Chap. XXIV. 
CHAEGE OF A BUFFALO. 
491 
proclaimed. Tlie Mambowe hunters were much alarmed until my 
name was mentioned. They then joined our party, and on the 
following day discovered a hippopotamus dead, which they had 
previously wounded. This was the first feast of flesh my men had 
enjoyed, for, though the game was wonderfully abundant, I had 
quite got out of the way of shooting, and missed perpetually. Once 
I went with the determination of getting so close that I should not 
miss a zebra. We went along one of the branches that stretch out 
from the river, in a small canoe, and two men, stooping down as 
low as they could, paddled it slowly along to an open space near 
to a herd of zebras and pokus. Peering over the edge of the 
canoe, the open space seemed lilie a patch of wet ground, such as 
is often seen on the banks of a river, made smooth as the resting- 
place of alligators. When we came witliin a few yards of it, we 
found by the precipitate plunging of the reptile, that this was a 
large alhgator itself. Although I had been most careful to 
approach near enough, I unfortunately only broke the hind leg 
of a zebra. My two men pursued it, but the loss of a hind leg 
does not prevent this animal from a gallop. As I walked slowly 
after the men on an extensive plain covered with a great crop of 
grass, which was laid by its own weight, I observed that a sohtary 
buffalo, distobed by others of my own party, was coming to me 
at a gallop. I glanced around, but the only tree on the plain 
was a hundred yards off, and there was no escape elsewhere. I 
therefore cocked my rifle, with the intention of giving him a 
steady shot in the forehead, when he should come within three or 
four yards of me. The thought flashed across my mind, What 
if your gun misses fire ?” I placed it to my shoulder as he came 
on at full speed, and that is tremendous, though generally he is 
a lumbering-looking animal in his paces. A small bush, and 
bunch of grass fifteen yards off, made him swerve a httle, and 
exposed his shoulder. I just heard the ball crack there, as I fell 
flat on my face. The pain must have made him renounce his 
purpose, for he bounded close past me on to the water, where he 
was found dead. In expressing my thankfulness to God among 
my men, they were much offended with themselves for not being 
present to shield me from this danger. The tree near me was a 
camel-thorn, and reminded me that we had come back to the land 
of thorns again, for the country we had left is one of evergreens. 
