TRAVELS IN 
enemy, is to compare his ftrength with that of 
his antagonift ; and, if he find them very un- 
equal, the danger to which he is expofed muft 
neceffarily have its weight with him. This at 
leaft I have always experienced, and cer- 
tainly I do not think myfelf more of a coward 
than another man. Accordingly, w^henever I 
have found myfelf " face to face" with an ele- 
phant, a rhinoceros, a tiger, a lion, or the like, 
I confefs, notwithftanding my confidence in 
my weapons, far from feeling myfelf, at the 
firft inflant, totally devoid of alarm : I have al- 
ways experienced a violent palpitation, a fen- 
fation clofely allied to fear. But this is of 
fhort duration, and has never deterred mc- 
from the attack, w^ell affurcd of the fuperiority 
given me by my prudence and arms. Then, 
laying afide every idea of danger, I have 
marched ftralght forward to my enemy, how- 
ever formidable he may be, and, if a wild 
beaft, have thought only of killing, wounding, 
or at leaft putting him to flight. 
To wait in ambulli for a lion, and fire at 
him as he pafles by, is an enterprife not with- 
out danger ; but to attack in " face" a lionefs 
attended by her whelps and their father, and in 
' her 
