i?7 6. January. was upon two circumftances, viz. that our guns ihould not mifs fire, and that the ihot ihould not fail to prove mortal. In the former cafe, the fportfrnan muft have inevitably paid for his temerity with his life ; though in the latter he had reafon to hope, from infiances of what had happened to others, that the fire, together with the report from the piece, as well as the ball itfelf, would confufe the animal, fo as to prevent it froiri immediately making towards its enemy. The banks o f the pit, which we then befet, were in moft places fteep and perpendicular, and the pit itfelf was almoft three quarters of a mile ion g : but my poft, and that of my fellow-traveller, happened to be at the diftance of not above thirty dr forty paces from each other. To thefe very places too, after we had waited at them an honr and a half, in the moft profound filence, the enormous animals did not fail to refort. They had already, while on the other fide of the river, got fcent of the Hottentots, and now ihewed by their fwimming up and down and blowing themfelves, as well as by a iliOrt but acute and piercing grunt, or neighing noife, that they had a great fufpicion of thefe pafles. I believe Mr. Immelman was not lefs eager and anxious than myfelf, each of us expecting every moment to have a bout with a huge enormous beaft, which we knew had given certain proofs of its being able to bite a man afunder. Yet wefe we each of us at times no lefs fearful, left the other Ihould have the honour o f killing game of fuch confequence. The hippopotamus, however, left us, and had made its appearance in the fame manner, where the farmers were ftationed ; notwithftanding which, at that very inftant we heard i t ihot at by one o f the Hottentots. — The fable -darknefs of the night, and the glittering of the Hottentot’s piece, together with the loudnefs of the report from it, occafioned by the weight of the charge, and the vibrations of the echo prolonging the found along the neighbouring chain -of mountains, all confpired to compofe a moft awful and fuperb fpedtacle, which was ftill heightened by the expectation of feeing an animal fall fuperior in bulk to the elephant. This fublime fpedtacle was immediately followed by a ridiculous kind of farce performed by a troop of baboons,: which, from their calling and anfwer- ing each other along a ftrait line, we could difcover to be encamped on a fteep rocky mountain in the neighbourhood, ¡with regular out-pofts in the trees on each fide of it. After an interval of a couple of minutes, filence again took place till two o’clock, when the other Hottentot fired his piece, and another alarm, though-of ihorter duration, went through the baboons out-pofts and head-quarters. The next morning, for the arrival of which we ardently longed, in order to fatisfy our curiofity, -our Hottentot fportfmen related to us the following particulars concerning the adventures o f the night, involved in darknefs, covered up to the eyes in reeds, and overfhadowed with branches of trees, they could only get a glimpfe o f the animal, and confequently could not ahfwer for their ihots having taken placer and one of them acknowledged, that he was a little confuted, as he could not well fee what he was about; and for the fame -reafon-fired his piece • too foon, before the animal had well-fifen out of the water; >776- January.
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