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The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter (1912)
"For ten years I have been elephant hunting without intermission. During these ten years, I have shot 447 bull elephants, thereby creating a world's record." - James Sutherland, 1912
As noted by professional African big-game hunter James Sutherland in his 1912 book "The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter," there are so many risks, as well as privations, incidental to the life of an elephant hunter, that he has only to keep at the game long enough to meet with an untimely end, and that, as a rule, a violent one. Even should he survive the many dangers attendant on the calling, in the long run, he generally undermines his constitution and lives on a mere wreck of his former self.
Still, while the life lasts, it is one of the most glorious and exhilarating on earth, for again and again the chase resolves itself into an exciting duel 'twixt man and beast,' and though the chances, even in dense jungle, are in favour of the man, occasions frequently arise when the latter's life trembles in the balance. The hunter knows absolutely that if his rifle or cunning fails him in the least, he is as good as dead, and it is on this simple understanding that he joyfully sets out.
James Sutherland 1872-1932 was a Scottish born professional elephant hunter. "The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter" is a classic elephant-hunting tale regarded as one of the best elephant hunting titles ever written. He is widely considered to be among the most successful professional elephant ivory hunters of the early 20th century. Sutherland came to Africa from England with a questionable background and while looking for a livelihood fell into ivory hunting as a way to make a fortune. It is said he killed over a thousand elephants in his long spanning life as an elephant hunter. While hunting with natives he formed close relationships and affection for these bush people. The book reveals much about the Sutherland as a person as well as the sport. This great hunting classic has been in demand for over a hundred years!
Describing an attackby an enraged elephant, Sutherland writes:
"A vicious blow from his tusk sent me hurtling against my tracker, Simba, who was a few paces away from me on my right, and together we came heavily to earth. Ere I had time to scramble to my feet, the elephant had turned, and seizing me by my khaki shirt underneath the right shoulder, flung me high above him in the air…"
Elephants are not the only dangerous wildlife in Africa, as Sutherland notes:
"People living in the perfect safety of their homes in a civilized country have no conception of the insecurity that is felt by natives in their kraals in the interior of Africa. The cause of this feeling of insecurity is chiefly the man-eating lion, and no other animal of the forest inspires such terror into the black man's heart…. In those villages, far in the heart of the pori, where the white man is never seen, not hundreds but thousands of natives are annually killed by these monsters."
In ranking Africa's big game, according to Sutherland, "all my experience tends to confirm me in the opinion that the pursuit of the elephant is, without doubt, the most dangerous. Second, and on a par, I would classify buffaloes and lions; third, leopards. In comparison with these, very little risk attaches to the hunting of the rhinoceros."
Sutherland writes not only on his hunting experiences but also the domestic life of his native trackers, including one who was punished for wife abuse:
"Feeling that Makabuli deserved it, I told them that they had better take the law into their own hands and mete out the punishment they thought most appropriate to the occasion. This they promptly did; about a dozen of them (and I may say that a native woman is no weakling) soundly thrashed him, and, as a native can suffer no greater humiliation than to be beaten by women, Makabuli, I think, thoroughly expiated his misdemeanour."
