Hunters three: Sport and adventure in South Africa

by Thomas Wallace Knox

The shot did not seem to disturb him in the least, as he continued to charge. I jumped to one side, and must have made a tremendous jump. He was going at such a speed that the momentum of his body carried him past me; but he was so near that I certainly felt the wind which he created in his rush. The dog stuck to him like a leech, and very soon brought him to bay in a place that was about as bad as the previous one. I went after him once more, and he came out after me, and I did not see him until he appeared through a bush not ten feet from me. He came at full speed, too, and I had no chance to fire.

There was a little path at one side, and I jumped into it. He did not go by me this time, but swung around to follow me, and the tips of his horns were very near me when I reached a small tree.

There was not time for me to climb the tree and get out of his way. Luckily there were some branches growing out from the root of it, just about parallel to the ground, and about two feet above it. I dived under the tree and lay down as flat as I could, sticking close to the roots.

The buffalo could not get at me because the branches were too stout and too close together to enable him to get his horns under them, and for the same reason he could not get near enough to trample me with his hoofs. He walked round and round that tree, evidently trying to figure out some way of extracting me from that hole. Horns and hoofs were of no use, but he managed to insert his nose among the branches, and pounded me pretty hard with it. I tried to seize him by the tongue, and if I had had a hunting-knife with me I think I could have sent him away.

The fellow pounded me so hard with his nose that it really seemed as though he were knocking the life out of me. I found myself growing weak and misty; by and by everything faded away, and the next I knew my tracker and gun-bearer were pouring water over my face to revive me. I owed my life to those two men, and acknowledged my obligation by making them, the next day, some handsome presents, of which they were very proud. The way they saved me was this:

When they came up to where the buffalo was, after I had gone into the thicket, they looked cautiously through the bushes and saw him standing watch near me. I was lying perfectly still, and he walked off a little way, probably thinking I might try to get out of my predicament and give him a chance to impale me on his horns. The men took in the situation, and Mirogo crept up near enough to hurl his spear at the buffalo. The beast then dropped me out of his consideration, and went for Mirogo.

Mirogo ran, and at a very lively pace too. He ran for a small tree with a projecting bough, and as he came under the tree he seized the bough and swung himself up among the limbs with the agility of a monkey. The buffalo made a vicious dig at the tree, and then went off into the bush at full speed. As soon as he considered it safe to do so Mirogo came down, called my gun-bearer, and found me as I have already stated.

It did not take us long to get ready for our buffalo-hunt on the morning in question, and we started off at a very moderate pace on our horses, partly in order not to tire the beasts unnecessarily, and partly to enable our Kafirs to keep up with us. Each of us was accompanied by two Kafirs, a tracker and a gun-bearer, and there were generally from two to half a dozen others who went along in order to see the sport and be of general usefulness.

One thing they were always useful for was to eat up any spare food that might come in their way. The quantity that a Kafir will consume is something astonishing. I dare not pretend to say how many pounds of meat one of them can get away with in a sitting, lest I might be supposed to be romancing. We generally engaged our Kafirs at so much for the trip, making no mention of time. Time is of no consequence to them as long as they are fed; and as they eat pretty nearly everything that lives and moves, a hunter with any experience and any sort of decent luck can manage to subsist them.

Our horses had not been exercised for some days, and were at first inclined to be frisky. They soon toned down, however, evidently realizing that they might have hard work before the day was over, and would stand in need of all their strength. Occasionally we took a little spurt over the open country, just to shake out their limbs a little, and then settled down for a walk, during which the Kafirs came up with us. We passed the borders of the forest where we had our adventure with the elephants, and entered the valley of the river where it was fairly well wooded, with open spaces here and there.