274 
THE ELEPHANT. 
tained from Africa were found insufficient. With 
the decline 5 however, of those countries, the demand 
for this beautiful and durable article became 
gradually less, and ultimately it fell quite into dis¬ 
use. Indeed, the ivory trade seems to have been 
suspended for upwards of a thousand years, a cir¬ 
cumstance which allowed the poor elephants again 
to increase and multiply. At this day, however, 
the demand for ivory has revived; and now promises 
fair, not only to rival the consumption of the 
ancients, but to effect the destruction of the whole 
species from which the commodity is obtained. 
In closing these remarks, I may mention that 
when the Portuguese arrived at Angola, in the be¬ 
ginning of the seventeenth century, they found 
ivory so abundant (having accumulated for ages) 
that, according to the testimony of Andrew Battell, 
the natives ££ had their idols of wood in most of 
their towns fashioned like a negro, and at the foot 
thereof was a great heap of elephants 9 teeth, con¬ 
taining three or four tons of them; these were 
piled in the earth, and upon them were set the 
skulls of dead men, which they had slain in wars, 
in commemoration of their victory.” 
Polybius tells us, ££ that some centuries before 
his time, ivory was so abundant in Africa 
that some of the native tribes used tusks for pali- 
sadings and door-posts.” And this statement 
is in no wise to be discredited, as authentic 
accounts have lately reached us, ££ that, up to a 
very receut period, the people of Manyema (a 
country in the interior of Eastern Africa), being 
