28 
In the Heart of Africa 
Askari. One fellow, named Amdalla, and an Ombascha* one 
of whom had witnessed the incident, were intrepid enough to 
follow up the trail in the water, which reached to their hips, and 
into the almost impenetrable bog-grass thicket, expecting every 
moment to come within arm’s length of the wounded and bleeding 
beast. Being aware of the aimlessness of this proceeding, I 
stopped the pursuit, but it cost me considerable trouble to 
dissuade the men from their dangerous resolve. I have no doubt 
but that the lion, exhausted by loss of blood, met his death 
in the river. 
Dusk had already set in when we started to return, and 
the night soon enwrapped us. We missed Schubotz, who, we 
understood, had crossed over to the other bank of the river 
with his Askari and a few men to follow up a herd of equine 
antelopes. There was nothing unusual in this, but as the hands 
of the clock pointed to nine, and we still waited in vain, we fired 
off a rocket as a signal to him. We followed this up with 
further rockets, and also discharged our rifles, but no reply came 
back. 
As Schubotz’s continued absence created some uneasiness, an 
Askari patrol was sent out in the most probable direction. At 
last we heard voices in the distance, and saw a flashing of 
lanterns, which we took to be those of the Askari. It was some 
time, however, before we heard the splashing of water betokening 
the return of the missing men. 
Schubotz had been overtaken by nightfall whilst in pursuit of 
his game, and had lost his bearings in the darkness. Time after 
time he came to one of the windings of the Kakitumbe, and was 
misled thereby. At the end, too, he and his mule fell into a deep 
pitfall. Both were got out without injury, but the mule had 
stuck so fast in the bottom of the pit that the ground had to be 
dug up all round before its legs could be released. 
As it was quite apparent that a better place than Kalangassa 
could scarcely be found for zoological research, we marched back 
there the next morning to take up our quarters. We pitched our 
* Ombascha, corporal in the colonial force. 
