game. Tracking on through the bush, I thought every minute I
should come up with the brute; but his wounds ceased to bleed,
and in the confusion of the numerous tracks which scored all the
forest we lost our own.

Much disappointed at this, I now proposed to make for the track
we came by in the morning, and follow it down into camp; but this
luxury was not destined to be our lot that night, for the rain
had obliterated all our footprints of the morning, and we passed
the track, mistaking it for the run of wild beasts. It struck me
we had done so; but say what I would, the boys thought they knew
better; and the consequence was that, after wandering for hours
no one knew where--for there was no sun to guide us--I pulled up,
and swore I would wait for the stars, else it might be our fate
to be lost in the wilderness, which I did not much relish. We
were all at this time "hungry as hunters," and beginning to feel
very miserable from being wet through. What little ammunition I
had left I fired off as signals, or made tinder of to get up a
fire, but the wood would not burn. In this hapless condition the
black boys began murmuring, wishing to go on, pretending, though
both held opposite views, that each knew the way; for they
thought nothing could be worse than their present state of
discomfort.

Night with its gloom was then drawing on, heightened by thunder
and lightning, which set in all around us. At times we thought
we heard musketry in camp, knowing that Grant would be sure to
fire signals for us; and doubtless we did so, but its sound and
the thunder so much resembled one another that we distrusted our
ears. At any rate, the boys mistook the west for the east; and