author, they would think that his having invented a lie,
folely fo r the pleafure o f diverting them, was much more
improbable than either o f the two foregoing faéls. He
places his merit in having accomplilhed thefe travels in general,
not in being prefe.nt at anyone incident during the
courfe o f them; the believing, o f which can refleft no
particular honour upon himfelf, nor the diibelieving it
any fort o f d ifgrace in the minds o f liberal and unprejudiced
men. It is for thefe only he would wilh to write,
and thefe are the only perfons who ean profit from his narrative.
T h* Agageers having procured as much meat as would
maintain them a long time, could not be perfuaded to continue
the hunting any longer. Part o f them remained
w ith the ihe-elephant, which feemed to be the fatteft; tho’
the one they killed' firll was by much the moft valuable, on
account o f its long teeth. It was dill alive, nor did it feem
an eafy operation to k ill it, without the aififfance o f our
Agageers, even though i t was totally helplefs, except with
its trunk.
We fought about for the buffaloes and rhinocerofes ; but
though there was plenty o f both in the neighbourhood,
. we could not find th em ; our jnoife and fliooting in the
morning having probably feared them away. One rhinoceros
only was feen by a fervant. We returned in the '
e venin g to a great fire, and lay a ll night under the fhade
o f trees. Here we faw them feparate the great teeth of
the elephant from the head, by roafting the jaw-bones on
the fire, till the lower, thin, and hollow part o f the teeth
4 were
were nearly confirmed and then they come out eafily, the
thin part being o f no value.
The next morning we were on horfeback by the dawn
o f day in fearch o f thè rhinoceros, many o f which we had
heard make a very deep groan and cry as the morning approached
; feveral o f the Agageers then joined us, and after
we had fearehed about an hour in the very thickeft part
o f the wood, one o f them rulhed out with great violence,
croffmg the plain towards a wood o f canes that was'about
two miles diftance. But though he ran, or rather trotted,
with furprifing fpeed, confidering his bulk, he was, in a’
very little time, transfixed with thirty or forty javelins ; which
fo confounded him, that he left his purpofe o f going to the
wood, and ran into a deep hole, ditch, or ravine, z cui de faci,
without outlet, breaking above a dozen o f the javelins as’
h e entered. Here we thought he was caught as in a trap,
fo r he had fcarce room to turn ; 'when a fervant, who had
a gun, Handing diretìly over him, fired at his head, and
■the animal fell immediately, to all appearance dead.’ A ll
thofe on foot now jumped in with their knives to cut
him up, and they had fcarce begun, when the animal
recovered fo far as to rife upon his knees ; happy then was
the man that efèaped firll ; and had not One o f the Agageers,
who Was himfelf engaged in the ravins, cut the finew
o f the hind-legas he was retreating, there would have been
a very forrowful account o f the foot-hunters that day.
A f t e r having difpatched him, I w a s curious to fee what
.wound the ihot had given, which had operated fo violently
upori fo huge an animal ; and I doubted not it was in the
brain. But it had firuck him nowhere but upon the point o f