52 
Well do I recall the avidity with which, in the days of my boyhood, I devoured Le Vaillant’s picturesque and eloquent 
account of his first success in the chase of the Giraffe, at a period when men had long doubted of its existence; and many 
a time has my own bosom since leapt to the very emotions he describes. The appearance of a troop of those antediluyian 
figures, gliding majestically amid the wild magnificence of an African landscape, never failed to transport me beyond myself. 
Methinks I see them now—in yonder “field, spacious and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged trees" — the 
white chintz-pattern garments of the lady-like cows contrasting vividly with the chocolate eoloured robe of that mighty bull. 
Aye, there they stand, grouped tranquilly in graceful and dignified attitudes, elevating their stately crests to the clouds, 
some craning over the tops of the smaller trees, whilst others — burying their light heads among the reticulated boughs, 
and darting out their long black tongues like the chameleon, are busily drawing in the tender sprigs. 
ft was on the morning after our departure from the residence of his Amazooloo Majesty, that I first actually saw the 
Giraffe, Although I had been for weeks on the tip-toe of expectation, we had hitherto sueceeded in finding the gigantic 
footsteps only of the tallest of all the quadrupeds upon the earth; but at dawn of that day, a large party of hungry sa- 
vages, with four of the Hottentots on horseback, having accompanied us across the Mariqua in search of Elands, which were 
reported to be numerous in the neighbourhood, we formed a long line, and having drawn a great extent of country blank, 
divided into two parties, Richardson keeping to the right, and myself to the left. Beginning at length to despair of suc- 
cess, IT had shot a Hartebeest for the sayages, when an object which had repeatedly attracted my eye—but which I had as 
often persuaded myself was nothing more than the branchless stump of some withered tree, suddenly shifted its position, and 
the next moment I distinctly perceiyed that singular form, of which the apparition had ofttimes visited my slumbers— but 
upon whose reality I now gazed for the first time. Gliding rapidly among the trees, above the topmost branches of many 
of which its graceful head nodded like some lofty pine, all doubt was in another moment at an end—it was the stately, 
the long-sought Giraffe. Putting spurs to my horse, and directing the Hottentots to follow, I presently found myself half 
choked with excitement, rattling at the heels of an animal which to me had been a stranger even in its captive state, and 
which thus ta meet, free on its native plains, has fallen to the lot of but few of the votaries of the chase. Sailing before 
me with incredible velocity, his long swan-like neck keeping time to the eccentric motion of his stilt-like legs—his ample black 
tail curled above his back, and whisking in ludicrous concert with the rocking of his disproportioned frame, he glided gallantly 
along “like some tall ship upon the ocean’s bosom,” and seemed to leave whole leagues behind him at each stride. The ground 
was of the most treacherous description—a rotten black soil overgrown with long coarse grass, which concealed from view in- 
numerable gaping fissures that momentarily threatened to bring down my horse. For the first five minutes I rather lost than 
gained ground; and despairing, over such a country, of ever diminishing the distance, or improving my acquaintance with this 
ogre mm seven-league boots, I dismounted, and the mottled carcase presenting a fair and inviting mark, I had the satisfaction of 
hearing two balls tell roundly upon his plank-like stern. But as well might I have fired at a wall; he neither swerved from 
his course, nor slackened his pace, and pushed on so far ahead during the time I was reloading, that after remounting, 1 had 
some difficulty in even keeping sight of him amongst the trees. Closing again, however, I repeated the dose on the other 
quarter, and spurred my horse along, ever and anon sinking to his fetlock—the Giraffe now flagging at each stride — until, 
as | was coming up hand oyer hand, and success seemed certain, the cup was suddenly dashed from my lips, and down I came 
headlong —my horse haying fallen into a pit, and lodged me close to an Ostrich’s nest, near which two of the old birds were 
sitting, 
Happily there were no bones broken, but the violence of the shock had caused the lashings of my previously broken 
rifle to -give way, and had doubled the stock in half—the barrels only now hanging to the wood by the trigger-guard. No- 
thing dismayed however by this heavy calamity, I remounted my jaded beast, and one more effort brought me ahead of my 
wearied yictim, which stood still and allowed me to approach. In vain did I now attempt to bind my fractured rifle with 
a pocket. handkerchief, in order to admit of my administering the coup de grace—the guard was so contracted, that, as in the 
tantalizing phantasies of a night-mare, the hammer could not by any means be brought down upon the nipple. In yain I 
looked around for a stone, and sought in every pocket for my knife, with which either to strike the copper cap, and bring 
about ignition, or hamstring the colossal but harmless animal, by whose towering side I appeared the veriest pigmy in the ere- 
ation —alas, I had lent it to the Hottentots to cut off the head of the Hartebeest, and after a hopeless search in the remotest 
corners, each hand was withdrawn empty. Vainly did I then wait for the tardy and rebellious villains to come to my assist- 
ance, making the welkin ring, and my throat tingle, with reiterated shouts —not a soul appeared —and, in few minutes, the 
Giraffe having recovered his wind, and being only slightly wounded in the hind quarters, shuffled his long legs—twisted his 
bushy tail over his back— walked a few steps—then broke into a gallop, and diving into the mazes of the forest presently 
disappeared from my sight. Disappointed and annoyed at my discomfiture, I returned towards the waggons, now eight miles 
distant, and on my way overtook the Hottentots, who, pipe in mouth, were leisurely strolling home with an air of total indif- 
ference as to my proceedings, having come to the conclusion that “ Sir could not fung de Kameel,*” for which reason they 
did not think it worth while to follow as I had directed. 
Two days after this catastrophe having advanced to the Tolaan river, we again took the field, accompanied by the whole 
* Ang, Catch the Camelopard. 
