 Reference Base  Hunting the elephant in Africa and other recollections of... |
|
Stigand, C.H., 1913. Hunting the elephant in Africa and other recollections of thirteen years' wanderings. London, MacMillan, pp. i-xv, 1-379
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Hunting |
| Species: |
African Rhino Species |
 |
|
In 1905 I was looking for elephant in the vicinity of Fort Manning. I had no thought of rhino, but was anxious to shoot the elephant on my new license, as the old one had just expired. I was following an old elephant track across a dambo, or open grassy flat, when I met a fresh spoor crossing at right angles. The grass was very thick, and the track showed as a beaten down lane of grass, but it was not immediately apparent what had caused it, as the grass was too thick under foot for any spoor to be seen. I turned up the track for a few yards, and then bent down, parting the grass so as to see the tracks under it; I had a few Angoni with me, but they were some yards behind on the old track.
Before my investigation was complete, I was left in little doubt as to the owner of the tracks, as I heard the engine-like puffs of a pair of rhinos close at hand breaking down the grass. Evidently they had been lying up dose to the spot at which I had hit their track and had now got my wind.
The next moment a great behorned head burst out of the grass a yard or two from me. I had no time to think, but just shoved my mannlicher in his face and pulled the trigger. He swerved, but I do not know what became of him after that, as at the same moment I became aware of the second one bearing down on me from my left. There was no time to reload, so I tried to jump out of his path, with the usual result in thick stuff, that one tripped up. He kicked me in passing, and then, with a celerity surprising in so ponderous a creature, he whipped round, and the next moment I felt myself soaring up skywards. I must have gone some height, as my men on the elephant track said that they saw me over the grass, which was ten or twelve feet high. However, they are so very unreliable in their statements that it would be quite enough for them, if they heard what had happened, to imagine that they had seen it. Anyhow I fell heavily on my shoulder blades, the best place on which it is possible to fall, partly by accident and partly from practice in tumbling in the gymnasium.
On looking up I saw the wrinkled stern of the rhino disappearing in the grass, at which I said to myself, hurrah 1 for I thought that he might continue the onslaught. Somehow I had the idea that he had been playing battledore and shuttlecock with me for some time, but when I came to think it over I could only remember going up once. Possibly being kicked first gave me this impression.
Next I looked round for my rifle and espied it on the ground a little way off. I picked it up and examined it to see if it had been injured. While doing this I suddenly found that a finger nail had been torn off and was bleeding. Directly I discovered it, it became very painful. Whilst examining this injury some of my men appeared and uttered cries of horror. I could not make out why they were so concerned till I glanced at my chest and saw that my shirt had been ripped open and was covered with blood whilst there was a tremendous gash in the left side of my chest, just over the spot in which the heart is popularly supposed to be situated. Small bits of mincemeat were also lying about on my chest and shirt.
This was a new problem to think out; I was in rather a dazed state, so I left the consideration of my finger and began to consider my chest. I felt nothing at all except a rather numb sensation. It struck me that it must have pierced my lungs; I would soon know if this was the case, as I would be spitting blood. I waited a short time and nothing of the sort occurred, so I concluded that the lungs were all right. Just at this moment there was a rustle in the grass; it appeared that the rhino had come back. One of my men helped me up and another put my rifle in my hands, and I awaited them, but presently we heard them tearing off again.
I was only about thirty miles from Fort Manning, and so I sent off a native to tell the other fellow there, Captain Mostyn, that I had met with an accident. Then I started back to the nearest village. After walking some time I felt faint, and so my natives cut a pole and trussed me on to it, fastening me with my putties. This was, however, so very uncomfortable that I had myself untrussed again and performed the rest of the journey on foot. Having arrived at the village, 1 sent off for my camp, which was at another village, and sat down to await it patiently. After a few hours it turned up, and I dressed my wound as best I could and lay down. I calculated the time the news would take to reach Fort Manning and the distance out and came to the conclusion that Mostyn could not possibly send help before about noon next day.
I had a sleepless night till, about two in the morning, I heard voices, and then the stockaded door of the zariba being pulled down, and presently Mostyn appeared. He said that a native had arrived at sunset with the information that the white man had killed a rhino, to which he replied 'Good.' The information was repeated and the native seemed in a greater state of agi- tation than the news seemed to warrant. Then he said that a rhino had killed the white man. This was quite a different thing. He was so agitated that Mostyn could not get out of him what had really happened, and so, thinking there must have been an accident, he got the Indian Hospital assistant, and the two set out. They covered some twenty to twenty-four miles in the dark on a bad track between 7 pm. and 2 am, a very fine bit of marching, especially as they did not know for certain where I was and had to knock up villages on the way and ask for news. The Indian, whose name was Ghulam Mohamed, was so done up when he arrived that I told him he had better rest till morning, but he insisted on attending to me at once, and stitched up the wound most skillfully. He was a first-class doctor, and the job could not have been done better, for three weeks later I was well enough, though stiff in bandages, to start on a 240-mile march, which I performed in ten days.
|
|
|
File available
details
Original text on this topic: