An Afrikander’s Journal 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
VII.—Elephant Hunting—A Solitary Hunter 
—Wandering Boers 
M y direction was now about due west and 
my trekking was slow, as I fondly 
hoped to find more elephants. Every¬ 
day we saw old spoor, but it was all quite 
ancient, and we pushed slowly forward. Water 
was rather scarce, game none too abundant, and 
it was all I could do to keep the caravan ' sup¬ 
plied. The natives said that when we crossed 
the next range of mountains we should find 
plenty of both, and this buoyed up our hopes. 
The boys were suffering a good deal from sore 
feet and I promised them that as soon as we 
reached the next valley we would have a long 
rest. 
Crossing the range was a fearful business, but 
we accomplished it by going slowly and by mak¬ 
ing the marches short. When once over, every¬ 
thing was again favorable. We found plenty of 
food and water and a good many villages. Here 
I gave my boys their promised rest. The vil¬ 
lagers were very friendly and gave me the in¬ 
formation I asked for, and if one could only 
credit what they said, there was close at hand 
everything in the game line that one could de¬ 
sire. In a few days I started out with a few 
of my boys and some from the village, leaving 
the remainder of my caravan to rest up and 
await my return, telling them to keep their eyes 
open and to look carefully after my stuff. 
Once the village was behind us, we came upon 
plenty of the ordinary antelope. Then we ran 
across the fresh spoor of a large herd of ele¬ 
phants. These were easy to follow and within 
two hours of first striking their trail I came up 
to them. The ground was swampy and every¬ 
thing in my favor. A fine bull was alone on 
the outskirts of the herd. Getting within twenty- 
five yards I .dropped him with my first shot with 
a bullet in the right spot—the brain. To de¬ 
scribe the noise that followed is not possible, 
but the herd did not know from where the shot 
came and individual elephants dashed about 
from one place to the other for a few moments, 
which seemed to me hours, and then crashed off 
through the trees. There were several other 
good bulls and one far better than mine, but one 
always sees these things when too late, but my 
bull was far above the ordinary and his tusks, 
though long and thin, weighed 77 and 84 pounds 
respectively. 
I followed the herd, and though traveling fast 
did not come up to them till the third day, and 
this very nearly proved my undoing. At first 
I saw nothing but cows and young animals. 
A MASAI WARRIOR. 
There were several babies among the lot and 
my greatest wish was to put as much distance 
as possible between these and myself. After 
reconnoitering with the greatest care I got among 
them by mistake, but so far they were unaware 
of my presence. About the same moment a cow 
must have got my wind. There was a sharp 
trumpeting and she dashed down toward me. It 
was not possible to hide or get up a tree. Peo¬ 
ple talk about doing these things, but in this 
case I know that had I been the most expert 
climber in the world I could not have got into 
a tree. I had not the time. I did all I could 
do, which was to grab my rifle and fire, and 
my heavy bullet had the desired effect and 
turned her. She only went a few yards before 
she turned back again, but I lost no time in 
giving her my second barrel, and she dashed 
off after the herd. 
I was sorry to be obliged to shoot a cow, 
for I felt certain that we should find her dead; 
but what could I do? Some kind people might 
say, “You knew you were hunting dangerous 
game and it was your duty to get out of the 
way.” If I could, I would have done so. I 
consider that my action was justifiable, though 
in the eyes of the law I do not believe it was. 
My surmise proved correct. Following up the 
blood spoor we found her dead about a quarter 
of a mile further on. It was some salve to my 
conscience to find her a very old cow and I 
should judge past any use in the way of breed¬ 
ing. 
I now made my way back to the village where 
the rest of my caravan had been resting and 
found them quite recovered, and as I was again 
feeling none too well, I started south next day. 
In this district there was game in any quantity 
and it was a beautiful place to shoot in. The 
great open rolling veldt with its strips of timber 
made it an ideal place to hunt on horseback. 
It is ver}- comforting to have a horse, especially 
after your stalk has been accomplished. How¬ 
ever tired you may be, during the time you are 
trying to get up to your game, excitement keeps 
you up and you do not realize your fatigue; but 
after it is over it comes on twenty times worse. 
The crossing from one strip of timber to an¬ 
other was always of intense interest to me, for 
generally one could see on the open veldt every 
description of game gazing at the caravan with 
the utmost astonishment, sometimes rushing off 
without a moment’s delay, while at other times 
their curiosity got the better of them and they 
stood watching us until we were out of sight. 
A few marches further on we came to a fairly 
large village on the banks of a river where they 
told us that some days before a crocodile had 
seized a woman whom they had eventually 
rescued, but with the loss of her two legs be¬ 
low the knee. It seems incredible, but it is true 
that she survived after the most heroic treat¬ 
ment I have ever heard of. To stop the hemor¬ 
rhage they poured boiling water over the stumps 
and after a time this had the desired effect, and 
in spite of the tremendous shock the woman sur¬ 
vived. 
The rivers in Central Africa are full of a 
kind of barbel, which are very easily caught 
and are excellent eating, but I must admit that 
when fishing I am very much on the alert for 
crocodiles. Most of the villages in these parts 
