The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-04 00:00:00

the strange modes which they adopt to discover the
cause of the calamity, are very ludicrous. At last,
after the fashion of candid friends, they increased
the evil they had sought to remedy, and after hav-
ing begun the search with the laudable desire to be
of service as friends, they performed the
part of enemies in their, unwise sayings and
doings. The Doctor looked so mysterious
and tapped his forehead, that the excitable and en-
thusiastic Mr. Allington Pye took the idea "that
his friend Colonel Escowbe was settling down into
melancholy madness." He spread abroad this
agreeable intelligence, and the result was that half
the town was talking of Colonel Escombe's men-
tal calamity. Those who desire to peruse a most
stirring and ,spirited narrative cannot do better
than possess themselves of this work, which will
infallibly prove of interest and excitement to all
who peruse it. Its sketches are so animated, its
style so brilliant, and its numerous characters so
well defined and so vividly illustrated, that the re-
sult is a novel of unusual attractions and supe-
rior excellence. It is most probable that " A
Daughter of Eve" will attain a great success, and
that the reading community in general will give a
unanimous vote in its favour, in consideration of its
many claims to notice in design and execution, in
vivacity of style and vigour of execution.

African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi. By
W. C. Baldwin, F.R.G.S., with illustrations by
Wolf and Z wecker. Bentley.
The fascinations of a hunter's life are, to some
minds, irresistible. Not content with following the
old customs of their forefathers in fox-hunting or
deer-stalking within the boundaries of their native
kingdom, they must needs betake themselves to
the rougher and more dangerous tasks of tiger
shooting in the jungles of India, elephant hunting
in Ceylon, or pursuing the various races that range
the wastes of Southern Africa, scarcely more wild
and savage than the human beings around them.
The exploits of Mr. Goraon Cumming were the first
to draw attention to this new hunting ground, and
subsequently M. Du Chaillu, by exploring districts
untrodden by Europeans and by securing specimens
of a species only previously known to geologists,
attracted much notice. Mr. Baldwin, however, has
been equally adventurous and can claim the dis-
tinction of being the first European who
reached the Zambesi from the Eastern coast.
Mr. Baldwin is one of those who find pleasures in
the fatiguing and dangerous exploits of the chase,
accompanied, as they often are, by hard fare,
insufficient water, sleeping on the damp earth, and
journeying amidst hostile tribes, which the easy
and regular life of cities can never afford. It is true
his eight years' experience seems to have made him
somewhat weary, and to have satisfied es-en his
ardour for the chase. He left England for the
avowed purpose of enjoying a hunter's life, but his
first adventures after arriving in Natal were suffi-
cient to discourage a less eager spirit. He joined
a party being formed by Mr. White, a famous
elephant hunter, for an expedition into the Zulu
country, and great was the rejoicing of the young
adventurer when he was allowed to join it. " Such
was my keeness for the sport, that I verily jumped
at the proposal to sleep under one of the wagons,
both of which were crammed full up to the very
tent, and one topped up with a boat keel uppermost.
But I would, then, rather have slept in six inches
of water than not have gone at all.'' Notwithstand-
ing the hardships he had to encounter, he was at
the outset delighted with the expedition. "It was
the very thing of all others I had been longing for,
and in those days I worked like a horse, and the
older hands wert very glad to be saved the trouble."
It was the pursuit of pleasure under difficulties,
however, for the rain was very frequent, especially
at night. The waggons would only shelter three of
the party, so the other six had to manage as best
they could, and the result was often sleeping in
a pool of water. " The grass, which grew to a
tremendous height, was so saturated that one might
just as well walk through R. river, so
there was no use in putting on dry
clothes in the morning." Tao result of such
exposure in the unhealthy season in that marshy
country might have been abticipated. Fever and
ague struck down the adventurous party one by
one, pursuing them with a surer and more deadly
aim than that with which they hunted the denizens
of the forest. The author himself, looking back on
the undertaking with his present hardly earned
knowledge and experience, styles it " seeking out
death ;" and adds, " If older heads had only been
placed upon the shoulders of the enterprising and
the young, I might not have had to tell how out of
nine hunters who went out fall of vigour and hope,
in all the ardour of enterprise, Gibson and myself
alone returnt d, enervated and prostrate after months
of insensibility in Kaffir kraals. I would gladly
forget and must pass by some of the details of that
trip." It seems strange that "Elephant 'White,"
as he was styled, being an old and experienced
hunter, should have entered upon such a rash ex-
ploit. The survivors of the party were nearly
a twelvemonth before they recovered their
health, and having had enough of hunting
for a time at least, Mr. Baldwin settled
down on a large farm on the high lands of
the Inanda, trading in cattle with the Kaffirs.
After two years of this solitary, life he found its
monotony unendurable and° started on another
Zulu trip, continuing his wanderings with more
or less interruption for five or six years. Of the
last three years of this period he says, " I have led
but a vagrant sort of life, doing little gm? for my-
self or anybody else, except supplying the ungrate-
ful half-starved Masaras and Maccalacas with
abundance of flesh. I have scarcely ever been
still, and must have journeyed over some twelve or
fifteen thousand miles at least, and that at much less
than foot pace, having been through the Transvaal
Republic, Free State, and part of the Old
Colony, twice down to Natal, and twice round
Lake Ngami, and now over the Zambesi into Ma-
kololo and Batoka lands; and it is now, I think,
nearly time to come to a halt." In the course of
these wanderings his adventures, accidents, and
escapes were, as might be conjectured, very nume-
rous. Sometimes his provisions failed, though this
was the rarest of his misfortunes, owing to the plenti-
ful supply of game and his skill with his gun; the
scarcity of water was a greater and more frequent
trouble. Sometimes he lest his way in the wild and
trackless country; sometimes he fell among un-
friendly natives ; once all his attendants deserted
him in the middle of a solitary waste, and,
to add to their kindness, relieved him of the
care of his horses at the same time. Very often
accidents deprived him of his best horses and dogs,
or tigers carried off his oxen, and lions breaking
into his encampment helped themselves with more
liberality than consideration. Add to these the
perils of hunting such animals on land, of
bathing in company with crocodiles and hippopo-
tami, and the dangers threatening man and beast
from the scourges of the country—ague, fever, and
the fatal lung-sickness among cattle—and we shall
have some idea of the pleasures of a hunter's life in
Southern Africa. We have an account of
taonaa
escape in hunting elephants,
sud-
den jerk of the horse's headwhothene curb-gchain came
r.hiiseradvuegrsairsyspwuarss
undone, and the hit turned.nround in his mouth.
The elephant who was chargTihog
d d h•
leaning over as far as
then not twent
syardsides, oaffn-d,
into his horse's
possible, passed close by the infuriated animal. The
horse rushed on through the tangled bush, with the
huge enemy close in the rear. As soon as he could
arrest the frantic speed of his horse, Mr. Baldwin
jumped off, and succeeded in despatching
the elephant, after giving him ten shots
and sustaining three more savage eharges.
Elephant hunting is, of course, a very profitable
sport from the value of the ivory, but it entails
both risk and labour. It is, says our author, the
very hardest life a man can choose. " Two blank
days, riding five hours at a foot's pace to a vley
where the Masaras tell you they have drunk, sleep-
ing in the bush with nothing to eat ; a drink of
muddy water in the morning out of a dirty tortoise-
shell, which serves for breakfast, dinner, and sup-
per; all day in the saddle, under a broiling sun,
following after three half-starved Masaras in tattered
skins, and never seeing life the whole day—two
days like this, followed by two successful ones i 8
about what you may expect." On another occasion