The Mission

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER XVII.

  THE RETURN.

  The delight of the Hottentots at the announcement of the return of theexpedition was not to be concealed; and now that they knew that theywere retreating from the danger, as they were further removed theybecame proportionately brave. We must not include all the Hottentots inthis observation, as Bremen, Swanevelt, and one or two more, were reallybrave men; but we do refer to the principal portion of them, with BigAdam at their head, who now flourished and vapored about, as if he couldby himself kill and eat the whole army of the dreaded Quetoo.

  As it was the intention of our travelers to pass over the Mambookeichain of mountains, into the Bushman and Koranna territory, they did notreturn the same route by which they came, but more to the westwardthrough the territory of the Tambookie Caffres, not any one timeentering upon the territory of the Amakosas, the tribe of Caffresgoverned by Hinza, who had lent them his warriors.

  Voosani, the chief of the Tambookies, was very friendly, and had offeredno opposition to their passage through a portion of his domains on theiradvance. They now lost no time, but continued their journey as fast asthey could, although during the day they saw a great quantity of game,and were almost every night saluted with the roaring of the lions.

  In a week they found themselves on the banks of the White Kae River, andnot far from the foot of the mountains which they intended to pass. Herethey halted, with the intention of remaining some few days, that theymight unload and re-arrange the packing of their wagons, repair what wasnecessary, and provide themselves with more oxen and sheep for theirjourney in the sterile territory of the Bushmen.

  During their route, the rumors relative to the army of Quetoo wereincessant. He had attacked and murdered Lieut. Farewell and his people,who were on a trading expedition in the interior, and taken possessionof and plundered their wagons. Flushed with success over white peoplearmed with muskets, Quetoo had now resolved to turn his army to thesouthward, and attack the tribes of the Amaponda Caffres, governed byFakoo, and the missionary station of Morley, lately established near thecoast, between the St. John and the Umtata rivers.

  To effect this, Quetoo commenced his ravages upon all the lesser tribestributary to Fakoo, and having put them to indiscriminate slaughter,driven away their cattle, and burned their kraals, his army advanced tothe missionary station, which the missionaries were compelled to desert,and fall back upon the St. John River.

  One of the men belonging to the tribe near Morley came to the caravanwhere our travelers had halted, and, on being questioned as to the lossthey had experienced, cried out, "Ask not how many are killed, but howmany are saved: our wives, where are they? and our children, do you seeany of them?"

  But Fakoo, the chief of the Amapondas, had roused himself and collectedhis army. He resolved upon giving battle to the enemy. He found theAmaquibi encamped in a forest, and he surrounded them with a superiorarmy; he then contrived, by attacking and retreating, to lead them intoa position from which there was no escape but by the pass by which theyhad entered, and which he completely blocked up with his own forces.

  The Amaquibi could not retreat, and a furious conflict took place, whichended in the destruction of the whole of Quetoo's army. Quetoo himselfwas not present, as he still remained confined with the wound he hadreceived in the prior engagement, in which he had been victorious. Aportion of Fakoo's army was sent against him, and he fled with the lossof all the cattle and treasures he had collected; and thus was theinvading force at last totally dispersed and not heard of any more.

  This news was very satisfactory to our travelers, as they did not knowwhether they would have had time to make their arrangements, if Quetoo'sarmy had been victorious; and it was still more pleasing to theHottentots, who were now even braver than before, all lamenting thatthey had not remained on the banks of the Umtata River, where the combattook place, that they might have assisted at the destruction of theinvaders.

  It was toward the end of August before our travelers had made theirpreparations and were ready for a start. They had decided to try thepass through the Mambookei chain of mountains, to the eastward of theone named Stormbergen, and as they expected to meet with somedifficulties, it was decided that the Caffre warriors should not bedismissed till they had arrived at the Bushman territory; they proposedthen to turn to the N.W., so as to fall in with that portion of theOrange River which was known by the name of the Vaal or Yellow River,crossing the Black or Cradock River, which is also another branch of theOrange River.

  This arrangement was made, that they might get into the country moreabounding with game, and better furnished with water than any otherportion of the sterile deserts which they had to pass through.

  Having, as usual, kept holy the Lord's day, on the Monday morning theystarted in high spirits, and with their cattle in excellent order. Thepassage through the ravine was very difficult; they had to fill upholes, roll away stones, and very often put double teams to drag thewagons.

  They made but ten miles on the first day, and found the night cold,after the heat to which they had been subjected. The second day was alsoone of toil and danger, but on the third they found that they hadcommenced the descent, and the whole Bushman country was spread beforethem. But the descent was even more perilous than the ascent, and it wasnot without great exertion that they saved their wagons from fallingover the precipices.

  On the fourth evening they had crossed the mountains, and were now atthe foot of them on the western side. It was with difficulty that theycollected wood enough to make their fires for the night, and thecontinual roaring told them that they were now in the domain of thelion and his satellites.

  At break of day they all rose, that they might view the country whichthey were about to traverse. It was one wild desert of sand and stones,interspersed with small shrubs, and here and there a patch of bushes;apparently one vast, dry, arid plain, with a haze over it, arising fromthe heat. Our travelers, however, did not at first notice this change;their eyes were fixed upon the groups of quaggas and various antelopeswhich were strewed over the whole face of the country; and, as soon asthey had taken their breakfast, they mounted their horses in pursuit. Ithad been their intention to have dismissed the Caffres on that morning,but the chief of the band pointed out that it would be as well that theyshould kill some game, to provide them with food for their journey back;and our travelers approved of the suggestion, as it would save theirsheep.

  Alexander and the Major set off with Bremen, Swanevelt, and Omrah onhorseback, while the Caffres on foot kept well up with them. The otherHottentots were ordered to remain with Swinton at the encampment, asthey had to repair the damages done to the wagons in crossing themountains.

  Omrah had shown himself so useful, that he had been permitted topractice with a fowling-piece carrying ball, and had proved himself veryexpert. He now was mounted on the Major's spare horse; that in case theMajor's was knocked up, he might change it, for Omrah's weight was amere nothing.

  The plan of the chase was, that the Caffres should spread in ahalf-circle, and conceal themselves as much as possible, while those onhorseback should turn the animals and drive them in their direction. Asthey advanced on the plain, they discovered what the haze had preventedtheir seeing at early dawn, that the plain was covered with a variety ofbeautiful flowers, of the amaryllis and other tribes, and with the hillsof ants and ant-eaters' holes, which latter were very dangerous to thehorses.

  The sun was now up in the heavens, and blazed fiercely; the heat wasintense, although still early in the day. When they turned their headstoward the mountains which they had passed, they were struck withastonishment at the grandeur of the scene: rocks and cliffs in wildchaos, barren ridges and towering peaks, worn by time into castellatedfortresses and other strange shapes, calling to their fancy the ruins ofa former world. With the exception of a pool of water, near to which thecaravan had halted, not a vestige of that element was to be seen in anydirection; all was one plain, ending only in the horizon, without atree, the line o
nly broken by the groups of animals and the long necksof the packs of ostriches in the distance.

  If, however, the vegetable kingdom was deficient, the animal wasproportionably abundant, and Alexander and the Major were soon at theirspeed after a troop of quaggas and zebras, which they succeeded inturning toward the Caffres. As soon as the animals had entered theradius of the half-circle, and were within distance, they checked theirhorses and opened their fire upon them; at the same time the Caffresshowed themselves, and the animals were for a time confounded by findingthemselves so nearly surrounded.

  During their hesitation, and while they attempted to break through hereand there, and then turned again, several were brought to the ground bythe guns of the mounted party, till at last, as if they had summoned uptheir resolution, the whole herd, led by a splendid male, burst away ina direction close to the horsemen, and made their escape from the circlein a cloud of dust, scattering the stones behind them as they fled.

  The Caffres ran up to the animals which lay wounded, and put them out oftheir misery by inserting the point of their assaguays into the spine,which caused immediate death. Seven animals were killed, three zebrasand four quaggas; and as Swinton had requested that they might not becut up till he had ascertained if he required their skins, Omrah wassent back to bring him to where they were lying.

  Swinton soon came, and Alexander said to him, "Now, Swinton, let us knowif you want any of the skins of these animals to preserve."

  "No," replied Swinton, "I have them already; I just thought it possiblethat you might have killed a zebra."

  "Well, have we not? there are three of them."

  "No, my good fellow, they are not of the real zebra species; they belongto a class described by Burchell, the traveler, which is termed thestriped quagga. The quagga and striped quagga, as you may see, have theears of a horse, while the zebra has those of the ass. The true zebrahardly ever descends upon the plains, but lives altogether upon themountainous regions; occasionally it may be found, it is true, and thatis the reason why I came to see."

  "Are they good eating, these animals?"

  "The quagga is very indifferent food, but the striped quagga is verypassable; so if you intend to save any for our dinner, pray let it besome of the latter. Have you done hunting to-day?"

  "Yes," replied the Major, "if Wilmot is of my opinion, I think we hadbetter not work our horses any more just now; the plain is so full oflarge holes,--ant-eaters' holes, Bremen says they are."

  "Yes, they are ant-eaters' holes, and very dangerous; I have seen themseveral feet deep. If we do not start to-day, I will ask the Hottentotsto try and procure one for me to-night, as I wish to have a stuffedspecimen."

  "We do not intend to start till to-morrow morning," replied Alexander;"we must dismiss the Caffres to-night, that they may be also ready to gohome to-morrow. They will now have provisions enough."

  Our travelers now rode back to the caravan, leaving the Caffres to bringhome the flesh. As soon as they had dined, the chief of the warriors wasdesired to come with all his men, and Alexander then made every man ahandsome present, consisting of tobacco, snuff, cloth, knives and beads.To the chief of the band he gave three times as much as the others, andthen, having delivered to him a very liberal collection of articles fortheir king Hinza, Alexander told the chief to acquaint the king that hehad been very much pleased with the conduct of the men, and thanked hismajesty for the loan of them, and requested that his majesty wouldaccept of the packet of articles which he had selected for him.

  He then thanked the men for their good conduct, told them to take allthe flesh that they wished for the journey, and stated that they were atliberty to depart that evening or the next morning, as they thoughtproper. The Caffres were perfectly satisfied with Alexander'sliberality, and the chief of the warriors, making a short speech inreply, retired with his men.

  "Well, I'm very sorry that these fine fellows are leaving," said theMajor.

  "And so am I; but I could not well detain them, and they said that theycould not go further with us without the king's permission," repliedAlexander.

  "Of course not," replied the Major; "but that does not lessen my regretat their departure; they have been both steady and brave, as well asactive and willing, and I do not expect that our Hottentots will serveus so well."

  "You are right not to expect it, Major," replied Swinton; "if you did,you would be miserably disappointed. If they knew now where we weregoing, they would desert us. The only hold that we have upon the greaternumber of them is their fear; they go forward because they are afraid togo back; but if they could get hold of our horses, with their guns andammunition, they would leave us as soon as we advanced in the desert."

  "Very true, I fear; but we have a few stanch fellows among them, and twoat least whom we can depend upon--Bremen and Swanevelt."

  "How far is it from here to the Black River, Swinton?"

  "About forty miles; not so much perhaps to the river's bed, but at leastthat, if not more, before we shall fall in with any water at this seasonof the year."

  "We must not fail to fill our water-kegs before we leave this."

  "No, for we shall have no water to-night, that is certain. We can nottravel more than twenty miles over such a country as this; for turninghere and there to avoid the holes and ant-hills, the twenty miles willbe at least thirty," said Swinton; "but now I must go and tell theHottentots to find me what I want: a pound of tobacco will procure it, Ihave no doubt."

  "But I have mine," observed the Major, after Swinton was gone; "we aretoo near the pool, and we shall be surrounded with lions to-night; theHottentots may pretend that they will go, but they will not."

  "One can not well blame them; I'm sure a pound of tobacco would notpersuade me to put my head into a lion's mouth; but I agree with you, weare too near the pool, and as we must collect the cattle to secure themduring the night, I think we had better fill our water-kegs, and thenyoke and take up a position for the night about half a mile further off.But here comes Swinton, who can give us his advice."

  As Swinton agreed with them, they yoked the oxen, and drove forwardabout a mile from the pool; they then secured them to the wagons andlighted large fires round the caravan.

  The Major was correct as regarded the Hottentots' procuring an ant-eaterfor Swinton; they would not leave the fires, and the continual approachof the lions during the night proved that they were wise in so doing.There was no occasion for the lions to roar; the moaning of Begum, andher clinging to the Major, the trembling of the dogs, and the uneasinessof the cattle, invariably gave notice of lions being at hand. Shots werefired off during the night, to keep them at a distance, but otherwisethe night passed away undisturbed.

  They started the following morning about daybreak, and, at the sametime, the Caffres took their departure to their own country. The groundover which the caravan traveled was stony and sandy at intervals, andthey had not proceeded far before they again discovered a great varietyof game dispersed over the level plain. They did not, however, attemptto pursue them, as they were anxious to go on as far as possible, so asto give the oxen an opportunity of picking up what little food theycould during the middle of the day, at which time the Major andAlexander proposed that they should go in pursuit of game. But beforethey had traveled three hours, they were surprised at a cloud of dust,which obscured the horizon, in the direction they were proceeding.

  "What can that be?" said Alexander.

  "I think it is springbok," said Bremen the Hottentot.

  "Springbok! why, there must be thousands and thousands of them."

  "I believe that Bremen is right," said Swinton; "it must be one of themigratory herds of springboks; I have never seen them, but I have oftenbeen told of them."

  The body of antelopes now advanced toward them, keeping on a straightpath; and to state their numbers would have been impossible: there mighthave been fifty or a hundred thousand, or more. As far as the eye couldsee in any direction, it was one moving mass covering the whole plain.As th
ey approached the caravan, those nearest huddled on one side andoccasionally bounded away with the remarkable springs made by thisanimal, and from which it has its name, alighting not upon the earth,but, for want of room, upon the backs of its companions, and thendropping in between the ranks.

  A hazy vapor arose from these countless herds as they moved on, and morethan once the Hottentots, who were standing on the wagons, which hadbeen stopped as the herd came up to them, pointed out a lion which wasjourneying with the crowds to feast at his leisure. The animals appearedvery tame, and several were killed close to the wheels of the wagons,for the evening's supper. Notwithstanding that the herd moved at a rapidpace, it was more than two hours before the whole had passed by.

  "Well," observed Alexander, "I can now say that I have seen no want ofgame in Africa. Where will they go to?"

  "They will go directly on to the southward," replied Swinton; "themigration of these animals is one of the most remarkable proofs of thefecundity of animal life. Like the ants, they devour every thing beforethem; and if we journey in the direction they have come from, we shallfind no food for the cattle until after the rains. After the rains fall,these animals will return to their former pastures. It is the want offood which has brought them so far to the southward."

  "Their track is evidently from the north and eastward," said the Major;"had we not better change our course more to the northward?"

  "No, I should think not; they have probably traveled on this side of theNu Gariep or Black River. We shall have neither water nor food for thecattle to-night, and therefore I think we had better go on as we aregoing, so as to make sure of water for them to-morrow, at all events.It's useless now stopping to feed the cattle, we had better continueright on till the evening; we shall sooner arrive at the river, and sogain by it."

  It was but half an hour before dark that they unyoked the tired oxen.Water or grass there was none; and, what was another misfortune, theycould not find sufficient wood of any kind to keep up the necessaryfires during the night. All they could collect before dark was butenough for one fire, and they considered it better, therefore, that onlyone should be lighted.

  The wagons were drawn up so as to form a square, inside of which weretied the horses; the sheep were driven underneath, and the oxen weretied up outside. They feasted well themselves upon the delicate meat ofthe springboks, but the poor animals had neither food nor water aftertheir hard day's journey.

  As soon as they had supped they retired to their wagons, and theHottentots remained by the side of the fire, which was but frugallysupplied, that it might last till morning; but that there were lionsprowling in the vicinity was evident from the restlessness of the oxen,who tried to break the leathern thongs with which they were fastened.

  The moon had just risen, and showed an imperfect light, when theyperceived the bodies of some animals between them and the horizon. Theyappeared very large, as they always do in an imperfect light, and theHottentots soon made out that they were five or six lions not fortyyards distant. The truth of this supposition was confirmed by an angryroar from one of them, which induced most of the Hottentots to seizetheir guns, and some to creep under the wagons.

  The oxen now struggled furiously to escape, for the, roar of the lionshad spread consternation.

  Our travelers heard it in their wagons, and were out with their guns ina minute. At last one of the oxen broke loose, and, as it was runningbehind its companions, as if seeking a more secure shelter, being notmore than three or four yards from them, another roar was followed by aspring of one of the lions, which bore the animal to the earth.

  The Major and Wilmot were advancing before the fire to the attack, whenthe animal for a moment let go his prey, and was about to spring uponthem. Bremen called out for them to retreat, which they did, as theanimal advanced step by step toward them.

  Satisfied with their retiring, the lion then went to his prey, anddragged it to a distance of about fifty yards, where it commenced itsmeal; and they distinctly heard, although they could not plainlydistinguish, the tearing of the animal's flesh and the breaking of itsbones by the lion, while its bellowings were most pitiful.

  They all now fired in the direction where they heard the noise; the lionreplied to the volley by a tremendous roar, and rushed up within twentyyards of the wagons, so as to be distinctly visible. Bremen begged ourtravelers not to molest the animal, as it was evidently very hungry andvery angry, and would certainly make a spring upon them, which must beattended with disastrous effects.

  The other lions were also now moving round and round the camp; theytherefore reloaded their guns, and remained still, looking at the liontearing and devouring his prey.

  "We must be quiet here," said Bremen to Alexander; "there are many lionsround us, and our fire is not sufficient to scare them away, and theymay attack us."

  "Would it not be better to fire our guns,--that would frighten them?"

  "Yes, sir, it would frighten the other lions, perhaps, but it wouldenrage this one so near to us, and he would certainly make a charge. Wehad better throw a little gunpowder upon some ashes now and then, as wehave but a small fire: the flash will drive them away for the time."

  In the mean time the lion was making his meal upon the poor ox, andwhen any other of the hungry lions approached him, he would rush atthem, and pursue them for some paces with a horrible growl, which madenot only the poor oxen, but the men also, to shudder as they heard it.

  In this manner was the night passed away, every one with his gun in hishand, expecting an immediate attack; but the morning at last dawned, tothe great relief of them all. The lions had disappeared, and they walkedout to where the old lion had made his meal, and found that he haddevoured nearly the whole of the ox; and such was the enormous strengthof his jaws, that the rib-bones were all demolished, and the bones ofthe legs, which are known as the marrow-bones, were broken as if by ahammer.

  "I really," observed the Major, "have more respect for a lion, the moreI become intimate with his feline majesty."

  "Well, but he is off," observed Swinton, "and I think we had better beoff too."