Trip after Elephants 
accompany us at daybreak the following morn- 
ing, and the man duly appeared, armed with a 
long Dane gun, a trade weapon, smooth in the 
bore, which could fire a few slugs, and would 
have been worse than useless in an attack on an 
elephant. The native was old too, and did not 
give us the impression of over-keenness, but we 
had to make the best of what material we had. 
Our way took us through the densest jungle, 
which the sun’s rays could not penetrate. Great 
paths ran hither and thither, paths made by 
elephants, whose spoor was fresh and abundant. 
I carried a double 8-bore Paradox, by Holland 
and Holland, loaded with ten drams of black 
powder and a three-ounce hardened bullet in each 
barrel, whilst Gallwey had a ‘577 Express by the 
same makers. 
Suddenly Gallwey fell ill with a bad dose of 
fever—he was violently sick, and although he 
gamely stuck to it, he was at last compelled to 
give up. We had to make a long detour to the 
nearest village in order to get a canoe to take 
him back to Calabar, for he was quite incapable 
of walking the distance back to J ock’s, where we 
had left the launch. I wished to accompany 
him, but he would not hear of it. 
This delay, more or less, spoilt my chances for 
the day, but later we came on a patch of banana 
plantation, which had only the previous night 
been devastated by the elephants. The herd 
53 
