I thought, in my haste, that it was perhaps
most prudent to shoot this lioness, especially as none of the others
had noticed me. I accordingly moved my arm and covered her: she saw me
move and halted, exposing a full broadside, I fired; the ball entered
one shoulder and passed out behind the other. She bounded forward with
repeated growls, and was followed by her five comrades all enveloped
in a cloud of dust; nor did they stop until they had reached the cover
behind me, except one old gentleman, who halted and looked back for a
few seconds, when I fired, but the ball went high. I listened
anxiously for some sound to denote the approaching end of the lioness;
nor listened in vain. I heard her growling and stationary, as if
dying. In one minute her comrades crossed the vley a little below me,
and made towards the rhinoceros. I then slipped Wolf and Boxer on her
scent, and, following them into the river, I found her lying dead
within twenty yards of where the old lion had lain two nights before.
This was a fine old lioness, with perfect teeth, and was certainly a
noble prize; but I felt dissatisfied at not having rather shot a lion,
which I had most certainly done if my Hottentot had not destroyed my
contemplation.
Attacks on Brookfield and Deerfield.
The early settlers of New England did not suffer much from the
hostility of the Indians, until the breaking out of King Philip's war,
in 1675.
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