Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa — John Shaqi
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South AfricaAnderson, Andrew A.
History
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Anderson, Andrew A.
Africa, Southern -- Description and travel; Anderson, Andrew A. -- Travel -- Africa, Southern
Our anxiety was for the safety of our oxen and horse, fearing they might
get away and be caught by the lions. I made the two Kaffirs collect a
few sticks, and with what was left from last night made a fire, which
threw a light into the bushes, where we saw our two friends enter, and
shortly after I saw a pair of eyes shining like fire from out of the
wood within thirty yards. If I could have depended on my Kaffirs, all
being armed, he would certainly have had the contents of my rifle, but
knowing them to be bad shots when cool, and that they would have been
worse than useless in time of danger, to my great disgust was I obliged
to stand and watch only. As they left the koppie, they made a circuit
of my camp, but at a greater distance. Taking the two rifles from the
young Kaffirs, placing them against the fore-wheel of the waggon, to be
ready at a moment's notice, I could not resist so fine a chance of a
shot in the open, only fifty yards distant; the light of the fire giving
out a good glare, I had a full view, and fired, and found I had wounded
one--the thud of the bullet is sufficient to know that. My driver, a
fine Zulu, and young Talbot, had their rifles ready in case he charged,
which he did, in short bounds. As he neared, they both fired and both
hit, but not sufficiently to kill him; but he was unable to move, as his
hind-quarters were rendered powerless. Reloading, we walked up, and I
gave him a bullet as near the heart as I could, when he fell over; the
other we saw moving away into the darkness--a fine full-grown lion with
dark mane. This was the third lion that had fallen by my rifle. The
little affair detained us the following day, skinning and pegging out to
dry in the sun, in addition to several other skins of the game shot on
the road, eleven in all. When a skin is taken from an animal, I
sprinkle a little salt over it, then roll it up, to be pegged out at a
convenient opportunity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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