200 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



at length got off. Two donkeys carried, each, two 80 lb. loads 

 of the smaller ivory, one my tent on one side and bedding, etc., 

 on the other, and the fourth our meal, cartridges, etc., while all 

 the men were loaded up with the larger tusks. I was afraid 

 the ivory loads on the donkeys would be very troublesome, as 

 there had not been time to lash it properly, as it should be, with 

 hide — put on wet and dried on — but to my agreeable surprise 

 it travelled capitally. All hands being heavily laden, I had to 

 help to drive the donkeys myself, Squareface, carrying a big 

 tusk, going before them. Donkeys always require a man in 

 front of them, whom they follow. I felt quite like Robinson 

 Crusoe, as I had to carry two rifles — my .450 slung from my 

 shoulder and the rook rifle in one hand, while in the other I 

 held a switch to drive the donkeys with ; and, to make the 

 resemblance complete, I had what I call Crusoe sandals over 

 my boots. These are inventions of my own, and are most 

 useful in saving one's boots in the interior. They are made 

 of game hide (eland or koodoo is about the best), and, if 

 properly made, are not at all uncomfortable, while they make 

 a pair of boots last quite twice or three times as long as they 

 would without their protection. In driving donkeys the great 

 thing is to make plenty of noise. It is worse than useless to 

 strike them, and should never be allowed. They are quite 

 different from oxen in that way. The use of the switch is to 

 strike the load or saddle, to frighten the donkey, but never 

 the animal itself I have, in former years, driven my own 

 waggon hundreds of miles, and I know a good deal about trek 

 oxen and their ways. As an old Boer once said to me when 

 I was a novice at waggon travelling, " You must give them 

 plenty strips " ; but with the patient ass it is different. It is 

 only since I have been elephant-hunting in Central Africa that 

 I have learnt his peculiarities, and the result of my experiences 

 as a donkey-driver is that you should never hit him. 



As the place where we had to leave the river was too far 

 to reach in one day — and it is the greatest mistake to attempt 



