ELEPHANTS 
731 
picious. At length he pressed the button, which proved too 
much for the nervous system of the tembos [Swahili for ele¬ 
phants]. With ears outspread and trunks curled up, and 
screaming like locomotives they seemed spontaneously all to 
charge straight for us. I knew my retreat, as I invariably 
make a study of the ground immediately behind and to each 
side of me when I go in to tackle elephants and I turned and 
fled to the only tree within reasonable distance. This was 
12 yards off. The other man bolted on and so did all 
the niggers (6 of them). On reaching my tree (15 
inches in diameter) I turned to face the charge and found 
the 3 animals just topping the bank from which we had 
been photographing (12 paces off). I picked out the 
leader, the largest cow, and fired. This brought her up all 
acheck [second mate’s language*] but the others came and 
jostled her and she, with them, started for me again. The 
2d barrel killed her dead at 9 paces, and as I knew the 
others would get me if I stayed, I bolted for the river 
bed. The dead cow caused them to swerve and I escaped 
them by a very narrow margin. It was the nearest call I 
have had for quite some time with elephant. The other 
man’s 450 double jammed in the safety bolt and he never 
fired but wisely kept on running like the niggers, through 
the bush. The whole incident was all over in 20 to 25 
seconds. 
“On the second occasion I was out with the same man on 
the foothills of south Kenia and camping in the same small 
open patch in the forest where you may remember I took 
you to [near where Colonel Roosevelt killed his first ele- 
*He had served on whaling ships in the Arctic seas; and we used to com¬ 
pare cow-punchers’, lion hunters’, elephant hunters’, and whaling dialects. 
