often perished in veld conflagrations. They wandered,
naked and weaponless, in the neutral areas lying between the
territories of the different tribes, preferring the mercy of the lion
and the hyena to that of man. The appliances of these people for
kindling a fire, and thus sending the conflagration on for the purpose
of creating a zone of safety, were often quite inadequate for dealing
with a sudden emergency.

I only know of one instance of a white man falling a victim to a veld
fire. I forget this individual's name, although I knew him well. He,
seeing the flames approaching, reached what he thought was a place of
safety, for the grass was very sparse, and he reckoned on being able to
beat out the fire as it approached him. But he had not taken into
account the contingency of the wind freshening and flinging forward
sheets of flame from the places where the grass was longer. This
actually happened. He got badly, but not fatally, scorched. A
search-party found him and he was assisted back to camp. Next day he
was placed in a rough litter and carried by four natives in the rear
of the little caravan. The day was sultry, and he suffered great pain,
so he persuaded the natives to set down the litter in a shady place,
meaning to get them to carry him on when the afternoon cooled.

The rest of the party proceeded on its course, unaware that the injured
man had been left behind. A grass fire was seen to sweep over the
country just crossed, but no particular notice was taken of it. In this
fire the unhappy loiterer had been burnt to death. His bearers, when
they saw the flames approaching, lost their heads, and, instead of
burning a patch to be used as a refuge, fled. There are, surely, few
cases on record of such bad luck as this.

The most enchanting scenery in the Low Country was to be found in the
vicinity of the rivers. These, considering that they are African, do
not lie very far apart. Yet sometimes there were long stretches of
waterless country to be traversed, and severe suffering from thirst was
a possibility occasionally realized. Besides, as we were practically
explorers in a country without human inhabitants or recognizable
landmarks, we might unwittingly pass the bend of a winding river and
thus recede from badly needed water. The general landscape was, as a
rule, so flat, and the trees were so high, that one could draw no
inference as to the whereabouts of a river from the configuration of
the country.