Hendricks the Hunter

Hendricks the Hunter, by W.H.G.
Kingston

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Title: Hendricks the Hunter The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand
Author: W.H.G. Kingston
Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21393]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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HENDRICKS THE HUNTER ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Hendricks the Hunter; or, The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand, by
W.H.G. Kingston.
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In this well-written book we find ourselves in Zululand, amid the
beautiful scenery of South Africa. Hendricks makes his living by
hunting, and trading the skins and other products. It is a dangerous
way of earning money, and we are with him on one of his trips. There
are dangers from animals, lack of water, snakes, and, of course, the
natives. Some of the latter are friendly, and these are sympathetically
depicted in the story.
There were quite a few type-setting errors, mainly in wrong, missing,
or superfluous quote signs. We think we have got this right in this
version of the book.
It makes a good audiobook, of about ten hours' duration.
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HENDRICKS THE HUNTER; OR, THE BORDER FARM, A TALE OF
ZULULAND, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE TRADER IN ZULULAND.
Zululand is a wild region of mountain ranges, deep valleys and gorges,
roaring torrents, rapidly flowing rivers, plains covered with mimosa
bushes, meadows where cattle pasture and grow fat, and level plateaux
extending for many miles across it, several hundred feet above the level
of the ocean; while scattered here and there, in some parts pretty thickly,
are to be seen the kraals or villages and the mealy grounds of the
natives. Wild as is the country, and although roads, properly speaking,
there are none, it is sufficiently practicable for waggons in various
directions.
Some few years back, one of these vehicles, drawn by a span of twelve
oxen, was seen slowly wending its way to the south-west, in the
direction of Natal. It was a loosely yet strongly built machine on four
wheels, fourteen feet long and four wide, formed of well-seasoned stink

wood, the joints and bolts working all ways, so that, as occasionally
happened, as it slowly rumbled and bumped onward, when the front
wheel sank into a deep hole, the others remained perfectly upright. It
was tilted over with thick canvas impervious to rain, the goods or
passengers inside being thus well sheltered from the hardest showers,
and even from the hot rays of the sun.
The oxen pulled steadily together, as became animals long accustomed
to work in company. On a board in front stood a Hottentot driver, his
black visage surmounted by a broad-brimmed straw hat ornamented by
a few ostrich feathers twined round the crown, while his hand held a
whip of Brobdignagian proportions, the stock being fully fourteen feet,
and the lash upwards of twenty-four feet in length, with which he
occasionally urged on the leaders, or drew blood from the animals
beneath his feet, as well as from those intermediate in the span,
whenever a rise in the ground or its unusual roughness required an
additional exertion of their strength.
Several black men, of tall sinewy forms and Kaffir features, each
carrying a gun at his back, and a long pole in his hand, accompanied
the waggon on foot. At some little distance ahead rode a florid,
good-looking man, above the middle height, and of strongly built figure,
dressed in a grey suit, with a broad-brimmed hat on his head. He also
carried a gun at his back and a brace of pistols in a broad belt which he
wore round his waist. Though his hair and beard were slightly grizzled,
yet, by the expression of his countenance and his easy movements, he
appeared to have lost none of the activity of youth, while his firm-set
mouth and bright blue eyes betokened courage and energy. Some
horses followed the waggon, secured by thongs of a length sufficient to
enable them to pick their way. A glance into the interior of the waggon
would have shown that it was fully loaded, the chief contents being the
skins of wild animals, the huge tusks of elephants, and other spoils of
the chase, with which the proprietor was returning after a hunt of many
months' duration, to dispose of them at Maritzburg or D'Urban.
The horseman was apparently one of those enterprising traders and
hunters who roam over the southern parts of the dark continent to barter

European goods