nipe, partridges, and always buck, from off his back.
He was my daily companion for two years, and rarely played me a trick.
He had a queer temper; but, knowing this, I made due allowance, and we
always managed things well. If I spurred him, or pulled the rein, when
he approached a hill, he would stop and refuse to advance; but a word or
two in Dutch, in place of the assault, would make matters progress
satisfactorily. I heard that his career after I left was unfortunate;--
he passed through one or two hands who could not have understood him,
and was finally killed by a lion in the interior. I can easily imagine
that such would have been his fate, should he be in the vicinity of a
hungry lion, as he never showed fear of elephants or any other animal,
and was not alarmed by the smell of a fresh lion's skin past which I
rode one day.

The Boers are generally very heavy men, and the small shooting-ponies
that they ride appear fearfully overweighted: a pony of twelve or
thirteen hands is ridden long journeys, and hunted, by a Boer of some
fourteen or sixteen stone weight. The game little animal does its work
well in spite of the weight it carries; and one of the surprising facts
to an Englishman fresh in the African hunting-field is the pace at which
the Boers thus mounted go across country. Neither whip nor spur is
spared during a chase, and, not contented with the day's hard work,
these Boers sometimes on returning home take a half-mile gallop as a
test of the enduring qualities of their ponies. During my experience in
Africa, I was but once unfortunate enough to have a horse that I was
riding knock up with me: the animal was a new purchase, and had led a
life of idleness during some previous weeks. The results of its failing
me were a thorough ducking and a very unpleasant journey of near five
miles. It may give an idea of the manners of the civilised man of South
Africa, if I detail the circumstance. I left Pietermaritzburg about
three o'clock in the afternoon, and purposed resting for the night at
Stony Hill, the distance being twenty-five miles. About eight miles had
been accomplished, when I was attracted by a grand fight between two
bulls. I watched the struggle for a considerable time, and admired the
courage of each combatant: sometimes they would charge each other, and,
falling on their knees, roar and bellow with mingled rage and pain.
Victory for a long time was doubtful, until the strength of one app