190 LARGE GAME. CHAP. iv. 



The simile is not overdrawn. As I have before mentioned, 

 respectable native hunters, of some standing, who have 

 accompanied their master from the colonies, feel them- 

 selves responsible for his safety, and will often beg him 

 not to run into some danger for which they personally do 

 not care. 



This mute exhibition of astonishment soon, however, 

 gave way to curiosity, and, as it appeared that they had 

 heard my shot at the elephant during the night, and its 

 subsequent screaming, I had to give a full account of my 

 adventures ; but I was unable to persuade any of them to 

 accompany me in going back to see what the effect of my 

 shot had been, and, after breaking up the hippopotamus, 

 we made the best of our way outside, and reached our 

 camp the same evening. 



I have already, when speaking of the hard work 

 attendant on buffalo-shooting, mentioned that it cannot 

 in that respect compare with elephant-shooting. This is 

 caused by the immense distances the latter travel when 

 once disturbed, or when moving from one part of the 

 country to another, thirty or forty miles on a stretch 

 being nothing uncommon. I think I went through more 

 fatigue on one occasion when following a solitary bull than 

 in all my hunting experience. I was staying at the time 

 summer in some Amaswazi villages, having been fairly 

 driven from the plains below by the ravages the fever 

 was making among my people. One evening some of the 

 Bombo people, who are nearly related to and intermarry 

 with the Amaswazi, arrived on some marriage business, 

 and soon after one of my hunters came into my hut to 

 say that they reported having crossed fresh elephant spoor 



