atic fever, which kept me to my bed, and
gave me excruciating pain. Whilst I lay in this helpless state, Mr.
Orpen and Present, who had gone up the river to shoot sea cows, fell in
with an immense male leopard, which the latter wounded very baldly. They
then sent natives to camp, to ask me for dogs, of which I sent them a
pair. In about an hour the natives came running to camp, and said that
Orpen was killed by the leopard. On further inquiry, however, I found
that he was not really killed, but frightfully torn and bitten about the
arms and head. They had rashly taken up the spoor on foot, the dogs
following behind them, instead of going in advance. The consequence of
this was, that they came right upon the leopard before they were aware
of him, when Orpen fired and missed him. The leopard then sprang on his
shoulders, and dashing him to the ground lay upon him, howling and
lacerating his hands, arms, and head most fearfully. Presently the
leopard permitted Orpen to rise and come away. Where were the gallant
Present and all the natives, that not a man of them moved to assist the
unfortunate Orpen? According to an established custom among all colonial
servants, the instant the leopard sprang, Present discharged his piece
in the air, and then dashing it to the ground he rushed down the bank
and jumped into the river, along which he swam some hundred yards before
he would venture on _terra firma_. The natives, though numerous and
armed, had likewise fled in another direction."

The tenacity of life of these animals was well shown in the other
encounter: "Having partaken of some refreshment," says Mr. Cumming, "I
saddled two steeds, and rode down the banks of Ngotwani, with the
Bushman, to seek for any game I might find. After riding about a mile
along the river's bank, I came suddenly upon an old male leopard lying
under the shade of a thorn grove, and panting from the great heat.
Although I was within sixty yards of him, he had not heard the horse's
tread. I thought he was a lioness and dismounting, took a rest in my
saddle on the old gray, and sent a bullet into him. He sprang to his
feet, and ran half way down the river's bank, and stood to look about
him, when I sent a second bullet into his person, and he disappeared
over the bank. The ground being very dangerous, I did not disturb him by
following then, but I at once sent Ruyter back to camp for the dogs.
Presently he returned with Wolf and Boxer, very much done up wi