The Giraffe Hunters

CHAPTER ONE.

ARRIVAL AT THE PROMISED LAND.

In that land of which we have so many records of early and high
civilisation, and also such strong evidences of present barbarism,--the
land of which we know so much and so little,--the land where Nature
exhibits some of her most wonderful creations and greatest contrasts,
and where she is also prolific in the great forms of animal and
vegetable life,--there, my young reader, let us wander once more. Let
us return to Africa, and encounter new scenes in company with old
friends.

On the banks of the Limpopo brightly blazes a hunter's fire, around
which the reader may behold three distinct circles of animated beings.
The largest is composed of horses, the second of dogs, and the lesser or
inner one, of young men, whom many of my readers will recognise as old
acquaintances.

I have but to mention the names of Hans and Hendrik Von Bloom, Groot
Willem and Arend Van Wyk, to make known that _The Young Yagers_ are
again on a hunting expedition. In the one in which we now encounter
them, not all the parties are inspired by the same hopes and desires.

The quiet and learned Hans Von Bloom, like many colonial youths, is
affected with the desire of visiting the home of his forefathers. He
wishes to go to Europe for the purpose of making some practical use of
the knowledge acquired, and the floral collections made, while a
_Bush-Boy_ and a _Young Yager_. But before doing so, he wishes to
enlarge his knowledge of natural history by making one more expedition
to a part of Southern Africa he has not yet visited.