from my door; I then considered it right to take
measures for defence, and called forth a party for his pursuit, the
Hottentots saying that as he had only eaten a small part of the horse he
would be in the vicinity. Seventeen horsemen, Mulattoes and Hottentots,
and a number of strong hounds, soon assembled.

"The Hottentots traced the lion on foot, discovering his spoor, or
track, with surprising dexterity, and found him in a large thicket about
a mile distant. The dogs failed to dislodge him, the Mulattoes rode
round the jungle, and fired into it, but without effect. At last three
Scotchmen determined to march in, provided the Mulattoes would support
their fire. Regardless of the warnings of more prudent men, they went
in, and, as they thought, found the lion crouched among the roots of a
large evergreen bush, glaring at them from under the foliage. They fired
and struck, not the lion, but a great block of sand-stone, which they
bad mistaken for him; but beyond which he was actually lying. With a
furious growl he bolted from the bush; the Mulattoes fled
helter-skelter, leaving the Scots with empty guns, tumbling over each
other in their haste to escape. In a twinkling he was upon them, with
one stroke of his paw dashed John Rennie to the ground, and with one
foot upon him, looked round upon his assailants in conscious power and
pride, and with the most noble and imposing port that could be
conceived. It was the most magnificent thing I ever witnessed; but the
danger of our friends was too great to enjoy the picture. We expected
every minute to see one or more of them torn to pieces; and yet in their
position, one lying under the lion's paw, and the others scrambling
towards us, we dared not fire. Fortunately, however, the lion, after
steadily surveying us, turned calmly away, drove off the hounds with his
heels, as if they had been rats, and bounded over the adjoining thicket
like a cat, clearing bushes twelve or fifteen feet high, as if they had
been tufts of grass.

"Our comrade had sustained no other injury than a scratch upon the back,
and a severe bruise, and we renewed the chase. We found the enemy
standing at bay under a mimosa tree. The dogs barked round him, but were
afraid to approach; for he growled fiercely, and brandished his tail in
a manner that showed he meditated mischief. The Hottentots, by taking a
circuit, reached a precipice above him, another party of us occupied a
position on the other side of