A Voyage to Botany Bay by George Barrington

"WE had scarce recovered from this accident when one of the Hottentots came running up to me, and said he had discovered the haunt of an elephant. After some hours fatigue, painfully tracing him through a thick part of the wood, rendered almost impassable from the thorns and briars, we arrived at an open part of the forest, in which was a clump of shrubs and under wood: here we stopped while one of the Hottentots ascended a tree; after looking round him, he clapped his finger on his mouth as a token for us to be silent, then by opening and closing his hand several times (a sign before agreed upon) gave us to understand how many elephants he had discovered.

"We now held a council of war, the result of which was, that the person who had seen them from the tree should lead us as near as possible through the bushes to the spot where he had discovered them. In a few minutes I was very near one of those enormous animals, which I did not immediately perceive, not that fear had fascinated my sight, but that I could scarce believe that the prodigious immoveable mass beneath me was the animal we had so much wished to encounter. It should be observed we were on a hillock which raised us above the back of the animal; I still kept looking farther on, and rather took what was so near me for a fragment of rock than a living creature. The Hottentot now cried out, 'See, see there! there he is,' with a tone of the utmost impatience. At length a slight motion caught my eye, and immediately after the head and tusks, which the enormous body had in part concealed, were turned towards me; Monsieur, who was close behind me, without losing time, let fly at him; I immediately followed his example, and both shots took place in his head; he stag gered and fell: the noise frighted the rest, and they to near the number of thirty, scampered off as fast as their unweildy corporations would permit them. This was but the prelude to a more animated scene.