134
MEMORIES OF MY LIFE
few of my remaining mules after I had no further use for them. All eight of the mules decamped later on, when I had provided myself with oxen ; three of them reached Schepmansdorf ; those that disappeared on the way had probably been killed by lions. The very first animal I shot in Africa was a lion, just after my first arrival at Schepmansdorf. It had crossed from the Swakop to the Kuisip and had seized a small dog in the yard of the mission station, while I was asleep in an almost doorless hut that opened on the same yard. So much for lions.
I pass over all the other difficulties, troubles, and events that intervened, which have been related in the books above mentioned. Suffice it to say that by the end of September I was installed at Station No. 2 under the kind care of Mr. Rath, the resident missionary. Here I had the good fortune to meet lKis Larsen, a Dane, who spoke English perfectly. He had been a sailor, but obtained permission to quit his ship at Walfish Bay and to enter the service of a cattle-dealer. When that particular venture was concluded, he joined a second cattle-dealer, and finally found himself at large with a small herd of oxen, which he intended to drive overland and to sell at Cape Town. I had been most strongly urged to acquire his services if I could, and I did so to my
very great advantage, partly, I may add, through my
medical experience. He was willing from the first to go, were it not for a most painful whitlow which disabled his arm, and gave him so much pain that he could hardly sleep or eat ; and he was totally unfit for the expected severe manual work. He therefore had to make his acceptance dependent on getting
