Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-11-11
EXTRA, IOWA; THURSDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1897
HIN TING i'm bLor,oeu,oLANC

il JN TING i'm bLNr,uen,oLANC |
The Eold Afrikander 1rishman Who Was
Guide to the Huntsman.
The following is an extract from
a letter to friends in Providence
dated at Johannesburg, South At
RIGA:
On the day that my letter left on
the mail train | started out with
two American friends on hunting
trip in Bechuanaland. We took the
train at S:25 in the morning for
Mafeklng and arrived there the next
day. Basuto Eonies, guns, ammu-
milton, Scotch cart, guide and Mig
ger were hired there, and the next
day we started on our trip, and let
me tell you it was cleaner.
was too weak to ride my horse all
day and had to get off and stay in
the cart the first two days; then /
got little stronger and stuck it out
with the rest: Boys, it was a treat
sleeping out in the open air 5000
feet above the ocean. eating bread
and game twice day, riding about
ten miles each day, outside of the
chase. tell you, it put new life
into me, and it is there yet. Well,
the second day out we struck the
first antelope and springbok That
meant fresh meat; no more canned
goods after that. In all we shot two
leopards, one ant bear, four porcu-
pines, three buffaloes, any number
of wild pigs and springbok and an
telope. We had more than we
needed. l found that could shoot
better than expected.
Just let me tell you something
about our guide. He was an Irish
Afrikander, reckless and without
fear and one of the bravest men l
have ever seen. His name was
Beane. AS we were riding along one
day toward evening looking for
camp our three dogs started up
something which we thought was a
wild pig. The grass was about 10
feet high, and we couldn't see, so
we started after them, following the
bark, and when we came there was
leopard up three yards on a big
gum tree, and one of the dogs had
him by the neck, bit fast, and he
couldn't go any farther. What do
you suppose the Irishman didf He
jumps off his horse, takes the leop-
ard by the tail, pulls him off the
tree, the other two dogs take hold
of him, and he kicks the leopard in
sensible. l got lock afterward and
knocked his brains out.
One day as we were out looking
for bucks we heard roar, nothing
like had ever heard before. 1t was
the roar of a lion, the only one we
met in the two weeks we were out,
an unearthly sound. Saunders and
myself lodged behind a tree very
suddenly and then waited. He came
within rs yards of us, and then he
smelled a rat, turned tail and skip
ped. He had business elsewhere;
was more scared than we were. We
banged at him, but he only went SO
much faster. That is the king of
beasts7" Nonsensel do not believe
in him any more. We shot a lot Of
other stuff, too, but all the big game,
as elephants, giraffes, etc., is nearly
wiped out. You must go up as far
as the Zambezi to find it, which l
hope to do some day.
The only thing that is dangerous
about here is snakes. Idon't mean
the snakes that you are thinking of,
but real live snakes. Oh, what
lot you find here! At night we put
buffalo manure, all dried, on the
fire in order to keep it burning, and
then we would sneak away from it
about 40 or SO yards. The creepers
go where it is warm, and we were
pretty nearly safe. Harry Saunders,
Boston chap, shook snake out of
his boot one morning l have been
shaking my boots ever since, al
though there are no snakes about.
One day l got a nasty fall on ac-
count of one of the big ones hanging
in a tree. didn't see it, but the
horse did He takes very sudden
jump. off | go, and away goes the
horse. When | picked myself up,
and had look about, spied the
sucker. He was Watching me, so
concluded to look after the horse
instead of the snake. Beane, the
guide, says to me, why don't you
go and wiring his kf"-Provi-
dence journal.