NELSON'S ADVENTURES. 81 



he ever saw. He has seen an elephant with four 

 tusks, and a Boer he speaks of shot one with eight ; 

 one of 70 lbs., the others of about 2 lbs. each. 



" When Nelson was a young boy, his father, 

 trading near Sechele's, being at feud with the mis- 

 sionary there, who had surrounded his waggon with 

 forty Kaffirs and incited them to seize his goods, he 

 determined to blow them up ; but, in applying the 

 light to the inside of the waggon, where was a lot 

 of gunpowder, he was not quite quick enough, and 

 was himself blown up with the missionary and the 

 Kaffirs. Nelson himself lay many hours on the 

 ground insensible, much scorched. He had been 

 standing close to the front wheel ; his father was on 

 the front -box. Nelson must have escaped thus 

 lightly almost by a miracle. When he came to 

 himself he saw the wreck, his father and the Kaffirs 

 lying dead, and was pursued and fired at by Kaffirs. 

 The bullets passed close to him, and the Kaffirs 

 pursued but could not catch him. He has still 

 scars on his legs, made in passing through the 

 thorns, and one on his face, caused by the explosion. 

 He spent three days wandering in the veldt without 

 food, but, it being the rainy season, he had water, 

 and on the fourth day he came to a waggon. 1 



1 The particulars of this story, which is founded upon fact, appear 

 to have been misrepresented by Nelson, whose father was in reality 

 about to be arrested at the instance of a missionary on a charge of 

 much gravity, when apparently in desperation he committed the act 

 above referred to, resulting, as stated, in his own death, besides that 

 of the missionary and several natives. An account of this unhappy 

 incident is given in the recently published (1885) 'Lives of Robert 

 and Mary Moffat,' pp. 359-361. 



