Note 6 — Chapter XIV · THE ANIMAL KINGDOM OF AFRICA,

We cannot all go to Africa, but the testimony of Dr. Livingstone, who received visits from this hunter every year during the five years of his warfare with wild animals, will be regarded as conclusive upon the general truthfulness of Mr. Cumming’s reports. Dr. Livingstone says:

As the guides of Mr. Cumming were furnished through my influence, and usually got some strict charges as to their behavior before parting, looking upon me in the light of a father, they always came to give me an account of their service, and told most of those hunting-adventures which have since been given to the world, before we had the pleasure of hearing our friend relate them himself by our own fireside. I had thus a tolerably good opportunity of testing their accuracy, and I have no hesitation in saying that, for those who love that sort of thing Mr. Cumming’s book conveys a truthful idea of South African hunting. Some things in it require explanation, but the numbers of animals said to have been met with and killed are by no means improbable, considering the amount of large game then in the country. Two other gentlemen hunting in the same region destroyed in one season no fewer than seventy-eight rhinoceroses alone. Sportsmen, however, would not now find an equal number; for, as guns are introduced among the tribes, all these fine animals melt away like snow in spring. In the more remote districts, where fire-arms have not yet been introduced, with the single exception of the rhinoceros the game is to be found in numbers much greater than Mr. Cumming ever saw.—Researches in South Africa, 169-70.