PERILOUS POSITION. 383 



fortunately, from the powder being damp, hung fire, 

 till I was in the act of taking it from my shoulder, 

 when it went off, and the ball merely grazed the 

 side of the head. Halting only for an instant, the 

 animal again rushed furiously forward. I fell ; I 

 cannot say whether struck down by her trunk or 

 not. She then made a thrust at me with her tusk. 

 Luckily for me she had only one, which still more 

 luckily missed its mark. She then caught me with 

 her trunk by the middle, threw me beneath her 

 fore-feet and knocked me about between them for 

 a little space. I was scarcely in a condition to 

 compute the number of minutes very accurately. 

 Once she pressed her foot on my chest with such 

 force that I actually felt the bones, as it were, 

 bending under the weight ; and once she trod on 

 the middle of my arm, which fortunately lay flat ou 

 the ground at the time. During this rough hand- 

 ling, however, I never entirely lost rny recollection, 

 else I have little doubt she would have settled my 

 accounts with this world. But owing to the round- 

 ness of her foot, I generally managed, by twisting 

 my body aud limbs, to escape her direct tread. 

 While I was still undergoing this buffeting, Lieu- 

 tenant Chisholm, of the Royal Artillery Corps, and 

 Diedrich, a Hottentot, had come up, and fired 

 several shots at her, one of which hit her in the 

 shoulder ; and at the same time her companions, or 

 young ones, retiring, and screaming to her from the 

 edge of the forest, she reluctantly left me, giving 

 me a cuff or two with her hind feet in passing. 1 

 got up, picked up my gun, and staggered away as 



