TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



CHAPTER I 



Decide on an Indian career The lure of big game hunting Considering 

 ways and means of adopting it professionally Final resolution 

 Sail for India, en route for Bombay The pains and pleasures of a 

 voyage to the East A game of quoits interrupted Man overboard ! 

 attempts at rescue The shark and its victim Some remarks about 

 sharks Superstitions concerning them The voyage at an end 

 Anxiety to land explained " Privilege leave," its object and ad- 

 vantages described A description of Bombay First impressions 

 of the East The elephant caves, or temples, and their gods The 

 Towers of Silence cemeteries Swarms of vultures Gruesome reasons 

 for their presence Parsis, their origin, customs and religion: an 

 enlightened and interesting race Preparation for journey to Guzerat 

 Bullock carts described Anticipation of sport- Purchase a gun 

 in the Bazar Discomfort and luxury of railway travelling in India 

 Full length sleeping accommodation Long journeys rendered comfort- 

 able. 



WHEN at the age of nineteen, now some thirty years ago, 

 I set out to seek my fortune in India, I had already made up 

 my mind that whatever career I might adopt, or be com- 

 pelled by necessity to accept, my leisure hours should be 

 devoted to the hunting of big game. From my earliest 

 childhood upwards, I had read every book on Indian and 

 African sport I was able to procure till by the time my story 

 opens, to become a big-game hunter was the one object of 

 my life. Indeed so infatuated was I with this notion that 

 had I been a free agent at the time, and possessed of 

 sufficient capital to embark on the adventure, I might 

 possibly have adopted big-game hunting as a professional 

 pursuit. 



Fortunately for my future, however, I was neither free 

 to choose my own profession nor had I the capital to invest 



B 1 



