Peck's Bad Boy in an airship

by George W. Peck

When we got almost across the marsh Pa said now was the time to fire the Roman candles, so we each lit our candle, and the fire and smoke and the fire balls fairly scorched the hair of the buffaloes in the rear of the herd, and in a jiffy the whole herd stampeded out of the marsh right toward the fence, bellowing in African language, scared half to death, the first instance on record that an African buffalo was afraid of anything on earth.

We followed them until they got to the fence, but only about one hundred got into the corral, the others going around the fence and chasing the keepers into the jungle and hooking the negroes in the pants, and some of the negroes are running yet, and will, no doubt, come out at Cairo, Egypt.

Some of Those Negroes Are Running Yet, and Will No Doubt Come Out at Cairo, Egypt.

Mr. Hagenbach and the white men got up in trees and watched Pa and the airship, and when we got where the fence narrowed up at the corral Pa let the airship come down to the ground and anchored it to a stump and yelled for the boss of the expedition and the men to come down out of the trees and help capture some of the best specimens; so they came down and tore out the wings of the fence and placed them across so we had the buffaloes in a pen, and then Mr. Hagenbach, who had been getting a little jealous of Pa, came up to him and shook his hand and told him he was a wonder in the capturing of wild animals, and Pa said don’t mention it, and Pa took the makings and made himself a cigarette and smoked up, and Mr. Hagenbach asked Pa how we were going to get the buffaloes out of the corral, ’cause they were fighting each other in the far end of the pen, and Pa said you just wait, and he sent for the cages, enough to hold about ten of the buffaloes, and we let the gas out of the airship and went into camp right there, and Pa bossed things for about two days, until the buffaloes got good and hungry, and then we backed the cages up to an opening in the fence and put hay in the far end of the cages, and the herd began to take notice.

We wanted the big bulls and some cows, and nature helped us on the bulls, ’cause they fought the weaker ones away from the cages, and walked right up the incline into the cages, and Pa went in and locked the doors, and when we got the cages full of bulls and started to haul the cages to camp by the aid of some of the negroes who had returned alive, by jingo, the cows followed the cages with the bulls in, and you couldn’t drive them away.

We loaded the gas bag on to a sort of stone boat, and Pa rigged up a couple of ox yokes and in some way hypnotized a few cow buffaloes so he could drive them, and they hauled the stone boat with the airship to camp, and we got there almost as soon as the cages did, and Pa was smoking as contented as though he was walking on Broadway, and with an ox gad he would larrup the oxen and say, “Haw Buck,” like a farmer driving oxen to plow a field.

Pa got his wild oxen so tame before we got to camp that they would eat hay out of his hand, and when we rounded up in our permanent camp and looked over our stock and killed some of the buffaloes that had followed the cages, for meat for the negroes, and lit some sky rockets and fired them at the balance of the herd to drive them away from camp, the negroes, who had always had a horror of meeting wild buffaloes, thought Pa was a superior being to be able to tame a whole herd of the most savage animals, and they got down on their knees and placed their faces in the dust in front of Pa and worshipped him, and they wouldn’t get up off the ground until Pa had gone around and put his feet on the necks of all the negroes in token that he acknowledged himself to be their king and protector, and the wives of the negroes all threw their arms around Pa and hugged him until he got tired, and he said he had rather fight buffaloes than be hugged by half naked negro women that hadn’t had a bath since Stanley discovered them, but Pa appreciated the honor, and Mr. Hagenbach said Pa was the greatest man in the world.

Pa Had to Put His Foot on Their Necks and Acknowledge Himself Their King and Protector.