Home › Contents › Adventure with an African Buffalo

Adventure with an African Buffalo

IVINGSTONE, in discovered a herd of Buffaloes, the trio his travels through let fly at them, wounding some, but not Africa, often ob- so badly that the entire drove escaped to tained food by an impenetrable patch of forest. shooting Buffaloes. The captain, however, climbed into a These animals are tree, and thereby sighted and shot anone of the attrac- other bull, whereon "the wounded animal tions of this part of ran toward the report, his ears outthe continent for stretched, his eyes moving in all directhe hunter, although the great explorer tions, and his nose carried in a right line seldom hunted merely for sport. Travel- with the head, evidently bent on revenge. lers give us interesting accounts of the He passed within thirty yards of me, and African Buffalo and the excitement of the was lost in the bush. Descending from chase. our frail perch, Frolic again discovered He is a handsome animal, of graceful this Buffalo standing among some small shape, and a giant in strength; in his thick bushes, which nearly hid him from , and a giant in strength; in his thick bushes, which nearly hid him from native wilds he is just a peaceful grazer, view; his head was lowered, not a muscle contented to pass his life cropping grass of the body moved, and he was without and green leaves, and to interfere with doubt listening intently. We crept noiseno animal, human or other; but, challenge him to war, and the fiercest hunter could not desire bolder game; capture and tame him and he will draw your plough or wagon as submissively as the ox. 4 lessly to a bush and I again fired. "The huge brute ran forward with the wind, fortunately not in our direction, and again stood still. Presently lay gently down, and knowing that Buffaloes When Captain Methuen and his party are exceedingly cunning, and will adopt were hunting at the Cape of Good Hope, this plan merely to escape. notice and hunting at the Cape of Good Hope, this plan merely to escape notice and he had an opportunity of judging how entrap their persecutors, we drew near terrible a beast the bull Buffalo is when with great caution. I again fired, and wounded and hard driven by the daring concluded from his not attempting to sportsman.

With the captain were a rise that he was helpless. We walked Hottentot attendant, named Frolic, and close up to him, and never can the scene a friend, named Moneypenny, and having which followed be erased from my memory. Turning his ponderous head round, place, who aimed at him as he came on, his eyes caught our figures. 1 fired the and lodged the ball in the rocky mass of second barrel of my rifle behind his horns. horn above his head; the Buffalo was so His wounds gave him some difficulty in near at the time of his firing that his getting up, which afforded Moneypenny horn struck the barrel of the gun the and myself just time to ensconce our next instant; but whether the noise and selves behind the slender shrubs that smoke confused the animal, or he was grew round the spot, while Frolic unwisely partially stunned by the bullet, he missed