THE ELEPHANT IN AFRICA.
We have seen many pictures of elephants in Africa, and they were all in hunting scenes.
This noble, wise, and magnificent animal is hunted in every part of Africa; shot by the Englishman’s rifle in South Africa and on the White Nile, speared by the natives, pursued with the sword by the Abyssinian tribes, as if he were the most deadly enemy of the human race.
It is all for ivory, for the tusks which have taken perhaps fifty years to grow, that the huge beast is slain.
This hunting has been going on for many years, and now in parts of Africa there are no more elephants left.
Some good people, who are also trying to open up the “Dark Continent,” resolved to try some Indian elephants. They were sent from Bombay in a ship to Zanzibar, and after much trouble were landed on the coast. Then away they marched, and after a little time this new procession reached our station at Mpwapwa, and our missionary, Mr. Last, writes to say how successful the elephants have been. The dreaded fly could not harm them; indeed, they kill the flies by catching them in the folds of their thick skin, if the old African travellers are to be believed.
Our missionary, Mr. Stokes, writes from Uyuvi that these elephants had reached Unyamwezi. He says:—
“They can bear a thirty-six miles’ march without food or water. They can carry from twenty-five to thirty men’s loads; and the natives here very soon pick up the management of them. I think these elephants have done more towards the civilization of Central Africa than anything else I have seen. The natives think the white man a most wonderful fellow when these big creatures on which they look with terror obey him. It was quite a picture to view the astonishment depicted on the faces of these poor blacks, as they watched these huge beasts kneeling down at the word of command to let us get on their backs, or elevating their trunks to bid salaam to an Arab.”
The Church Missionary Society would be very glad if it could send two or three of these wise beasts to their Mission at Mpwapwa, to help carry the missionaries up and down with the stores they must have from time to time; and then, when our missionaries can speak freely in the language, think what a help the elephant would be on a missionary tour.
Besides, when the natives see how useful the elephants are, they will soon learn to catch and tame them, as did the Carthaginians, 600 years before Christ.
Turn to the fortieth chapter of Job, and read about the behemoth. You will see in the marginal reference, “The Elephant.” “He is the chief of the ways of God.” What a blessed time that will be, if, instead of being destroyed by man, this, the most wonderful of God’s creatures, is used to carry about the messengers of the Gospel of Peace!—Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor.