November aPPearec' t° meJ as though I had had feveral pails o f cold water thrown over me, without my being able to ftir from the fpot, before I faw this huge creature fo near me, that he was almoit on the point of laying hold on me with his trunk. At that inftant I fortunately had the prefence of mind to take to my feet, and, to my great amazement, found myfelf fo fwift, that I thought I fcarcely touched the ground : the beaft, however, was in the mean time - pretty clofe at my heels ; but having at laft got to the wood, and crept away from him between the trees, the elephant could not eafily follow me. With refpeft to. the place I was in at firft, I am certain that the animal could not fee me, and confequently that he firft found me out by the fcent. It may be thought, indeed, that, out o f revenge at leaft, I ought to have fired my piece at this faucy intruder; but, in fadt, he came "upon me ib unexpectedly, that in my firft fright I did not think of i t ; and afterwards, my life depended upon every ftep I took; and at laft I was too much out of breath to attempt any thing of that kind, being in fadt very glad to get off fo well as I did. Befides I doubt much, whether a ball lodged in the cheft, would have gone through the pleura into the heart; the fUrefl method is, to -fire the ball in between the ribs, quite flanting through the lungs or cheft.” Another of thefe bulh-fighting gentry, C l a a s V o l k by name, according to all accounts, was not fo fortunate. Being once upon a plain under the ihelter of a few fcam- bling thorn-trees, (tnim'ofa Nilotica) he thought he ihould be able to fteal upon an elephant that was near the fpot; but was difcovered, purfued, and overtaken by the animal, which which laid hold of him with his trunk, and beat him to death'. This, however, is the only inftance in the memory of maii, of any of thefe hunters having met with a misfortune in the exercife of their profeffion; excepting another peafánt of the name o f R u l o p h C h a m p h e r , in whofe fide an elephant made a deep hole with its toe, as (without íeéing the man) it was lifting up its foot in order to ftep over him. I examined the fear left after this wound, and found a deep deprefiion of four of the ribs, which were ftill fraCtured, and o f which the man complained a good deal upon any change of weather. This misfortune had happened to1 him many years before, near Zwart- kops-rivier, where, with two of his companions, he lay lleeping in the open air, by a fire that was almoft burnt out. Thefe, very luckily for them, awoke a -little before the arrival of the elephant, and crept away among the bullies; but the faddle-horfes belonging to all the three, which, indeed, were tied to a tree, had their backs broke in feveral places. The elephants, which were four or five in number, were paffing on their way very leifiirely, at the timé when they did this mifchief. From what has been already related, it follows evidently, that the elephant-hunt, fo circumftantially defcribed by M. d e l a C a i l l e , in his Journal Hijlorique du Voyage fa it au Cap de B. EJperance, p. 158, 159, 160, i6x, 162, as being undertáken by the colonifts with lances, can be nothing elfe but a ftory, with which fomebody impofed upon the good abbé’s credulity; and which, when I was at the Cape, feveral people that knew a little more of the matter, were gracelefs enough to make a jeft of. Neither is there much
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