The Hunters Then Approach
With Great Caution, Creeping Amongst The Long Grass, Until They Have Got
Near Enough To Be Sure Of Their Aim.
They then discharge all their pieces
at once, and throw themselves on their faces among the grass.
The wounded
elephant immediately applies his trunk to the different wounds, but being
unable to extract the balls, and seeing nobody near him, becomes quite
furious, and runs about among the bushes, until by fatigue and loss of
blood he has exhausted himself, and affords the hunters an opportunity of
firing a second time at him, by which he is generally brought to the
ground.
The skin is now taken off, and extended on the ground with pegs, to dry;
and such parts of the flesh as are most esteemed are cut up into thin
slices, and dried in the sun, to serve for provisions on some future
occasion. The teeth are struck out with a light hatchet, which the
hunters always carry along with them; not only for that purpose, but also
to enable them to cut down such trees as contain honey; for though they
carry with them only five or six days' provisions, they will remain in
the woods for months if they are successful, and support themselves upon
the flesh of such elephants as they kill, and wild honey.
The ivory thus collected is seldom brought down to the Coast by the
hunters themselves. They dispose of it to the itinerant merchants, who
come annually from the Coast with arms and ammunition, to purchase this
valuable commodity. Some of these merchants will collect ivory, in the
course of one season, sufficient to load four or five asses. A great
quantity of ivory is likewise brought from the interior by the slave
coffles. There are, however, some Slatees, of the Mahomedan persuasion,
who, from motives of religion, will not deal in ivory, nor eat of the
flesh of the elephant, unless it has been killed with a spear.
The quantity of ivory collected in this part of Africa is not so great,
nor are the teeth in general so large, as in the countries nearer the
Line: few of them weigh more than eighty, or one hundred pounds; and upon
an average, a bar of European merchandize may be reckoned as the price of
a pound of ivory.
I have now, I trust, in this and the preceding chapters, explained, with
sufficient minuteness, the nature and extent of the commercial connection
which at present prevails, and has long subsisted, between the Negro
natives of those parts of Africa which I visited, and the nations of
Europe; and it appears that slaves, gold, and ivory, together with the
few articles enumerated in the beginning of my work, viz. bees-wax and
honey, hides, gums, and dye woods, constitute the whole catalogue of
exportable commodities. Other productions, however, have been
incidentally noticed as the growth of Africa; such as grain of different
kinds, tobacco, indigo, cotton-wool, and perhaps a few others; but all of
these (which can only be obtained by cultivation and labour) the natives
raise sufficient only for their own immediate expenditure; nor, under the
present system of their laws, manners, trade, and government, can any
thing farther be expected from them.
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