THE CONFLICT. 299 



now determined not to fire again until I could make a 

 steady shot ; but, although the elephant turned repeat- 

 edly, "Sunday" invariably disappointed me, capering 

 so that it was impossible to fire. At length, exaspera- 

 ted^ I became reckless of the danger, and, springiug 

 from the saddle, approached the elephant under cover 

 of a tree, and gave him a bullet in the side of the head, 

 when, trumpeting so shrilly that the forest trembled, 

 he charged among the dogs, from whom he seemed to 

 fancy that the blow had come ; after which he took up 

 a position in a gi?ove of thorns, with his head toward 

 me. I walked up very near, and, as he was in the act 

 of charging {being in those days under wrong impres- 

 sions as to the impracticability of bringing down an ele- 

 phant with a shot in the forehead), stood coolly in his 

 path until he was within fifteen paces of me, and let 

 drive at the hollow of his forehead, in the vain expecta- 

 tion that by so doing I should end his career. The shot 

 only served to increase his fury — an effect which, I had 

 remarked, shots in the head invariably produced ; and, 

 continuing his charge with incredible quickness and 

 impetuosity,* he all but terminated my elephant-hunt- 

 ing forever. A large party of the Bechuanas who had 

 come up yelled out simultaneously, imagining I was 

 " killed, for the elephant was at one moment almost on 

 the top of me : I, however, escaped by my activity, and 

 by dodging round the bushy trees. As the elephant 

 was charging, an enormous thorn ran deep-into the sole 

 of my foot, the old Badenooh brogues, which I that day 

 sported, being worn through ; and this caused me se- 

 vere pain/laming me throughout the rest of the conflict. 

 The elephant held on through the forest at a sweep- 

 ing pace ; but he was hardly out of sight when I was 

 loaded and in the saddle, and soon once more alongside. 



