“_October 17th._--Sleepless night; dogs barking at hyænas. I was kept to the waggon yesterday with a sore heel, and to-day did not go far. Nelson came to the waggon in the afternoon. He tells me that, on the opposite side of the road, about ten miles away, is a ‘fountain,’[26] with one or two waters intervening, and plenty of game. He does not know whether the king allows any one to go into this veldt; but it is a good country for a waggon to travel in.... I went out with him a little in the evening. He says he has seen two elephants’ tusks from near the Zambesi of 70 lbs. each--the largest he ever saw. He has seen an elephant with four tusks, and a Boer he speaks of shot one with eight; one of 70 lbs., the others of about 2 lbs. each. “When Nelson was a young boy, his father, he tells me, trading near Sechele’s, being at feud with the missionary there, who had surrounded his waggon with forty Kafirs, and incited them to seize his goods, he determined to blow them up; but, in applying the light to the inside of the waggon, where was a lot of gunpowder, he was not quite quick enough, and was himself blown up with the missionary (a German) and the Kafirs. Nelson himself lay many hours on the ground insensible, much scorched. He had been standing close to the front wheel; his father was on the front-box. Nelson must have escaped thus lightly almost by a miracle. When he came to himself, he saw the wreck, his father and the Kafirs lying dead, and was pursued and fired at by Kafirs. The bullets passed close to him, and the Kafirs pursued, but could not catch him. He has still scars on his legs, made in passing through the thorns, and one on his face, caused by the explosion. He spent three days wandering in the veldt without food, but, it being the rainy season, he had water, and on the fourth day he came to a waggon. “There was a scene to-day when Nelson’s two boys, who claim the ivory we got the other day, came to the waggon. Nelson told me not to give it to them, but did not want them to know he had given me this hint. The ivory, it seems, would not be his anyhow, as the king’s man who is with him hunts on his own account and would claim it. My boys were resolute to keep it, and we let them fight it out by themselves, which they did very noisily, finally saying it should be referred to the king. It seems to me that, picked up in the veldt, it belongs to the finder, unless the shooter has followed it up himself. This Nelson says his men did not attempt--though he advised it--saying it would be useless.”