4i8 A JOURNEY IN 
which is perhaps the mildest of all large animals, appears 
likewise, when provoked, to be more prone to resentment 
than those of the, most ferocious disposition. Of the great 
sagacit}^ and reasoning powers of this animal very extraordi- 
nary stories have been related, from the time of Pliny down 
to Buffon ; some of which may perhaps be true, but many of 
them are notoriously false. An instance, however, of the 
vindictive spirit of the elephant occurred to some Dutch 
boors, who travelled to the eastward in search of the place 
where the Grosvenor Indiaman was cast away^ which is re- 
markable in this respect, and the authenticity of which can- 
not be called in question. This animal, after having received 
into his body several large musket balls, and twice fallen on 
the ground, crept with difficulty into a thick thorny coppice. 
** Conceiving him to be done for," says Jacob Van Reenen, 
" Tjaart Vander Walt, Lodewyk Prins, and Ignatius Mulder, 
" rode up to the thicket ; when, rushing furiously out from 
" his hiding-place, he lashed his proboscis round the body of 
" Prins who was on horseback, dragged him off to the 
*' ground, and trod him to death ; then driving one of his 
*' tusks into his body, he threw him to the height of thirty 
" feet into the air. The other two dismounting hid them- 
" selves in the thicket. The elephant looking round him 
and perceiving only the horse of Vander AValt began to 
" follow it, but, presently turning about, wallced up to the 
" spot where the corpse of Prins was lying. At this instant 
" our whole party renewed the^ attack, when, after receiving 
" several bullets, he again escaped into the thicket. Think- 
" ing that we should now see no more of him, we began to 
*' dig a grave for our unfortunate companion, when the 
" elephant, again rushing furiously upon us, drove the whole 
