728 LEOPARD ENCOUNTER. 



phaut, the quick " whiff" of the rhinoceros, and the stealthy- 

 step of the leopard. It matters little to the unlucky man who 

 finds himself oddly matched in close encounter with one of 

 these, that the animal may possess only ferocity instead of true 

 courage. The case is desperate all the same. The leopard was 

 never thought of as distinguished by lofty courage; but a cara- 

 van can hardly pass through his native jungles without carrying 

 away a man or two less than it brought. One of the fiercest 

 scenes portrayed in books of travel is in the account of a mid- 

 night battle of a distinguished traveller with one of these 

 unmanly creatures. Separated from his party, and sadly bewil- 

 dered, the traveller was vainly endeavoring to regain the path 

 from which he had unconsciously turned. The shadows had 

 closed about him, and the night, with all its most discordant 

 sounds, prevailed. Suddenly, while he listened intently, fearing 

 that a step might bring him across the path of some prowling 

 monster, he heard a foot-fall, light and cautious, and a hoarse 

 breathing. He had hardly time to grasp his weapon when the 

 leopard sprang on him. The struggle was for life on the 

 hunter's part, for blood on the part of his assailant. When it 

 ended it was a doubtful choice between the prostrate forms of 

 the man and beast for the living one ; and years afterward the 

 man's memory reverted to that midnight encounter as the 

 climax of all his perils. It seems to be true, however, that 

 travellers through the countries infested by ravenous beasts 

 need not come into collision with them. It is generally possi- 

 ble to travel in such company, and encamp in such a manner, 

 as to insure protection from assaults. If Dr. Livingstone had 

 been a hunter, and had sought the intimacies which have fur- 

 nished the startling narratives that fill the books of other men, 

 he might have thought of these wilds as they do. As it was, 

 he passed through the "paradise of hunters " without a word 

 about the "splendid game." But there is mention in his 

 journal of an enemy which he could not despise; which in- 

 vaded with insidious malice the circle of followers, and laughed 

 at camp-fires and walls of mud or canvas. This was the old 

 disease of the bowels which had followed him so many years. 

 Several days were lost at Mrera, and the men speak of few 

 periods of even comparative health after he left that point. 



