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camp was observed to harbour a sluggish herd, whose formidable heads, resembling rough masses of rock, protruded from the 
water amid waving sedges—the bodies of the greater number being totally submerged. We contrived to wound one from the 
top of the waggon, and observing that he was unable to keep pace with his flying comrades, I attempted to ride him down; 
but the numerous staseaanciutend flints with which the ground was studded, eutting the shoeless feet of my lforse to pieces, I 
not only failed in my design, but brought back my steed to the waggons dead lame. Our object, whilst outward-bound, being 
to husband our resources as much as possible against our return march, we did not fail, from our next camp at Mosega, to 
revisit Mimori with the intention of obtaining a supply of beef for our numerous followers. Passing through a gorge im the 
hills behind the American Mission houses, we entered upon a succession of plains, intersected by low stony eminences, scattered 
over with clumps of acacia; and the old herbage and wiry grass haying recently been cleared off by fire, we presently fore- 
gathered with the same lordly herd, grazing upon the young and tender blades, and looming, in so open a spot, as voluminous 
as elephants, 
On being pursued, they made straight for the lakes, at a heavy gallop, and dashed péle méle among the flags, into which 
we followed them, the water reaching to the horses’ eirths, and the reeds far above our own heads. We could hear the monstrous 
beasts forcing their way through the shaking bulrushes immediately in advance, but after several hours’ severe labour in the 
overgrown swamp— where it now appears wonderful to me that we were not repeatedly charged—our party could only succeed 
in driving out a single cow, which, breaking at the opposite side of one piece of water, had contrived to gain another before 
we could overtake her. Then commenced a general skirmish —some of the more fool-hardy of our followers wading to their 
middles, whilst others kept up a running fire from the banks whenever a glimpse of anything black could be obtained. Half 
the random balls either fell harmlessly, or rattled against the impervious mass of horn which shielded the bluff foreheads of the 
badgered herd; others however took effect, and Piet, in attempting to despatch a wounded cow, whose leg he had broken, was 
charged and knocked over by a bull from behind. Capless and disarmed we could see the poor fellow through a telescope, 
lying beneath a shady Karree tree, which reared its venerable head in the middle of the lake, holding his hands to his stomach 
as if he were mortally wounded— his coal-black adversary drooping sternly near him, and seeming half disposed to renew the 
combat, although the blood fast trickling from its nostrils, shewed that the moment of dissolution was approaching. A broad 
deep stream, tangled over with sedge, which encircled this spot on three sides, defying approach either on horseback or on foot, 
without incurring the certainty of drowning, compelled us to ride some three miles round before we could arrive to the rescue. 
By that time the Buffalo was in its last struggles; and the sufferer appearing to be more frightened than hurt, we soused him 
with water, and having removed his leathern doublet, which was much torn by the animal’s horns, ascertained that there were 
no serious holes in his own skin, A laborious search among the prostrate reeds around the scene of recent. strife, at length 
brought the bruised Nimrod’s cap and gun to light, and the savages having borne him out of the swamp, he was placed 
groaning upon a pack-horse and re-conducted to our camp, where, having enjoyed the advantage of Dr. Wilson’s professional 
aid, he consented, after a little bleedimg and coaxing, to forego his often expressed determination of closing at Mcszega his 
mortal career. 
The pursuit of the wild Buffalo was some months afterwards productive of a still more serious accident to this same 
unfortunate man, of whom I will aver so much, that he was by far the staunchest sportsman of our whole Hottentot retinue. 
Wending our journey homeward on the southern side of the Cashan mountains, the route—hitherto untrodden by white foot— 
lay across a belt of green wooded hillocks, intersected by formidable ravines, and constituting, as it were, the suburbs of the 
mountain range. Over these knolls our unwieldy and heavily-freighted waggons toiled with infinite difficulty — their snail-like 
progress being frequently arrested altogether by the snapping of one of the tow-ropes—some of the strands of this important 
portion of our harness having recently been guawed through by alligators, which, assisted by the half-starved dogs of the sa- 
vages, ate up everything that fell in their way, not even excepting the untanned leather shoes of our followers. We were 
splicing the rotten ¢rek toww for the third time, when a stately herd of Buffaloes 
Crook knee’d and dewlap’d, like Thessalian bulls, 
were perceived at a little distance in the open’ plain. They were throwing out signs of defiance, in consequence, it was con- 
jectured by a wag, of the warlike appearance of poor Coeur de Lion, whose caput was as usual decorated with a woollen night 
cap of that crimson hue, to which the bovine class are proverbially averse! Mounting our led horses, my companion and myself 
ascended the ridge immediately above the herd, and firing a volley at their broad backs, brought a splendid bull to bay, and 
had despatched him in less than five minutes. Whilst several of the delighted followers were employed in flaying the carease, 
and appropriating the tit bits, we cantered after the waggons, and sent back Andries with a pack-horse for the hide, which, 
being as much as any two men could lift, promised to become in due time a right serviceable trek touw. In the course 
of a few minutes, however, the worthy squire returned at speed, pale and speechless, stammering forth at length, in reply 
to our interrogations of what the matter was, “ Sieur, Piet shot him.” Having already had experience of the fellow’s dispo- 
sition “fo claim first blood, Richardson refuted this bold assertion, by the assurance that we had ourselves slain the bull: 
but it was sometime ere we learned from an interpreter, who proved better conversant than ourselves with Andries’ applica- 
tion of “our maternale Englysshe tongue,” that Piet had been badly wounded in the leg by the accidental discharge of 
Claas's detonating gun, ‘“Lingap also presently arrived, and after pointing with breathless dismay to a round hole drilled by 
