attention, and with
a shout as they saw it they ran rapidly down towards it. Hans stood up
as they approached, and showed no signs of fear; and when they came
close, he noticed that three of the men were evidently half-castes, and
one seemed the leader of the party. The men saw Hans, and immediately
transferred their attention from the dead elephant to him. He spoke to
them in Dutch, then in English, but they seemed to understand neither
language; so he said a few words in Zulu, which were equally
unintelligible. The men spoke rapidly amongst themselves, and Hans
could not understand what they said, and was at a loss to comprehend
from whence these hunters--for such they seemed to be--had come. After
several attempts at communication, the chief shook his head, and
pointing to the west, then at Hans, seemed thus to signal that it was
from the west that Hans had come. Hans, who was accustomed to aid his
imperfect knowledge of language by signs, immediately nodded his assent
to this pantomime, and pointing to the men around, then to the east,
thus inquired whether these hunters came from the east. The chief
nodded to this, and thus explained to Hans that he must have come from
the neighbourhood of Delagoa Bay, and was probably a cross between some
natives there and the Portuguese.

Whilst this communication was going on between Hans and the chief, some
of the men had pulled the teeth from under the elephant, and had cut off
the flesh that hung to them. They then lifted up the teeth, and seemed
preparing to carry them away. To this appropriation of his property
Hans objected, and made signs to the chief that the men should place the
tusks on the ground. The chief uttered a few words to the men, who
immediately dropped the tusks, and stood waiting for further directions.
The chief now came close to Hans, and commenced making signs, which,
however seemed to Hans unintelligible. He was, however, endeavouring to
discover what these signals meant, when his arms were grasped from
behind, his gun taken from him, and in the struggle which ensued he was
thrown violently to the ground, and there held by three of the men of
the party. Though strong enough to have mastered any one of the strange
men singly, still Hans was no match for three of them; and thus he
ceased to struggle on finding himself disarmed, and surrounded by such a
force. Immediately he was thus quiet, some leather straps were
produced, and his hands wer