AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 
116 
of the boat, whilst the cream of the party went on an excursion in 
quest of elephants. 
During their absence, the young adventurer, anxious to try his 
strength on higher game than ducks and geese, induced nine of 
the men to join him, of whom the rets (captain) of the boat alone 
knew how to load or fire a gun. Falling in with an old elephants 
track, with more ardour than experience they followed it until 
nightfall, and bivouacked with as little preparation as the animal 
they had been following. Hunger and sore limbs induced them at 
break of day to retrace their steps, and a hot sun and long march 
did not contribute to the equanimity of their tempers, when, in 
the course of the afternoon, they were met by a party of negroes, 
who, in a manner more imperative than entreating, requested 
them to kill a lion who had committed sad havoc amongst their 
cattle. 
Of two evils they chose possibly the least, and, in lieu of an 
aflPray with the negroes, prepared to brave the lion, and, with as 
good a mien as the by no means easy circumstances would permit, 
they followed their conductors, to his lair. Waited on without 
detention, the first shot fired by the reis whizzed over him, and, 
quick as thought, three bounds brought the lion within a few 
yards of our hero, whom negroes and Arabs had as quickly de- 
serted. Spellbound, hunter and lion, motionless, gazed at each 
other. The instant seemed an age, and terminated by the lion 
slinking oflp, when Carlo accelerated his pace by a dangerous shot 
in his hind quarters. Following him up, he put two more shots in 
his sides, and so thoroughly disabled him that the negroes, who 
had reappeared, with wild shouts and manoeuvres indescribable, 
went in, and with their lances destroyed both the lion^s life and 
skin, so that the tail alone remained uninjured, for a trophy. 
S — 2 
