46 MR. oswell's hunting. 



spent on those terms, and delivered it to him All heing 

 ready for our departure, I took Mrs. Livingstone about six 

 miles from the town, that she might have a peep at the 

 broad part of the lake. Next morning we had other work 

 to do than part, for our little boy and girl were seized 

 with fever. On the day following, all our servants were 

 down too with the same complaint. As nothing is better 

 in these cases than change of place, I was forced to give 

 up the hope of seeing Sebituane that year; so, leaving my 

 gun as part payment for guides next year, we started for 

 the pure air of the Desert. 



Some mistake had happened in the arrangement with 

 Mr. Oswell, for we met him on the Zouga on our return, 

 and he had devoted the rest of this season to elephant- 

 hunting, at which the natives universally declare he is the 

 greatest adept that ever came into the country. He hunted 

 without dogs. It is remarkable that this lordly animal 

 is so completely harassed by the presence of a few yelp- 

 ing curs as to be quite incapable of attending to man. He 

 makes awkward attempts to crush them by falling on hia 

 knees, and sometimes places his forehead against a tret- 

 ten inches in diameter; glancing on one side of the tree 

 and then on the other, he pushes it down before him, as 

 if he thought thereby to catch his enemies. The only 

 danger the huntsman has to apprehend is the dogs' run- 

 ning toward him, and thereby leading the elephant to 

 their master. Mr. Oswell has been known to kill four 

 large old male elephants a day. The value of the ivory in 

 these cases would be one hundred guineas. We had reason 

 to be proud of his success, for the inhabitants conceived 

 from it a very high idea of English courage, and when 

 they wished to flatter me would say, "If you were not a 

 missionary you would just be like Oswell; you would not 

 hunt with dogs either." When, in 1852, we came to the 

 Cape, my black coat eleven years out of fashion, and with- 

 out a penny of salary to draw, we found that Mr. Oswell 

 had most generously ordered an outfit for the half-naked 



