200 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
at length got off. Two donkeys carried, each, two 80 lb. loads 
of the smaller ivory, one my tent on one side and bedding, etc., 
on the other, and the fourth our meal, cartridges, etc., while all 
the men were loaded up with the larger tusks. I was afraid 
the ivory loads on the donkeys would be very troublesome, as 
there had not been time to lash it properly, as it should be, with 
hide—put on wet and dried on—but to my agreeable surprise 
it travelled capitally. All hands being heavily laden, I had to 
help to drive the donkeys myself, Squareface, carrying a big 
tusk, going before them. Donkeys always require a man in 
front of them, whom they follow. I felt quite like Robinson 
Crusoe, as I had to carry two rifles—my .450 slung from my 
shoulder and the rook rifle in one hand, while in the other I 
held a switch to drive the donkeys with ; and, to make the 
resemblance complete, I had what I call Crusoe sandals over 
my boots. These are inventions of my own, and are most 
useful in saving one’s boots in the interior. They are made 
of game hide (eland or koodoo is about the best), and, if 
properly made, are not at all uncomfortable, while they make 
a pair of boots last quite twice or three times as long as they 
would without their protection. In driving donkeys the great 
thing is to make plenty of noise. It is worse than useless to 
strike them, and should never be allowed. They are quite 
different from oxen in that way. The use of the switch is to 
strike the load or saddle, to frighten the donkey, but never 
the animal itself. I have, in former years, driven my own 
waggon hundreds of miles, and I know a good deal about trek 
oxen and their ways. As an old Boer once said to me when 
I was a novice at waggon travelling, “ You must give them 
plenty strips ” ; but with the patient ass it is different. It is 
only since I have been elephant-hunting in Central Africa that 
I have learnt his peculiarities, and the result of my experiences 
as a donkey-driver is that you should never hit him. 
As the place where we had to leave the river was too far 
to reach in one day—and it is the greatest mistake to attempt 
