After my recent exertions and nights without sleep, I was not feeling at all well, and was very glad to get as close as I could to the fire. I was occupying myself with my diary when Theunissen, speaking very gently, told me to look behind me; on turning round, I found that I had been sitting with a puff-adder close to my feet, probably enjoying the warmth of the fire as much as myself. This time we were much more cautious in our proceedings, and I was very pleased to be able to enrich my collection with a singularly fine specimen.
CHAPTER V.
FROM TAMASETZE TO THE CHOBE.
Henry’s Pan—Hardships of elephant-hunting—Elephants’ holes—Arrival in the Panda ma Tenka valley—Mr. Westbeech’s depôt—South African lions—Their mode of attack—Blockley—Schneeman’s Pan—Wild honey—The Leshumo valley—Trees damaged by elephants—On the bank of the Chobe.
Leaving our encampment in the Tamasetze wood early on the morning of July 20th, we proceeded northwards across the grassy hollow. In the afternoon we were overtaken by a Dutch boy on horseback, very miserably clad. He was not more than fourteen years of age, and in reply to my question whither he was going, he told me that his father, who lived in a hut near the next pool, had sent him to take a waggon, and two negroes to attend to it, all the way to the Makalaka country, to barter beads and calico for kaffir-corn.
We arrived next day at the pool of which the lad had spoken. It was called Henry’s Pan, after the name of a hunter’s servant who had killed a giraffe there. I found three Boer families settled at the place, as well as three Dutch hunters, Schmitt and the two brothers Lotriet. For the last month Schmitt had been living in a grass-hut, and had killed a sword-antelope on the day before our arrival. His narratives of hunting-excursions were most interesting.
One of the Henry’s Pan people had a cancer in his lower jaw, and both the Lotriet families—one a party of three, and the other of nine—were suffering from fever. Their huts, wretched structures of dry branches and grass, were quite inadequate to protect them either from sun or rain, and as they lay upon the ground, their condition seemed pitiable in the extreme. They attributed all their hardships to a trader who had unscrupulously enticed them into the district, and wiped his hands of them almost directly afterwards. The account they gave was entirely substantiated by six hunters of whom I subsequently made inquiries; and so convinced was I that the facts ought to be circulated as a warning to others, that I sent the story of the Lotriets to the Diamond News, in which it was inserted under the title of “Dark Deeds.” I am in possession of other narratives of a similar character, which I am reserving for future publication.
So violent had been the fever that one or two of the Lotriets were really dangerously ill, the condition of the whole family being seriously aggravated by the want of clothing and proper medicines. I supplied them with what covering I could, and prescribed for their malady, in return receiving from them a tusk weighing nearly eight pounds, about equivalent in value to the quinine which I had given. Three days previously they had had to part with quite as much ivory for about six ounces of castor-oil.
I made an excursion in which I had the opportunity of getting very near to some koodoo-antelopes, but unfortunately I lost my way in the forest, and did not get back until it was quite late.
In another ramble I came upon a number of holes that had been dug out by elephants, most of them being more than a foot deep, some as much as eighteen inches. Having scented out their favourite roots and tubers, they go down on their knees and use their tusks to make the excavations, and as the soil is often very stony, and the slopes full of rock, the tusks are apt to get very much worn. Sometimes the result of the attrition is so considerable that a difference of four pounds is caused in their weight.