The Gorilla Hunters

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER TEN.

  WATER APPRECIATED--DESTRUCTIVE FILES, ETCETERA.

  Our first start from the village where we had been entertained sohospitably and so long was productive of much amusement to ourselves andto the natives.

  We had determined to accept of three oxen from the chief, and to ridethese when we felt fatigued; but we thought it best to let our nativeporters carry our baggage on their shoulders, as they had hitherto done.

  When the animals were led up to our hut, we could not refrain fromlaughing. They were three sturdy-looking dark-skinned oxen, withwicked-looking black eyes and very long horns.

  "Now, Jack, do you get up first," said Peterkin, "and show us what weare to expect."

  "Nay, lad; I am still entitled to be considered an invalid: so you mustget up first, and not only so, but you must try them all, in order thatI may be enabled to select the quietest."

  "Upon my word, you are becoming despotic in your sickness, and youforget that it is but a short time since I came down from a journey tothe sky, and that my poor bones are still tender. But here goes. I wasborn to be victimised, so I submit to the decrees of Fate."

  Peterkin went up to one of the oxen and attempted to mount it; but theanimal made a demonstration of an intention to gore him, and obstinatelyobjected to this.

  "Hold him tight, Mak," he cried, after several futile attempts to mount."I was always good at leap-frog when a schoolboy; see if I don't bringmy powers into play now."

  So saying, he went behind the ox, took a short race and sprang with theagility of a monkey over its tail on to its back! The ox began to kickand sidle and plunge heavily on receiving this unexpected load; but itsrider held on well, until it took it into its head to dart under aneighbouring tree, the lower branches of which swept him off and causedhim to fall with a heavy plump to the ground.

  "I told you so," he cried, rising with a rueful face, and rubbinghimself as he limped forward. However, his pain was more than halfaffected, for the next minute he was on the back of another ox. Thisone also proved restive, but not so much so as the first. The third wasa very quiet animal, so Jack appropriated it as his charger.

  Having bade adieu to the chief and rubbed noses with him and withseveral of our friends in the village, we all three got upon our novelsteeds and set forth. But we had not got away from the village morethan a mile when the two restive oxen began to display a firmdetermination to get rid of their intolerable burden. Mine commenced toback and sidle, and Peterkin's made occasional darts forward, and thenstopping suddenly, refused to budge a step. We lost all patience atlast, and belaboured them soundly with twigs, the effect of which was tomake them advance rather slowly, and evidently under protest.

  "Look out for branches," cried Peterkin as we came up to a narrow beltof wood.

  I had scarcely time to raise my head when I was swept off my seat andhurled to the ground by a large branch. Peterkin's attention was drawnto me, and his ox, as if aware of the fact, seized the opportunity toswerve violently to one side, thereby throwing its rider off. Bothanimals gave a bellow, as of triumph, erected their tails, and ran away.They were soon recaptured, however, by our negroes; and mounting oncemore, we belaboured them well and continued our journey. In course oftime they became more reconciled to their duties; but I cannot say thatI ever came to enjoy such riding, and all of us ultimately agreed thatit was a most undesirable thing to journey on ox-back.

  Thus we commenced our journey over this desert or plain of Africa, andat the end of many weeks found ourselves approaching that part of thecountry near the equator in which the gorilla is said to dwell. On theway we had many adventures, some of an amusing, some of a dangerouscharacter, and I made many additions to my collection of animals,besides making a number of valuable and interesting notes in my journal;but all this I am constrained to pass over, in order to introduce myreader to those regions in which some of our most wonderful adventuresoccurred.

  One or two things, however, I must not omit to mention.

  In passing over the desert we suffered much from want of water.Frequently the poor oxen had to travel two or three days without tastinga drop, and their distress was so great that we more than once thoughtof turning them adrift at the first good watering-place we should cometo, and proceed, as formerly, on foot; for we had all recovered ourwonted vigour, and were quite capable of standing the fatigues of thejourney as well as our men. But several times we had found the countrydestitute of game, and were reduced to the point of starvation; so wecontinued to keep the oxen, lest we should require them for food.

  On one occasion we were wending our way slowly along the bed of what inthe rainy season would become a large river, but which was now sothoroughly dry that we could not find even a small pool in which theoxen might slake their thirst. They had been several days absolutelywithout a drop of water, while we were reduced to a mouthful or two perman in the day. As we could not exist much longer without thelife-giving fluid, Jack dismounted, and placing the load of one of themen on the ox's back, sent him off in advance to look for water. We hadthat morning seen the footprints of several animals which are so fond ofwater that they are never found at any great distance from some spotwhere it may be found. We therefore felt certain of falling in with itere long.

  About two hours afterwards our negro returned, saying that he haddiscovered a pool of rain-water, and showing the marks of mud on hisknees in confirmation of the truth of what he said.

  "Ask him if there's much of it, Mak," said Jack, as we crowded eagerlyround the man.

  "Hims say there be great plenty ob it--'nuff to tumble in."

  Gladdened by this news we hastened forward. The oxen seemed to havescented the water from afar, for they gradually became more animated,and quickened their pace of their own accord, until they at last brokeinto a run. Peterkin and I soon outstripped our party, and quiteenjoyed the gallop.

  "There it is," cried my comrade joyfully, pointing to a gleaming pond ina hollow of the plain not two hundred yards off.

  "Hurrah!" I shouted, unable to repress my delight at the sight.

  The oxen rushed madly forward, and we found that they were away with us.No pulling at our rope-bridles had any effect on them. My companion,foreseeing what would happen, leaped nimbly off just as he reached themargin of the pond. I being unable to collect my thoughts for theemergency, held on. My steed rushed into the water up to the neck, andstumbling as he did so, threw me into the middle of the pond, out ofwhich I scrambled amidst the laughter of the whole party, who came upalmost as soon as the oxen, so eager were they to drink.

  After appeasing our own thirst we stood looking at the oxen, and itreally did our hearts good to see the poor thirsty creatures enjoythemselves so thoroughly. They stood sucking in the water as if theymeant to drink up the whole pond, half shutting their eyes, which becamemild and amiable in appearance under the influence of extremesatisfaction. Their sides, which had been for the last two days in astate of collapse, began to swell, and at last were distended to such anextent that they seemed as if ready to burst. In point of fact thecreatures were actually as full as they could hold; and when at lengththey dragged themselves slowly, almost unwillingly, out of the pool, anysudden jerk or motion caused some of the water to run out of theirmouths!

  Some time after that we were compelled to part with our poor steeds, inconsequence of their being bitten by an insect which caused their death.

  This destructive fly, which is called tsetse, is a perfect scourge insome parts of Africa. Its bite is fatal to the horse, ox, and dog, yet,strange to say, it is not so to man or to wild animals. It is not muchlarger than the common house-fly, and sucks the blood in the same manneras the mosquito, by means of a proboscis with which it punctures theskin. When man is bitten by it, no more serious evil than slightitching of the part follows. When the ox is bitten no serious effectfollows at first, but a few days afterwards a running takes place at theeyes and nose, swellings appear under the jaw and on other parts
of thebody, emaciation quickly follows, even although the animal may continueto graze, and after a long illness, sometimes of many weeks, it dies ina state of extreme exhaustion.

  The tsetse inhabits certain localities in great numbers, while otherplaces in the immediate neighbourhood are entirely free. Those natives,therefore, who have herds of cattle avoid the dangerous regions mostcarefully; yet, despite their utmost care, they sometimes comeunexpectedly on the _habitat_ of this poisonous fly, and lose thegreater part of their cattle.

  When our poor oxen were bitten and the fatal symptoms began to appear,we knew that their fate was sealed; so we conducted them into a pleasantvalley on which we chanced to alight, where there was plenty of grassand water, and there we left them to die.

  Another incident occurred to us in this part of our journey which isworthy of record.

  One day Peterkin and I had started before our party with our rifles, andhad gone a considerable distance in advance of them, when weunexpectedly came upon a band of natives who were travelling in anopposite direction. Before coming up with their main body, we met withone of their warriors, who came upon us suddenly in the midst of awooded spot, and stood rooted to the earth with fear and amazement; atwhich, indeed, we were not much surprised, for as he had probably neverseen white faces before, he must have naturally taken us for ghosts orphantoms of some sort.

  He was armed with shield and spear, but his frame was paralysed withterror. He seemed to have no power to use his weapons. At first wealso stood in silent wonder, and returned his stare with interest; butafter a few seconds the comicality of the man's appearance tickledPeterkin so much that he burst into a fit of laughter, which had theeffect of increasing the terror of the black warrior to such a degreethat his teeth began to chatter in his head. He actually grew livid inthe face. I never beheld a more ghastly countenance.

  "I say, Ralph," observed my companion, after recovering his composure,"we must try to show this fellow that we don't mean him any harm, elsehe'll die of sheer fright."

  Before I could reply, or any steps could be taken towards this end, hisparty came up, and we suddenly found ourselves face to face with atleast a hundred men, all of whom were armed with spears or bows andarrows. Behind them came a large troop of women and children. Theywere all nearly naked, and I observed that they were blacker in the skinthan most of the negroes we had yet met with.

  "Here's a pretty mess," said Peterkin, looking at me.

  "What is to be done?" said I.

  "If we were to fire at them, I'd lay a bet they'd run away like thewind," replied my comrade; "but I can't bear to think of shedding humanblood if it can possibly be avoided."

  While we spoke, the negroes, who stood about fifty yards distant fromus, were consulting with each other in eager voices, but never for amoment taking their eyes off us.

  "What say you to fire over their heads?" I suggested.

  "Ready, present, then," cried Peterkin, with a recklessness of mannerthat surprised me.

  We threw forward our rifles, and discharged them simultaneously.

  The effect was tremendous. The whole band--men, women, and children--uttered an overwhelming shriek, and turning round, fled in mad confusionfrom the spot. Some of the warriors turned, however, ere they had gonefar, and sent a shower of spears at us, one of which went close past mycheek.

  "We have acted rashly, I fear," said I, as we each sought shelter behinda tree.

  No doubt the savages construed this act of ours into an admission thatwe did not consider ourselves invulnerable, and plucked up courageaccordingly, for they began again to advance towards us, though withhesitation. I now saw that we should be compelled to fight for ourlives, and deeply regretted my folly in advising Peterkin to fire overtheir heads; but happily, before blood was drawn on either side,Makarooroo and Jack came running towards us. The former shouted anexplanation of who and what we were to our late enemies, and in lessthan ten minutes we were mingling together in the most amicable manner.

  We found that these poor creatures were starving, having failed toprocure any provisions for some time past, and they were then on theirway to another region in search of game. We gave them as much of ourprovisions as we could spare, besides a little tobacco, which affordedthem inexpressible delight. Then rubbing noses with the chief, weparted and went on our respective ways.