44 
MR. OSWELl/8 HUNTING. 
spent, on those terms, and delivered it to him All being 
ready for our departure, 1 took Mrs. Livingstone about six 
miles from the town, that she might have a peep at the 
broad pa^t of the lake. Next morning we had other work 
to do than part, for our little boy and girl were seized 
with lever. 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, 1 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 had devoted the rest of this Benson to elephants 
hunting, at which tho natives universally declare he is the 
greatest adept that ever came into tho country. He hunted 
without dogs. It is remarkable that this lordly animal 
is so completely harassed by the presence of a few yelp- 
ing 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 
ton inches in diameter; glancing on one side of tho tree 
and then on the other, he pushes it down before him, as 
if he thought thereby to catch his enemies. Tho only 
danger the huntsman has to approhend is the dogs’ run- 
ning toward him, and thereby leading the elephant to 
their master. Mr. Oswell has been known to kill foai 
large old male elephants a day. The value of the ivory in 
these cases would be one hundred guineas. Wo had roasoo 
to be proud of his success, tor the inhabitants conceived 
from it a very high idea of English courage, and when 
they wished to flatter mo would say, “If you were not* 
missionary you would just be like Oswell; you would not 
hunt with dogs either.” When, in 1852, we camo to tha 
Cape, my black coat eleven years out of fashion, and with- 
out a penny of salary to draw, we found that Mr. Oswell 
had most generously ordered an outfit for the half-uaked 
