The Bushman — Life in a New CountryLandor, Edward Wilson
History
The Bushman — Life in a New Country
Landor, Edward Wilson
Western Australia -- Description and travel
A native arrived early in the morning with the intelligence that a
herd of wild cattle was now grazing in a ravine of the hills about
four miles distant. As we could not well follow them on horseback in
that locality, we started off on foot armed with our rifles. The
morning as usual was brilliant, but not too warm, and we walked along
in high spirits. We had not proceeded far through the woods when one
of the natives, who was in advance, stopped short on a sudden, and we
all instinctively did the same. Stealing back to us, he took my
rifle out of my hands without any ceremony, and telling us to remain
perfectly still, crept slowly forward, stooping nearly to the ground.
We now perceived a small plain about two hundred yards a-head of us,
on which were six wild turkeys leisurely feeding and walking about.
The native had dived among the scrub, and we lost all signs of him.
It soon, however, became evident that the turkeys suspected danger;
they erected their tall brown and grey necks, and looked about them
like alarmed sentinels. "They're off!" cried we -- but just as they
were preparing to run, which they do with great rapidity, one of them
was seen to flutter his wings and tumble over, whilst the crack of
the rifle proclaimed the triumph of Migo. We rushed through the
brush-wood, elated as schoolboys who have shot their first throstle
with a horse-pistol, and found the bustard flapping out its last
breath in the hands of the native, whose dark visage gleamed with
triumphant pride.
Resuming our march, we passed over the side of a hill covered with
inferior Jarra trees, and soon entered the ravine in which we
expected to find the cattle. They were not visible; so we crossed
the valley, and passed up the other side for about half-a-mile, when
we entered another valley, some distance up which we perceived a herd
of cattle quietly grazing, or lying ruminating in the confidence of
perfect security. We endeavoured to creep towards them as quietly as
possible, but their senses of smelling and hearing were so acute that
they became acquainted with their danger too soon for us, and trotted
gently up the valley before we could reach them. We now dispersed in
the hope of heading them. Attaching myself to Migo, who considered
my rifle the most likely to prove successful, as he had killed the
bustard with it, we walked for half an hour across the hill-side
without seeing anything of our game. A rifle-shot and a loud shout
prepared us for something, and in another minute we heard the
crashing of branches and the tread of feet, and soon beheld
half-a-dozen cows and two or three calves making their way up the
hill at a short distance from us.
"What for you no get behind tree?" said the native in an angry
whisper, and giving me a push that prevented my staring idly any
longer, and sent me into a proper position.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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