Hunters three: Sport and adventure in South Africa

by Thomas Wallace Knox

Our company on its march was a picturesque sight. First came the fore-looper on horseback, indicating the route which the wagons should take; it is the fore-looper's duty to select the way, and he must be able to take in a considerable range of country at a single glance. Then came the wagons, each with its nine span of oxen, and behind the second wagon was the loose extra stock of oxen and horses—though generally there are no extras of the latter, all the horses in the outfit being saddled and ridden by somebody. The manager rides here and there along the line, watching and directing everything, and using very emphatic language when he has occasion to address any of his inferiors. The rear is brought up by the after-rider, whose duty it is to prevent men and cattle from straggling or from falling behind.

The reader will see that there is thus a good deal of military formality about the composition of an African train, and such is necessarily the case. The fore-looper is the advance-guard, the after-rider the rear-guard, the wagons and their teams the army, the loose stock the commissary-train, and the manager the general in command.

We found the country to the north of the river decidedly hilly—much more so than the southern side. Climbing hills was a serious matter, as it required a great deal of shouting and flogging to accomplish it. On the other hand, descending hills was nearly as bad; and when it came to accidents those of the descents were more numerous than those of the ascents. One hill that we descended came near wrecking one of the wagons. We cut down a small tree and tied it to the rear of the wagon to make a drag; then we started the oxen; but the drag was insufficient, and the wagon pushed ahead, forcing the oxen before it. They quickened their pace to a trot, and then to a run.

In going down the descent the oxen turned along the side of the hill, which brought the wheels on one side of the wagon much higher than those on the other. The wagon tipped over, or rather would have done so had it not come against a tree just as it was overturning, and brought everything up all standing. The chains that held the first four yokes of oxen were broken, and away the creatures went at a tearing pace, until they were stopped by the fore-looper half a mile away.

We had a variety of mishaps while traveling in the hilly country, but happily none of them were serious. After two days of this sort of thing we came out into an open region, where the country was fairly level, but there was a scarcity of water, as the streams were small and far apart. We kept on through this open region till we came near the Divargo River; at any rate, it is called a river, though it is hardly anything more than a small brook. As the valley of the river afforded good pasturage for our oxen, and the stream itself would supply us with water, we decided to form a kraal in its neighborhood.

Signs of game were plentiful, and the natives that came into the camp reported an abundance of elephants and buffaloes. While looking about for a good place for a camp, Harry stumbled upon a fine spring of water coming out of a hillside at the edge of the valley, and of course that settled the question at once.

We outspanned there, and all hands went to work industriously to make a kraal. Not only did the natives report plenty of elephants and buffaloes, but they also reported giraffes, elands, gemsbok, blesbok, and lions. The lions were the fellows that we were obliged to build a kraal against, all the other animals named giving us a wide berth.

The next morning after forming our camp we started in on our hunting-work—first after elephants, then after buffaloes, and then after smaller game. We had very good success, as we brought down three elephants and two buffaloes the first day, and all the elephants were good-sized tuskers.

The second day we were not so fortunate, as we secured only two elephants, the herd having become shy on account of the devastation in their midst the day before. Still, as sport goes, that was very good work, and we returned to camp in fairly buoyant spirits.

Soon after we arrived our manager came to us and said several natives had been in the camp a short time before and reported two hunters camped some five or six miles to the westward of us. He added the important information that these hunters were women, whereupon Jack and Harry took a look at the sun, to see whether there was time to ride over to the camp and back again before dark. Harry proposed that we should go at once on the visit; but I suggested that it was rather late in the day for a call, and besides, it might look like rushing matters a bit if we started out directly from our own camp with the object of visiting them.