MR. OSWELL'S NARROW ESCAPE. 36f» 



I may here add an adventure with an elephant of ono 

 ■who has had more narrow escapes than any man living, 

 but whose modesty has always pre rented him from publish- 

 ing any thing about himself. When we were on the banks of 

 the Zouga in 1850, Mr. Oswell pursued one of these animals 

 into the dense, thick, thorny bushes met with on the margin 

 of that river, and to which the elephant usually flees for 

 safety. He followed through a narrow pathway by lifting 

 up some of the branches and forcing his way through the 

 rest; but, when he had just got over this difficulty, he saw 

 the elephant, whose tail he had but got glimpses of before, 

 now rushing toward him. There was then no time to lift up 

 branches; so he tried to force the horse through them. He 

 could not effect a passage; and, as there was but an instant 

 between the attempt and failure, the hunter tried to dis- 

 mount, but in doing this one foot was caught by a branch, 

 and the spur drawn along the animal's flank; this made 

 him spring away and throw the rider on the ground with 

 his face to the elephant, which, being in fall chase, still 

 went on. Mr. Oswell saw the huge fore-foot about to de- 

 scend on his legs, parted them, and drew in his breath as 

 if to resist the pressure of the other foot, which he expected 

 would next descend on his bod} 7 . He saw the whole 

 length of the under part of the enormous brute pass over 

 him : the horse got away safely. I have heard of but one 

 other authentic instance in which an elephant went over a 

 man without injury, and, for any one who knows the nature 

 of the bush in w T hich this occurred, the very thought of an 

 encounter in it with such a foe is appalling. As the thorns 

 are placed in pairs on opposite sides of the branches, and 

 these turn round on being pressed against, one pair brings 

 the other exactly into the position in which it must pierce 

 the intruder. They cut like knives. Horses dread this 

 bush extremely; indeed, most of them refuse to face its 

 thorns. 



On reaching Mburuma's village, his brother came to 

 meet us. We explained the reason of our delay, and he 



