"In searching for a touraco, which Monsieur my master had shot, he fell into a pit upwards of 12 feet deep, which had been dug by the Hottentots, to entrap wild beasts, particularly the elephant. Fortunately the hole was empty, and he had the good fortune to escape being impaled alive on the pointed stakes fixed at the bottom of these pits: they are generally slightly covered over with slender branches of trees, and the interstices filled with turf and moss; while the roots most anxiously sought after by the elephant are strewed on the surface, and the unwieldly animal eagerly pressing forward after his favourite food, is easily intrapped by the wily Hotteutot into the suare: being wounded by his fall, he is soon dispatched.

"After many fruitless efforts to extricate himself, I being at some distance with the Hottentots, he fired his fusee, and by that means brought us back to his assistance. This accident, however serious, did not prevent him pursuing the wounded touraco, which at length he found, and considered the acquisition as a full compensation for all his per:ls. The touraco is as agreeable in its form, as in the sweetness and melody of its notes: it is of a bright green; a tuft of the same colour, bordered with white, adorns its head; its eyes a sparkling red, with a streak over them of the most dazzling white; its wings are a beautiful purple, varying to the violet, according to the point of light in which it is viewed. It is reckoned

by the naturalists a species of the cuckoo; but they have been much mistaken, as it has not the least affinity with that bird. The cuckoo, in every part of the world, subsists on snails and insects, but the touraco is fruvigorous. In whatever part of the world the cuckoo may be, it is remarkable that she never builds a nest, but lays her eggs in those of other birds, and by this means saves herself the trouble of rearing her young; the touraco, on the contrary, is careful of its family, builds a nest, and hatches her own eggs: this difference in their disposition is, I think, a sufficient reason to prove them a particular species.

CHAP. V.

Hunting the Elephant-Wars of the CaffreesAtrocious behaviour of the colonists-Their cruelty exemplified in the murder of a young prisoner-Singular encounter with a lionCourage, and tragical death of a widow, attacking a lion in defence of her cattle-Description of the black eagle-Accounts of various customs of the Hottentots.

THE alarm of this accident had scarcely subsided, when one of the Hottentots came running up, and said he had discovered the haunt of an elephant. After some hours fatigue, painfully tracing him through a thick part of the wood, rendered almost impassible from the thorus and briars; we arrived at an open part of the forest, in which was a clump of shrubs and underwood: here we stopped while one of the Hottentots ascended a tree; after looking around him, he clapped his finger on his mouth as a token for us to be silent, then by opening and closing his hand several times (a signal before agreed upon) gave us to understand how many elephants he had discovered.

"We now held a council of war, the result of which was, that the person who had seen

them from the tree should lead us as near as possible through the bushes to the spot where he had discovered them. In a few minutes I was very near one of those enormous animals, which I did not immediately perceive, not that I felt any sensation of fear, but that I could scarcely believe that the prodigious mass beneath me was the animal we had been so ardent to encounter. It should be observed, we were on a hillock which raised us above the back of the animal: I still kept looking farther on, and rather took what was so near me for a fragment of rock than a living creature. The Hottentot, however, cried out, "See, see there! there it is," with a tone of the utmost impatience. At length a slight motion caught my eye, and immediately after the head and tusks, which the enormous body had in part concealed, were turned towards me; Monsieur who was close behind me, without losing time, let fly at him; I immediately followed his example, and both shots took place in his head; he staggered and fell: the noise frighted the rest, and they, near to the number of thirty, scampered off as fast as their unwieldy corporations would permit them. This was the prelude to a more animated scene.

"While we were examining the animal we had killed, another passed just by us, which was fired at by one of the Hottentots, and by the blood that trickled down his huge shoulders, I conjectured that he was mortally wounded, and immediately pursued him. He would have laid down, but was prevented by our repeated firing;

he then took to the thickest part of the wood; we followed him into a thicket, in which was a number of decayed trees, fallen through age. The beast now became enraged from the number of his wounds, and making furiously at a Hottentot who had just discharged his piece at him, in an instant trod him to death, and thrusting one of his tusks into his body, with a toss threw it upwards of thirty yards from him. We were about five and twenty paces from the poor fellow, my master a few paces behind me. I was too much encumbered for speed, my carbine being very heavy, and having a good deal of ammunition, together with a net containing several large birds, slung across my shoulder: I ran with all my might, but the enraged animal no sooner cast his eyes on me, than he pursued me at a full gaHop, and gained ground every instant. Abandoned by the Hottentots, and almost dead with fear, the only chance I now had was to lie down close under the trunk of a large tree nearly under which I then stood, but this I had scarcely time to accomplish before the furious animal ran over it. But probably as he was stopped in his career about a moment to listen to the hooting of the Hottentots, I could at that instant very easily have fired and hit him. But this I perhaps prudently desisted from, though my piece was loaded, under the persuasion that though he had received so many wounds before, even one from me at that critical juncture of time might only have irritated him