Note 14 — Chapter XXVI · A new country discovered.—The troop of buffalos; a precious acquisition.

By straining our eyes, however, as far as we could see, we thought we perceived at a great distance some specks upon the land, that seemed to be in motion. We hastened towards the spot; and as we drew nearer, to our inexpressible surprise discovered a group of animals, which in the assemblage presented something like the outline of a troop of horses or of cows; I observed them sometimes run up to each other, and then suddenly stoop to graze. Though we had not lately met with further traces of the ass, I was not entirely without hope of finding him among this group of animals. We accordingly drew near by a path we found in a plantation of reeds, that we might not give notice of our approach, being ignorant of the kind of animal we were about to meet. We had not gone far when the soil became so marshy, and the reeds entangled to such a degree, that we were obliged to get out of the plantation and wind along on the outside. We were soon near the animals, which we perceived consisted of rather a numerous troop of wild buffalos14. This animal is formed at first sight to inspire the beholder with terror; it is endowed with an extraordinary degree of strength, and two or three of them were capable of destroying us in a moment, should they feel the desire of attacking us. My alarm was so great, that I remained for a few moments fixed to the spot like a statue. By good luck the dogs were far behind us, and the buffalos having never beheld the face of man, gave no sign of fear or of displeasure at our approach; they stood perfectly still, with their large round eyes fixed upon us in astonishment; those which were lying down got up slowly, but not one among them seemed to have any hostile disposition towards us. The circumstance of the dogs’ absence was most likely, on this occasion, the means of our safety, for on the least demonstration from these, no doubt the fierce animals would instantly have fallen upon us. As it was, we had time to draw back quietly and prepare our fire-arms. It was not, however, my intention to make use of them in any way but for defence, being sensible that we were not strong enough for the encounter, and recollecting also to have read that the sound of a gun drives the buffalo to a state of desperation. I therefore thought only of retreating; and with my poor Jack, for whom I was more alarmed than for myself, was proceeding in this way, when unfortunately Turk and Ponto ran up to us, and we could see were noticed by the buffalos. The animals instantly, and altogether, set up such a roar, as to make our nerves tremble with the shock of so terrible a noise; they struck their horns and their hoofs upon the ground, which they tore up by pieces and scattered in the air. I with horror foresaw the moment when confounding us with the dogs, which no doubt they mistook for jackals, they would seize upon and tear us to pieces. Our brave Turk and Ponto, fearless of danger, ran among the troop in spite of all our efforts to detain them, and according to their manner of attacking, laid hold of the ears of a young buffalo which happened to be standing a few paces nearer to us than the rest; and though the creature began a tremendous roar and motion with his hoofs, they held him fast, and were dragging him towards us. Thus hostilities had commenced; and unless we could resolve to abandon the cause of our valiant defenders, we were now forced upon the measure of open war, which, considering the strength and number of the enemy, wore a face of the most pressing and inevitable danger. Our every hope seemed now to be in the chance of the terror the buffalos would feel at the noise of our musketry, which for the first time would assail their organs, and perhaps excite them to flight. With, I must confess, a palpitating heart and trembling hands, we fired both at the same moment: the buffalos, terrified by the sound and by the smoke, remained for an instant motionless, as if struck by a thunderbolt, and then one and all betook themselves to flight with such incredible rapidity that they were soon beyond the reach of our sight. We heard their loud roaring from a considerable distance, which by degrees subsided into silence, and we were left with only one of their terrific species near us; this one, a female, was no doubt the mother of the young buffalo which the dogs had seized and still kept a prisoner; she had drawn near on hearing its cries, and had been wounded by our guns, but not killed; the creature was in a furious state: after a moment’s pause, she took aim at the dogs, and with her head on the ground, as if to guide her by the scent, was advancing in her rage, and would have torn them to pieces, if I had not prevented her by firing upon her with my double-barrelled gun, and thus putting an end to her existence.