Albert, Lake (Congo and Uganda); Nile River; Sudan -- Description and travel
In the way of sport I never saw anything so magnificent or so absurdly
dangerous. No gladiatorial exhibition in the Roman arena could have
surpassed this fight. The elephant was mad with rage, and nevertheless
he seemed to know that the object of the hunters was to get behind him.
This he avoided with great dexterity, turning as it were upon a pivot
with extreme quickness, and charging headlong, first at one and then at
another of his assailants, while he blew clouds of sand in the air with
his trunk, and screamed with fury. Nimble as monkeys, nevertheless the
aggageers could not get behind him. In the folly of excitement they had
forsaken their horses, which had escaped from the spot. The depth of the
loose sand was in favor of the elephant, and was so much against the men
that they avoided his charges with extreme difficulty. It was only
by the determined pluck of all three that they alternately saved each
other, as two invariably dashed in at the flanks when the elephant
charged the third, upon which the wary animal immediately relinquished
the chase and turned round upon his pursuers. During this time I had
been laboring through the heavy sand, and shortly after I arrived at the
fight the elephant charged directly through the aggageers, receiving a
shoulder-shot from one of my Reilly No. 10 rifles, and at the same time
a slash from the sword of Abou Do, who with great dexterity and speed
had closed in behind him, just in time to reach the leg. Unfortunately,
he could not deliver the cut in the right place, as the elephant, with
increased speed, completely distanced the aggageers, then charged across
the deep sand and reached the jungle. We were shortly upon his tracks,
and after running about a quarter of a mile he fell dead in a dry
watercourse. His tusks were, like those of most Abyssinian elephants,
exceedingly short, but of good thickness.
Some of our men, who had followed the runaway horses, shortly returned
and reported that during our fight with the bull they had heard other
elephants trumpeting in the dense nabbuk jungle near the river. We all
dismounted, and sent the horses to a considerable distance, lest they
should by some noise disturb the elephants. We shortly heard a crackling
in the jungle on our right, and Jali assured us that, as he had
expected, the elephants were slowly advancing along the jungle on the
bank of the river, and would pass exactly before us. We waited patiently
in the bed of the river, and the crackling in the jungle sounded closer
as the herd evidently approached. The strip of thick thorny covert that
fringed the margin was in no place wider than half a mile; beyond that
the country was open and park-like, but at this season it was covered
with parched grass from eight to ten feet high. The elephants would,
therefore, most probably remain in the jungle until driven out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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