The narrative of an explorer in tropical South AfricaGalton, Francis
History
The narrative of an explorer in tropical South Africa
Galton, Francis
South Africa -- Description and travel
Andersson and myself took up our guns directly and ran down, and
the others after us. We went to the chestnut mule—she had been left
behind the night before, and her instinct led her to climb down to the
river-bed, into which she seems to have been watched, and seized by the
lions the moment she got there. We then followed the tracks on to the
dead horse, the mules and horses had all been galloping together: there
were distinct tracks of six lions galloping by their side, and then had
been the fatal spring, and the dead horse lay half eaten. The other
lions gave over their pursuit after a few paces. We next followed the
mule tracks until they lay sufficiently clear of one another for us to
count them, and see whether any more besides the two animals we had seen
were dead. I was delighted to find nine tracks; so that not only the six
mules, that had drawn the cart, and the little horse were safe, but also
the two remaining cart mules which had been left on the road had found
out their fellows during the night, and joined them. I sent Timboo and
another man to fetch them back, and the rest of us returned to cut off
as much meat from the mule and the horse as we could eat or carry, for
we were now without any animal food. We then climbed up the cliff that
overhung the place where the mule lay, to hide it out of the way of the
hyenas and jackals, until we were going back to the waggons.
We hunted about the whole day after the lions, but their spoors were
lost among the rocks, and we could not see one of them. Andersson and I,
therefore, determined to sit up and watch for them, as they were sure to
return to the carcases in the night. There were two spots, where we might
lie in wait; the one a camelthorn tree, about fifty yards from the mule,
but with a most difficult trunk to climb, so thick and straight, that
ropes would be necessary; the other, a ledge in the rock, at the very
spot where we had been hiding the meat. The cliff rose abruptly above
us—a man could easily climb it; but we agreed, in our innocence, that a
lion could not. So, when the strayed mules and horses had been recovered
in safety, we went to the cart, had our dinner, and brought down our warm
coats and spare guns, as the evening closed in. Stewartson, with two or
three hands, came with us to carry back the horse-meat. It became rapidly
twilight, as the sun set behind the crags, throwing the deep gorge of the
Swakop into shadow; and there was no time to be lost in getting down the
meat and in choosing our positions, for the lions were due at night-fall.
We walked quickly to the dead mule, and as we went, the men pointed out
five or six deer, or something like them, that we could not clearly see,
bounding along the rocks above us and parallel to us. We came to the
place, the mule lay as we had left her. Andersson had gone to the other
side of the river to reconnoitre something, and I left my guns, &c., at
the bottom of the rock, with Stewartson and the men, and ran up to fetch
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