CHAPTER VI 



ARTHUR NEUMANN, PIONEER AND 

 ELEPHANT HUNTER 



AMONGST the many good friends whom I have 

 lost of recent years was Arthur Neumann, the 

 elephant hunter, a most interesting and charming 

 man. Since no history of his life has appeared, 

 I trust that the following notes may be of interest 

 to my readers. 



Arthur Neumann was born on June 12th, 1850, 

 at Hockliffe Rectory, Bedfordshire, his father being 

 the rector of the parish. In 1868 he left for Natal, 

 and took up the work of coffee-planting on an 

 estate near Verulam. During the following year 

 his brother Charles joined him, and together they 

 rented some Government grants of land on the 

 lower Umvoti, Natal, where for a time they cul- 

 tivated cotton and tobacco. As this venture did 

 not pay, Arthur then tried his hand as a gold-digger 

 in the Transvaal, but soon returned to Natal. 



After knocking about for some time, he settled 

 in Swaziland, and established a trading-post there, 

 driving his own wagons with trade goods to and 

 fro in Natal. He soon became a favourite of the 

 Swazi king, Ubandeni, and learnt to speak the 

 language of the natives. In 1877 he spent most 

 of his time shooting in the Transvaal and Swaziland, 

 but at the outbreak of the Zulu War in 1879 he 



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