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The Swedish monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, a man of broad ambitions and energetic mind, heard about the Delaware from Willem Usselinx, a merchant of Antwerp who had been actively interested in the formation of the Dutch West India Company to trade in the Dutch possessions in America.
He gazed upon the intruders with flaming eyes, as if very little would induce him to change the nature of his intended repast. "Reserve your fire, Hendrik!" exclaimed Willem as he brought the roer to his shoulder; "it may be needed." The leopard answered the report of the gun by making a somersault to the earth. There was no necessity for Hendrik to waste any ammunition upon him.
The guests were seen arriving on foot in the fine weather, some of them accompanied by their wives and daughters, against the light of the low sun, falling red on the old trees of the avenue and the faces of those who advanced along it: Willem van Aelst, expecting to find hints for a flower-portrait in the exotics which would decorate the banqueting-room; Gerard Dow, to feed his eye, amid all that glittering luxury, on the combat between candle-light and the last rays of the departing sun; Thomas de Keyser, to catch by stealth the likeness of Sebastian the younger.
So sudden had been the charge of the angry animals, that one of the oxen ridden by the Makololo, had not time to be got out of the way, and was abandoned by his owner. As good luck would have it for Willem, the unfortunate ox was the means of saving his life.
But for that instinctive love of life which all feel, he might have surrendered himself to fate; but urged by this, he kept on. He was upon the eve of falling to the earth through sheer exhaustion, when his ears were saluted by the deep-toned bay of a hound, and close after it a voice exclaiming "Look out, Baas Willem! Somebody come yonder!"
During the course of these proceedings detached parties were frequently sent hither and thither to surprise a kraal or to capture cattle, and the two parties under Groot Willem and Hans Marais, having arrived at Fort Wilshire at the same time, were allowed to act pretty much in concert. One night they found themselves encamped in a dark mountain gorge during a thunderstorm.
"Will you not tell me, you yellow demon?" shouted Hendrik, impatient at not getting the answer he wished. "Yaas, baas Hendrik," answered Swartboy; "what you want to know first?" "Where is Willem?" This was a question that, in the Bushman's way of thinking, required some consideration before he could venture on a reply; but while he was hesitating, Congo answered, "We don't know." "Ha, ha!
Almost at the same instant, the hunter descried other objects in which he was more interested than in a village of Bechuanas, or anything belonging to them. Two large elephants were seen moving across the plain, in the direction of the maize-field. "Let us steal upon them silently," suggested Willem. "We need not all go. Two or three will be enough. Some one must stay with the cattle."
He had promised his assistance until the object they desired should be obtained; and, although domestic and political duties called him home, he stated his determination to stay with them. His promise had been given to Willem, and everything was to be sacrificed before that could be broken. For his devoted friendship the hunters were not ungrateful.
The thongs of hide that bound his wrists to the branches were cutting into the flesh, and besides, there was before his mind the positive certainty that he had not much longer to live. The fear of death, however, scarce gave him so much mental pain as his anxiety to know something of the fate of his companions, and his wish that Groot Willem should recover the giraffes.
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