tions of
adventure to set their hearts on going forth to "do and dare," as others
have done and dared before them! All men are not heroes, and in many
countries men may become average hunters without being particularly
heroic. In Norway, for instance, and in North America, any man of
ordinary courage may become a Nimrod; and even heroes will have
opportunities afforded them of facing dangers of a sufficiently
appalling nature, if they choose to throw themselves in their way; but
in Africa a man must be _really_ a hero if he would come off scatheless
and with credit. We have proved this to some extent already, and more
proof is yet to come. The dangers that one encounters in hunting there
are not only very great and sufficiently numerous, but they are
absolutely unavoidable. The writer before quoted says on this point: "A
young sportsman, no matter how great among foxes, pheasants, and hounds,
would do well to pause before resolving to brave fever for the
excitement of risking the terrific charge of the elephant. The step of
that enormous brute when charging the hunter, though apparently not
quick, is so long that the pace equals the speed of a good horse at a
canter. Its trumpeting or screaming when infuriated is more like what
the shriek of a French steam-whistle would be to a man standing on the
dangerous part of a railroad than any other earthly sound. A horse
unused to it will sometimes stand shivering instead of taking his rider
out of danger. It has happened often that the poor animal's legs do
their duty so badly that he falls and exposes his rider to be trodden
into a mummy; or losing his presence of mind, the rider may allow the
horse to dash under a tree, and crack his cranium against a branch. As
one charge of an elephant has often been enough to make embryo hunters
bid a final adieu to the chase, incipient Nimrods would do well to try
their nerves by standing on railways till the engines are within a few
yards of them, before going to Africa!"

Begging pardon for this digression, we return to our tale. While our
sportsmen were advancing in company with the bullock-wagons one evening,
at the close of a long and trying day, in which they had suffered a good
deal from want of good water, they fell in with another party travelling
in the opposite direction, and found that they belonged to the train of
a missionary who had been on an expedition into the interior.

They gladly availed themselves of the