We had started at daybreak, intending
to make a long march. About an
hour and a half after starting we passed two
rhinos in the open, one of which was down
wind about three hundred yards from the
path. I had a look at it and passed on. Before
I had gone a quarter of a mile farther
a tremendous outcry from the rear made me
pause and look round. The rhino had winded
the men behind and charged them. They
had thrown down their loads and scattered
all over the plain, leaving the rhino in undisturbed
possession of most of our goods
and chattels. There he stood snorting and
stamping and looking very ugly. I wanted
to get on as the sun was already high, and
it was fifteen miles to the next water; so I
went back and tried to drive him away, as
can sometimes be done, by shouting; but he
refused to budge. I did not care about shooting
him, as I had only my .303—a very good
one, but not suitable for rhino unless solid
bullets were used at very short range, say
ten or twenty yards, for a head shot. I had
only five or six soft nosed bullets in the
magazine, for my servant with my cartridge
bag had long since disappeared with the
rest of the men. As the brute refused to
move I had no other course open but to
shoot him, although I disliked the job with
a small bow rifle in the open. I got within
fifty yards and put a bullet in his shoulder.
He spun around like a top, and then came
for me for all he was worth. He looked
so nasty that I thought I would not stop,
and I ran some ten yards to the right hoping
he would pass me; but not a bit of it. He
had fairly got my scent and meant to pay
me back with interest for my bullet, and
he altered his course accordingly. To run
would have been fatal, for I should have
been overtaken in the first fifty yards.
There was nothing to do but face him and
trust to a lucky shot killing him. I knelt
down to get better aim, and put a bullet
somewhere in his head; but it had no more
effect than a pea-shooter on a locomotive.
The second shot struck him in the chest, the
third in the withers; the fourth hit him in
the head again when he was within twenty
yards, and luckily turned him. He made off
to the left; I struck him in the flank as he
turned and hastened his departure, and very
glad I was to see him go. He was still going
well when he disappeared over a rise in the
ground a mile away, and I saw him no more.
He had six bullets somewhere in his anatomy,
but I expect the expanding bullets
did little more than penetrate the skin,
although the shock possibly hurt him a little
and made him think better of it than to
continue charging in the face of such a rapid
succession of blows, as the affair could not
have been more than thirty seconds in
happening.
