the village, which consists of some 500 or 600 beehive-like huts, varying in size according to the rank of the occupant. The king was absent from home, unfortunately for us, nor had we any other opportunity of seeing his majesty during our stay at the place; we had the honour, however, of paying our respects to his two queens. There was nothing in the dress or in the manner of either to distinguish them from the crowd of filthy rabble by which they were surrounded. A mantle of goatskin was their only garment, and a few paltry beads their sole ornament; I looked in vain for some mark of regal dignity, which even savages are wont to assume in the presence of strangers. Whilst we were engaged in visiting the ladies, our servants had been actively employed in trafficking with the natives. It was an amusing sight to behold the various emotions produced upon these barbarians, as each article of our little bazaar was successively displayed before their greedy eyes. At the close of the day we found ourselves masters of a pretty large stock of sheep, besides several hundred pounds of corn, in exchange for which we had given ten pounds of coarse gunpowder, and a handful of glass beads.

"The following day being Sunday, we halted in the forenoon, and, upon giving orders to span the bullocks on the morning of the 22nd, it was discovered that nearly half the herd was missing. They had strayed several miles back to the Madder River, and it was not until the 24th that they were all recovered, and that we were enabled to resume our journey. Three sharp marches of some twenty-five miles brought us to the banks of the Vet River, where we found a few Dutch families that had been carried away on the great tide of emigration that marked the year 1837. It appeared to me that they seemed to repent the step they had taken, as they spoke of their farms in the colony, and contrasted their former enjoyments and comforts with their present miserable lot. We found the exceeding familiarity of these people very troublesome, and no slight difficulty in getting them to quit our wagons, about which they hovered like so many vultures, watching for an opportunity to pounce upon everything that was exposed to their greedy gaze.

"1st July. We marched this day some twenty miles, and encamped upon a tributary of the Saut River. In crossing the latter stream, the next morning, three of our wagons stuck fast in the sandy bank on the opposite side; they were all, however, haply extricated without any damage, by dint of shouting and a simultaneous application of our long wagon whips. At the end of four hours we arrived at the farm of an emigrant boor, called De Bruin, with whom we found it necessary to leave ten of the oxen, and our only remaining cow, which were pronounced to be incapable of proceeding farther. Continuing our journey, we crossed a small range of stony hills, and entered suddenly upon a vast expanse of desert, destitute alike of tree or shrub, and bounded only by the distant horizon, the ruins of a few deserted stone craals being the only feature on the landscape that offered the slightest relief to the painful monotony of the scene. As the habitations of man receded from our view, and as we plunged deeper into the pathless waste, the game became more and more abundant. Troops of the white-tailed gnoo, followed by long lines of the pied antelope, and the spring buck, were continually bounding across our track.

"The following morning, leaving the cafila to proceed on their route, my two companions and myself, taking with us my servant, Watson, struck across the country in pursuit of the game: we speedily bagged a fat spring buck that fell to a well-directed shot from Fitzgerald's rifle.' Having expended some hours after the 'wild beast' without success, we all met on the side of an undulating slope, where we took off our saddles, and allowed our horses to graze for half an hour, previous to making the attempt to ride down the quagga, which we had just observed for the first time. Riding to the northward with my servant, who was mounted on my swiftest horse, we soon fell in with a large troop of zebras; a gallop of three miles brought one of the herd to a stand-still, a fine large mare, heavy with foal; despatching her with a single ball, I again pushed on to join Watson, who, half a mile in advance, was now in the very thick of the troop, singling out a fine young colt. We pursued him for a few hundred yards, when he, too, giving in, I endeavoured to secure him to our horses, with a view of bringing him to camp; but finding this to be impracticable, I finished his career with a shot through the head.

"It was now within two hours of sunset, and we had neither of us a very correct idea of the direction that our wagons had taken. The appearance of the country, and the bearing of three table mountains to the south-west, which I had noted in the morning, led us to think that an easterly course would bring us upon the road. Riding, therefore, in that direction, we came almost immediately upon an old wagon track; that this could not be our road seemed pretty certain, from the circumstance of its being so close to the scene of the zebra hunt, and from there being no fresh cattle marks upon it. We crossed it, therefore, and continued to ride to the eastward till the sun went down, when, perceiving no trace of another road, we both began to entertain some doubts regarding the one we had left behind, especially as it seemed to run in the direction which we believed our wagons to have taken. In the hope that it might, after all, prove to be the road which we were in search of, and that some accident might possibly have retarded the progress of the cafila, we turned our horses' heads to the west, and reached the road before dark. Finding no fresh trace upon it, we determined to ride back upon this road, hoping that, should it not conduct us to the wagons, it would at least lead us to some spot where we could obtain fuel for a fire. Continuing this course for nearly two hours by the light of the moon, we arrived at an 'uitspan,' or halting place, situated upon the banks of a partially dry rivulet-here we resolved to pass the night. Accordingly, taking off our saddles, and knee-fastening the horses, we set about collecting a sufficient supply of dry cattle-dung to last us through the long winter's night, selecting a sheltered spot in the ravine.

"Watson forthwith proceeded to light the fire, whilst I remained engaged in tending the two horses, as they fed upon the opposite bank of the rivulet. As the fire began to burn briskly, I left my post and joined my servant, but hardly had I reached the fire ere a piercing shriek from my trusty steed, Samson,' distinctly audible even amid the lion's roar, informed me of his melancholy fate. Rushing up the bank, gun in hand, and shouting with all my might, I discharged, at ten yards' distance, both barrels of my gun directly in the lion's face.

Releasing his prey, the savage beast suddenly sprung to his feet, and bounding along the broken bank of the nullah, was soon lost to my sight; whilst the scared and wounded horse rushed wildly away in the opposite direction, startling the dull ear of night with his fearful screams. At the same moment a succession of shrieks in another quarter betrayed to me the fall of my remaining horse, as he lay not fifty yards off, vainly struggling to free himself from the strong gripe of the enemy. We were entirely destitute of ammunition; any attempt, therefore, to have recovered poor' Samson' before morning, would have been as useless as it would have been perilous. Abandoning him, therefore, to his fate, we proceeded to take what precaution we could towards our own safety during the remainder of the night, and with this view shifted our quarters from the bed of the rivulet to the high ground above, where we kindled two fires, between which we kept watch during the night. Though destitute of ball, we had, luckily, plenty of powder, and thus were enabled to fire blank cartridge repeatedly during our long vigil. Towards morning the lions were bold enough to approach within a few yards of our position; a deep and long-continued roar announced the approach of the troop. Starting instantly to our feet, we seized the red-hot fire, and hurled it in the direction of our enemies; this had the immediate effect of causing them to retreat to the rivulet, nor did they again attempt to molest us. It froze hard during the night, as I discovered from the thickness of the ice in the nullah; but though destitute of covering, save my ordinary day-clothes, and with nothing betwixt me and the starry heavens, I never once experienced the least feeling of cold. The excitement produced upon me by being thus suddenly thrust, as it were, into a den of lions, lost in an uninhabited country, and separated (as I then imagined, for ever) from my companions, rendered me completely insensible to every feeling but that arising from the extreme danger of my situation. With the first streak of day we saw the lions, five in number, slowly returning from the scene of their bloody feast; and as each surrounding object became gradually clearer as the day opened, the mangled carcasses of the two horses met my view on the opposite bank of the rivulet, not fifty yards from where we had held our weary watch.

"Being quite unprovided with ammunition, except four charges of partridge shot, we resolved upon keeping to the road we were upon, which seemed to lead in the direction of Thakaooncha, distant about 120 miles. Accordingly, cutting a few slices off poor Chaka, Watson's horse, and concealing our saddles in a wolf's hole, we set forth, but had scarcely travelled half a mile before we lost all trace of the road. Nothing now remained for us but to shape a course of our own for the nearest point of the colony, which, from the position of the table mountains, adverted to before, I calculated to be about due south of our position. Adopting, accordingly, a southerly course, we walked for some two or three hours, when suddenly, and at the same moment, we became aware that we were approaching a well-defined wagon track. It proved to be our long-lost road. Those only who have been placed in similar circumstances of danger, and who have experienced the sickening effect of hope deferred, can appreciate my feelings at that happy moment, and understand the fulness of my gratitude to God for

our merciful deliverance. Taking up the track of the caravan, we here pressed on with light hearts and renewed spirits, and by five o'clock in the afternoon had the satisfaction of finding ourselves reunited to our party, after a separation from it of thirty-five hours, during which time we had neither slept nor tasted food."

(To be continued.)

THE HUNTER.

A TALE.

BY SIR JOHN DEAN PAUL, BART.

(Continued from page 352.

JUST then the young Lord Simple had come down,
Raw, rash, and witless, and quite fresh from town;
His stock of cash was large-of nerve but small,—
Panting for fame, but fearful of a fall.

To Lackland long had Simple been well-known;
The hawk had mark'd the pigeon for his own.
The hounds at Scraptoft met—a glorious run!—
Simple was there, but not a forward one;
He lost a shoe, went home, escaped a fright,
And heard the history well told at night.
Lackland went well! Sir James himself confest
That few went better-that he went the best.
Simple was told that, had he luck to buy

A nag so made as Pyramus, he'd fly.

"His price?" he said; "'foregad I'm here for fun!”

Eight hundred," answered Lackland.

"Then 'tis done."

"Dirt cheap," 'twas call'd. "Then bring us in more wine;

Bumpers, my boy; and now, my Lord, you'll shine!"

Between the acting of some dreadful deed,

And the first thought, how inwardly we bleed!

Chimeras rise, and dreams of awful hue;

The mortal spirits sombre shades indue ;*

And the whole state of man but shows how vain

The roads of pleasure are that lead to pain.
'Twas thus with Simple, tossing in his bed,
This way and that he turned his aching head :-
To ride, or not to ride! but ride he must,
And to his new bought nag his carcase trust;

• Indue.

VOL. VI.

"One first matter all Indued with various forms."

3 н

MILTON.

Then if awhile he drops into a sleep,
What fearful visions o'er his senses creep!
He sees a man upon a hurdle thrown,
And surgeons feeling for a broken bone;
Or dreams that now he's hanging by the mane,
With fruitless efforts striving to regain

His vacant seat:-he falls! and seems half-dead :
Then wakes, right glad to feel the feather-bed!

The morning finds him thus in terrors lost:
His valet enters ;—“ Thomas, is't a frost?"
'Twas his last hope.
"No, my Lord, mild and fair."
"Indeed!" he sigh'd, and sank into despair.
Though the glass rose, the spirits of our hero
Fell then, at once, and settled down at zero :
Nor is the case uncommon with the tribe
Who, by the name of sportsmen, we inscribe.
One half for fashion go; they ride in fear,
And any sound but Tally-ho! would hear.
Behold Lord Simple at the covert's side,
And Pyramus, too, there, in all the pride
Of high condition; with admiring eyes,
Applauding sportsmen envied him his prize.
He mounts, but not with ease; the restless steed
Of the groom's hand to hold him still shows need.
Around, about, the impatient Hunter turns,
And, with anticipated sport, he burns.

How strange is instinct, which, by hand, by seat,
Detects at once a rider incomplete ;

And he that with more practised hands was mild,
Is hot, intractable, and fierce and wild!

Ill omens these; ill-luck of every kind
Was augured then, but worse remains behind.
Dreams on the dreamers contrawise prevail,
Not on the mane he fell, but on the tail!
Swift through a bullfinch Pyramus had flown,
And, in his glory, Simple left alone;

Flat in a ditch, with scarcely strength to move,
"Pensive "he lay, and "thought upon his love;"
While Pyramus was with the hounds away,
And Lackland caught him as a waif and stray.*
Simple declared he'd never ride him more;
Of his eight hundred Lackland gave back four;
And then, next day, Sir Massy Crucifix
Was glad to take him at the price of six.
Sir Massy was, in truth, a man of weight,
From Erin's Isle-wise, witty, and sedate;

Lost animals are called waifs and strays, and claimed by the lord of the manor.