nly some old tree." At the same instant, the elephant,
hearing their voices, turned in the bush; and, crashing through the
underwood, was soon far out of sight and beyond a shot. The
astonishment of the officers was very great when they saw their "old
tree" become a nearly full-grown elephant, and heard it crashing through
the bush, the breaking branches which it carried away in its rush
sounding like the report of musketry.

"The youngster was right after all," they exclaimed. "Only fancy, an
elephant standing as quietly as that."

They wanted to follow the animal; but I explained to them that they
might as well follow a bird on the wing, as the elephant would probably
not stop until it had gone some four or five miles through the bush, and
would then be on the alert and difficult to approach.

Finding there was no chance of again seeing the elephant, the officers
decided to come out of the bush, and try to get a shot at some buck on
the more open ground.

We had gone some distance from the bush, when, on looking towards the
Umganie river, I saw in the distance a large party of Caffres. I
instantly lay down, and called eagerly to the officers to do the same;
for from the glance I had obtained I thought this must be a war-party of
the Zulus, probably sent down to see what the ship was doing here. The
officers laughed at my caution, but they concealed themselves, though
not as quickly as they ought to have done. I wished now that I had my
glasses with me, for the body of Caffres was a long way off. I soon
saw, however, that the party were Zulus; and informed the officers of
the fact, and that we must run for our lives.

Had I been alone I should not have feared for the result of a race,
because we were some considerable distance in advance of the Zulus, and
I could run as fast and as far as the best man amongst them; but I had
already found that the officers were not fit to run far, the long time
they had been on board ship having prevented them from getting into
racing condition. Our boat was fully a mile and a half, as I should now
term the distance, from where we were concealed, and I knew that a Zulu
would run this distance about as fast again as the officers. I told
them that their lives now depended on their doing exactly what I
directed them to do; and I added that they ought now to know that I was
better acquainted with things in this country than they were, as I could
distinguish an elephant from a