ELEPHANT HUNTING. 6$ 



ready for our departure, I took Mrs. Livingstone about six 

 miles from the town, that she might have a peep at the 

 broad part of the Lake. Next morning we had other work 

 to do than part, for our little boy and girl were seized with 

 fever. On the day following all our servants were down 

 too with the same complaint. As nothing is better in 

 these cases than change of place, I was forced to give up 

 the hope of seeing Sebituane that year ; so, leaving my gun 

 as part payment for guides next year, we started for the 

 pure air of the Desert. 



Some mistake had happened in the arrangement with 

 Mr. Oswell, for we met him on the Zouga on our return, and 

 he devoted the rest of this season to elephant-hunting, at 

 which the natives universally declare he is the greatest 

 adept that ever came into the country. He hunted without 

 dogs. It is remarkable that this lordly animal is so com- 

 pletely harassed by the presence of a few yelping curs as 

 to be quite incapable of attending to man. He makes 

 awkward attempts to crush them by falling on his knees ; 

 and sometimes places his forehead against a tree ten inches 

 in diameter ; glancing on one side of the tree and then on 

 the other, he pushes it down before him, as if he thought 

 thereby to catch his enemies. The only danger the hunts- 

 man has to apprehend is the dogs running towards him, 

 and thereby leading the elephant to their master. Mr. 

 Oswell has been known to kill four large old male elephants 

 a day. The value of the ivory in these cases would be one 

 hundred guineas. We had reason to be proud of his 

 success, for the inhabitants conceived from it a very high 

 idea of English courage, and when they wished to flatter 

 me would say, " If you were not a missionary you would 

 just be like Oswell ; you would not hunt with dogs either." 

 When in 1852 we came to the Cape, my black coat eleven 

 years out of fashion, and without a penny of salary to 

 draw, we found that Mr. Oswell had most generously 

 ordered an outfit for the half-naked children, which cost 

 about £200, and presented it to us, saying he thought 

 Mrs. Livingstone had a right to the game of her own 

 preserves. 



Foiled in this second attempt to reach Sebituane, we 

 returned again to Kolobeng, whither we were soon followed 

 by a number of messengers from that chief himself. When 

 he heard of our attempts to visit him, he despatched three 

 detachments of his men with thirteen brown cows to 



