THE ANIMAL KINGDOM OF AFRICA,
Some Account of the Beasts, Birds, Reptiles, and Insects of Africa --
Livingstone’s Opinion of the Lion -- Elephants, Hippopotami,
Rhinoceroses, etc. -- Wild Animals Subject to Disease -- Remarkable
Hunting Explorations -- Cumming Slays more than One Hundred Elephants
-- Du Chaillu and the Gorilla -- Thrilling Incidents -- Vast Plains
Covered with Game -- Forests Filled with Birds -- Immense Serpents --
The Python of South Africa -- Ants and other Insects.
No portion of the globe is so productive of wild animals as Africa.
There animal life is more extensive, if we may so say, and more varied
than anywhere else. The domestic animals of that continent are not to
such extent different from those of other parts of the world as to merit
special mention, with the exception of the camel, without whose aid a
large portion of the country would be not only uninhabitable but
untraversable. The invaluable services which this patient but obstinate
beast of burden renders to the inhabitants of Northern Africa are known
to all men. In northern Africa and in the central portions, horses are
numerous and many of them of excellent breeds. Here and in many parts of
South Africa, there are many cattle, used as beasts of burden and for
beef. Some of them are noted for the prodigious size of their horns.
Sheep abound in some portions of the continent, but in South Africa the
flocks are composed almost entirely of goats which subsist better on
the dry herbs of the dessert, yield more milk, and are considered more
palatable food.
[Illustration: A MIGHTIER ROAR THAN THAT OF THE FOREST KING.]
But in respect to wild beasts--all kinds of “game” as the sportsman
would say--Africa, as has been said by Mr. John Bonner, “may be called
the region of animal life, since there are more than twice the number of
species in it than in the other quarters of the globe.” Here are found,
in immense numbers, all those kinds of animals which fill the strong
cages of the menageries of Europe and America, of parks, and zoological
gardens, and many more besides. Here are the most abject and degraded
specimens of mankind and the most sagacious and lordly wild animals.
Here are the most beautiful and gentle of birds and the most venomous
and terrible serpents and reptiles. Here are small insects whose attacks
are fatal to many useful animals, and others--the devouring
locusts--which in a single day devastate vast sections of country.
The lion, so long regarded as the king of beasts, is found in most parts
of interior Africa. We have already seen that Dr. Livingstone’s opinion
of this beast is not very exalted. It is certainly inferior to the
African leopard both in beauty and courage. In strength and prowess this
latter animal is not inferior to the Asiatic tiger. The hippopotamus,
supposed to be the Behemoth of Job, is found in nearly all the rivers of
Central and South Africa and the Nile. His body is often as large as
that of a full-grown elephant. A noted African hunter killed one with a
single ball, which was six feet broad across the belly. The skin of an
adult hippopotamus, according to Du Chaillu, who shot several and
stuffed one, is from one and a-half to two inches thick, and extremely
solid and tough--quite bullet-proof, in fact, except in a few thinner
spots, as behind the ear and near the eyes. It is devoid of hair with
the exception of a few short bristly hairs in the tail, and a few
scattered tufts near the muzzle. The color of the skin is a clayey
yellow, assuming a roseate hue under the belly. After death, the animal
becomes a dull brownish color. It is successfully hunted by the natives
of east equatorial Africa, who approach within a few feet of it, fire
their “slugs” at his eye and then run for dear life; for if the animal
be not killed the hunter surely will be. Cumming, the most successful of
African Nimrods, once slew some ten hippopotami in the course of a
couple of days, and secured the carcasses of most of them, dragging them
with oxen to which were attached strong cables fastened to the beasts.
The bagging of several tons of edible game--the meat of the beast is
described by some as like beef, by others as like pork--in a day or two
could not be accomplished elsewhere than in Africa.
[Illustration: A SURPRISE IN THE JUNGLE.]
Most of the perennial rivers and even small streams of a few feet depth
abound in crocodiles. Those of South Africa, whose nature and habits are
described by Dr. Livingstone and Cumming, are a different species from
the crocodile of the Nile, one of the sacred animals of the Egyptians.
They are as great in size, however, and, perhaps, greater in voracity.
Their great numbers, particularly in the waters of equatorial Africa,
are astonishing. The natives hunt them, going in canoes, and using a
sort of harpoon with which the stout armor, elsewhere impenetrable,
of the animal is pierced behind the legs. The natives are fond of the
flesh. Though a full-grown crocodile will weigh as much as an ox, there
is not much flesh that is edible. Cumming shot one more than twenty feet
in length in a stream not more than twelve feet wide. “On our return to
Damagondai’s town,” says Du Chaillu, “as we were paddling along, I
perceived in the distance ahead a beautiful deer, looking meditatively
into the waters of the lagoon, of which from time to time it took a
drink. I stood up to get a shot, and we approached with the utmost
silence. But just as I raised my gun to fire, a crocodile leaped out of
the water, and, like a flash, dove back again with the struggling animal
in his powerful jaws. So quickly did the beast take his prey that though
I fired at him I was too late. I would not have believed that this huge
and unwieldy animal could move with such velocity; but the natives told
me that the deer often falls prey to the crocodile. Sometimes he even
catches the leopard, but then there is a harder battle than the poor
little deer could make.”
[Illustration: ATTACKED BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS.]
The rhinoceros, formerly found on the slopes of Table Mountain, has now
been driven far into the interior of South Africa, but here these huge
animals, second only to the elephant and hippopotamus in bulk, are found
along all the streams and in the neighborhood of fountains and pools of
water. Dr. A. Smith in his “Zoology of South Africa” makes three species
of rhinoceros. The great hunter, Cumming, describes what he considers as
four different kinds.[4] Dr. Livingstone, however, asserts that there
are but two species--the white and the black--insisting that all the
species made by naturalists beyond these two are based on mere
differences in size, age, and direction of horns, all which vary much in
each variety. The rhinoceros has a “guardian spirit” in the
rhinoceros-bird, his constant companion and devoted friend.[5] Those of
the black species are very wary, fierce, and difficult to take. Their
flesh is tough also, whilst that of the white rhinoceros is fat, tender,
and, to the South African tribes, delicious. He is of a comparatively
gentle spirit also, and more easily found and dispatched.
[4] He says: Of the rhinoceros there are four varieties in South
Africa distinguished by the Bechuanas by the names of the borèlé, or
black rhinoceros, the keitloa, or two-horned black rhinoceros, the
muchocho, or common white rhinoceros, and the kobaoba, or long-horned
white rhinoceros. Both varieties of the black rhinoceros are extremely
fierce and dangerous, and rush headlong and unprovoked at any object
which attracts their attention. They never attain much fat, and their
flesh is tough, and not much esteemed by the Bechuanas. Their food
consists almost entirely of the thorny branches of the wait-a-bit
thorns. Their horns are much shorter than those of the other
varieties, seldom exceeding eighteen inches in length. They are finely
polished with constant rubbing against the trees. The skull is
remarkably formed, its most striking feature being the tremendous
thick ossification in which it ends above the nostrils. It is on this
mass that the horn is supported. The horns are not connected with the
skull, being attached merely by the skin, and they may thus be
separated from the head by means of a sharp knife. They are hard and
perfectly solid throughout, and are a fine material for various
articles, such as drinking cups, mallets for rifles, handles for
turner’s tools, etc., etc. The horn is capable of a very high polish.
The eyes of the rhinoceros are small and sparkling, and do not readily
observe the hunter, provided he keeps to leeward of them. The skin is
extremely thick, and only to be penetrated by bullets hardened with
solder. During the day the rhinoceros will be found lying asleep or
standing indolently in some retired part of the forest, or under the
base of the mountains, sheltered from the power of the sun by some
friendly grove of umbrella-topped mimosas. In the evening they
commence their nightly ramble and wander over a great extent of
country. They usually visit the fountains between the hours of nine
and twelve o’clock at night, and it is on these occasions that they
may be most successfully hunted, and with the least danger. The black
rhinoceros is subject to paroxysms of unprovoked fury, often plowing
up the ground for several yards with its horns, and assaulting large
bushes in the most violent manner. On these bushes they work for hours
with their horns, at the same time snorting and blowing loudly, nor do
they leave them in general until they have broken them into pieces.
The rhinoceros is supposed by many, and by myself among the rest, to
be the animal alluded to by Job, chap. xxxix., verses 10 and 11, where
it is written, “Canst thou bind the unicorn with his hand in the
furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him
because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?”
evidently alluding to an animal possessed of great strength and of
untamable disposition, for both of which the rhinoceros is remarkable.
All the four varieties delight to roll and wallow in mud, with which
their rugged hides are generally incrusted.--_Adventures in South
Africa_, 1. pp. 215-16.
[5] These singular birds are thus described by Cumming:--These
rhinoceros-birds are constant attendants upon the hippopotamus and the
four varieties of rhinoceros, their object being to feed upon the
ticks and other parasitic insects that swarm upon these animals. They
are of a grayish color and are nearly as large as a common thrush;
their voice is very similar to that of the mistletoe thrush. Many a
time have these ever-watchful birds disappointed me in my stalk, and
tempted me to invoke an anathema upon their devoted heads. They are
the best friends the rhinoceros has, and rarely fail to awaken him
even in his soundest nap. “Chukuroo” perfectly understands their
warning, and, springing to his feet, he generally first looks about
him in every direction, after which he invariably makes off. I have
often hunted a rhinoceros on horseback, which led me a chase of many
miles, and required a number of shots before he fell, during which
chase several of these birds remained by the rhinoceros to the last.
They reminded me of mariners on the deck of some bark sailing on the
ocean, for they perched along his back and sides; and as each of my
bullets told on the shoulder of the rhinoceros, they ascended about
six feet into the air uttering their harsh cry of alarm, and then
resumed their position. It sometimes happened that the lower branches
of trees, under which the rhinoceros passed, swept them from their
living deck, but they always recovered their former station; they also
adhere to the rhinoceros during the night. I have often shot these
animals at midnight when drinking at the fountains, and the birds,
imagining they were asleep, remained with them till morning, and on my
approaching, before taking flight, they exerted themselves to their
utmost to awaken Chukuroo from his deep sleep.--_Ibid._, 292-3.
But the most interesting of the wild animals of Africa is the elephant,
which, as is well known, is in several respects different from the
elephant of Asia. His ears are larger, and the formation of his tough,
elastic feet is very different. His tusks also are larger and he reaches
a greater size than the Asiatic elephant. He has been found in nearly
all parts of interior Africa which have been explored, and to this day
may be seen from vessels sailing along the West Coast near the equator,
as he comes down to the sea to bathe his ponderous body. These animals
are found in troops, varying in number from a few to several hundred. At
times different troops have been seen together, whose heavy tread, in
escaping, would make the earth tremble. They are exceedingly delicate as
to their food, of which, however, they require immense quantities.
Docile by nature, they are wonderfully fearful of man, whom, with a
favorable wind, they can scent at a great distance; but in defence of
their young or when attacked they fight with the greatest courage and
effect. The elephant is unquestionably recognized by all animals of the
forest as their undoubted master. They often retain life long after
being mortally wounded, and when about to die, the agony of the
dissolution of such an immense physical system forces tears from their
eyes, but they expire without convulsions and in heroic silence. It
might almost appear that their predominating feeling is that of sorrow
that the vast forests through which they have roamed for years--perhaps
a century--shall know them no more. It is difficult to believe one can
kill these sublime animals, for gain alone, unless he be, at bottom, a
genuine scoundrel.
[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.
[Illustration: WREAKING HIS VENGEANCE ON A TREE.]
“We halted beside a glorious fountain, the name of which was Massouey,
but I at once christened it ‘the Elephant’s own Fountain.’ This was a
very remarkable spot on the southern border of endless elephant forests,
at which I had at length arrived. The fountain was deep and strong,
situated in a hollow at the eastern extremity of an extensive vley, and
its margin was surrounded by a level stratum of solid old red sandstone.
Here and there lay a thick layer of soil upon the rock, and this was
packed flat with the fresh spoor of elephants. Around the water’s edge
the very rock was worn down by the gigantic feet which for ages had
trodden there. We drew up the wagons on a hillock on the eastern side of
the water. I had just cooked my breakfast, and commenced to feed,
when I heard my men exclaim, ‘Almagtig keek de ghroote clomp cameel;’
and raising my eyes from my sassayby stew, I beheld a truly beautiful
and very unusual scene. From the margin of the fountain there extended
an open level vley, without a tree or bush, that stretched away about a
mile to the northward, where it was bounded by extensive groves of
wide-spreading mimosas. Up the middle of this vley stalked a troop of
ten colossal giraffes, flanked by two large herds of blue wildebeests
and zebras, with an advanced guard of pallahs. They were all coming to
the fountain to drink, and would be within rifle-shot of the wagons
before I could finish my breakfast. I however, continued to swallow my
food with the utmost expedition, having directed my men to catch and
saddle ‘Colesberg.’ In a few minutes the giraffes were slowly advancing
within two hundred yards, stretching their graceful necks, and gazing in
wonder at the unwonted wagons. Grasping my rifle, I now mounted
‘Colesberg,’ and rode slowly toward them. They continued gazing at the
wagons until I was within one hundred yards of them, when, whisking
their long tails over their rumps, they made off at an easy canter. As I
pressed upon them they increased their pace; but ‘Colesberg’ had much
the speed of them, and before we had proceeded half a mile I was riding
by the shoulder of a dark-chestnut old bull, whose head towered high
above the rest. Letting fly at the gallop, I wounded him behind the
shoulder; soon after which I broke him from the herd, and presently
going ahead of him, he came to a stand. I then gave him a second bullet,
somewhere near the first. These two shots had taken effect and he was
now in my power, but I would not lay him low so far from camp; so,
having waited until he had regained his breath, I drove him half way
back toward the wagons. Here he became obstreperous; so loading one
barrel, and pointing my rifle toward the clouds, I shot him in the
throat, when, rearing high, he fell backward and expired. This was a
magnificent specimen of the giraffe, measuring upward of eighteen feet
in height. I stood for nearly half an hour engrossed in the
contemplation of his extreme beauty and gigantic proportions; and, if
there had been no elephants, I could have exclaimed, like Duke Alexander
of Gordon when he killed the famous old stag with seventeen tine, ‘Now I
can die happy.’ But I longed for an encounter with the noble elephants,
and I thought little more of the giraffe than if I had killed a gemsbok
or an eland.”
And in another place he describes his second success with the
camelopard:
“We now bent our steps homeward. We had not ridden many miles when we
observed a herd of fifteen camelopards browsing quietly in an open glade
of the forest. After a very severe chase, in the course of which they
stretched out into a magnificent widely extended front, keeping their
line with a regularity worthy of a troop of dragoons, I succeeded in
separating a fine bull, upward of eighteen feet in height, from the rest
of the herd, and brought him to the ground within a short distance of
the camp. The Bechuanas expressed themselves delighted at my success.
They kindled a fire and slept beside the carcass, which they very
soon reduced to bil-tongue and marrow-bones.”
[Illustration: RUNNING DOWN ELANDS.]
Mr. Cumming’s first successful encounter with elephants was one of the
most exciting of all. It is thus related:
“Having followed the spoor for a short distance, old Mutchuisho became
extremely excited, and told me that we were close to the elephants. Two
or three men quickly ascended the tallest trees that stood near us, but
they could not see the elephants. Mutchuisho then extended men to the
right and left, while we continued on the spoor.
“In a few minutes one of those who had gone off to our left came running
breathless to say that he had seen the mighty game. I halted for a
minute, and instructed Issac, who carried the big Dutch rifle, to act
independently of me, while Kleinboy was to assist me in the chase. I
bared my arms to the shoulder, and, having imbibed a draught of aqua
pura from the calabash of one of the spoorers, I grasped my trusty
two-grooved rifle, and told my guide to go ahead. We proceeded silently
as might be for a few hundred yards, following the guide, when he
suddenly pointed, exclaiming, ‘Klow!’ and before us stood a herd of
mighty bull elephants, packed together beneath a shady grove about a
hundred and fifty yards in advance. I rode slowly toward them, and, as
soon as they observed me, they made a loud rumbling noise, and, tossing
their trunks, wheeled right about and made off in one direction,
crashing through the forest and leaving a cloud of dust behind them. I
was accompanied by a detachment of my dogs, who assisted me in the
pursuit.
“The distance I had come, and the difficulties I had undergone to behold
these elephants, rose fresh before me. I determined that on this
occasion at least I would do my duty, and, dashing my spurs into
Sundays’ ribs, I was very soon much too close in their rear for safety.
The elephants now made an inclination to my left, whereby I obtained a
good view of the ivory. The herd consisted of six bulls; four of them
were full-grown, first-rate elephants; the other two were fine fellows,
but had not yet arrived at perfect stature. Of the four old fellows, two
had much finer tusks than the rest, and for a few seconds I was
undecided which of these two I would follow; when, suddenly, the one
which I fancied had the stoutest tusks broke from his comrades, and I at
once felt convinced that he was the patriarch of the herd, and followed
him accordingly. Cantering alongside, I was about to fire, when he
instantly turned, and, uttering a trumpet so strong and shrill that the
earth seemed to vibrate beneath my feet, he charged furiously after me
for several hundred yards in a direct line, not altering his course in
the slightest degree for the trees of the forest, which he snapped and
overthrew like reeds in his headlong career.
[Illustration: SOUNDING THE ALARM.]
“When he pulled up in his charge, I likewise halted and as he slowly
turned to retreat, I let fly at his shoulder, ‘Sunday’ capering and
prancing, and giving me much trouble. On receiving the ball the elephant
shrugged his shoulder, and made off at a free majestic walk. This shot
brought several of the dogs to my assistance which had been following
the other elephants, and on their coming up and barking another headlong
charge was the result, accompanied by the never-failing trumpet as
before. In his charge he passed close to me, when I saluted him with a
second bullet in the shoulder, of which he did not take the slightest
notice. I now determined not to fire again until I could make a steady
shot; but, although the elephant turned repeatedly, ‘Sunday’ invariably
disappointed me, capering so that it was impossible to fire. At length,
exasperated, I became reckless of the danger, and, springing from the
saddle, approached the elephant under cover of a tree, and gave him a
bullet in the side of the head, when, trumpeting so shrilly that the
forest trembled, he charged among the dogs, from whom he seemed to fancy
that the blow had come; after which he took up a position in a grove of
thorns, with his head toward me. I walked up very near, and, as he was
in the act of charging (being in those days under wrong impressions as
to the impracticability of bringing down an elephant with a shot in the
forehead), stood coolly in his path until he was within fifteen paces of
me, and let drive, at the hollow of his forehead, in the vain
expectation that by so doing I should end his career. The shot only
served to increase his fury--an effect which, I had remarked, shots in
the head invariably produced; and, continuing his charge with incredible
quickness and impetuosity, he all but terminated my elephant-hunting
forever. A large party of the Bechuanas who had come up yelled out
simultaneously, imagining I was killed, for the elephant was at one
moment almost on the top of me; I, however, escaped by my activity, and
by dodging round the bushy trees.
“The elephant held on through the forest at a sweeping pace; but he was
hardly out of sight when I was loaded and in the saddle, and soon once
more alongside. He kept crashing along at a steady pace, with blood
streaming from his wounds. It was long before I again fired, for I was
afraid to dismount, and ‘Sunday’ was extremely troublesome. At length I
fired sharp right and left from the saddle: he got both balls behind the
shoulder, and made a long charge after me, rumbling and trumpeting as
before. The whole body of the Bamangwato men had now come up, and were
following a short distance behind me. Among these was Mollyeon, who
volunteered to help; and being a very swift and active fellow, he
rendered me important service by holding my fidgety horse’s head while I
fired and loaded. I then fired six broadsides from the saddle, the
elephant charging almost every time, and pursuing us back to the main
body in our rear, who fled in all directions as he approached.
“The sun had now sunk behind the tops of the trees; it would very soon
be dark, and the elephant did not seem much distressed, notwithstanding
all he had received. I recollected that my time was short, and therefore
at once resolved to fire no more from the saddle, but to go close up to
him and fire on foot. Riding up to him, I dismounted and, approaching
very near, I gave it him right and left in the side of the head, upon
which he made a long and determined charge after me; but I was now very
reckless of his charges, for I saw that he could not overtake me, and
in a twinkling I was loaded, and, again approaching, fired sharp right
and left behind his shoulder. Again he charged with a terrific trumpet,
which sent ‘Sunday’ flying through the forest. This was his last charge.
The wounds which he had received began to tell on his constitution, and
he now stood at bay beside a thorny tree, with the dogs barking around
him. These, refreshed by the evening breeze, and perceiving that it was
nearly over with the elephant, had once more come to my assistance.
Having loaded, I drew near and fired right and left at his forehead. On
receiving these shots, instead of charging, he tossed his trunk up and
down, and by various sounds and motions, most gratifying to the hungry
natives, evinced that his demise was near. Again I loaded and fired my
last shot behind his shoulder: on receiving it, he turned round the
bushy tree beside which he stood, and I ran round to give the other
barrel, but the mighty old monarch of the forest needed no more; before
I could clear the bushy tree he fell heavily on his side, and his spirit
had fled.”
Such is a specimen of the “sport” which the wilds of Africa offer to the
ambitious hunter. That it is in some respects rather serious sport may
be imagined from the description as well as from Mr. Cumming’s statement
of his losses during his four expeditions into the interior. These were
forty-five horses and seventy head of cattle, the value being at least
$3,000. “I also,” he says, “lost about seventy of my dogs,” which would
convey the idea of a considerable kennel, the dogs all told. But he
usually had only about thirty at a time. Many were killed by lions,
while elephants made way with a still larger number.
The expeditions of Mr. Du Chaillu, an American naturalist, in Equatorial
Africa, were more valuable to the cause of science than those of Mr.
Cumming in South Africa, and scarcely less interesting as the
explorations of a hunter. Like Cumming, he was a highly successful
hunter, and he was also much more--a student of natural history imbued
with a love of science and having a genius for it. As Mr. Cumming’s
starting point was the extreme of South Africa, under English
domination, Mr. Du Chaillu had his headquarters beneath the equator on
the west coast, and under the immediate eyesight, so to speak, of the
American Presbyterian Mission for the Gaboon country. Mr. Du Chaillu
afterwards established his home in the Camma country, and building
himself a little village of huts near the junction of the N’poulounay
and Fernand Vas rivers, and not far from the coast, named it
“Washington.” From the Gaboon and then from this African “city of
Washington,” this celebrated traveller made several explorations of the
interior, much of the time among idolatrous and cannibal tribes.
Enduring many hardships, overcoming many almost insurmountable
difficulties, he not only gave to the world an extremely interesting
account of hunting expeditions but a description of the singular people
and wonderful country he was the first white man to visit which forms a
valued acquisition to the stock of geographical and scientific
knowledge.[7]
[7] It need not be stated to students of matters pertaining to Africa,
that this gentleman’s “Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial
Africa” (published by the Harpers in 1868) is one of our most
interesting books of travel.
Whilst he was very successful in procuring specimens of most of the
animals and birds in equatorial Africa to a distance of several hundred
miles from the coast, he devoted special attention to hunting the ape,
and was more successful in killing the species commonly known as the
gorilla than any one else of Christendom has ever been. The greater
difficulty of hunting the animal considered, he was as successful with
the gorilla as Mr. Cumming had been with the elephant.
The _troglodytes gorilla_, or great chimpanzee of the equatorial region
of West Africa has long been the most dreaded, perhaps, of all the wild
beasts of that continent. And it is probably true that in unmixed
ferocity when assailed he does not have his equal. The nature of this
fierce animal--much like man in some particulars of physical formation,
totally dissimilar in all other respects--may be learned from an
instance or two of Mr. Du Chaillu’s hunting him. The account of his
killing his “first gorilla” is as follows:
“We started early and pushed for the most dense and impenetrable part of
the forest (this was in the country of the Fan negroes, cannibals, a
little more than one degree north of the equator and something less than
two hundred miles east of the mouth of the Gaboon river), in hopes to
find the very home of the beast I so much wished to shoot. Hour after
hour we travelled, and yet no signs of gorilla. Only the everlasting
little chattering monkeys--and not many of these--and occasional birds.
In fact, the forests of this part of Africa are not so full of life as
in some other parts to the south.
“Suddenly Miengai uttered a little _cluck_ with his tongue, which is the
native’s way of showing that something is stirring, and that a sharp
look-out is necessary. And presently I noticed, ahead of us seemingly, a
noise as of some one breaking down branches or twigs of trees. This was
the gorilla, I knew at once, by the eager and satisfied looks of the
men. They looked once more carefully at their guns, to see if by any
chance the powder had fallen out of the pans; I also examined mine, to
make sure that all were right; and then we marched on cautiously. The
singular noise of the breaking of tree-branches continued. We walked
with the greatest care, making no noise at all. The countenances of the
men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious
undertaking; but we pushed on, until finally we thought we saw through
the thick woods the moving of the branches and small trees which the
great beast was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and
fruits he lives on.
“Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a
heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with
the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the under-brush swayed
rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male
gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on his all fours; but when he
saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He
stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think never to
forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved two inches shorter), with
immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely-glaring
large deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to
me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this king of the
African forests.
“He was not afraid of us. He stood there, and beat his breast with his
huge fists till it resounded like an immense bass-drum, which is their
mode of offering defiance; meantime giving vent to roar after roar.
“The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in
these African woods. It begins with a sharp _bark_, like an angry dog,
then glides into a deep bass _roll_, which literally and closely
resembles the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have
sometimes been tempted to take it where I did not see the animal. So
deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than
from the deep chest and vast paunch.
“His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the
defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead
began to twitch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown
as he again sent forth a thunderous roar. And now truly he reminded me
of nothing but some hellish dream creature--a being of that hideous
order, half man half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in
some representations of the infernal regions. He advanced a few
steps--then stopped to utter that hideous roar again--advanced again,
and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And
here, as he began another of his roars and beating his breast in rage,
we fired, and killed him.
“With a groan which had something terribly human in it, and yet was full
of brutishness, it fell forward on its face. The body shook convulsively
for a few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way and then
all was quiet--death had done its work, and I had leisure to examine the
huge body. It proved to be five feet eight inches high, and the muscular
development of the arms and breast showed what immense strength it had
possessed.
“My men, though rejoicing at our luck, immediately began to quarrel
about the apportionment of the meat--for they really eat this creature.
I saw that we should come to blows presently if I did not interfere, and
therefore said I should give each man his share, which satisfied all. As
we were too tired to return to our camp of last night, we determined to
camp here on the spot, and accordingly soon had some shelters erected
and dinner going on. Luckily, one of the fellows shot a deer just as we
began to camp, and on its meat I feasted while my men ate gorilla.”
Another hunt resulted fatally to one of the natives. It is thus related:
“The next day we went on a gorilla-hunt. All the olako was busy on the
evening of my arrival with preparations; and as meat was scarce,
everybody had joyful anticipations of hunger satisfied and plenty in the
camp. Little did we guess what frightful death was to befall one of our
number before the next sunset.
“I gave powder to the whole party. Six were to go off in one direction
for bush-deer, and whatever luck might send them, and six others, of
whom I was one, were to hunt for gorilla. We set off toward a dark
valley, where Gambo, Igoumba’s son, said we should find our prey. The
gorilla chooses the darkest, gloomiest forests for its home, and is
found on the edges of the clearings only when in search of plantains, or
sugar-cane, or pine-apple. Often they choose for their peculiar haunt a
piece of wood so dark that even at midday one can scarce see ten yards.
This makes it the more necessary to wait till the monstrous beast
approaches near before shooting, in order that the first shot may be
fatal. It does not often let the hunter reload.
“Our little party separated, as is the custom, to stalk the wood in
various directions. Gambo and I kept together. One brave fellow went off
alone in a direction where he thought he could find a gorilla. The other
three took another course. We had been about an hour separated when
Gambo and I heard a gun fired but little way from us, and presently
another. We were already on our way to the spot where we hoped to see a
gorilla slain, when the forest began to resound with the most terrific
roars. Gambo seized my arms in great agitation, and we hurried on, both
filled with a dreadful and sickening fear. We had not gone far when our
worst fears were realized. The poor brave fellow who had gone off alone
was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and I thought at
first quite dead. His bowels were protruding through the lacerated
abdomen. Beside him lay his gun. The stock was broken, and the barrel
was bent and flattened. It bore plainly the marks of the gorilla’s
teeth.
“We picked him up, and I dressed his wounds as well as I could with rags
torn from my clothes. When I had given him a little brandy to drink he
came to himself, and was able, but with great difficulty, to speak. He
said that he had met the gorilla suddenly and face to face, and that it
had not attempted to escape. It was, he said, a huge male, and seemed
very savage. It was in a very gloomy part of the wood, and the darkness,
I suppose, made him miss. He said he took good aim, and fired when the
beast was only about eight yards off. The ball merely wounded it in the
side. It at once began beating its breasts, and with the greatest rage
advanced upon him.
“To run away was impossible. He would have been caught in the jungle
before he had gone a dozen steps. He stood his ground, and as quickly as
he could reloaded his gun. Just as he raised it to fire the gorilla
dashed it out of his hands, the gun going off in the fall, and then in
an instant, and with a terrible roar, the animal gave him a tremendous
blow with its immense paw, frightfully lacerating the abdomen, and with
this single blow laying bare part of the intestines. As he sank,
bleeding, to the ground, the monster seized the gun, and the poor
hunter thought he would have his brains dashed out with it. But the
gorilla seemed to have looked upon this also as an enemy, and in his
rage flattened the barrel between his strong jaws.
“When we came upon the ground the gorilla was gone. This is their mode
when attacked--to strike one or two blows, and then leave the victims of
their rage on the ground and go off into the woods.”
During his explorations in equatorial Africa, Du Chaillu discovered two
new species of ape--_Troglodytes calvus_ and _T. Koola-Kamba_--and also
a number of other mamalians, birds, serpents, and reptiles, before
unknown to naturalists.
Contrary to a somewhat prevalent belief, many diseases prevail among
wild animals. “The free life of nature” is subject to woes, and needs
the physician’s aid, after all. “I have seen,” says Dr. Livingstone,
“the gnu, kama or hartebeest, the tressebe, kukama, and the giraffe, so
mangy as to be uneatable even by the natives. Great numbers also of
zebras are found dead with masses of foam at the nostrils, exactly as
occurs in the common ‘horse-sickness.’ I once found a buffalo blind from
ophthalmia standing by the fountain Otse. The rhinoceros has often worms
on the conjunction of his eyes. All the wild animals are subject to
intestinal worms besides. The zebra, giraffe, eland and kukuma have been
seen mere skeletons from decay of their teeth as well as from disease.
The carnivera, too, become diseased and mangy; lions become lean and
perish miserably by reason of the decay of their teeth.” Cumming also
speaks of seeing extensive plains thickly covered with the bones of
wild animals which had died of disease.
As a rule, however, the animals are healthy. Their variety and vast
numbers are beyond calculation. In a single day, Cumming saw the fresh
spoor of about twenty varieties of “large game” and most of the animals
themselves. These included elephant, black and white rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, camelopard, buffalo, blue wildebeest, zebra, water-buck,
sassayby, koodoo, pallah, springbok, serolomootlooque, wild boar,
duiker, steinbok, lion, leopard. This is the _habitat_ also of keilton,
eland, oryx, roan antelope, sable antelope, hartebeest, klipspringer,
grys steinbuck, and reitbuck. A little farther on he thus speaks of the
game he saw while taking breakfast:
“We resumed our march at daybreak on the 28th and held on through
boundless open plains. As we advanced, game became more and more
abundant. In about two hours we reached a fine fountain, beside which
was a small cover of trees and bushes, which afforded an abundant supply
of fire-wood. Here we outspanned for breakfast: it was a fine cool
morning, with a pleasant breeze. The country was thickly covered with
immense herds of game, consisting of zebra, wildebeest, blesbok, and
springbok. There could not have been less than five or six thousand head
of game in sight of me as I sat at breakfast. Presently the whole of
this game began to take alarm. Herd joined herd, and took away up the
wind; and in a few minutes other vast herds came pouring on up the wind,
covering the whole breadth of the plain with a living mass of noble
game.”
[Illustration: THE KING OF THE JUNGLE.]
And again:
“When the sun rose next morning I took coffee, and then rode west with
two after-riders, in the hope of getting some blesbok shooting. I found
the boundless undulating plains thickly covered with game, thousands
upon thousands checkering the landscape far as the eye could strain in
every direction. The blesboks, which I was most desirous to obtain, were
extremely wary, and kept pouring on, on up the wind in long continued
streams of thousands, so swift and shy that it was impossible to get
within six hundred yards of them, or even by any stratagem to waylay
them, so boundless was the ground, and so cunningly did they avoid
crossing our track.”
It might thus appear that if there is a sportsman’s paradise anywhere it
is Africa.
Perhaps it would not be too much to say that about all the birds known
to ornithology, and many yet unknown in the books upon that science are
to be found in Africa. The ostrich, the largest of birds, is found only
in Africa. It sometimes attains the height of eight feet. It is swift of
foot, its cry is much like the roar of the lion, and its appearance at a
distance is very stately; but it is extremely stupid. Its feathers have
long been highly valued in commerce. Another most remarkable bird,
peculiar to Africa, is the secretary. This is a bird of prey, feeding
solely on serpents, which it pursues on foot and destroys in great
numbers. It has been described as “an eagle, mounted on the long, naked
legs of a crane.” Waterfowl of all kinds abound, and there are wild
geese which have brilliant and variegated plumage. The most of the
forests of South Africa are alive with countless numbers of an almost
endless variety of birds, but in the equatorial regions they are much
less numerous, though there are many of those varieties which are
characterized by bright, gorgeous plumage.
[Illustration: AFRICAN SNAKE CHARMER.]
“Snake stories” are proverbially tinged with the colors of the
imagination; but the serpents and reptiles of Africa are no jesting
topic to the inhabitants. Many of the serpents are particularly
venomous. Dr. Livingstone states that the picakholu is so copiously
supplied with poison, that “when a number of dogs attack it, the first
bitten dies almost instantaneously, the second in about five minutes,
the third in an hour or so, while the fourth may live several hours.”
The puff adder and several vipers are very dangerous. There is one which
“utters a cry by night exactly like the bleating of a kid. It is
supposed by the natives to lure travellers to itself by this bleating.”
Several varieties, when alarmed, emit a peculiar odor, by which their
presence is made known. The deadly cobra exists in several colors or
varieties. There are various species of tree-climbing serpents, which
appear to have the power of fascination. This belief of Dr. Livingstone
in the fascinating power of some serpents is also entertained by Mr. Du
Chaillu, and avowed as correct by the eminent naturalist, Dr. Andrew
Smith in his “Reptilia.” The eminent hunter of the gorilla says the
presence of serpents in Africa is a “great blessing to the country. They
destroy great numbers of rats and mice, and other of the smaller
quadrupeds which injure the native provisions; and it is but just to say
they are peacefully inclined, and never attack man unless trodden on.
They are glad enough to get out of the way; and the most feared snake I
saw in Africa (the Echidna nasicornis) was one which is very slow in its
movements, from which cause it happens that it oftener bites people than
others, being unable to get out of the way quickly. Though serpents
abound in all parts of the country, I have travelled a month at a time
without seeing one.” The natives, though bare legged, are rarely bitten.
There are several species of boa, which attain great size and weight.
The variety known as the natal rock python, which is often seen in
interior south Africa, though entirely without venom, like other boas,
is very destructive of birds and animals. “They are perfectly harmless,”
says Dr. Livingstone, “and live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia;
occasionally the steinbuck and pallah fall victims, and are sucked into
its comparatively small mouth in boa-constrictor fashion. The flesh is
much relished by Bakalahari and Bushmen. They carry away each his
portion, like logs of wood, over their shoulders.” Cumming killed one of
these boas measuring fourteen feet in length. They have been known to
measure nearly thirty feet in length, and to capture and swallow
half-grown cattle. The Caffre of South Africa is very skilful in slaying
the python with his spear. He is thus often pinned to the earth by a
single throw and dispatched at leisure; then cut up into snake-logs and
carried off for food.
Among the innumerable insects of Africa--the fatal tsetse fly and the
devastating locust have already been mentioned--the most interesting,
perhaps, is the ant. It exists in great variety and prodigious numbers.
There are countless ant-hills in different parts of Africa, which are
larger than a majority of the individual homes of the natives of the
southern and central portions of the continent. Human works, to be of
the same relative size as these homes of insects would tower five or six
times above the pyramids of Egypt, and would require a base
correspondingly large. Among themselves in Africa some of the species
are warriors and cannibals; they fight their enemies and eat the
vanquished. Other species are exceedingly destructive of the timbers of
houses, eating out the insides and leaving useless shells. Others
consume vast quantities of decaying animal matter, and still others the
decaying vegetation, including great trees, of the tropics. Many are
exceedingly fierce in nature. Among these is the bashikouay ant of
equatorial Africa. It is, perhaps, relatively the most voracious of all
living things, and the most destructive. Unlike other large-sized ants
it does not build houses, but excavates holes in the earth for place of
retreat during storms. Its nature and habits are fully described by Du
Chaillu:
“This ant is very abundant in the whole region I have travelled over in
Africa. It is the dread of all living animals from the leopard to the
smallest insect. It is their habit to march through the forests in a
long regular line--a line about two inches broad and often several miles
in length. All along this line are larger ants, who act as officers,
stand outside the ranks, and keep this singular army in order. If
they come to a place where there are no trees to shelter them from the
sun, whose heat they can not bear, they immediately build underground
tunnels, through which the whole army passes in columns to the forest
beyond. These tunnels are four or five feet underground, and are used
only in the heat of the day or during a storm.
[Illustration: INSECT LIFE IN AFRICA.]
“When they get hungry the long file spreads itself through the forest in
a front line, and attacks and devours all it comes to with a fury which
is quite irresistible. The elephant and gorilla fly before this attack.
The black men run for their lives. Every animal that lives in their line
of march is chased. They seem to understand and act upon the tactics of
Napoleon, and concentrate, with great speed, their heaviest forces upon
the point of attack. In an incredibly short space of time the mouse, or
dog, or leopard, or deer is overwhelmed, killed, eaten, and the bare
skeleton only remains.
“They seem to travel night and day. Many a time have I been awakened out
of a sleep, and obliged to rush from the hut and into the water to save
my life, and after all suffered intolerable agony from the bites of the
advance-guard, who had got into my clothes. When they enter a house they
clear it of all living things. Roaches are devoured in an instant. Rats
and mice spring round the room in vain. An overwhelming force of ants
kills a strong rat in less than a minute, in spite of the most frantic
struggles, and in less than another minute its bones are stripped. Every
living thing in the house is devoured. They will not touch vegetable
matter. Thus they are in reality very useful (as well as dangerous) to
the negroes, who have their huts cleaned of all the abounding vermin,
such as immense roaches and centipedes at least several times a year.
“When on their march the insect world flies before them, and I have
often had the approach of a bashikouay army heralded to me by this
means. Wherever they go they make a clean sweep, even ascending to the
tops of the highest trees in pursuit of their prey. Their manner of
attack is an impetuous _leap_. Instantly the strong pincers are
fastened, and they only let go when the piece gives away. At such times
this little animal seems animated by a kind of fury which causes it to
disregard entirely its own safety and to seek only the conquest of its
prey. The bite is very painful.
“The negroes relate that criminals were in former times exposed in the
path of the bashikouay ants, as the most cruel manner of putting to
death.
“Two very remarkable practices of theirs remain to be related. When, on
their line of march, they must cross a stream, they throw themselves
across and form a tunnel--a living tunnel--connecting two trees or high
bushes on opposite sides of the little stream. This is done with great
speed, and is effected by a great number of ants, each of which clings
with its fore claws to its next neighbor’s body or hind claws. Thus they
form a high, safe tubular bridge, _through_ which the whole vast
regiment marches in regular order. If disturbed, or if the arch is
broken by the violence of some animal, they instantly attack the
offender with the greatest animosity.
[Illustration: A TERROR OF THE INSECT KINGDOM.]
“The bashikouay have the sense of smell finely developed, as indeed have
all the ants I know of, and they are guided very much by it. They are
larger than any ant we have in America, being at least half an inch
long, and are armed with very powerful fore legs and sharp jaws, with
which they bite. They are red or dark-brown in color. Their numbers are
so great that one does not like to enter into calculations; but I have
seen one continual line passing at good speed a particular place for
_twelve hours_. The reader may imagine for himself how many millions on
millions there may have been contained here.”
And yet the ants of Africa are the chief agents employed in forming a
fertile soil. “But for their labors,” remarks Dr. Livingstone, “the
tropical forests, bad as they now are with fallen trees, would be a
thousand times worse. They would be impassible on account of the heaps
of dead vegetation lying on the surface, and emitting worse effluvia
than the comparatively small unburied collections do now. When one looks
at the wonderful adaptations throughout creation, and the varied
operations carried on with such wisdom and skill, the idea of second
causes looks clumsy. We are viewing the direct handiwork of Him who is
the one and only Power in the universe; wonderful in counsel; in whom we
all live, and move and have our being.”
There are vast numbers of annoying insects in all portions of the
continent, which in this respect, perhaps, is neither better nor worse
than other parts of the world, where little annoyances make up the
great sum of human misery. It is only one of many proofs that Africa is
the region of contrasts, that the greatest animals flee from a little
insect, the life of scores of whom might be stamped out by a single
footstep, yet the aggregate labors of which preserve the continent from
desolation and decay.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: INSECT NEST-BUILDING.]