At last, two or three at once tried to
pull us out, but we beat them all off with our knives, wounding them
all very severely. For about an hour they continued their attempts, and
then they went away out of the cave, but remained at the mouth
shrieking and howling. We began to be very tired of this work, and
Homer said that he wished he was back in prison again; and so did I, I
can assure you; but there was no getting out, for had we gone out the
animals would have torn us to pieces. We agreed that we had no chance
but the animals becoming tired and going away; and most anxious we
were, for the excitement had made us very thirsty, and we wanted water.
We remained for two hours in this way imprisoned by baboons, when all
of a sudden a shrill cry was given by one of the animals, and the whole
herd went galloping off as fast as they could, screaming louder than
ever. We waited for a short time to see if they would return, and then
Hastings crawled out first, and looking out of the cave very
cautiously, said that they were all gone, and that he could see nothing
but a Hottentot sitting down watching some cattle; we therefore all
came out, very happy at our release.
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