“One can not well blame them; I’m sure a pound of tobacco would not persuade me to put my head into a lion’s mouth; but I agree with you, we are too near the pool, and as we must collect the cattle to secure them during the night, I think we had better fill our water-kegs, and then yoke 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 forward about a mile from the pool; they then secured them to the wagons and lighted large fires round the caravan.

The Major was correct as regarded the Hottentots’ procuring an ant-eater for Swinton; they would not leave the fires, and the continual approach of 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, and her clinging to the Major, the trembling of the dogs, and the uneasiness of the cattle, invariably gave notice of lions being at hand.  Shots were fired off during the night, to keep them at a distance, but otherwise the night passed away undisturbed.

They started the following morning about daybreak, and, at the same time, the Caffres took their departure to their own country.  The ground over which the caravan traveled was stony and sandy at intervals, and they had not proceeded far before they again discovered a great variety of game dispersed over the level plain.  They did not, however, attempt to pursue them, as they were anxious to go on as far as possible, so as to give the oxen an opportunity of picking up what little food they could during the middle of the day, at which time the Major and Alexander proposed that they should go in pursuit of game.  But before they 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 the migratory herds of springboks; I have never seen them, but I have often been told of them.”

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

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