SPORT IN MOZAMBIQUE 



simultaneously directly the animal is silhouetted 

 against the horizon, afterwards each must save him- 

 self as best he can. It is a desperate resolve, and I 

 cannot conceal from myself that deaths are imminent. 

 Suddenly the terrific din is quelled scarcely forty yards 

 away ; the wind has again changed, the brute searches 

 for us, and not finding us redescends the slope and 

 goes in search of the rest of the troop, and joins it 

 in the valley, where it passes the night till about five 

 o'clock. 



The hours pass slowly for us mortals ; we are with- 

 out fire or water, with the tantalising presence of a 

 fine rain, sufficient to wet us, but not to appease one's 

 thirst. At eight o'clock in the morning, on the bank 

 of the Pungw6, 1 drink my first glass of water after six- 

 and-thirty hours' abstinence ! The privations endured, 

 as well as the two wet nights, induce at nine o'clock 

 a very severe attack of fever. As it is impossible to 

 resume the pursuit, I send my three trackers to ascer- 

 tain what has become of my wounded animals, while 

 I return as best I can to Guengere. At midday on the 

 morrow one of my men came to tell me that they have 

 found the female dead at a distance of five hundred 

 yards from the place where I shot her. They followed 

 the bull for a long time, after which they lost him, 

 the rain having obliterated his tracks. I start imme- 

 diately with my wife. We sleep again at Inhampita, 

 and at ten o'clock, escorted by a crowd of natives 

 arrive at the spot where the elephant fell. By evening 



(102) 



