A Leopard Hunt in the Eastern Transvaal.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 July 1914, Page 2

A Leopard Hunt in the Eastern Transvaal.

1 was sitting on the verandah cleaning my rifle and wishing thai U»« remaining two weeks would soon •lip past, as the shooting season would then be open. My dogs were lying peacefully asleep, or pretending to be, but keeping one eye on *-fc« gun, thinking no doubt, that I was going- to give them a treat and take them out, when suddenly they -tarted up, barking furiously, and rushed round the back of the house. I went round to see what was the cause, and saw a piccaninny' shinning up a tree out of reach. Had h« had a shirt they would have caught hold of him for certain, but all he wore as he looked down at me was a smile. I said, " U funani, Umfaan ?" ("What do you want, piccaninny?") He said, "Baas, my father sent me to ask you to come. There is a leopard at the kraal which has killed three goats, and is now resting in the kloof." This was good news, and calling sharply to my dogs, I ran to get my rifle. Having no soft-nosed bullets, I called to the piccaninny to come and turn the handle of the grindstone, and quickly rubbed the ends of the bullets, exposing the soft lead. The ordinary Lee-Enfiel.1 bullet treated in this manner is as good as a dum-dum. I called to my cook-boy, and giving him my shot-gun, in case I should need it, we started off. I heard my cook-boy ask the piccaninny if he was going to show me a buck, and the piccaninny said "Ikona Tixgewe" ("No, a leopard"). There was snence for a few minutes, then my cook-boj' said, "Baas, I sprained my foot this morning and can't walk any further." He had suddenly acquired a decided limp. He had only been married a few days, and was not taking any chances. I could not help wondering if he knew the song, " I must go home to-night." T told him to take the shot-gun back and ask his mother to come along and help to beat the leopard out, as I was sure she would make a better hunter than he. He swallowed this bit. of sarcasm and turned back. I watched him for a bit, and he was sometimes lame in the one foot and then the other. On reaching the kraal I found the natives very excited, and when they saw me with the gun and dogs they shouted and jumped in great glee. I was greeted on all sides, being wellknown to them. I called the headman, Moela, who was the father of my little guide, and we arranged that I should go and stand up near the top of the kloof where the two bushes converged, and let all the natives and dogs go in at the bottom of the bush and drive up the kloof. The piccaninny was by this time telling the other boys about my heroic cook, which caused roars of laughter from the other boys. One boy about twenty years of age was very eager to be off. He had a

handful of assegais or throwing spears and a big knobkerry, with which, he said, if we did not hurry up, he would go 'into the kloof himself and break the leopard's head. I climbed up the hill, and took up a Rood position behind a small bush which commanded a good view all round the space between the two big bushes, and where I was bound to see the leopard should he break cover. The boys started with yells and shouts of vile abuse. They called the leopard everything evil that they could think of, and his ancestors they also despised as cowards and thieves. Just then I heard a yell of terror, and my bold friend of the huge knobkerry came tearing out of the bush some three yards lower, shedding his assegais as he ran, and shouting as if there were a hundred devils after him. I looked carefully, but could see nothing ; then. I heard the other boys laughing. It appears one of them slipped down a bank and fell amongst some ferns and scrub in the water-course below. Our hero thought it was the leopard after him, and" cleared for his life. He came back looking very ashamed and sulky, and I did not hear his voi"e lifter that. However, they started again, and almost at once the - : gave tongue, nd I heard someti.^g coining towrds me, but it was making too m^ch noise for a leopard. It was a fine bushbuck ram, and would have been an easy shot, as it passed quite clee to me. I could not hear, by i..j shouts of the boys and ' the barki..- of dogs, that the leopard had been sighted. There was a perfect babel of voices, which was echoed back from the hills around until I could not tell what had happened. Presently I heard a dog growl near me, then bark, and I heard the short, sharp, coughing grunt of the leopard ; another bark from the dog, and a whining yelp of fear, and by the short scuffle I knew that clog was finished. I waited vary quietly now, as I knew he was close by. T heard no sound, but a yell w streak seemed to shoot through the leaves and alighted on a tree that had been blown down by the recent .storm, but was caught and held by the creepers and branches. I could hear the rasp of claws as he struck I the tree —then all was still. I could just make him out on (ho fallen tree, through the branches—he seemed to be looking down the kloof for the dogs —so taking careful aim, I shot him just behind the shoulder, raking the lungs. TTo topplod over, and hung for about half a minute by his fore claws to the

tree, when L put another bullet through his brain, thp bullet entering his rhivit ear an-.l blowing nearly nil the other side of his face away. He dropped with a dull crash into the scrub below. I waited a minute, then, not hearing any sound, except from dogs that had come up at the sound of the shot, I approached carefully', and found him dead. I had great trouble in keeping the excited natives from plunging their spears into him and spoiling the skin, as a native boy always wants to see blood on his assegai after either a hunt or' fight. 1 had him carried back to the kraal and skinned. He was quite a line animal, and in good condition. An old scar on his foot showed where he had been caught in a trap at one time, so it appears he was an old offender. My brave friend of the kriobkerry had to fitand a good deal of banter and chiilT about the way he cleared out at the first sign of danger, and the piccaninny who came for me said that he ought to go hunting with my cook-boy, who was also a great hunter. However, when I got back, tired and hungry, and saw such a nice dinner on the table I was very glad 1 had not taken the cook. After dinner, while enjoying a whisky and my pipe, in the moonlight, I saw my cook skipping about, and, calling him, I asked how his foot was. "It's a little better ; but, baas, I have suffered greatly with it today ;" he said as he limped away.,— 'Weekly Telegraph."