THE ELEPHANT. 37 



numerous and common in Africa than in Afia. 

 They are alfo lefs fufpicious, and retire not to 

 fuch diftant folitudes. They feem to know the 

 unfkilfuinefs and debility of the men who inha- 

 bit this part of the world ; for they daily ap- 

 proach the villages, without difcovering any ap- 

 prehenfions *. They treat the Negroes with 

 that natural and fupercilious indifference which 

 they entertain for all animals. They regard not 

 man as a powerful or formidable being, but 

 as a craftv creature, who knows only how to 

 lay fnares in their way, but who dares not attack 

 them face to face, and is ignorant of the art of 

 reducing them to flavery. It is by this art alone, 

 which has been Ions: known in the Eaftern na- 

 tions, that the number of thefe animals has been 

 diminiihed. The wild elephants, which thefe 

 people render domeftic, become by captivity fo 

 many voluntary eunuchs, in whom the fources 

 of generation are daily dried up. But, in 

 Africa, where the elephants are all free, the 

 fpecies is fupported, and might even increafe, 

 though more of them were deftroyed ; becaufe 

 every individual is conftantly labouring to re- 

 pair the wafte. I perceive no other caufe to 

 which this difference of number can be afcribed ; 

 for it appears, from every confideration, that the 



G 3 fouth 



* The elephants often pafs the night in the villages, and .ue 

 fo little afraid o£ frequented places, that, inftead of turning 

 when they perceive the houfes of the Negroes, they march 

 ftraight forward, and overturn them like nut ihells j Voya 

 de la Matte, />. 98. 



•i* 



