Charles Montague

Tales of a Nomad: Or, Sport and Strife Charles Montague

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. MY FIVE BUFFALOES. OUR hunting headquarters were at Jozanns Kraal, situated at the foot of the western slope of the Libombo range of mountains. There we left our waggons and oxen and engaged our carriers. In those days the natives did not understand the use of money, and as many carriers could be obtained as one wished for a payment of one cotton blanket each, value four shillings. The condition was that they were to work until we had completely loaded the waggons with dry game hides, for in this manner we used to make our sport pay its own expenses. Now to load four buck-waggons, each drawn by eighteen oxen, with as great a weight of hides as they could carry, was no small undertaking, and we considered ourselves fortunate if we could effect this in two months. It depended very much on our success in quickly finding the great troops of buffaloes, breaking them up into many small troops and then making our bag. The time question was therefore an indefinite one, but what Amaswazi Caffre reckoned by time? Time was a disagreeable factor; it was too logical, too exact for his mind, and he took no more account of moons than we do of days. Besides this, hunting and devouring beef were in themselves pleasures second only in exquisite intensity to the joys of murdering and plundering one's fellow-men when on the war-path. Accordingly there was no lack of recruits. We might indeed have remained at Jozanns and have hunted the eland, roan antelope, sassaby, quagga, and wildebeeste. The country was fairly open; there was no tetse fly, and we could have used our horses; but the royal game, the buffaloes, were down in the fly country to the northward between Jozanns and the port by which the Imbeloose River flows through the Libombo Range, and, both for the...