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Then it was black with game when the grass was green ; yes , at times I have seen it so black for miles that we could scarcely see the grass . There were all sorts of them , springbucks in myriads , blesbok and quagga and wildebeeste in thousands , sable antelope , sassaby and hartebeeste in herds , eland , giraffe and koodoo in troops ; while the forests were full of elephant and the streams of sea-cow . They are all gone now , the beautiful wild creatures ; the guns of the white men have killed them out or driven them away , and I suppose that it is as well that they are gone , for while the game is in such plenty the men will not work . Still I for one am sorry to lose the sight of them , and had it not been for their numbers we Boers should never have lasted through that long trek , for often and often we lived upon buck 's flesh and little else for weeks together . At Thaba Nchu we camped , waiting for other bands of emigrants , but after four or five months some of our number grew so impatient that they started off by themselves . Among these were the companies under the Heer Triegaart and the Heer Rensenburg , who wished us to accompany him , but Jan would not , I do not know why . It was as well , for the knob-nosed Kaffirs killed him and everybody with him .