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There were three magnificent fellows feeding close together, and several others beyond them. The latter had fallen to the share of Mr Welbourn and his party, and we agreed to devote our attention to the three nearest. We proceeded with the greatest care, in Indian file.
They, however, had hitherto been so busily employed in chasing the giraffes that they had not discovered the elephants. We took possession of the tusks, and as much of the meat as our party could consume. Mr Welbourn had been almost as successful, having killed two fine elephants and a couple of deer. Next day we continued our journey northward.
Although we could not venture to load our ox with more than the two tusks we had already obtained, my uncle, hoping soon to fall in with Mr Welbourn, determined to try and obtain the tusks from the other two elephants we had wounded, and to leave them concealed, until we could send for them.
Returning to where we had left our cattle, we at once moved forward, anxious to get out from among the rocky defiles as soon as possible. Scarcely had we emerged from them, than we saw in the distance an enormous herd of deer, which Mr Welbourn at once pronounced to be "pallah." As they approached we drew on one side before we were discovered.
While Harry hastened on to where Toko lay, my uncle and Mr Welbourn, quickly reloading, fired into its head and finished its existence. I had ridden up to the Makololo, expecting to find every bone in his body broken.
Mr Welbourn had a good stock of ammunition, and with the supply we brought it was considered that we had sufficient to enable us to continue the journey northward into a region where elephants abounded. The cattle were in good condition, and, provided we could escape the tsetse and were not cut off by savage enemies, we might expect to obtain full loads of tusks.
Welby lived at Welbourn, that he received a letter from an acquaintance in the west of England, desiring an answer, whether the report of rooks building in Welbourn church was true, as a wager was depending on that subject; to which he returned an answer ascertaining the fact, and decided the wager." Aug. 30, 1794.
My uncle and Mr Welbourn were descending the bank, and were much nearer than I was. I was undecided to whose assistance I should run, when, to my horror, I saw the crocodile seize Hans by the arm, before he could regain his feet. I fortunately had my large hunting-knife in my belt, though I had not; brought my rifle. Little as I liked Hans, I felt that it was my duty to go to his assistance.
Of course we knew Mr Welbourn would be much disappointed at seeing us arrive with so slender an equivalent for the skins and ivory my uncle had taken south, instead of the waggon full of goods which he had expected. "He is a sensible, good-natured fellow, and will know that it was from no fault of ours we were plundered," observed my uncle.
Besides three Hottentot drivers and a dozen Makololo, Mr Welbourn was accompanied by a white hunter, Hans Scarff, who had joined him on his way from the coast. His appearance was not in his favour, for a more sinister countenance I had seldom met with. He, however, was said to be a bold hunter and a first-rate horseman, and his assistance was therefore likely to prove useful.
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