 

 yards off, and there was no escape elsewhere. I therefore cocked 

 my rifle, with the intention of giving him a steady shot in the 

 forehead when he should come within three or four yards of me. 

 The thought flashed across my mind, "What if your gun misses 

 fire?" I placed it to my shoulder as he came on at full speed, 

 and that is tremendous, though generally he is a lumbering-looking 

 animal in his paces. A small bush and bunch of grass fifteen 

 yards off made him swerve a little, and exposed his shoulder. 

 I just heard the ball crack there as I fell flat on my face. The 

 pain must have made him renounce his purpose, for he bounded 

 close past me on to the water, where he was found dead. In 

 expressing my thankfulness to God among my men, they were 

 much offended with themselves for not being present to shield me 

 from this danger. The tree near me was a camel-thorn, and re- 

 minded me that we had come back to the land of thorns again, fox 

 the country we had left is one of evergreens. 



