530 MR. OSWELL'S NARROW ESCAPE. Chap. XXVIII. 



which I now melted into bullets. I also spent the remainder of 

 my handkerchiefs in buying spears for them. My men frequently 

 surrounded herds of buffaloes and killed numbers of the calves. 

 I, too, exerted myself greatly ; but as I am now obliged to shoot 

 with the left arm I am a bad shot, and this, with the lightness of 

 the bullets, made me very unsuccessful. The more the hunger, 

 the less my success, invariably. 



I may here add an adventure with an elephant of one who has 

 had more narrow escapes than any man living, but whose modesty 

 has always prevented liim from publishing anything 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 rush- 

 ing towards 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 dismount, but in doing this one 

 foot was caught by a branch, and the spur drawn along the ani- 

 mal's flank ; tin's made liim spring away and throw the rider on 

 the ground with his face to the elephant, which, being in full 

 chase, still went on. Mr. Oswell saw the huge fore foot about 

 to descend 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 body. 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 wliich tins occurred, the very 

 thought of an encounter in it with such a foe is appalling. As 

 the thorns are placed in paii-s 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. 



