yet: 
i 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 305° 
were nearly confumed ; and then they come out eafily, the 
thin part being of no value. 
e 
THE next morning we were on horfeback by the dawn 
of day in fearch of the rhinoceros, many of which we had 
heard make a very deep groan and cry as the morning ap- 
proached ; feveral of the Agageers then joined us, and after 
we had fearched about an hour in the very thickeft part 
of the wood, one of them rufhed out with great violence, 
crofiing the plain towards a wood of canes that was about 
two miles diftance. But though he ran, or rather trotted, 
with furprifing f{peed, confidering his bulk, he was, in a 
very little time, transfixed with thirty or forty javelins; which 
fo confounded him, that he left his purpofe of going to the 
~wood, and ran into a deep hole, ditch, or ravine, a cul de fac, 
without outlet, breaking above a dozen of the javelins as 
he entered. Here we thought he was caught as in a trap, 
for he had fcarce room to turn; when a fervant, who had 
a gun, ftanding directly over him, fired at his head, and 
the animal fell immediately, to all appearance dead. All 
thofe on foot now jumped in with their knives to cut 
him up, and they had fcarce begun, when the animal 
recovered fo far as torife upon his knees; happy then was 
the man that efcaped firft; and had not one of the Aga- 
geers, who was himfelf engaged in the ravine, cut the finew 
of the hind-leg as he was retreating, there would have been 
a very forrowful account of the foot-hunters that day. 
Arter having difpatched him, I was curious to fee what 
wound the fhot had given, which had operated fo violently 
upon fo huge an animal; and I doubted not it was in the 
brain. But it had ftruck him nowhere but upon the point of 
Vor. IV, Qq the 
