72 SPEELMAN SHOOTS TWO RHINOCEROSES:— 7 March, 
from the plain in which we now were, only by a low range of hills. 
Speelman himself came forward immediately to give me an account 
of all his feats ; and was, in his manners, so animated and lively, 
that he might have been ascribed to any tribe rather than to that of 
the Colonial Hottentots. As the hunting of a rhinoceros is attended 
with danger, he certainly had some reason to be proud, when he had 
in one day killed two of these formidable animals. 
His account of the affair was, that when they came to the place 
where the Bushmen expected to find them, the animals had changed 
their ground ; but, that it was not long before they discovered no 
fewer than four, feeding quietly on the bushes in another part of the 
plain. They advanced towards the creatures, at various distances, 
according to each man's courage, but Speelman came the first within 
shot, and wounded one mortally. The other people coming up, fired 
till it had received seven balls ; when it fell dead. He then went in 
pursuit of the other animals, which had fled over the hills ; and having 
discovered one in the middle of the open plain, approached for- 
tunately unperceived, and brought it down with a single ball : nor 
did he fail with exultation to remark, that he had on that day fired 
off his gun but twice, and at each time had killed a rhinoceros. 
This was not the first rhinoceros which Speelman had shot in the 
course of his life, and to prove his knowledge of these animals, and 
to save me the trouble of asking him questions, he voluntarily 
communicated all that he had learnt by his own experience. 
Their smelly said he, is so keen and nice, that they know, even at a 
great distance, whether any man be coming towards them ; and on 
the first suspicion of this, take to flight. Therefore it is only by 
approaching them against the wind, or from the leeward, that the 
hunter can ever expect to get within musket shot. Yet in doing this, 
he must move silently and cautiously, so as not to make the least noise 
in the bushes, as he passes through them ; otherwise their hearing 
is so exceedingly quick, that they would instantly take alarm and 
move far away to some more undisturbed spot. But the dangerous 
part of the business is, that when they are thus disturbed, they 
sometimes become furious and take it into their head to pursue their 
