However, I succeeded in engaging Adda, the third chief
of Latooka, and several natives, to act as my guides, and I made my
arrangements for a stated day.
On the 17th of April I started at 5 A.M. with my three horses and two
camels, the latter carrying water and food. After a march of two or
three hours through the beautiful hunting-grounds formed by the valley
of Latooka, with its alternate prairies and jungles, I came upon the
tracks of rhinoceros, giraffes, and elephants, and shortly moved a
rhinoceros, but could get no shot, owing to the thick bush in which he
started and disappeared quicker than I could dismount. After a short
circuit in search of the rhinoceros, we came upon a large herd of
buffaloes, but at the same moment we heard elephants trumpeting at the
foot of the mountains. Not wishing to fire, lest the great game should
be disturbed, I contented myself with riding after the buffaloes,
wonderfully followed on foot by Adda, who ran like a deer, and almost
kept up with my horse, hurling his three lances successively at the
buffaloes, but without success. I had left the camels in an open plain,
and returning from the gallop after the buffaloes, I saw the men on the
camels beckoning to me in great excitement.
Cantering towards them, they explained that a herd of bull elephants had
just crossed an open space, and had passed into the jungle beyond.
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