380 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
but was not fortunate enough to find any. I found 
a vley in the heart of the bush, where immense troops 
of buffaloes drank, and at least twenty different paths 
of rhinoceros, &c., leading up to it, and should much 
have liked to watch the water, but the wagons were 
far ahead, and I reluctantly followed on, or else I 
might have had great sport. 
1C )th [Sunday ).—I missed a day somehow or other; 
at least, I was a day beforehand, as I found out by 
the moon. For the last eight days I have come on 
well, crossing the Meea, which was dry, as I 
mentioned above ; the Qualeba, which had three or 
four water-holes at the source, the rest being dry ; 
the Chonain, about forty yards wide, also dry ; the 
Simvain, the same width, of brackish water on the sur¬ 
face ; and I now write this on the banks of the Shua, 
where there is plenty of good water. The country is 
very dry. The Masaras say they have had no rain 
here. The leaves are all fast falling off the trees, and 
everything is dreary and desolate. There is plenty of 
rhinoceros spoor, but we have not found them, as 
they stand so far off from the water. I have shot a 
giraffe and eland, only for food, and last night a 
splendid old manikin ostrich, in full feather. A 
Bequina, a runaway from one of the Boers, joined 
me yesterday, and describes the country in front as 
totally without water or game of any description, 
and the Boers are all treking home; but I place no 
reliance on his statement, and think it is only a ruse 
on his part to induce me to return. The Boers say 
