354 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
and bandaged him up the best way we could, and 
he is now not much the worse. I have, in all, now 
sixty oxen, worth a good sum of money, as I could 
make four or five spans of as good and well-matched 
oxen as ever stepped before a tail, and I am now 
becoming a little o«£-proud, and take great interest in 
them. 
I had myself two narrow escapes at different times 
in crossing the Tugela. I was just recovering from 
fever, when some of the party proposed a swim, and 
we went down ; just before going in, I felt as if I was 
about to have an attack of ague, but I foolishly 
persisted. I had reached within twenty-five yards of 
the opposite bank, when I got into some back water 
and a strong stream, and could not make any more 
headway, and was getting very weak and exhausted. 
My companion, who had landed, called to me to go 
back, but I was much too exhausted to make the 
attempt. I was gradually getting farther off the 
bank, the back water and stream running round a 
bend, and should certainly not have made a landing, 
when a powerful Kaffir, who had previously 
challenged me to a race across the river, the head 
man of a blacksmith, came up, put his hand under 
my shoulder-blade, and forced me through the 
stream with the greatest apparent ease. He did not 
know that I was in such a fix as I really was, and a 
couple of pounds of tobacco delighted him im¬ 
mensely. 
I was crossing once, on horseback, when the river 
