246 ADVENTURE WITH AN ELEPHANT. 



when the occasion allowed, fell upon the islands and took away 

 many of the people and large quantities of ivory. Selole had 

 associated Livingstone with that man, who having been killed 

 some time before, he was represented as having " risen from the 

 dead." 



An adventure with an elephant, which occurred just after 

 parting with Selole, throws some light on the singular tenacity 

 with which that animal clings to life, and may serve the would- 

 be-hunters a good turn. They had come in sight of a troop of 

 elephants ; it is astonishing how numerous these troops are some- 

 times ; Dr. Barth once counted over ninety in a herd. The 

 men of Livingstone, on the occasion mentioned, set out to secure 

 some meat ; as " they drew near," says the account, " the troop 

 began to run; one of them fell into a hole, and before he could 

 extricate himself an opportunity was afforded for all the men 

 to throw their spears. When he rose he was like a huge porcu- 

 pine, for each of the seventy or eighty men had discharged more 

 than one spear at him. As they had no more, they sent for me 

 to finish him. In order to put him at once out of pain, I went 

 to within twenty yards, there being a bank between us which he 

 could not readily climb. I rested the gun on an ant-hill so as 

 to take steady aim ; but, though I fired twelve two-ounce bullets, 

 all I had, into different parts, I could not kill him. As it was 

 becoming dark, I advised my men to let him stand, being sure 

 of finding him dead in the morning ; but, though we searched 

 all the next day, and went more than ten miles, we never saw 

 him again. I mention this to young men who may think that 

 they will be able to hunt elephants on foot by adopting the 

 Ceylon practice of killing them by one ball in the brain. I be- 

 lieve that in Africa the practice of standing before an elephant, 

 expecting to kill him with one shot, would be certain death to 

 the hunter ; and I would add, for the information of those who 

 may think that because I met with a great abundance of game 

 here they also might find rare sport, that the tsetse exists all 

 along both banks of the Zambesi, and there can be no hunting 

 by means of horses. Hunting on foot in this climate is such ex- 

 cessively hard work, that I feel certain the keenest sportsman 

 would very soon turn away from it in disgust. I myself was 

 rather glad, when furnished with the excuse that I had no longer 



