Chap. VU. MR. GORDON CUMMING. 1UL : 



his guides were furnished through my influence, and after 

 wards told me most of those adventures which have since 

 been given to the world, I had a tolerably good opportunity 

 of testing their accuracy, and I have no hesitation in .saying 

 that his book conveys a truthful idea of South African 

 hunting. The native guides learnt to depend implicitly on 

 the word of an Englishman for the subsequent payment for 

 their services, and they gladly went for five or six months 

 to the north, enduring all the hardships of a very trying 

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

 — nay, the} r willingly travelled seven or eight hundred 

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

 worth fifteen shillings. Only one man ever deceived them ; 

 and as I believed that he was afflicted with greediness to a 

 slight degree of insanity, I upheld the honour of the English 

 name by paying his debts. 



The statement of Mr. Cumming as to the number of animals 

 he killed is by no means improbable when we consider the 

 amount of large game which was then in the country. Two 

 other gentlemen in the same region destroyed no fewer 

 than seventy-eight rhinoceroses in a single season. The guns 

 introduced among the tribes cause these fine animals to melt 

 away like snow in spring. In the more remote districts, where 

 firearms have not yet penetrated, the game, with the single 

 exception of the rhinoceros, is to be found in quantities much 

 greater than Mr. Cumming ever saw. The tsetse is, how- 

 ever, an insuperable barrier to hunting with horses, and 

 Europeans can do nothing on foot. Even with the aid of a 

 steed the sport partakes too much of the fearful. The step of 

 the elephant when he charges is so long that, though appa- 

 rently not quick, the pace equals the speed of a good nag at a 

 canter. His scream, or trumpeting, when infuriated, will 

 sometimes paralyze the horse that is unused to it ; the animal 

 stands shivering instead of taking his master out of danger. 

 It not unfrequently happens that the poor creature's legs do 

 their duty so badly that he falls and exposes his rider to be 

 trodden into a mummy ; or the rider may lose his presence oi 

 mind, and crack his cranium against a branch by allowing the 

 horse to dash under a tree. 



Advancing to some wells beyond Letloche, at a spot named 



