OUR DONKEYS STRIKE 
87 
fire consuming the forest and long grass in our vicinity. Occa¬ 
sionally a grand crash would for the moment out-echo the 
crackling and hissing of the ordinary fire as some mighty forest 
monarch, whose trunk had been demolished by the insidious 
enemy, crashed earthwards, sending a cloud of sparks and flame 
high into the murky night, illumined in the background by 
columns of fiery smoke. Hastily securing ourselves by burning 
the grass in a circle round the camp wide enough to prevent the 
lapping flames from reaching across, we listened to the awful 
concert till weariness asserting its claims, we slept. This night 
the lions, who had hitherto kept aloof, probably scared by the 
size of our caravan, roared loud and long as if in protest against 
our appropriating the quagga we had robbed them of, much 
upsetting the stragglers about the camp, who came running in 
without ceremony. 
While wandering In the Sunta swamp I came across a place 
that could be crossed, not more than three feet deep, with two 
nasty boggy holes in the crossing, and to this we made our way 
on the 14th of July, and crossed over. A donkey will not cross 
a muddy drift, and ours simply lay down in the mud, compelling 
us to drag them out of the mud-holes and haul them over the 
reeds on their sides through the bog, 300 yards wide, often 
sinking down with only their heads above water, while we sub¬ 
sided to our waists in the frothy fluid in our efforts to get them 
over. At last, on the other side, they rose with aggravating cool¬ 
ness, and started grazing with a * who-would-have-thought-it ? ’ 
kind of air about them, distinctly annoying. Considering, how¬ 
ever, that the patient beasts each transported about 150 lbs. 
weight of our valuable ammunition, we always treated them with 
great care, and even as pets. 
It is very amusing to watch a troop of goats in a difficult 
position, such as this was. Instinctively they follow the column 
wherever it goes, never straying, as if conscious that their safety 
lies in their close proximity to man. One after another they 
boldly took to the swamp after the first of us had trodden down 
the reeds, and bleating, often with nothing but their little heads 
