--TURNED INTO
A BLACK PRINCE--ARRIVE AT THE VILLAGE--CORDIAL RECEPTION--A NATIVE
FEAST--HOW I ESTABLISHED MY REPUTATION--FIND ALFRED--OUR ESCAPE--REACH
THE STAR--SAIL FOR CAPE TOWN--CONCLUSION.

We were not many miles, according to Bigg's computation, from the
village where I supposed that Alfred was held a prisoner. My success as
a hunter had made me think of a plan of operations which I had great
hopes would succeed. It was bold, but I considered that from its very
boldness it was more likely to succeed. I proposed it to Bigg. "You
see," said I, "you made me out to be a great person to the first natives
we met when I killed the elephant, and I see no reason why I should not
succeed equally well with these people, if we take more pains to prepare
ourselves for the characters we are to assume. My idea is this: We will
kill a giraffe or a stag, or some other wild beasts with handsome skins,
and with the trinkets we have got we will dress ourselves out in a very
fine way. I can be a prince as before, deaf and dumb. You can be my
attendant and prime minister, doctor or medicine-man. You tell me that
though they do not like being made slaves themselves, they do not object
to hold others in slavery. Well, then, you can say that I am anxious to
obtain their opinion on the subject of the slave-trade, and that I have
visited them accordingly; and then you can say what a great hunter I am,
and that I make nothing of killing an elephant or a lion, or any other
wild beast you like to mention."

I need not enter further into the particulars of my plan. Bigg highly
approved of it, and so we lost no time in making the necessary
preparations. I doubted whether the skin of a zebra, or a giraffe, or a
lion would make the handsomest regal cloak, and resolved to be guided by
circumstances. We were proceeding along the side of a valley, when just
below us there appeared, grazing, a herd of zebras, and not far off from
them several giraffes, most of them with young ones by their sides. We
were to leeward of them, so I hoped to get near enough to have a shot at
one of them without being discovered. Had I been on horseback, I should
have had no difficulty in catching them up; as it was, I had to proceed
with the greatest caution. Keeping along as much as possible under
shelter of the brushwood, we descended the hill towards them. I then
took post behind the nearest clump of shrubs, and told Bigg to go on
ahead as far as he co