166 
CIVILIZED AND BARBAEOUS SPORTSMEN. Chap. YIII. 
of its coolness. Hunting this animal is the best test of courage 
this country affords. The Bushmen choose the moment suc¬ 
ceeding a charge, when the elephant is out of breath, to run in 
and give him a stab with their long-bladed spears. In tliis case 
the uncivilized have the advantage over us, but I beheve that 
with half their training Enghshmen would beat the Bushmen. 
Our present form of civihzation does not necessarily produce 
effeminacy, though it unquestionably increases the beauty, cou¬ 
rage, and physical powers of the race. Wlien at Ivolobeng I 
took notes of the different numbers of elephants killed in the 
course of the season by the various parties which went past our 
dwelling,' in order to form an idea of the probable annual de¬ 
struction of tliis noble animal. There were parties of Griquas, 
Bechuanas, Boers, and Enghshmen. All were eager to distin¬ 
guish themselves, and success depended mainly on the courage 
which leads the huntsman to go close to the animal, and not 
waste the force of his shot on the air. It was noticeable that the 
average for the natives w^as under one per man, for the Griquas 
one per man, for the Boers two, and for the English officers 
twenty each. This was the more remarkable, as the Griquas, 
Boers, and Bechuanas employed both dogs and natives to assist 
them, wliile the English hunters generally had no assistance from 
either. They approached to witlnn thirty yards of the animal, 
while the others stood at a distance of a hundred yards, or even 
more, and of course spent all the force of their buUets on the air. 
One elephant wus found by Mr. Osw^ell with quite a crowTl of 
bullets in liis side, all evidently fired in this style, and they had 
not gone near the vital parts. 
It would thus appear that our more barbarous neighbours do 
not possess half the courage of the civilized sportsman. And it is 
probable that in this respect, as well as in physical development, 
w'e are superior to our ancestors. The coats of mail and greaves 
of the Knights of Malta, and the armour from the Tower exhibited 
at the Eghnton tournament, may be considered decisive as to 
the greater size attained by modern civilized men. 
At Maila we spent a Sunday with Kaisa, the head man of a 
village of Mashona, who had fled from the iron sway of Mosilikatse, 
w^hose country hes east of this. I v/ished him to take charge 
of a packet of letters for England, to be forwarded when, as is 
