New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-10-27
FROM NC satnrday Eyening Post.l

The HUNTER AND ELEPHANTS
rhAssLArED IRON rHEScH.
From the Saturday Evening Post.l
An English merchant by the name of Harrison
formed, in 1902, company for the purpose Of /
procuring ivory. The counting room was estab-
lished at Sourabaia.
hundred skillful hunters were engaged and
sent in vessel to Algoa Bay, with orders to adj
vance upon the shore and surround the elepbants
on the side OF those savage deserts which border
the lake of Makdas and which are everywhere
brstling with sugar canes, planted by Nature that
great provider for elephants.
Harrison wished to command the first expedi. |
ton himself He was an Engshman, of thirty |
four born in India, and possessing all the instincts
OF savage, with all the faculties Of civilized
man; so he inspired great confidence in the adj
vcnturers who accompanied him. They followed
him with blind ardor, because they knew he had
always acquired fame and fortune.
;, One day when the wind was blowing from
Mount Lnpata, that backbone of the world our
hunters, fearing no betrayal by human exhaatons
so subtly scented by the elephants in spite of dis
tances, ventured to penetrate sparse forest
where the dense and arching vines like natural
galleries betokened the frequent passages of these
colossal OF creation. They Travelled three or four
miles without discovering anything: but very
soon in an immense clearing, they perceived three
elephants, immoveable, like those of the subter-
ranean temples Of India One of them suddenly
gave signs of uneasiness, as if he felt the ground
agitatcd by the tread of unknown enemies, and ut
tered dull and prolonged cry, as if to order re-
treat. The intrepid Harrison whispered to his
neighbor: :. There is an ivory mine!" And he
set himself about obtaining it,
by one OF those caprices frequent in African
nature, vegetation here ceased and a fearful bar
renness suddenly revealed to the hunters sharp
rocks, unfathomable abysses, valleys of sombre
granite, bare and desolate horizon, which re-
sembled the immense crater of volcano recently
extingushed by a geological convusion. At the
entrance of a very narrow valley might be seen
gray masses resembling enormous fragments of
rocks fallen from the mountain but when the sun,
emerging from the clouds, shone on them, life
seen beneath this semblance of granite: it was the
immovable vanguard of the elephants of Will
liokarma
Harrison, who thought himself skillful general
because ne was courageous, made then miscalcu-
latlon IN strategy. Deceived by the confguration
of the country, and unacquainted with the geo.
logical freaks of interior Africa, he thought the
elephantine troop had stupidity entrenched itself in
sort OF corridor without outlet in granite valley
where he might easily reap harvest of ivory, by
driving them with the carbine to its farthest re-
cesses. This was Judging elephants very unfairly
The Romans, under Consul Pontius committed in
the detiles OF Candium the fault anticipated by
English hunter; but elephants more provident
than were the Romans. The valley had an outlet,
and communicated with the chain of Lupata.
I'VE will commence with the vanguard, y thought
| the leader Harrison, "and afterwards attack the
whole band by the two decleyities of the valley,
firing down upon them"
And giving to the hunters the preconcerted sig
nal he fired, and hundred carbines went off at
| once to kill three elephants.
| The noise Of saltpetre had never before re-
sounded in this region the echoes of the solitude
repeated it to nnity and all sorts of savage cries,
OF bird songs, of wild roarings mingled with the
echoes, and made interior Africa speak language
unknown to the inheritors of Shem, Ham and
Japhet.
To these sounds of the solitude soon succeeded a
| rlghtful hurricane, which was no other than the
concert of the anger of the elephants the legiti-
mate residents of this desert, revolving against an
| odious usurpation. The Indignation of these CO.
ossii vibrated in the air and agtated the epiderms
| of the hunters like shower of electric sparks.
| The bravest trembled and dared not reload their
arms. Harrison alone retained his sang ti'od and
sought to distinguish the enemy through the dense
smoke of the carbines. 1t quickly cleared away
and showed to the hunters six elephants who were
charging upon the ivory-seekers. There was then
general sane qui peW; Harrison attempted to
rally the fugtiyes but panic terror has no ears :;
the army abandoned its leader, and disappeared in
| the labyrinth of the woods.
| Elephants, though more agile than horses dis
dain to pursue their enemies. The game is not
worth it. They contented themselves with sur
rounding Harrison with their trunks to prevent his
| flight One of the colossal had been wounded in
the ear, and the elephant always distinguishes the
hand which has struck him. Harrison was the
only culprt; all the other carbines had missed.
The wounded elephant marched gravely towards
| his assassin, and the slOwness of his pace would
have been quickly changed into a gallop if Harri-
son had taken flight. At this terrible moment, the
bravest would have lost courage so the determin-
alton which the hunter formed cannot be consid-
| cred an act of cowardice. As he saw the colossus
march towards him, and followed with a bewil-
4 dered eye the undulatons of this threatening troop
| Harrison fell on his knees clasped his hands, and
/ assumed supplicating air, as he would have done
| before an absolute monarch to ask pardon or sue
for repreye. 1t is said that lions are sensitive to
| manifestations of politeness; so we need not be
astonished if elephants comprehend repentance
| and are susceptible of magnanimity. The elephant
I.txy loc,r Hnry ~,
few minutes. Reflection travels quickly through
the vast brain of these giants. The hunter recited
| his last prayer, and commended his soul to God.
The other elephants remained at distance and OBJ
served all with their little eyes This grand scene
of the desert had no other witness than the sun
who would be the most curious of historians if he
could write all he has seen in mute solitudes.
The elephant delicately seized Harrison with the
end of his trunk, made him describe circle in the
air, then placed him astride upon his neck, after
which the gigantic quadruped uttered a little cry
and marched towards the valley.
| The others followed, as if they had OWNED the
thought of their friend Harrison, carrying his
carbine in his shoulder-belt, and perched on the
colossus, continued his prayer; for he presumed
that only reprieve had been granted, and that
his execution would take place afterwards, in pre-
sence of the whole colony, to amuse these great
oilers of the desert.
Another one of the errors which man commits
when lie dares to put the routine of his own Gus
toms in parallel with the good sense of the colossi
Of creation. We calumniate their intelligence in
surprising them capable of killing man in order
to amuse elephant spectators. Harrison was
however, very eXcusable if he was mistaken at SC
fearful moment; he was not seated, like Button
with his laccs, in good easy CHAIR in his study
before engraving of Lejay, representing an ele
plant and his cornac; the unfortunate hunter was
paying in his own person the errors of his zoologi
cal observations we must excuse him.
We must submit to what cannot prevent
Harrison therefore allowed himself to be guided by
his invincible enemy.
The elephant crossed the valley, and marching
always with the confident step of one who is sure
of his ground he entered a magnificent forest
pierced with gloomy arcades of the height of al
: elephant, and which seemed to be the central do
main of the colony. If the hunter had been free
, from anxiety, he would have admired this print
tive nature which surrounded him with her mar
wells. The trees, contemporary with the first days
creation, formed everywhere impenetrable vaults
and rcsounded with the songs of birds; springs O.
living water gushed from the moss, and formed
little lakes or warbling rivulets; thousand I'M
known flowers, daughters of the burning African
zone decorated the trunks of the trees with superb
arabesques and perfumed the sotudes; an ex
quiste GOODNESS rejoiced the soul and body, ant
made one doubt, even under the tropic, the cXs
, !, tencc of the sun. Alas! criminal on his way t.
execution could not enjoy so many pleasures ant
, so much splendor.~
i They arrived at an immense rotunda of verdure
where lived numerous family of elephants in the
5 midst of profound peace, and very far from
tigers and lions, neighbors little formidable, bu
: very annoyng. The mothers appeared to take