I never saw a more lovely
sight; they were all bulls with immense tusks. Waiting until they were
within twenty yards of me, I galloped straight at them, giving a yell
that turned them. Away they rushed up the hill, but at so great a pace,
that upon the rutty and broken ground I could not overtake them, and
they completely distanced me. Tetel, although a wonderfully steady
hunter, was an uncommonly slow horse, but upon this day he appeared to
be slower than usual, and I was not at the time aware that he was
seriously ill. By following three elephants separated from the herd I
came up to them by a short cut, and singling out a fellow with enormous
tusks, I rode straight at him. Finding himself overhauled, he charged me
with such quickness and followed me up so far, that it was with the
greatest difficulty that I cleared him. When he turned, I at once
returned to the attack; but he entered a thick thorny jungle through
which no horse could follow, and I failed to obtain a shot.
I was looking for a path through which I could penetrate the bush, when
I suddenly heard natives shouting in the direction where I had left the
wounded bull. Galloping towards the spot, I met a few scattered natives;
among others, Adda. After shouting for some time, at length Yaseen
appeared upon my horse Filfil; he had fled as usual when he saw the
troop of elephants advancing, and no one knows how far he had ridden
before he thought it safe to look behind him.
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