422 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
confidence in Boccas, whom I started three weeks 
ago, with the strictest injunctions to let me know the 
cause of the delay without a moment’s loss of time, 
and he had my favourite and best horse, Batwing. If 
the Mosilikatse’s Kaffirs, or any others, have made 
an end of my Kaffirs and men left in charge, my 
losses will amount in all to 500/. ; wagon, oxen, 
stores, guns, horse, and 500 lbs. of ivory that I 
know of, besides probably much more, and some of 
the finest heads and horns, of different sorts, of the 
rarest antelopes I ever saw. We have been particu¬ 
larly fortunate this year, and shot an incredible 
number, over 400 head, I think. I left meal, sugar, 
and dried fruits, also behind, and am myself totally 
without anything of the sort. I am positively in rags, 
and my flesh resembles boiled lobster more than 
anything else, being literally roasted with the sun. 
The pain is very great, and all for want of a needle. 
I had four in my hat on leaving the wagon, but they 
have all got lost; I might have saved the life of an 
ox or two, had I only had a couple of pins. I bled 
one, and tried to take up the vein with a thorn in 
lieu of a pin, but it broke in the night, the vein 
burst open again and the ox bled to death, and I 
have been afraid to venture a second time. What 
riles me most is, that the other wagon had more 
than enough of all these requisites; but I have not 
yet quite lost all hope of its turning up some day 
or other. 
The days are so intensely hot, that it is impossible 
