[Illustration: A JUNGLE SCENE IN SOUTH AFRICA.]
It is doubtless different, however, when the gratification of the sporting propensity is the impelling motive. It was this which carried the Scottish hunter, Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, into the interior of South Africa, only about two years after the arrival there of Dr. Livingstone, and where he remained, hunting elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, camelopards, and other great game, for the period of nearly five years. Mr. Cumming’s “Adventures in South Africa” were published, if our memory does not err, in the year 1850. They were speedily republished in America, and were at first received with no little incredulity, as, by the way, most accounts of adventures in Africa, from Mungo Park to Stanley, have been. Adventures there appear to be naturally incredible to the rest of the world. It is as it was with respect to the rebuilding of Chicago; no one believed it until he saw it all, and after that he could believe that almost anything is within the power of man’s spirit of enterprise once fully aroused.[6] The incredulity in regard to Mr. Cumming’s wonderful success in securing great game in Africa has long since passed away, and his narrative is now regarded as altogether trustworthy. He remained in Africa, hunting, the greater part of five years. During this time he slew more than one hundred elephants, besides those, mortally wounded, which escaped. He was equally successful with the camelopard, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, buffalo, eland, and the great variety of antelope which live in South Africa in countless numbers. One of his first adventures with large animals was with a troop of camelopards. It is thus graphically described:
[6] We cannot all go to Africa, but the testimony of Dr. Livingstone, who received visits from this hunter every year during the five years of his warfare with wild animals, will be regarded as conclusive upon the general truthfulness of Mr. Cumming’s reports. Dr. Livingstone says:
As the guides of Mr. Cumming were furnished through my influence, and usually got some strict charges as to their behavior before parting, looking upon me in the light of a father, they always came to give me an account of their service, and told most of those hunting-adventures which have since been given to the world, before we had the pleasure of hearing our friend relate them himself by our own fireside. I had thus a tolerably good opportunity of testing their accuracy, and I have no hesitation in saying that, for those who love that sort of thing Mr. Cumming’s book conveys a truthful idea of South African hunting. Some things in it require explanation, but the numbers of animals said to have been met with and killed are by no means improbable, considering the amount of large game then in the country. Two other gentlemen hunting in the same region destroyed in one season no fewer than seventy-eight rhinoceroses alone. Sportsmen, however, would not now find an equal number; for, as guns are introduced among the tribes, all these fine animals melt away like snow in spring. In the more remote districts, where fire-arms have not yet been introduced, with the single exception of the rhinoceros the game is to be found in numbers much greater than Mr. Cumming ever saw.--_Researches in South Africa_, 169-70.