"We Took A Direct Course Towards The Animals I Had Shot On The
Previous Evening, Meeting With No Game Except
A large troop of
dog-faced baboons (Cynocephali), until we reached the body of the
tetel (Antelopus Bubalis), which lay
Undisturbed; leaving people
to flay it carefully, so that the skin should serve as a water or
corn sack, we continued our path towards the dead giraffes.
"I had not proceeded far, before I saw, at about a mile distant,
a motionless figure, as though carved from red granite; this I
felt sure was a giraffe acting as sentry for another party that
was not yet in view; I therefore sent my men on towards the dead
giraffes, while, accompanied by Florian's black servant Richarn,*
who was a good sportsman, and a couple of additional men, I
endeavoured to stalk the giraffe. It was impossible to obtain a
favourable wind, without exposing ourselves upon flat ground,
where we should have been immediately perceived; I therefore
arranged that my men should make a long circuit and drive the
giraffe, while I would endeavour to intercept it. This plan
failed; but shortly after the attempt, I observed a herd of about
a hundred of these splendid creatures, browsing on the mimosas
about half a mile distant. For upwards of three hours I employed
every artifice to obtain a shot, but to no purpose, as upon my
approach to within a quarter of a mile, they invariably chose
open ground, leaving a sentry posted behind the herd, while two
or three kept a look-out well in advance.
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