^Iarch 6, igog.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
369 
certainlj' a large one. Tlie pool was not deep, 
but there was plenty of nuid. I took plenty of 
time in shooting, as I wanted to be certain, and 
have no more bother than was absolutely neces¬ 
sary. My first shot with a steel bnllet from my 
double .500 was successful. The calf appeared 
bewildered and did not attempt to leave its 
mother and make for the swamp. It was 
rather a piteous si,ght, and I felt much of a 
brute, but it was a necessity to kill the mother 
before attempting to take the calf. 
In Africa, even in pools away from rivers, 
one must always beware of crocodiles, and it 
is not safe to enter any water before taking 
some precautions. A very little noise, splashing 
or a gun shot frightens these animals, at all 
events for a time. I had promised the boys a 
good present if successful, and they simply 
caught the young hippo by superior numbers. 
Naturally it was not dangerous, though pretty 
strong, but they soon had things fixed, and a 
kind of machila or stretcher made, and carried 
him into camp. 
My wishes were gratified, but my troubles had 
just begun. First, there was the question of 
food—milk—and it was necessary to send out 
boys to buj' goats and thus secure a daily sup¬ 
ply of. fresh milk and to take along a traveling 
dairy. The baby hippo soon became reconciled, 
and the amount of food it consumed was 
terrible. We traveled about nine or ten miles 
a day, carrying the brute in the machila, and 
driving along thirty goats, so as to insure a 
sufficient supply of food. 
It was now quite tame, and I thought I had 
a small fortune for myself or a menagerie, if I 
could get him as far as Buluwayo. At one 
time I even had visions of Johannesburg, and 
of starting up a show of my own, charging a 
shilling entrance to view the wonderful hippo, 
brought all the way from Central Africa, but I 
was doomed to disappointment. Dysentery, 
that scourge which I have found so hard to 
combat in all young wild animals, commenced, 
and in two days he was dead, and we were 
then only about forty miles from Victoria Falls, 
where our troubles, as far as portage was con¬ 
cerned. would have ended. It did not turn out 
a profitable investment for me. I sold the 
goats, paid off the boys and made the best of it; 
but I do not think I shall ever again try a 
young hippo. There are more profitable ways 
of making money, with a smaller amount of 
risk. 
I made my way to Livingstone, where I 
bought a couple of horses and picked up some 
dogs that I had brought out from England; 
two Airedales and two deerhounds. I was pre¬ 
vented from taking them across the Zambesi 
and thus up country for fear that I might in¬ 
troduce rabies into the country. This idea of 
importing rabies from England into Africa— 
a country which is absolutely infested with 
rabies—seemed to me rather quaint, and I made 
my way back by easy stages to Karinga’s Kraal. 
Karinga was an old friend of mine, and a real 
good negro. I have always found him will¬ 
ing to help one. and devoted to sporj. In 
his time he had been a great hunter, killing- 
numbers of elephants, not with a modern high- 
pressure rifle, but with a Martini rifle and a 
lead bullet. If he wounded an animal, he fol¬ 
lowed it up until he got it, even if it took two 
or three days. 
Some years before, I.ewanika, the king of the 
Barotse, was a little afraid that a rebellion 
would take place, and certain chiefs had told 
him that Karinga intended trying to make away 
with him and take the throne. Lewanika there¬ 
fore tried to capture Karinga and put him out 
of the way, but he made his escape into the bush 
country, where he remained ab«)ut four years, 
practically an outlaw. While hiding, he killed 
some elephants, and then a bright idea occurred 
to him. Ffe would return to Lealin, where 
Lewanika lived, and report himself, at the same 
time presenting him with the ivory, wdiich he 
did. 
When Lew'anika saw him, he asked him wdiere 
he had been, and Karinga answered: 
“Certain people told lies about me. and said 
I w'as trying to kill you and take your throne. 
They do not speak the truth. I go out and 
kill elephants and bring you the ivory. What 
have they done for you?” 
Karinga is a very smart old man. and his 
story and gifts of ivory had the hoped for 
effect, for Lewanika not only made him his 
head chief, but degraded the others. The old 
man used to come and yarn to me by the hour, 
all the time looking for a drink of whiskey and 
some tobacco, and then he was my devoted 
friend for life. 
Once Karinga tackled a lion single-handed 
with a spear. The lion had killed an ox and the 
herders ran into the kraal with the news; you 
must realize in Central Africa natives are not 
allow^ed firearms, unless for special purposes. 
The only weapon Karinga had was a spear, and 
with that he w^ent out and not only tackled the 
lion, but killed it. He w'as very fond of telling 
this story. His place was a first-rate center for 
game, especially sable and roan antelope, and 
many a fine head of both species I got within 
easy ride of his kraal. 
Here I did my best to enter the Airdales to 
game. I wounded a reed buck and got them 
after it. but they did not really seem a bit keen. 
One day I got them after pigs, and they not 
only ran them well, but w'ent to earth, and the 
old dog came out wdth a severe gash in his 
neck, and it’s a w'onder it did not finish him 
altogether. 
I stayed here for a few days, trying for lions, 
of wdiich there were a good number about, their 
sign being plentiful. Although my boy John 
saw' a fine male—of course wdien I w'as not 
w'ith him—I had no luck, and so moved my 
camp some ten miles north to a branch of the 
Zambesi, on either bank of which there is fine 
shooting. I found four Dutchmen camped near 
my camp. Their oxen were thin, having been 
worked hard freighting, and they had brought 
them here to rest and fatten up, while they en¬ 
joyed a bit of hunting and dried some biltong. 
One of their party had a greyhound, and it was 
the first and only greyhound I have ever seen 
tackle a lion, and although the incident ended 
with the mauling and subsequent death of one 
of the men, it was not the fault of the dog. for 
a more fearless animal I have never seen. 
My relations with the majority of the Dutch¬ 
men were amicable, but I had had trouble some 
months previously with one outfit which had 
very nearly turned out disastrously for me, for 
I almost lost my left eye by a cut from a 
sjambok. This occurred while on government 
service, wdien the bitter feeling engendered by 
the w'ar was by no means forgotten, and al¬ 
though I was always civil to them, I never 
mixed with them more than w'as necessary, 
I was lying on my bed in my tent about 2 
o’clock in the afternoon, wdien my boy ran in 
and told me that a troop of lions were among 
the Dutchmen’s cattle, and had already killed 
two. Naturally I turned out as quickly as pos¬ 
sible to assist. By the time I had galloped to 
their camp, they had all left, but I heard some 
shots, and it is a wonder they did not shoot 
one another. There w'ere lions, Dutchmen and 
dogs all mixed up together; the cattle had 
stampeded. There was no system or order, and 
they W'ere shooting indiscriminately at anything, 
killing cubs w’ithout shooting the lioness first. 
What might have been expected happened. A 
lioness, whose cub they had shot, charged. The 
Dutchman had not time to reload before she 
was on him and had knocked him over before 
it was possible to help. Of course, it is hard 
to describe these things, they happen so in¬ 
stantaneously. But before any one could shoot, 
she W'as on him. mauling him. The greyhound 
tackled her and pulled her off, and she turned 
on the dog. I and another man fired, and al¬ 
though both gave her fatal shots, she had life 
enough to get back to the Dutchman, and they 
fought together. It was impossible to shoot, 
for fear of hitting him. All the time they w'ere 
struggling together he was shouting out, “Skit! 
skit!” (shoot! shoot!). 
My Matabele boy ran in and seized the lioness 
W'ith his left hand and shot her through the 
head with my pistol. The whole thing did not 
occupy more than two minutes. On examining 
his wounds, I immediately said that they were 
fatal. She had bitten him in the stomach, and 
he died in the greatest agony some two hours 
later. 
A lion is a fearful animal. Do not run aw’ay 
W'ith the idea that he is not dangerous. You 
may have luck to kill tw'enty, but No. 21 w'il! 
likely get you. Flowever careful and good a 
shot you may be, there is the greatest danger 
in tackling lion, more especially when there are 
several. I remember Col. H.—who had lived 
in Africa for nine years, and during that time 
had never seen a lion, and the first one he saw 
he w'ounded and got badly mauled by—saying 
to me, “Here, J., you have only been here six¬ 
teen months and have killed five lions. Chuck 
it, man, while you are in luck. They are bound 
to get you if you go on hunting them.” 
This applies to all dangerous game: Never, 
on any account, take chances, or give a chance 
away. However eager you may be, do not in 
your excitement lose your self-control. You 
must bear in mind that the game you are 
follow'ing is fighting for its life with all its 
savage natural instincts, and whenever a chance 
presents itself, it w'ill take advantage of it. You 
must also not forget that a wound or scratch 
from a lion or leopard is very dangerous. Their 
teeth and claw'S are full of poisonous matter, 
W'hich. if the wound is not promptly and very 
carefully attended to, will result in blood poison¬ 
ing and cause at least aniputation of the limb, 
if not death. 
Out of the nine, we killed one lion, one 
lioness and two cubs, and another lioness got 
away badly w'Ounded. I subsequently got two 
lions here, a male and a female, w'hich evidently 
belonged to this lot. 
