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 favour 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 labouring 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; he 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.
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