ould ride at a distance, keeping
out of sight, and show themselves on the opposite side, so as to drive
the herd towards the waggons.

Some of the party managed this business, while I and two of the Boers
waited under the hill until the elands should come past us.

After waiting some time, we could see the look-out eland get the alarm;
he twisted round, swung his tail about, and trotted down to the main
body, who soon left off feeding, collected together, and started off in
their long trot, advancing in our direction. I admired the Boers'
arrangements,--everything was so ably planned. Suddenly the leading
bulls of the herd seemed to smell danger in our neighbourhood, and
swerved to the right; I was afraid they were getting away from us, but
Kemp, who was by me, restrained my impatience, and told me to wait.
Soon after the elands had turned, a man on horseback was seen to canter
over the hill that they appeared steering for; he pulled up, took off
his hat and waved it, and fired a shot; he was too far off to have done
much damage by the shot, but the ruse was immediately successful,--the
whole herd wheeled suddenly into their old line, and came thundering
along towards us. I looked at my caps to see if all was right, and
rammed the bullets down tight; such a herd of game were coming on, at
least two hundred of them, bulls and cows, with quite young calves.

The leaders were soon in line with us. I picked out a large fat
blue-looking bull, which I saw fall dead at the shot. Most of the
others, as they heard the whistle of the bullet, made prodigious leaps
in the air, the effect of which was extraordinary, as, from their great
size and apparent unwieldiness, these bounds seemed almost impossible.
With the second barrel I pinked another bull, but he did not fall.
These shots caused the elands to gallop on very fast; we mounted our
horses and started after the herd, a second eland having been dropped by
one of the Dutchmen, while a third was soon seen to leave the main body
and stay behind, evidently in difficulties. I could not load very well
while going at full speed, so reduced my pace a little to accomplish it.
I had scarcely completed the operation, when my horse came down on his
head with a crash, and rolled over, flinging me far from him. I came
down on my hands and shoulder, and fortunately was not hurt. Upon
getting up, I found, to my disgust, that I had broken the stock of my
gun: the trigger-guard alone