In the mean time I was loading and firing as fast as could be,
sometimes at the head, sometimes behind the shoulder, until my
elephant's fore-quarters were a mass of gore, notwithstanding which he
continued to hold stoutly on, leaving the grass and branches of the
forest scarlet in his wake.
On one occasion he endeavored to escape by charging desperately amid
the thickest of the flames; but this did not avail, and I was soon
once more alongside. I blazed away at this elephant, until I began to
think that he was proof against my weapons. Having fired thirty-five
rounds with my two-grooved rifle, I opened fire upon him with the
Dutch six-pounder; and when forty bullets had perforated his hide, he
began for the first time to evince signs of a dilapidated
constitution. He took up a position in a grove; and as the dogs kept
barking round him, he backed stern foremost amongst the trees, which
yielded before his gigantic strength. Poor old fellow! he had long
braved my deadly shafts, but I plainly saw that it was all over with
him; so I resolved to expend no further ammunition, but hold him in
view until he died. Throughout the chase this elephant repeatedly
cooled his person with large quantities of water, which he ejected
from his trunk over his back and sides; and just as the pangs of death
came over him, he stood trembling violently beside a thorny tree, and
kept pouring water into his bloody mouth until he died, when he
pitched heavily forward, with the whole weight of his fore-quarters
resting on the points of his tusks.
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