A HARD DAY'S WORK. 



225 



the village at which Banda resided, and I ordered a 

 man to start off at daybreak to tell him that I was 

 in his country, and to bring old Medima and several 

 other good men (that I knew) to the tent without 

 delay. I proposed that we should, in the meantime, 

 start at daylight on the tracks of the two elephants 

 that we had seen upon the hills, taking Wallace and a 

 few of the best coolies as gun-bearers. Wallace is 

 a Cochin man, who prides himself upon a mixture of 

 Portuguese blood. He speaks six different languages 

 fluently, and is without exception the best interpreter 

 and the most plucky gun-bearer that I have ever seen. 

 He has accompanied me through so many scenes with 

 unvarying firmness that I never have the slightest 

 anxiety about my spare guns if he is there, as he keeps 

 the little troop of gun-bearers in their places in a most 

 methodical manner. 



At break of day on the following morning we were 

 upon the tracks of the two elephants, but a slight 

 shower during the night had so destroyed them that 

 we found it was impossible to follow them up. We 

 therefore determined to examine the country tho- 

 roughly for fresh tracks, and we accordingly passed 

 over many miles of ground, but to little purpose, as 

 none were to be seen. 



We at length discovered fresh traces of a herd in 

 thick thorny jungle, which was too dense to enter, but 

 marking their position, we determined to send out 



