100 
THE NEW AFRICA 
with its tick-tick. On the gun-stock was scratched a message 
to Selous that French was dying of thirst through no error 
of his boys, and that he begged Selous to sell his effects, and 
with the proceeds pay his servants their wages, and dismiss 
them when he got back to Mongwato. 
Selous made several attempts to find the body, but failed to 
get any sign of it in the dreary sand-belts; and French’s boys, 
who had got much bewildered in their devious wanderings, 
could not be sure of the spot where he died. Deeply moved at 
his companion’s untimely death, Selous gave up the hunt and 
returned to Mongwato. 
Jan Yeyers also related how, when returning from an ele¬ 
phant hunt, several of his boys died of thirst, having taken 
the wrong road home, and missed the only pan of water on the 
line. The survivors threw away the ivory they carried, and 
came home, luckily having found a bush of red berries, that 
sustained them until they arrived at Panda Matenga. This was 
in October, the most trying and dreaded month of the year, 
when all the moisture had been sucked up from the soil by the 
scorching rays of the sun through a cloudless sky, and the early 
summer rains had not yet set in. 
During the night several laughing hyaenas disturbed us by 
their fiendish noise, so much resembling a human laugh with 
the merriment cut out of it. They were probably attracted by 
our goats and donkeys, as were some lions, whose muttered 
growls, occasionally bursting into roars, gave us good cause to 
keep the fires well alight till dawn of day. 
Early next morning I discovered a large pan of water three 
miles ahead, to which we moved our camp, going no further 
that day, as it was Sunday. 
The insatiable maws of our bearers requiring nourishment, 
I started off, taking three of my best boys with me, and went 
in search of game, and soon came upon an enormous herd of 
buffalo, who, getting our wind, were off into the bush-grown 
plains before I could get at them. Affronttir, the Hottentot, 
took up the track in front of me ; while I, running behind him, 
