404 
AFEICAN HUNTING. 
have done the last fortnight; I have been five conse¬ 
cutive days in the saddle, without finding elephants. 
I am now three days on my road back again—a weary, 
long journey, without water so far, and I shall be 
obliged to wait for rain before I can get out; besides 
which, the velt is now full of a poisonous herb, 
which is certain death in a few hours to oxen, so 
that we are obliged to be most cautious. Painter 
was left behind yesterday for dead ; thirst and the in¬ 
tense heat of the sun had, to all appearance, finished 
him; but, to my amazement, he turned up again this 
morning, having found his way in the night to our 
old outspanning place. 
The best of my stud, Ferus, yesterday got despe¬ 
rately staked in the breast. A wounded buffalo, which 
I was trying to drive towards the wagon-spoor, 
charged me most savagely, and none other but Ferus 
could have brought me safely out. It was a near 
thing for about one hundred yards, and when she was 
not two yards from my horse’s tail, taking advantage 
of an opening in the bush, I wheeled half round in 
the saddle, and gave her a bullet through her right 
ear and grazed the top of her back, without, how¬ 
ever, doing her any harm ; but she shortly gave up 
the chase, when I reloaded, dismounted, and shot her 
through the lungs dead. It was amongst hack-thorns, 
and my clothes were completely torn off my body. We 
had not a bite of anything at all at the wagon, and 
no near probability of getting anything, therefore I 
was rash, as a buffalo is a beast you cannot drive. 
