TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



CHAPTER I 



Decide on an Indian career — The lure of big game hunting — Considering 

 ways sad means of adopting it professionally — Final resolution — 

 Sail for India, en route for Bombay — ^The pains and {Jeasores of a 

 voyage to the East — A game of quoits interrupted — Man overboard ! 

 attempts) at rescue — The shark and it^ victim — Some remarks about 

 sharks — Superstitions concerning them — ^The voyage at an end — 

 Anxiety to land explained — " Privilege leave," ita object and ad- 

 vantages described — A description of Bombay — First impressions 

 of the East — ^The elephant caves, or tempJes, and their gods — ^The 

 Towers tA SUenoe cmneteries — Swarms ol vnltarBB — Gruesome reascnai 

 for their prOBO nee— Parsis, their origin, customs and religion: an 

 enlightened and interasting race — Preparation for journey to Guserat 

 — BuUook carta described — Anticipation of sport — Purchase a gun 

 in the Bazar — Discomfort and luxury of railway travelling in India — 

 l'\ill length sfeeping accommodation — Long journeys rendoed comfort- 

 able. 



When at the age of nineteen, now some thirty years ago, 

 I set out to seek my fortune in India, I had already made up 

 my mind that whatever career I might adopt, or be com- 

 pelled by necessity to accept, my leisure hours should be 

 dev(»te<l to the hunting of big game. From my earliest 

 childhood upwards, I had read every book on Indian und 

 African sport I was able to procure till by the time my story 

 opens, to become a big-game hunter was the one object of 

 my life. Iiuieed so iufutuated was I with this notion that 

 had I been a free agent at the time, and possessed of 

 sufiioient capital to embark on the adventure, I might 

 possibly have adopted big-game himting as a professicmal 

 pursuit. 



Fortunately for my future, however, I was neither free 

 to choose my own profession nor had I the capital to invest 



B 1 



