680 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



chessmen, fans, caskets, dice and dice-boxes, statuettes, and knick-knacks 

 made of the same material generally, are all in their way very pretty objects ; 

 but the demand which exists for them is not a sufficient justification for hunt- 

 ing the African elephant from off the face of the earth. There are some 

 animals, it is true, which would seem to be altogether proof against persecu- 

 tion. The merry little rabbit, the Hanoverian rat, and the common sparrow, 

 defy all efforts to keep down their numbers, short of an absolute and pre- 

 concerted massacre. It is otherwise, however, with the larger creatures of 

 the earth. 



"Within historical times the bear and the wolf have disappeared from our 

 English forests, and the seal from our shores. The otter and the marten cat 

 become rarer and rarer every year, and the fox and the red deer are artificially 

 preserved. In India, it has already been found necessary to protect the 

 elephant ; nor has this wise precaution been taken too early. Docile and 

 tractable as the great creature is, all attempts to breed it in captivity have 

 hitherto failed, and we have still, like the Carthaginians in the time of Hanni- 

 bal, to catch our elephants as we want them. In this respect, the history of 

 the elephant contrasts strangely with that of the camel. The last-named 

 animal has been bred in captivity from a time to which no records reach, and 

 the wild camel had ceased to exist probably for many centuries before Hero- 

 dotus, the first great traveller, wrote his ' History.' The elephant, on the 

 other hand, although from time immemorial he has been tamed and made to 

 labour for man's service, still remains in his natural condition, and it is to be 

 hoped that for centuries to come that extinction with which Lieutenant Came- 

 ron threatens him may be averted. The huge brute, apart altogether from 

 the interest which he owes to his size, his marvellous sagacity, and the fact 

 that he is one of the few surviving relics of the pre-Adamite fauna, can also 

 claim our consideration and forbearance on the ground of his use and value. 

 He is the natural railway of the countries in which he is found, and in Africa 

 more especially, where the venomous tsetze fly renders whole regions impass- 

 able for cattle and horses, his services will for many centuries remain indis- 

 pensable to the cause of progress and civilisation. The elephant is, indeed, 

 to that great and unknown land what her coal-fields are to England, and it 

 would be a barbarous and short-sighted act to wage such a war against him 

 for the sake of his ivory as would deprive the world of his many other and 

 more valuable uses." 



A more distinguished honour awaited the gallant explorer, and was con- 

 ferred upon him, when, on the 29th of April, the Queen held a council at 

 Windsor, after which he was presented to her Majesty by the Duke of Eich- 

 mond and Gordon, and received the insignia of a Companion of the Bath 

 (Civil Division), in recognition of his distinguished services in Africa. 



On the 3d of May, our traveller was a guest at the eighty-seventh anni- 



