He could hardly speak for want of breath, having run
the whole way to my rescue, but I could understand that he had only one
barrel loaded, and no bullets left. I dared not turn my face from the
buffalo, but I cautioned B. to reserve his fire till the bull should be
close into me, and then to aim at the head.
The words were hardly uttered, when, with the concentrated rage of the
last twenty minutes, he rushed straight at me! It was the work of an
instant. B. fired without effect. The horns were lowered, their points
were on either side of me, and the muzzle of the gun barely touched his
forehead when I pulled the trigger, and three shillings' worth of small
change rattled into his hard head. Down he went, and rolled over with
the suddenly checked momentum of his charge. Away went B. and I as fast
as our heels would carry us, through the water and over the plain,
knowing that he was not dead but only stunned. There was a large fallen
tree about half a mile from us, whose whitened branches, rising high
above the ground, offered a tempting asylum. To this we directed our
flying steps, and, after a run of a hundred yards, we turned and looked
behind us. He had regained his feet and was following us slowly. We now
experienced the difference of feeling between hunting and being hunted,
and fine sport we must have afforded him.
On he came, but fortunately so stunned by the collision with her
Majesty's features upon the coin which he had dared to oppose that he
could only reel forward at a slow canter. By degrees even this pace
slackened, and he fell. We were only too glad to be able to reduce our
speed likewise, but we had no sooner stopped to breathe, than he was
again up and after us. At length, however, we gained the tree, and we
beheld him with satisfaction stretched powerless upon the ground, but
not dead, within two hundred yards of us.
We retreated under cover of the forest to the spot at which we had left
the horses, fortunately meeting no opposition from wild animals, and we
shortly arrived at the village at which we took up our quarters, vowing
vengeance on the following morning for the defeat that we had sustained.
A man is a poor defenceless wretch if left to defend himself against
wild animals with the simple natural weapons of arms, legs, and teeth. A
tom-cat would almost be a match for him. He has legs which will neither
serve him for pursuit or escape if he is forced to trust only in his
speed. He has strength of limb which is useless without some artificial
weapon. He is an animal who, without the power of reason, could not even
exist in a wild state; his brain alone gives him the strength to support
his title of lord of the creation.
