The White Chief of the Caffres

by Alfred W. Drayson

Soon after my arrival at my old kraal, I had made inquiries about the white women who had been my fellow-passengers from India, but I found there was a disinclination on the part of the Caffres to give me any information about them. I afterwards spoke to Tembile about them, because I knew I could trust him to tell me the truth. He said that the Caffres were afraid, now that I had been so long among white men, that I might endeavour to take away the white women; so they had been concealed, and I was not to know where they lived.

I assured Tembile that I had no intentions of that sort, and I believed it would be better for the white women, to now remain with their husbands and children, than for them to return with me.

Having made various inquiries, I heard that there were more than a dozen elephants’ tusks in the kraal near, some of them very heavy, but the Caffres had no wish to dispose of their ostrich-feathers. These feathers they used as head-dresses when great dances took place, and were very proud of them. I told the Caffres that I wanted as many tusks as I could procure, and, as I had now some very strong guns, I should like to find elephants and shoot them.

I had been five days at the kraal of my old friends, when news was brought that the elephants, according to their annual custom were coming westward, and were only a day’s journey from our kraal.

I therefore assembled all the men whom I had formerly taught to use a gun, and told them that I wished their help in shooting some of the largest elephants. I explained to them that an elephant might be hit by many bullets and yet would not be killed, unless he were struck by the bullet behind the shoulder, or in the chest. I then said that I could give them powder and could make bullets for them, so that they need not expend the store of those which they had carefully preserved in case they were attacked again by the Zulus. The Caffres expressed their willingness to join me in my shooting expedition, but reminded me that there was as much danger in attacking elephants as there was in a fight with the Zulus. I admitted that there was danger, but that, if we were careful, we need none of us get hurt.

I had brought with me from England two large-bored double-barrelled guns, which I knew would be well-suited for shooting elephants or other large game, and I had practised with these guns at Cape Town, and could make nearly certain of hitting a mark the size of a man’s head at eighty yards nearly every time I fired. I felt, therefore, great confidence in my weapons, and I intended to take Tembile with me when I hunted, and to make him carry my second gun, by which means I could obtain four shots at any one elephant.

News was brought us two or three times a day by Caffres, as to where the elephants were feeding and what they were doing; so, all our plans being arranged, I started with Tembile and four other Caffres for that part of the bush where it was thought we should find the elephants.

The bush in this part of Africa consisted of large trees, about ten or twenty paces apart. Between these there was dense matted underwood, so thick and tangled that a man could not force his way through it. From the trees creepers of large size hung in festoons, like large ropes. Some of these had projecting from them thorns an inch or more in length, and sharp as a needle. The dense underwood rose to a height of three men, so that it was in many places impossible to see round you a greater distance than you could reach with an assagy. The only means of moving through the bush in these dense parts was by following the paths made by the elephants. When a herd of these animals had been for any length of time in the bush, they made so many paths that it was easy to move about in the bush; but the growth of the vegetation was so rapid, that a few weeks after the elephants had left the bush it had again overgrown the old paths, and was once more impenetrable.

Elephants usually left the thick bush during the night or very early in the morning; they would then roam about in the open country, and drink at some stream or pond. When possible, they would roll in the wet mud, like pigs; then, as day broke, they would re-enter the bush, seek the densest parts, and there remain quiet during the heat of the day.

I had decided that the best chance of success with the elephants would be to follow them into the bush, come upon them during the middle of the day, and get our shots at them as they stood half sleeping in the bush. The Caffres, I knew, could walk so quietly in the bush, that, if we were careful about the direction of the wind, we might approach the herd without their being aware that an enemy was near them.