V 
NDOROBO ELEPHANT-HUNTING 
ii 3 
“ Squareface ” was just behind me, and the elephant charged 
past me after him like a locomotive. He followed*my ex¬ 
ample and dodged to one side into the bush, leaving Juma, 
who was clad in raiment “ by way of being ” white, in full view 
just in front of the enraged beast. (I never had to complain 
of my gun-carriers decamping in moments of emergency, as 
one so often hears travellers say their men do ; on the con¬ 
trary, I had oftener to reprove them for persisting in sticking 
close behind me, when I wanted to go on alone.) Juma, it 
afterwards turned out, foolishly ran straight along the path we 
had approached by, the bull within a few yards of him ; but 
instantly the latter passed my retreat, I, having an eye over 
my shoulder and being only two or three yards off, had swung 
round and given him my left barrel in his ribs before he had 
got many yards beyond me. This, it would seem, changed 
his mind, or else his powers were becoming exhausted, for 
he turned back and retreated to a little farther than where 
he had stood before. 
My men now came back to me, and I made Juma climb 
a little tree. He saw the bull, only some thirty yards off, 
standing in the jungle. I felt I must do something, but 
did not think myself bound to advance hurriedly upon him 
again in his present frame of mind, being sure he was dying. 
So I climbed the tree, in spite of thorns ; but these were 
straight, and, being so much accustomed to the villainous 
hooked kind, one gets to despise such as comparatively harm¬ 
less. Getting near its slender top, I could see the elephant 
staggering; and, while I looked, his hind legs gave; he 
backed into the curious sitting posture they often fall into 
when about to collapse ; his head went up, and, throwing 
his trunk into the air, as it were in sign of defeat, he went 
over with a crash, and, after a few struggles, lay still. 
Going cautiously up, I found him dead. Another massive 
beast, hardly so colossal as the last, but with rather heavier 
ivory (84 lbs. and 70 lbs.). His back was not so rough as 
I 
