With Two Mounted Gun-
Bearers And Five Others On Foot I Had Been Entirely Deserted Through The
Cowardice Of My Men.
The elephant that I had left as dying, was gone.
One of the Latookas had followed upon his tracks, and we heard this
fellow shouting in the distance.
I soon overtook him, and he led rapidly
upon the track through thick bushes and high grass. In about a quarter
of an hour we came up with the elephant; he was standing in bush, facing
us at about fifty yards' distance, and immediately perceiving us, he
gave a saucy jerk with his head, and charged most determinedly. It was
exceedingly difficult to escape, owing to the bushes which impeded the
horse, while the elephant crushed them like cobwebs: however, by turning
my horse sharp round a tree, I managed to evade him after a chase of
about a hundred and fifty yards. Disappearing in the jungle after his
charge, I immediately followed him. The ground was hard, and so trodden
by elephants that it was difficult to single out the track. There was no
blood upon the ground, but only on the trees every now and then, where
he had rubbed past them in his retreat. After nearly two hours passed in
slowly following upon his path, we suddenly broke cover and saw him
travelling very quietly through an extensive plain of high grass. The
ground was gently inclining upwards on either side the plain, but the
level was a mass of deep, hardened ruts, over which no horse could
gallop.
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