St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-26
SOME GREAT SPORT.
Thrilling Adventures With the Rhinoce-
ros in Africa.
ALWAYS READY TO FIGHT.
as He Does MOI Know What Fear Is, He
Does Not Care What He
Tackles.

JdCkI6Ss
New York Sun.
From the day of deserving my ship at
Quiloa there was never day in the four
years of my stay in Eastern Africa that
/ could not have scared up rhinoceros
had been so inclined. | don't mean
this in literal sense. You don't have
TO scare up this animal in EasternAfrica;
he is always ready to scare somebody
else up. l mean that l could have
sighted rhnoceros without going to
much trouble. They were as numerous
in the WorumDa district as COWS
about country hamlet, and now and
then they did great damage to the
growing crops. The natives had but
one way of killing them, and that was
by digging pits. When all animal had
fallen into one of the pits he was lanced
to death, and his flesh and hide made
use of, but as these concealed pits were
menace to the hunting parties, and as
they were liable to be uncovered by
other animals, their use in Worumbu
land had been abandoned some time
before | made my debut.
AS UD1lr IIueS lldtle GACCllcutS uIluulS,
ropes, harness, ETC., and, as the animals
had become so bold that they would
charge right through fine village, | Won
dered greatly that the natives did not
move against them. III little time L
learned that superstition was at the bot
tom of it. Three years previously
rhinoceroS had been captured IN pit
not far from the village, and on the day
he was killed and cut up lion had
killed a mother and her child i'll re-
Venge.
..How do you know it was in re-
venge?" / asked.
because he was friend of the rhi-
nOceroS."
'How do you know that?"
Because he did not drag the body
away to be eaten.'
1T was impossible to argue with such
people with any show OF success, but
circumstances brought about the change
of heart hoped for. We had some fine
oxen in the village, broken to ride OF
draw the rude plows used by the ma
tives, and one day, when one of the
head mems wives was scratching the
earth with plow drawn by his finest
OK, rhinoceros charged from thicket
ana ripped the OK open with one toss OF
His Ugly Horn.
Orders were issued to make war on
the animal, and got full liberty to eX-
ercise my skill.
AS we had only two or three muskets
and very little powder, had to resort
to more primitive measures. The coun-
try was full of paths made by big game,
and | selected Il spot about a mile from
the village where a path ran through
large thicket of thOrns. With the help
of the natives l here dug pit twelve
feet long, six feet wide and nine or
ten feet deep, but we had not yet COW
cred it over when game appeared We
could sec along the path on one side Of
the pit for distance of 200 feet, and it
was about all hour before shutdown and
some of the men were cutting poles and
brush to cover the pit, when | saw a
rhinoceroS in the path below. The
wind blew fresh toward him, and he
had our scent. We were also in his line
of vision.
An African rhinoceros has no more
sense of fear than rock. All other an
imalS do more or less reasoning. The
elephant will run away when tue odds
are against him, and the buffalo will
calculate his chances before all attack,
unless come upon too suddenly. The
rhinoceros, on the contrary, seems to
have the idea that he owns the earth,
and whenever anything moves he
makes a rush to destroy it. We
were OH the far side of the
pit, and as soon as we saw the
beast we sprang up and waved our
arms to attract him. He accepted the
defiance, lowered his head, and as he
came fol. us he made the ground trem-
BILE. We pretended to run away, and
LID al fl,f.i NYi,1 IL nf hf
pit before he suspected the job we had
'.Woof" tried to put on the air-brakeS,
and the next moment landed square Oh
his head in the bottom of the pit, break
ing his neck with crack which could
have been heard forty rods away.
At a later date we caught two more in
this pit, and as we dug other pits in diff
ferent localities and secured other
prizes, the beasts finally got it into their
heads that the .neighbOrhOod was dan
gerouS, and therefore drew further
away. There was an old banana grove
about two miles from the village, and
now and then the women and boys
would go up and bring down number
of punches. They had always brought
pole, but one day | made pad for
one of the oxen and brought down six
large punches on his back to show
what could be done. After this all the
fruit was brought down that way, and |
generally went with the party. We had
reached the grove one morning about
O'Clock, and had already begun to load
the OK when a wild bull appeared in an
open space few rods off and issued
challenge to our OK to fight him. Now
and then some Of the cattle go astray
and adopt wild life, and in such cases
they are very
Fierce and Dangerous.
That this bull meant to attack us
there could be no doubt, and the women
and children ran away at once, with
cries of alarm. There was only one
man beside myself, and, as we had no
weapons, his suggestion that we climb
tree was acted on.
The bull paved and beloved and tore
UP the earth, all the time coming little
nearer, and our OK was 100 frightened
to even run away. He stood and trem-
bled and appealed to US. and l had de-
termined to descend and try to drive the
bull away, when help came from an un-
expected quarter.
The open space in which the bull
stood was about all acre in extent and
surrounded on three sides by thorny
thckets. Paths led through these
thickets at intervals. and all of sud-
den we caught sight of male rhinoc-
eros debouching from one OF these paths
into the open.
He had heard the racket and wanted
to take a hand in the row. He paused
moment to sniff the air and get the lay
of the ground, and then charged the
bull. The latter stood broadside on,
and did not see him, but as the
rhinocerous made his charge his
heavy tread betrayed his presence, and
the bull wheeled to meet him. They
were now head on and in bee line, and
we held our breath as they closed. The
bull might as well have stood for loco
motive. The rhinoceros had his jaw
close to the ground, and as they came
together he flung MP his head and the
bull went backward in heap, his head
almost torn off by the single blow. AS
he lay there, bleeding and kicking, the
beast gored him again and again, and
:, 20, NJ No